me and my friend decided to start up our own label after DJing for a few years and producing our own stuff as of recently.
It’s called Why Not Records and we’re looking for new artists. Our policy isn’t tied strictly to one genre, we are hoping to focus on progressive house, electro, dubstep. So if you’re a budding producer looking to get your tracks signed then dropbox us your songs with a description of who you are and what you do.
I have a few questions actually. Who is your target demographic? will your signed music be going on beatport? do you have any ideas of how artists might be making a financial gain? sorry if it seems to inquisitive and i can understand if you only want to answer once someone has signed up but if you can throw out any answers id love to hear em
Just for the record.. I can vouch for this guy as a genuine DJ/Producer, he’s one of the DJ’s in my local community and just trying to get things going with a few mates (few mates being mates of mines also).
Well beatport doesn’t accept new labels anymore really- you can get on if you go through a beatport aggregator but beatport will drop the label quick if it doesn’t sell well.
There was one point a while ago where beatport was a mess with small labels and it was getting out of hand so they put some strict policies into place
Now if you start a new small label and don’t have a big roster of artists or have some serious marketing power you pretty much have to go through an aggregation service just to get the label itself on there, and then beatport will still drop the label if it doesn’t meet certain sales criteria. Then if you can get on good luck getting beatport to promote the label in any way.
I’m still not fully convinced. Obviously, it is relatively easy to get your tracks onto BP via a distributor such as Label Worx. But would BP really drop your label/releases if they don’t sell? It just surprises me because, once the tracks are available at BP, the cost of keeping them online must be fairly negligible.
However, if I was a producer looking for a label this would immediately turn me off:
…as I’d want my label partner to be an expert in the genre I produce. Excellent networking across the scene would lead to the most exposure and DJ support. Have you thought about narrowing your focus at all?
It’s about quality control so beatport doesn’t turn into a huge spam fest of small labels that don’t sell. If the label doesn’t meet a quota of $500 per quarter it gets dropped.
I agree with letha_pizzle and said something to that effect but deleted it. Most labels fail and the successful ones have a big artist behind them and a really tight vision/sound. Soliciting music in all genres from an internet forum is a quick path to failure. A label needs to have a sound and it’s hard to do that if you just take everything.
interesting info once again. i guess the labels that get dropped can go to bandcamp which is less evil than beatport anyways
[quote]
Soliciting music in all genres from an internet forum is a quick path to failure. A label needs to have a sound and it’s hard to do that if you just take everything.[/QUOTE]
fully agree.
This is partly true but the thresh-hold for sales is very low - I know this as I had several sub-labels and 2 of them sold next-to-nothing and they didn’t bat an eyelid.
My advice is to go through someone like Label Worx for distribution - they are professional and extremely helpful, plus their admin control panel is very clear to use, especially with the recent upgrades to artist accounting.
They should be I hope, and maybe they should focus on a brand/image/sound instead of just accepting whatever, at least at the start. Familiarity and consistency is the best way to build a fan base
ive seen to many labels just get drowned out cause there “OMG YAH WE’ll TAKE YA” types…i feel they should be declining a majority of the promos they get…quality over quantity
This is a big one for me! I’m a strong believer in finding talent and adding it to your stable and then foster and develop that talent and help them exceed things they didn’t think was possible.
