Getting contacted by Record Labels on soundcloud

[Lichee]

Yea I figure any promotion would be good even it it's fly by night lol. I just don't know how aggressive to be or if they just send bullshit to thousands of people hoping to get followers or somethin, you know?

be careful, a friend of mine signed to a smaller label with the exact same idea as you and ended up getting nothing out of it. His tune was basically put out, the label owner made money from it and that was it. His tune, which is mad, is out there and he's making nothing from it. he's got no promotion he wouldn't already have.

[Dustwyrm]

A lot of great responses here and valuable information for a lot of people out there.

be careful, a friend of mine signed to a smaller label with the exact same idea as you and ended up getting nothing out of it. His tune was basically put out, the label owner made money from it and that was it. His tune, which is mad, is out there and he's making nothing from it. he's got no promotion he wouldn't already have.

Lichee - Yea I can imagine that there are several if not many labels out there ripping artists off and taking advantage of them which is really pathetic. That'll have to be one of the most important things that are discussed before any music is "given" to a label. I'd assume without a contract basically waiving your rights to the song, a label wouldn't be able to legally steal it from you. As for myself and others in similar situations, I think it's utmost important to research any label that is interested in you (assuming they are not well known). Checking out the other artists they deal with is a great indication of their professionalism.

In conclusion, I'll continue to pursue this little label but definitely with caution. Whatever happens, I'm using it as some inspiration to push harder and if they don't pan out, I still got something valuable out of it.

Took a lot away from this thread, please if anyone wants to add more, I'm sure we'd all love to hear.

[Soulstep]

Sometimes you give people a chance and they screw you over, then you give someone else a chance and they screw you over. Not hard to become very jaded very quickly.

SHIFT HAS NEVER PAID ME A SINGLE FUCKING DIME for my digital and wax release

if your record is in shop for £6 thats like £3 for the label if i'm not mistaken (vat,shop,distro)
vinyl would be like £700-900 to manufacture they might not have recouped

[deadly_habit]

When they won't send you invoices for sales numbers physical or digital numbers, or rather in the case of that, they started giving out sales numbers like 2 years post release, starting from 2 years post release. At least I got a few copies of my plate for free though, that's about it.
Oh and before that incident on a digital label beforehand, I got myself in the top 10 Beatport DnB chart who never paid me a dime either.

Both of these were under contracts as well, and as I stated before that contract is going to do nill for me as it would cost me more in the long run for small claims, and in the case of another I'm in the states, they're in the UK.

I have a very jaded sense of why even bother with labels anymore, why not just use bandcamp at this point, at least when it comes to upstart and smaller labels.
They're not the ones making the music and their brand is benefiting from your tunes, so it's incredibly fucked that they don't offer up any financial compensation.