Dubstepforum.com

I´ve taken this post of mnml.nl just wondering what things are like in the dubstep world

xxmmxx wrote: Just wondering if anyone here is releasing stuff on beatport exclusively, as in.. no physical releases just mp3s on the website. I'm wondering about sales figures, for example how many downlads a track gets if it stays in the top 10 charts within a certain genre. I noticed the charts can change at a frantic pace sometimes within days because of the influx of new releases. So for example, if a tracks stays in the top 10 downloads in the dubstep downlad charts for a week.. what are the figures like. I know this can vary wildly but as a rough estimate, would it be hundreds of downlads, or perhaps thousands? or could it be simply 10 or so.

Ask yourself this, 'what are your aims from selling your tracks?'

Your answer will dictate how you sell your music and what else you do to support your sales.

While Beatport is a tool to sell tunes online, it needs to be backed up with solid promotion and air play.

So for instance, if your aim is to earn a living from selling tunes, then you need to devise a good marketing campaign directing people to your beatport shop. With good promotional coverage, even if your tracks don't sit at the top of the charts, they will earn good money consistently.

If however you simply want some pocket money, then get your tracks in beatport and be happy when people buy your tunes...

No advertising = no sales.

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Read up on advertising. Read up on the marketing budget of big corporations like Nike, Orange, Micrsoft, McDonalds and Coca Cola. Proof that advertising can get good results is that 15 minutes of every hour on commercial TV & radio stations is dedicated to airing adverts.

There are many ways to boost your click through rate. Some involve simple things like being active on forums. Others involve spending money on advertising space and airtime. If you see it as a viable source of income to live off, go to your local business support network and formulate a proper plan to reach the punters wallet.

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You'll find some great info for this kind of question from websites like http://www.bemuso.com/ and http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/index.php.

Hope that helps!

futures_untold wrote:Ask yourself this, 'what are your aims from selling your tracks?'

Your answer will dictate how you sell your music and what else you do to support your sales.

While Beatport is a tool to sell tunes online, it needs to be backed up with solid promotion and air play.

So for instance, if your aim is to earn a living from selling tunes, then you need to devise a good marketing campaign directing people to your beatport shop. With good promotional coverage, even if your tracks don't sit at the top of the charts, they will earn good money consistently.

If however you simply want some pocket money, then get your tracks in beatport and be happy when people buy your tunes...

No advertising = no sales.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read up on advertising. Read up on the marketing budget of big corporations like Nike, Orange, Micrsoft, McDonalds and Coca Cola. Proof that advertising can get good results is that 15 minutes of every hour on commercial TV & radio stations is dedicated to airing adverts.

There are many ways to boost your click through rate. Some involve simple things like being active on forums. Others involve spending money on advertising space and airtime. If you see it as a viable source of income to live off, go to your local business support network and formulate a proper plan to reach the punters wallet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You'll find some great info for this kind of question from websites like http://www.bemuso.com/ and http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/index.php.

Hope that helps!

quality post man!

i was interested so i headed over to mnml.nl:

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34271

interesting read.

Misk wrote:

futures_untold wrote:...

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Read up on advertising. Read up on the marketing budget of big corporations like Nike, Orange, Micrsoft, McDonalds and Coca Cola. Proof that advertising can get good results is that 15 minutes of every hour on commercial TV & radio stations is dedicated to airing adverts.

There are many ways to boost your click through rate. Some involve simple things like being active on forums. Others involve spending money on advertising space and airtime. If you see it as a viable source of income to live off, go to your local business support network and formulate a proper plan to reach the punters wallet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You'll find some great info for this kind of question from websites like http://www.bemuso.com/ and http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/index.php.

Hope that helps!

quality post man!

checked out harmony central and it rocks
cheers, very much appreciated!

Glad to help...

To be honest, I've yet to read up on a lot of the stuff on that website myself lol...

I've been dilly dallying with the idea of doing the old record label thing since I was a nipper actually... I just need to do the research, business plan and advertising myself ha ha I guess life has other priorities for me right now.

Keep us updated if you do make some headway with selling your music. It would be interesting to get a dubsteppers opinion on the practical side of the music industry in it's current state.

Peace!

would love to see an expansion on this thread...very interesting. unfortunately i cannot provide it

Misk wrote:

futures_untold wrote:Ask yourself this, 'what are your aims from selling your tracks?'

Your answer will dictate how you sell your music and what else you do to support your sales.

While Beatport is a tool to sell tunes online, it needs to be backed up with solid promotion and air play.

So for instance, if your aim is to earn a living from selling tunes, then you need to devise a good marketing campaign directing people to your beatport shop. With good promotional coverage, even if your tracks don't sit at the top of the charts, they will earn good money consistently.

If however you simply want some pocket money, then get your tracks in beatport and be happy when people buy your tunes...

No advertising = no sales.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read up on advertising. Read up on the marketing budget of big corporations like Nike, Orange, Micrsoft, McDonalds and Coca Cola. Proof that advertising can get good results is that 15 minutes of every hour on commercial TV & radio stations is dedicated to airing adverts.

There are many ways to boost your click through rate. Some involve simple things like being active on forums. Others involve spending money on advertising space and airtime. If you see it as a viable source of income to live off, go to your local business support network and formulate a proper plan to reach the punters wallet.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You'll find some great info for this kind of question from websites like http://www.bemuso.com/ and http://acapella.harmony-central.com/forums/index.php.

Hope that helps!

quality post man!

co-co-sign!

Advertising.
Most of the labels I've dealt with for digital only rely mostly on forums that are about that type of music, maybe some other forums aswell that are a bit more vague in genre.
Also dj play is a part of it especially if it's a mix that will be posted online by an averagely well known name, as people will hear your track on the mix and hopefully search for it if they like it, banners here and there on peoples myspaces...

Talking sales...
I have only been told figures by a few labels I've released with and the sales aren't mindblowing I believe around 370something where sold (so I was told for one single)
And this is commonplace for even averagely well known labels to only average 2-500 (again so I've been told so I can only speculate)
I've never really been fussed with the sales side of things I'm more interested in listeners, money doesn't really come into it for me personally... and 370 downloads could possibly mean upto 1000 times the amount of people are actually in posession of it

ok..i did a digital release a while back just for fun.

I stocked it in one shop (so to speak)
Digital-Tunes.net..

i made $100 in 4 weeks...my e.p was in the digital-tunes top ten for 3 weeks running.
After the 4 week period it virtually stopped selling altogether...i have made an additional $30 since then (about 6 months since release).

This was with no promo.
I decided to get my stuff into Itunes stores (global), napster, emusic and a couple of other big name shops..ive made about $3 off those stores.

In summary, go with the niche, respected stores like Digital-Tunes, Beatport, Juno, Chemical etc and with a solid release and a bit of promo..
you can "make a bit of pocket money" as someone put it.
Also..i would follow up the intial release with another say after 4 weeks or so..if peeps like the first release they'll likely buy the next one and helps to keep your name up on the new release schedule etc etc..

hope this helps..

There is a very interesting article by David Byrne

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/musi ... 1/ff_byrne

LJ Rekid wrote:There is a very interesting article by David Byrne

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/musi ... 1/ff_byrne

quality

as a side note the thread on mnml.nl became quite interesting over night, so you might wanna check it out

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=34271

peace

Any further notes to this? Beatport seems to be pushing dubstep alot more recently. I know beatport don't do things out of the kindness of their hearts, so I suppose it's selling more? Anyone got any figures?

*Sorry for the ghost bump!

kwality wrote:Any further notes to this? Beatport seems to be pushing dubstep alot more recently. I know beatport don't do things out of the kindness of their hearts, so I suppose it's selling more? Anyone got any figures?

*Sorry for the ghost bump!

still cock all, I suspect, probably because dubstep is still largely a vinyl based scene.

if you look at the beatport top 100 chart, their number one dubstep tune (which at the moment is the Caspa remix of TC - Where's My Money) doesn't even make it into the overall top 100. By contrast the number one breakbeat tune (and breaks is a pretty poor selling genre) is in there at number 71.... so i'd say dubstep has a way to go yet.

Not trying to hijack --

Is dubstep really vinyl-based? I don't have a lot of insight, my area isn't exactly a hotbed (yet)


I actually am selling ALL of my vinyl and getting torq or serato, mainly BECAUSE I decided to start playing dubstep. This is after dj'ing for 9 years and being 100% anti digital dj'ing. I finally said "no thanks" after seeing breakbeatscience having a crap old stock of dubstep at $12 a pop, and my previous favorite store wrecked having 3 new releases in the past 2+ months.

Why bother blowing a ton of cash on vinyl when there are a ton of dubs you can even get free on this board and other places? Plus I produce as many others do.. who wants to pay $15 [after shipping] to play 1 side of someone else's record when you can smash a tune up even harder yourself! Or remix their tune and can that annoying part you think ruins the song.. (caspa)


As traditionalist as I am (I do 100% computer free production and live PA), I say if an artist/label demands vinyl only then they should not be surprised when their stuff is ripped to mp3!

After the whole scam of dnb dubplates culture [as if those 'dubplates' were ever not going to be pressed] I figured most everybody was as fed up as I was with being on the 'receiving end'



Back to your original point, I am curious as to how hard it is to get your stuff on beatport in the FIRST place... anyone have first hand experience with that?

Robert Axios wrote:Is dubstep really vinyl-based? I don't have a lot of insight, my area isn't exactly a hotbed (yet)

I actually am selling ALL of my vinyl and getting torq or serato, mainly BECAUSE I decided to start playing dubstep. This is after dj'ing for 9 years and being 100% anti digital dj'ing. I finally said "no thanks" after seeing breakbeatscience having a crap old stock of dubstep at $12 a pop, and my previous favorite store wrecked having 3 new releases in the past 2+ months.

Why bother blowing a ton of cash on vinyl when there are a ton of dubs you can even get free on this board and other places? Plus I produce as many others do.. who wants to pay $15 [after shipping] to play 1 side of someone else's record when you can smash a tune up even harder yourself! Or remix their tune and can that annoying part you think ruins the song.. (caspa)

As traditionalist as I am (I do 100% computer free production and live PA), I say if an artist/label demands vinyl only then they should not be surprised when their stuff is ripped to mp3!

After the whole scam of dnb dubplates culture [as if those 'dubplates' were ever not going to be pressed] I figured most everybody was as fed up as I was with being on the 'receiving end'

Back to your original point, I am curious as to how hard it is to get your stuff on beatport in the FIRST place... anyone have first hand experience with that?

in brief:

dubstep is still very much vinyl based, yes. vinyl is still vastly outselling mp3's (it's one of the few scenes remaining where this is so), and most of the big name DJs play vinyl (but not quite all of them).

it probably won't stay like that though.

it can be quite hard to get on beatport. they have become rather picky over the last 6 - 12 months, will only deal with aggregators for new labels now (AFAIK) and you have to hit sales quotas to stay on the site.

I just got something that will be up on Beatport soon as plenty of others around here have, in my experience I get full comission for the first 6 months then nothing.

Not too bad.

setspeed wrote: it can be quite hard to get on beatport. they have become rather picky over the last 6 - 12 months, will only deal with aggregators for new labels now (AFAIK) and you have to hit sales quotas to stay on the site.

what do you mean 'aggregators'?

^^^^^
An aggregator is basically a distributor. So rather than getting in contact with Beatport and saying 'Oi, I've got some 320's for you' you create a label and get an aggregator/distributor to send the tracks through to them. I suppose it's some sort of quasi quality control, although a pessimist would say it's just another hand in the biscuit tin.

^that depends on the label though, its more than worth it if they have contacts and good promotion, surely?