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mondays child wrote:[
This is very true, I can speak with a little experience having releases on two or three good labels, it's still not an excuse to sit back not do anything. It's a game, and is all about putting in some decent groundwork and being patient.
Patience is the keyword. By all means try sending music over to labels, DJ's and the like. Also it's about everything else that goes with life in general. Work, Families etc. Also a big point is to register your released stuff with PRS.
If the product is good enough, you'll get known. It will take time though.

Patience, yes. Good music, organization, strategy, and follow-through with the people who make a difference are THE keys in this day and age of not making music, but getting it out there and having folks listen to it.

Even the labels that were small-time as this was all developing- tempa, etc- had folks who had a vision.

so that's point A. point B is that, shit, sometimes music should just be about the $. There are plenty of opportunities for an artist to create back music, or license music to be used in backing situations, in film/tv/commercials/radio/etc. Spent 4 hours a day on that, and creating the connex in that, and you've got 20 you can spend on dubstep, or whatever else. The great thing in this is that it draws a line-- that which you care about is on one side; that which you don't, is on the other. Your own, individual music will take huge steps forward when you allow that line.

Sharmaji wrote:

mondays child wrote:[
This is very true, I can speak with a little experience having releases on two or three good labels, it's still not an excuse to sit back not do anything. It's a game, and is all about putting in some decent groundwork and being patient.
Patience is the keyword. By all means try sending music over to labels, DJ's and the like. Also it's about everything else that goes with life in general. Work, Families etc. Also a big point is to register your released stuff with PRS.
If the product is good enough, you'll get known. It will take time though.

Patience, yes. Good music, organization, strategy, and follow-through with the people who make a difference are THE keys in this day and age of not making music, but getting it out there and having folks listen to it.

Even the labels that were small-time as this was all developing- tempa, etc- had folks who had a vision.

so that's point A. point B is that, shit, sometimes music should just be about the $. There are plenty of opportunities for an artist to create back music, or license music to be used in backing situations, in film/tv/commercials/radio/etc. Spent 4 hours a day on that, and creating the connex in that, and you've got 20 you can spend on dubstep, or whatever else. The great thing in this is that it draws a line-- that which you care about is on one side; that which you don't, is on the other. Your own, individual music will take huge steps forward when you allow that line.

Nothing wrong with making music for money. I would leap at the chance to make music I hate for money over doing what I do now for money. It probably won't ever happen for me though. I have barely enough time to work on the music I do enjoy let alone some other shit for whatever reason.

abZ wrote: Nothing wrong with making music for money. I would leap at the chance to make music I hate for money over doing what I do now for money. It probably won't ever happen for me though. I have barely enough time to work on the music I do enjoy let alone some other shit for whatever reason.

No there's nothing wrong with that attitude, personally I wouldn't leap at the chance to do it. Mainly because I'm bloody lucky to have a decent full time job which I enjoy for the most part and doesn't involve me rotting in an office 9 to 5. But if you do go down that route, you'll quite possibly be a slave to whatever is 'in vogue' at the time and you won't really be pushing yourself or developing your sound or learning anything of value.
I would always say that you shouldn't be afraid to experiment and try to create art that's outside your normal comfort zone. These days, we're incredibly lucky to have places like Soundcloud, this tool can be used to your advantage as a gauge to what might or might not work musically. It's not the be all and end all, but it's a fairly good 'barometer' of what people will sometimes listen to.

I post stuff up that goes completely against my released material and quite frankly I couldn't be more happier doing this, it means I can find out if I actually like the tunes. give them some consideration because they're 'out there' for
people to hear, and if anyone else does like them, it's a bonus, but it's no great shakes to me. The bottom line is if I like the tune and can happily say it's good enough to pass my quality control.
There are so many sides to consider as a musician. Gone are the days of labels paying for gatefold double concept LP's and hiring Townhouse studio's for a month just to keep the band sweet in the hope they might 'lay down' some tracks.
Nowadays most labels do a little promo and leave a large chunk to the musician. Is this fair? it depends on your point of view really, in the past the labels did most of the media promo and the artist the live and appearance/interview parts.
In these times of multimedia the artist is asked to do a load of stuff like podcasts, mixes, remixes, collabs, gigs, DJ slots and so on.
It's great but can also be problematic to try to do all these things, particularly if you need time to practice on the decks/live set up, record backing tracks sequences ETC ETC.

It's a balancing act and fitting all these things around everyday life can be a real test. Consider things carefully, do you need to really do that podcast, remix or whatever? if you can't fit it in or do it for whatever reason, be honest and tell whoever it is the reason. They'll understand, they may not be over the moon about it but at least you've been clear and upfront, if they get the arse about it the sod 'em, they probably weren't worth the effort in the first place. Bear in mind that even in three years tie, a lot of these online blogs fanzines and the like will have gone, moved on or changed and there will be new and different ones. Like I said in my original post, patience is good, overnight success is rare and sure, it's probably great. But when it wears off, the artist spends the rest of the time trying (and failing by degrees) to live up to that original expectation that was so hight. And mostly, this seems to be the case. It can be a slow decline to try to follow up success like that. I'm happy doing what I do and enjoying it, I can experiment 'without prejudice' and worrying if I fit in anywhere, how many units I have to sell and so on. But like I said, I'm very fortunate.

shifting style to get paid after all the {work on whatever and don't get paid} wouldn't be bad.. honestly i would love the chance to work on some super mainstream pop records with the likes of pink, katy perry, britney spears, adam lambert... i love good pop production (max martin always kills it in particular) and a good tune, and i'm definitely not too proud to sacrifice a little of my personal vision for some skrillz and recognition on an international level. i would go in, work on the record, get into that mentality, then come back home and start my experiments with DnB soundscapes again.. nothing would be lost at all.. i figure it could be for love AND money.

narcissus wrote:shifting style to get paid after all the {work on whatever and don't get paid} wouldn't be bad.. honestly i would love the chance to work on some super mainstream pop records with the likes of pink, katy perry, britney spears, adam lambert... i love good pop production (max martin always kills it in particular) and a good tune, and i'm definitely not too proud to sacrifice a little of my personal vision for some skrillz and recognition on an international level. i would go in, work on the record, get into that mentality, then come back home and start my experiments with DnB soundscapes again.. nothing would be lost at all.. i figure it could be for love AND money.

narcissus wrote:shifting style to get paid after all the {work on whatever and don't get paid} wouldn't be bad.. honestly i would love the chance to work on some super mainstream pop records with the likes of pink, katy perry, britney spears, adam lambert... i love good pop production (max martin always kills it in particular) and a good tune, and i'm definitely not too proud to sacrifice a little of my personal vision for some skrillz and recognition on an international level. i would go in, work on the record, get into that mentality, then come back home and start my experiments with DnB soundscapes again.. nothing would be lost at all.. i figure it could be for love AND money.

That the absolute dream for me. Producing for mainstream artists or film as the day job then still touring and producing as an edm artist as a hobby/extra income. Would be such a fun life. Seems out of my grasp though but hopefully I'll achieve a somewhat dumbed down version maybe...

I actually remixed that Hatcha tune that Insectmind put out - never got a release. Still sitting here on my HDD.

Insectmind were good enough to put my first EP out - fair play to them, I think they took on a bit too much - too many artists, not enough focus - but Milkman was nice - enthusiastic. Insectmind has subsequently disappeared, and I've not heard from him for a minute now - but I have to give them credit for being the first people to believe in me enough to release my tracks.

mondays child wrote:

On point man. Nice reading.

I want to share my recent expirience too.

Recently 2562 aka A Made Up Sound wrote me on SoundCloud.
This is the situation i had:

2562: nice tune, please keep me posted on future stuff, thanks

Me: Absolutely. And thank you for listening.

(some time later)

Hello again!
All of the tracks, that are posted on my account,
including "Latex Kiss" are from the same album i'm
working on, called "Teenage Sushi Addiction."
So, i expected some kind of reply on other tracks too.=)
Thanks!
Looking forward to read you.

2562: maybe they werent downloadable?
i only check stuff that is shared with me as a download, i dont have time to listen on soundcloud...

Me: Oh, sure!
Why didn't you said so!=)
Check them, on the download!
Monkee.

(some more time later)

Hello, Dave!
i see you've downloaded all
five tracks!
What do you think about them?
Can we release it on your label?
I was thinking about releasing single
"Sun Fever/Circus Freaks".
Sincerely
Monkee.
2562: Hi there, I've listened to your tracks. I like Sun Fever the most, cool tune. Could you send a 320?
Peace

After that i asked him again if we can release my stuff, but he said:

2562: I'm not releasing other people's music on my label, sorry..

I mean, is it okay? I was always thinking, that if a label-owner is interested in your music and writes you a personal
message like that, then it means he wants to release you.
I think it was an inopropriate situation, wasn't it?

no completely understandable, you could however ask him to point you in the direct of some people who might be interested in signing them
remember 2562 is a dj too
hell i'd be stoked if he was spinning my shit

Okay, maybe i will.
Thank you for reply.

You shouldn't assume someone is interested in signing your tracks unless they specifically say they are Interested in signing your tracks! You should never try to read between the lines. I am a dj and label owner as well, I know how that goes. But if it feels like an artist is getting pushy I'll often just ignore them. I don't gave time to get into it with people that I don't want to work with in the first place. Seems like a dick move I supposed but if you are chill and respectful it will all be good!

Yeah, you should never assume someone wants to release your music unless they say "I want to sign your music, heres a contract"