Electronic music labels (techno, EDM, house, trance, and a lot more...): what I discovered so far

loonyfool (51)in #music • 5 years ago (edited)

Are you sick of seeing record labels not replying to your demos ? It can be frustrating for a wannabe-producer to spend a lot of time writing emails, filling out forms for fuck sake. Here I'm going to tell you why you're failing, impatience and lack of hardwork being the main reasons. Looking in the right places is also key. But to be looking in the right places, you first have to know what you truly are (your identity, your brand as an artist).

Everything is linked: if you haven't figured out your own style yet, how do you want to manage sending your tracks to the right place ? It's obvious. So first you got to work on your own brand, which is linked with your own style, which is itself linked with your good knowledge of music theory and managing to produce what you want. At the end of the day, that's what makes the difference between a simple hobby and the fact you're taking it seriously, to manage to live off it, professionally speaking.

As an up and coming artist, it is essential that you understand how the music industry works or you will never be taken seriously, especially if you don't develop your brand well. Focusing on your production and your style should always be the most important aspect of your work, but you truly can't overlook the social presence and the opportunities labels offer you.

There are 4 key things that you have to be aware before sending a track to a label, as you truly can't neglect the fact even the less important ones receive thousands of tracks daily. It's about the will to make the difference, to sound original and professional, and I'm going to enumerate them in details and try to give solutions to solve them based on my own experience with producing (I mainly use LMMS, FL Studio and Audacity):

1-Your mixing and mastering is not professional enough.

-->Solution: trust no one but yourself to do that work, even if it might take a bit more time at the beginning.

By saying this, I don't mean you should spend huge amounts of time on it. Though it has to be worked in some way that sounds professional enough so that the labels pay attention to it. I don't recommend paying for this type of service, because you're never sure what you're gonna obtain. I know I will sound a bit simplistic here, but you HAVE to find your own way with online tutorials. Google and Youtube are here for that, lots of videos and free pdf documents that you can download to learn the basics of mixing and mastering.

You just have to look for the information at the right place. It's only about this. The reason I don't want to pay for that type of service is I want every single aspect of my work to be controlled by me. That's how you control your own style, or you will never sound original. So this is your work: everyone has to find a proper way to master and mix that defines one's own style.

2-Your quality is not yet good enough.

-->Solution: again, trust no one but yourself to do that work, even if it might take a bit more time at the beginning.

Again a crucial aspect. It is often overlooked as well. And it's really linked with your production process. If you didn't find it, it always means it won't be good enough. Because it's linked with your musical footprint, what makes you stand out from the crowd, what makes you unique in your own way. If you didn't find that yet, you can make people judge it, your friends, family, anyone, but it will always be biased. You should definitely listen to released tracks, to well-known, successful tracks as well.

Even if you want to be different from anything else, this doesn't mean you have to lose the main codes that define the quality of a track. And this comes with ear training. Again, all those types of services are offered online, but my advice would be not to take them seriously: as I said before, it's all about you and your own creation and buildup process. If you're willing to control every aspect of your work, just stick with online free learning. And practice a lot to obtain the quality you're looking for (being different and unique is a crucial point still you should beware not to be unique by your lack of quality, as this is not at all the same as being unique WITH quality, which takes more time; people often tend to have a confusion between something unique with quality and something just unique yet not good quality at all).

3-Your brand and style are not well-defined.

--> Solution: find your identity and stick with it, whatever happens: this is what will make you different.

Basic tasks such as having social presence (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud and Youtube seems to be the very minimal basis) have to be done. Needless to mention the fact you should have a "screenname" (or artist name) that you should choose and adopt from the beginning. Maybe you'll have to change it after a time, but still you have to stick to that process to stay professional. Try to tell a story, a true one, the most authentic one about yourself. After all, most successful artists were there because they had a very interesting story to tell about their life, whether terrific or painful, and it launched their career to the point where they are now.

A professional logo is something crucial too. Look for software to do that; Blender, Adobe After Effects, Gimp are a few examples that you can manage to download for free. It's all about having a solid brand; but that can't be built overnight. It's a fully thought process that can often take days or weeks to put into practice. Last but not least, good images for your tracks, that are as well linked with your story. Never neglect that aspect either, as that tells a lot about your identity as an artist. That's why you should be totally coherent with whatever you use to build your artist identity.

4-You're not targetting the right labels.

--> Solution: keep on developing your brand and style by networking with labels (keep looking for new ones) and other artists on the rise

I know most people tend to just send as many tracks as possible to whatever label you can find. Still that's not the best way to stand out from the crowd. First don't send to the top labels, you still can do it for fun, but don't take too much time and energy or hopes with it. Because no one ever starts at the top. It's just not realistic. It's not by sending some random tracks you made to have social presence and quickly build your musical identity that you will manage to be noticed by those labels.

Firstly because they receive thousands of tracks daily. They may not even have the time for you as they only have defined tasks with already successful artists. Secondly because even if they do get to listen to your tracks, it won't be professional enough for them. Coherence in both identity and quality is not something that builds overnight: so do yourself a favor and take some time to perfect your style first, sending your tracks to people who are at the same point, giving feedbacks to each other. That's how you will grow up together and get more professional. Not by trying to knock at a door that is not the right one for you (it may be the right one later though, all a matter of timing).

Before posting this, I was thinking about something that could help everyone in here and had the idea to create an article about labels as it's a crucial subject that needs to be explained. Networking and sending tracks to labels are an important part; so let's all share what we found so far ! I have some well-known ones as well as some people might not know yet, I recommend that everyone keeps them in txt files so that you have a clear view of who you want to send your demos. Here is what I have collected so far (all electronic/techno labels):

-Cherokee Recordings [email protected]

(this one is obviously the biggest, you shouldn't begin with that as it's really for confirmed artists, what you send them will probably not be noticed as they receive thousands of tracks everyday, you can't begin at the top in this world)
Spinnin Records [email protected]
https://www.spinninrecords.com/talentpool

-Sick Bedroom Records [email protected]

-Subwoofer Records [email protected]

-Techno Mafia Recordings [email protected]
https://twitter.com/technomafiarec…

-Nest HQ https://soundcloud.com/nesthq

-Good Enuff https://soundcloud.com/goodenuff
https://demos.disco.ac/upload/238206/demos/…

-Insomnia Records https://soundcloud.com/insomniacrecords

-In Rotation https://soundcloud.com/inrotationrecs

-TNC Recordings https://soundcloud.com/tncrecordings
[email protected]

-Recall Records https://soundcloud.com/recallrecords
[email protected]

-Eukaryota Records https://soundcloud.com/eukaryotarecords
https://www.apmg.io/submit-demo/eukaryota/

-Chill Trap Network https://soundcloud.com/chilltrapnetwork
[email protected]

-Stereo Fox https://www.stereofox.com/contact/