Is it really so hard to make money being an EDM artist?

[scamo]

Interesting stuff and a nice discussion. Is it really necessary to have a label for you to sell your tracks? I also noticed some tracks fall under different labels? What's up with that? Do labels sometimes fight for a track? I mean, if they did, that would be leverage to make more money, wouldn't it?

scamo

[shr3dder]

Interesting stuff and a nice discussion. Is it really necessary to have a label for you to sell your tracks? I also noticed some tracks fall under different labels? What's up with that? Do labels sometimes fight for a track? I mean, if they did, that would be leverage to make more money, wouldn't it?

scamo

Well it depends, some musicians are absolutely shit house at the admin and paperwork involved with releasing stuff, a lot of people don't like that side of the business. A lot of the time you need a label for distribution at the very least, they have the contacts, unless you have a massive web presence.

Though I'm sure it's changed a lot with Beatport, I'm more talking from traditional methods. That said a tune will sell shitloads more if it's on a respected label, lots of DJs still shop by label. Certain labels will be must-listens no matter what for most people.


Tracks will be released on different labels because they were licensed to a certain label for a certain territory or under certain conditions. For example an artist in Australia might create a track, sign it to a smallish label for Australia only, then it sells well in Australia so they think OK, I'll shop it around to some European labels.... Then they try some US labels... Next thing you know the same song has been released on 4 different labels in a year or two. This is less common in a digital age, but occurred regularly in the vinyl days.

Sure labels can fight for a track, they could offer all sorts of different conditions/royalty splits/advances or maybe a label just has a better track record of looking after artists and getting results.

[calgarc]

Interesting stuff and a nice discussion. Is it really necessary to have a label for you to sell your tracks? I also noticed some tracks fall under different labels? What's up with that? Do labels sometimes fight for a track? I mean, if they did, that would be leverage to make more money, wouldn't it?

scamo

no its not necessary to have a record deal, but people treat you differently when you do. its like walking into a fancy restaurant with jeans and a ripped shirt as opposed to going there with a nice shirt and fancy pants...

its all about who you are locked into... labels like zouk have a different sound then labels like magic island... you might work with an artist signed to zouk, while you on the other hand are signed to magic. some people have multiple deals. you very rarely see a rock band singed to a label that caters to house music... or a dubstep artist on a label that caters to classical music

[Lilac]

This brings up an interesting point. Is anyone here signed? And if they are, is it all tracks produced or just certain ones that they sign?

I always thought that when you get signed, all your music belongs to the label but apparently not. My friend was signed earlier in the year and apparently they only pick up a few of his tracks if they're good enough

[calgarc]

This brings up an interesting point. Is anyone here signed? And if they are, is it all tracks produced or just certain ones that they sign?

I always thought that when you get signed, all your music belongs to the label but apparently not. My friend was signed earlier in the year and apparently they only pick up a few of his tracks if they're good enough

i signed in december of 2010... now i signed a 10 year contract and am locked for 5 years... so after 5 years i can sign with another label if i want, and after 10 years the contract is over and i get all the rights to my music back...

now every track i want to sell is sold under that label, but i do have the option put out some tracks/remixes for free. and yes all decent labels will be selective on what they choose to release, you don't wanna release a bad track. for instance, my album was released last year no problem, but the EP i created with my friend just wasn't up to par. they told me i needed to refine the songs

[Lilac]

Firstly, well done on getting signed.

Amazing post man. Really informative, cheers.

[ToOntown]

i signed in december of 2010... now i signed a 10 year contract and am locked for 5 years... so after 5 years i can sign with another label if i want, and after 10 years the contract is over and i get all the rights to my music back...

now every track i want to sell is sold under that label, but i do have the option put out some tracks/remixes for free. and yes all decent labels will be selective on what they choose to release, you don't wanna release a bad track. for instance, my album was released last year no problem, but the EP i created with my friend just wasn't up to par. they told me i needed to refine the songs

Right on, man. Good for you.

So in another thread Shredder and I are talking about streaming services. What's your take on Spotify, Pandora, Slacker, etc.? How do artists look at these services? What are the benefits/drawbacks?

[sobi]

On a more serious note, selling tracks is not how artists and songwriters make money. Putting out a track or an album isn't where the cash lies, it's with merchandise and ticket sales. Always has been, but has been made more so by digital single sales eating into album sales.

wrong... sort of. An artists actually used to be able to make a decent paycheck off of music sales. While it doesn't come close to the revenue touring brings in, it was big enough that people I know had to pick up other forms of income to make up for the hit that the digital revolution took on their production wallets.