How TO Get Signed To An Electronic Label?

[Nephew]

Have you actually "listened" to your tracks in comparison to what those labels are releasing? Your tracks are not the most enjoyable to listen to from from a sonic point of view, regardless of genre.

[Nephew]

And there's no groove or depth as well.

[lethal_pizzle]

Revenge of the Blackbirds is the pick of the bunch for me. Still far too frantic though - too busy going 'hey look at me' for me to appreciate there's a tune going on.

[DigitalDevil]

kids these days entitlement issues etc etc

[chubakkaz]

The Mixdown on the tracks is muddy. The kicks are weak and lack punch.

Two huge reasons why nobody would sign you.

I dont know about huge

[wongaling]

From what I've heard so far your tracks sound like there's too much going on at once, maybe thats the sound you're looking for maybe not but if you wanna get signed into the mainstream from what I see all you need to lay down is a sub bass line a saw wave and a deep bass and snappy snare with some crappy autotune lyrics over the top. just my 2 cents

[michaeldunne109]

Well to be honest i wouldnt play any of your tracks as a dj and i do play some mainstream stuff in my sets. Your tracks just dont really stand out. Theirs no 'bite' in them.

And ya the finished product is a bit rough.

But dude keep trying. Keep pushing it. Dont go down the main stream root unless thats what you really want. People are looking for something different, something new. Think about what makes you different to the other people doing what your doing. And also labels get so many tracks sent to them their only going to take the best of the bunch. Just to put a number on the amount of tracks labels, DJ's ect get sent i was reading somewhere Laidback Luke recieves 11gb's of music on average every week.

[wrong chris]

do you think I have a better chance of starting my own label? or just keep shopping myself out?

no and no.

if you want a better chance, you have to make better music.

[biru]

How to get signed.

1. Work really hard on production. My producing partner and I have 25 years or so between us, and that's not just electronic - includes orchestral, jazz & rock from the days of the DA38. We spend about 1 hour coming up with a tune (main 32 bar hook) and then 2-3 weeks arranging, fleshing it out, programming and mixing. We pay a LOT of attention to mixing, getting things sonically perfect. And we're still learning. I just figured out how to do this technique with single band EQ and multiband compressors that makes arpeggios crazy mad!

2. Send it out to people. I send our unmastered versions out to DJ friends (who will tell me if it's shit or awesome, give me good feedback on production, genre) and to promoters (who regularly book/host internationals, who give me good feedback on marketability and how they reckon it would go in a club).

3. Play it yourself. Even if you're only a bedroom DJ, drop it into your own mixes alongside other tracks from the genre you're going for. Does it sound close? Is the balance/mix in your track similar to the others in the genre? Does your structure allow for a good mix in and mix out? Critically listen.

4. Take a break. We usually work in bursts around the weekend (we have 9-6 professional gigs), which is good cos we get to clear our heads and think about what we've done. When we come in for studio session, we have a jobs list to go through on the track.

5. Get it mastered. After getting feedback and doing all the other shit, we make sure we're happy with it and then send it to be mastered. We're using a studio in the Netherlands (even though we're in Australia) to do ours. Why them? They master for the record labels and the artists we're sending our stuff to, so they are the perfect people to master our tracks.

That way when the A&R people and DJs hear them they think "Hey, this song is tight and I can see where it fits into our catalogue/radio show/my set this week in Ibiza."

7. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Anybody who has gotten signed can tell you it's a dog slog. You will send out loads of tracks, repeatedly to people. 99% won't hit you back. The ones that do will give you feedback. Listen to that. Take it on board. Go back to the studio. Work at it.

And don't send in half finished tunes or crap. Nobody wants to waste time on a mix in progress. And if you feel like "I must get this signed NOW or the moment has gone!" you are probably producing cliched crap-of-the-hour which really shouldn't be signed anyways.

[photojojo]

Wow, this is the most feedback I've ever seen for tracks. And nobody slammed him for the all bold post. Good job guys!!!!!

I didn't listen to the tracks, but with this many people saying you need to keep working then you probably need to keep working. Why don't you set a goal of getting 50 positive comments on a track on soundcloud before you submit another track to a label. Don't keep spamming them with inferior stuff or they'll never listen to anything you send again.