What is the best way to expose yourself to a record label?

Hopefully the right record label?

I have some music here. I can only describe it as experimental electronic hip hop or something…

I dont like labels but thats for people who do
http://www.kidwonderful.com/KidWonderful-BrainRelaxant.mp3

http://www.kidwonderful.com/KidWonderful-ClarkSessionsOne.mp3

I have other songs at www.kidwonderful.com and I was wondering what is the best way to get yourself as a producer out there?

The music is made by a fellow musician and I and we are thinking about sending a CD off to the record labels we like but before then we were wondering how proffessional should me make it sound? (I.E. Pay for it to get mastered somewhere and with a silver coating on the back of the CD)

We are interested in taking our music to the next step and really would like to be able to not work so hard at our day jobs.

Peace
AVA.

What is the best way to expose yourself to a record label?
Trench Coat?

(sorry, I couldn’t help it.)

Rats. Beaten to the punch.

This most be the most dick thing I’ve ever done in my entire life:

Allow me to preface this with saying that I could never even hope to make music, and I don’t pretend to. Don’t take this personally, and I hope to not get in trouble for saying this in GQ.

Don’t bother and don’t quit your day-job.

This is trip-hop or techno or something of the most boring variety that I have ever heard. It is not only bad, it is unorigianal. It is the most basic imaginable slow-beat sampling and synthesizing and, “Look ma! I can do a level change with this here slidy-thing.” I felt stupider every second I heard it. You had a full five minututes of my life. I want them back.

I work for a radio-station that specializes in indie stuff. Some of it sucks. Some of it is amazing. Some of it some people love. Some of it communicates to other people. Some of it communicates to me.

ALL OF IT IS DIFFERENT OR INTERESTING! This is neither.

I would, never, ever, in a million years chose to play these songs.

There, I’m done.

What I do not want to say is that you never will make something good. Everybody starts somewhere, and if this is your training period, so be it. Get comfortable with whatever authoring tools you use. I personally see no glimmers of hope, but they could be beyond my grasp. Go out there and make some new songs.

Maybe you’ll be lucky, and if everything here does not deter you, here’s some real advice.

  1. Don’t quit your dayjob. Not becasue the music is bad, but becasue I think that totally giving yourself professionally to your music is a bad step if you’re not ready for it. Music has to be something that you feel passionate about creating, not something to make money at or, “work less hard at your day-job.” Music is work, work, and more work. Never decreasing work, always more. Don’t do it becasue you’re lazy and you actually think you’ll make money at it.

  2. Pitch it to an indie label rather than something big. Not only will you actually have a chance here, you’ll probably end up with a contract and relationship which you are happier with. Even moderately successful musicians with big labels often walk away peniless because those advances have to be paid back and you usually get small royalties which you’re unlikely to be paid your full share of anyway. Indie labels often focus less on making sudden stars and more on making money over the long term with stable, consistent, talent. From people who I have talked to that have taken both routes, people that keep it reasonable and grow slowly with an indie label tend to walk away with more money than those who get a small time deal with a larger record company. Make sure you talk to others who are signed with a label to see how they really treat their talent. Even some indie labels work hard to screw over their talent or themselves just becasue they are jackasses who don’t care about you or idiots who don’t know how to run a business.

  3. It won’t really matter if you submit your work on a cassette tape beyond the actual damage done to your work by the crappy medium. Even MP3 files such as yours would be fine. Record companies are used to recieving music without an “image” and trust me, you don’t need one.

In spite of my earlier vitriol, good luck. Seriously.

Nice post Threemae :rolleyes:

Well here’s some advice from someone who was signed.

I’ve produced hip hop/trip hop for years, and believe me there’s a market for it. If someone thinks they can make a buck off of it, they’ll find the “market” to stick you in.

Along with a few friends, we made tons of music, mostly just for the hell of it. The type of music we made was much pretty tough to replicate on stage, so we would just mess around in our houses. We made a bunch of songs and gave them out to our friends, who I guess passed them along. Well one of those tapes ended up in Tricky’s hands, and we got a phonecall one day, and the next thing we knew, we were signed. Of course working on our first album led to inner quarreling, and we ended up tanking the deal ourselves, but that’s another story.

The point is make your music, and get it out into the world. Everyone I know who was signed, did it through getting heard in some fashion, be it by handing CDs out on the bus, or playing out a lot. And before you read any further let me mention this. DON’T SEND MUSIC TO RECORD LABELS, YOU’LL BE WASTING THE CD. Record labels don’t accept what they call “unsolicited” tapes, in fact they don’t even open the package. They do this because they used to get lawsuits from people claiming they were ripped off because Eminem would say “fuck that” or something at the end of a song, and they happened to say it at the beginning. Of course 99% of the time they are 2 totally different songs, but to protect themselves, the label decided not to even open the packages. The only way a label will listen to music now is through one of their A&R people, or from an entertainment lawyer (they do more then regular lawyers) with ties to them. They will also listen to recommendations from their artists, which is what happened to us. There are a few labels that do take unsolicited music, not any of them major, and you can usually find out by going to a label’s website.

So, going back to getting signed is essentially getting your name out there as best you can. Print up some shirts and go hand them out for free, or sell them dirt cheap with a CD included. Plaster up stickers with your name and website. Network around your music scene, someone from it will get signed, if it ain’t you, it’s still good to be tight with the people that did.

At the end of the day though, if you don’t know anyone, I will say it’s very difficult to get signed, in fact it’s like winning the lottery, so keep a few eggs in a different basket. Limp Bizkit was signed because Fred was their tattoo artist and slipped them a tape one day. The father of the lead singer of the Strokes owns a huge modeling agency. Norah Jones is the daughter of Ravi Shankar. Lenny Kravitz is the son of Roxie Roker (the Jeffersons) and the list goes on and on. Most of these people were already one or two degrees away from someone in the music industry who could help them out. Are you?

Now we won’t even get into the nightmare of once a band is signed, because getting signed and being successful are totally different. Getting signed essentially means a label is willing to give you some money and develop you into something they think they can market and make money off of. Once you make your album, they don’t even have to release it, they can just say “ummm nah, this isn’t going to work out, give us our money back”. This actually happens quite often, and let me tell you, owing a label $20,000 and being right were you were before you were signed, sucks bigtime. A few developed acts will get picked up by the label, but most will fade into obscurity after their first album, perhaps breaking even, but most of the time still owing some costs. The label charges you for everything, (even shit like the napkins at your record release party, and they get the good stuff), lawyers, transportation, etc., so even after a few albums you are generally still in the hole. Now everyonce in a great while (usually a couple of years) an act will rise through it’s particular genre and rise to superstardom, in electronica / triphop this would be someone like Radiohead or Portishead. This happens though a sheer combination of luck, talent, will, marketability, divine intervention, etc.

I’m only 30 and I feel too old to deal with all the above crap, so I make music just for hobby thesedays.

You’re better off playing the lottery, so I would make the music for fun, and keep my day job.

The possibility of record labels using kazaa to find good, unsigned artists, then denouncing kazaa for stealing music from their good, recently signed artists makes my head hurt.

Keep also in mind that although the music is important, being able to perform is huge.

Most A&R people will hear the music, then come down to a show to check you out. If you don’t perform, then you have serious problems, you won’t get signed. You also need a good amount of people to show up, because they don’t sign people just because you are a nice person. They like to pick up artists who already have at least a small underground following. It’s kind of silly on the one hand, but on the other hand it makes perfect sense.

thanks for the advice world eater

I appreciate your help…

the rest are no talent face-less haters who won’t post music.

You all know how weak that is…

Peace
AVA.

http://www.kidwonderful.com/KidWonderful-SoSorryPrefuse.mp3

http://www.kidwonderful.com/KidWonderful-GojirraVrsSpaceshipWonderful.mp3

http://www.kidwonderful.com/KidWonderful-ClarkSessionsOne.mp3

http://www.kidwonderful.com/KidWonderful-TamaleSunshine.mp3

May I suggest not looking for a label. XM has a channel of unsigned bands. You can send your CD to them, and they will play it if you have talent. I’m sure people at record labels listen to Channel 52 to see whats out there.

http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.jsp?ch=52

from http://www.xmradio.com/programming/xm_feature.jsp?ch=52&id=161

Radio Unsigned Submission Information

Submit your music for consideration to:

Radio Unsigned
c/o XM Satellite Radio
1500 Eckington Place NE
Washington, DC 20002

Please include the form below, a brief biography, along with your phone number, email address, and website address.
OR drop it off in a Guitar Center location near you. Submission Policy:

Submissions must be CD-format.
All submissions are non-returnable.
By submitting your music, you give consent to have your music played on Radio Unsigned.
Radio Unsigned, in its sole discretion, shall decide whether or not to play a song.
Please make a notation of the tracks you recommend for airplay.
If a submission is selected for airplay, Radio Unsigned will report all spins to ASCAP/SESAC/BMI and Sound Exchange. Artists who are members of these performing rights societies will be paid royalties.
Please, no phone calls or emails regarding the receipt and/or airplay of submissions. If your music is selected for airplay, you will be contacted by Radio Unsigned

Luckily, there’s no possibility they’d ever do that. No record exec has the time to wade through thousands of self-recorded dreck songs in order to find the three or four decent tunes.

I know this isn’t IMHO but,

Your music really gave me a headache, especially the very first one in the OP. You need to learn how to fade.

headache? what? its a style.

I dont understand what you guys mean by headache.

Peace
AVA.

you took me WAYYYYYYYY out of context…

I love music this was just a question…

What is wrong with the music I make anyways? I dont understand you just mock it and say I fade? What? I dont get it?

Please be specific, I dont understand how it can give you a headache, its just a style.

Peace
AVA.

Start by reading All You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald S. Passman, and stay smart.

Keep your day job, you’ll need to finance your recordings.

Remember that it can take years before anyone notices you.

Avoid scams, pay-to-play deals etc.

And by fade, I suspect they are encouraging you to learn to do it properly.

Hey, I like your stuff. I think it sounds more like a score though; think soundtracks. Great job.

Thanks, I know this is instrumental music and I appreciate your compliment. I would honestly appreciate an nice, open criticism, it’s healthy to hear someone else’s point of view.

Mostly I get shit like there is no vocals but thats MY style, for now…

I would also like to see some of these other alias’s music…

It’s easy to talk shit and not back it up.

Peace
AVA.

Aviary Disaster,

The more that I ponder it the more that I realize that this probably wasn’t the most appropriate forum for the criticism, but please, don’t take anything that I said too personally.

First, if you weren’t interested in hearing criticism of your music (constructive, or in my case, completely worthless), you could have easily posted this answer witout direct links to music. If you post something because you feel it is relevant to the question, expect people to actually hear it. And form their own opinions accordingly.

I was not a fan of what I had heard. I am not interested in, “talking shit,” nor am I a, “no-talent faceless hater.”

I don’t make music. I just listen to it. I certainly don’t mean to say that my music is better than your music because, again, I don’t make music. If we were battling, you would win. Does that make you happy. Does that make you, “Wonderful?”

Finally, I could be wrong. Not only was a GQ thread the wrong place to post a response, but your music may indeed actually be good. Maybe my ear simply isn’t able to pick out your subtle instrumentation and beautiful composition. Maybe. I’m not leaning that way now, but that may be the case. So, I’ll go back and relisten to all of your songs tomorrow.

Again, in all sincerity, good luck. Music making is something which I could never do, and I wish anyone who attempts it the best. Even though I may never be able to like your music, I’ll still be happy for you if you make a killing, a little, or if you just flat out get somebody to listen and enjoy and express yourself.

As for now, bed time. Tomorrow I will listen and update.

Since this is about music, I’ll move this thread to Cafe Society.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

Aviary Disaster, I have earned exactly one royalty check in my life: For my work on a track on small fan-driven tribute to the perfect oddness known to us as “Coil”. It was for US$2.64. I never cashed it-- I framed it. :wink:

FWIW, I like what I’ve heard so far. Be aggressive, and willing to lose money, and here is one more way to get the word out:
“Droplifting”

[insert [big frikkin’ disclaimer]]

Smuggle a few cd-r copies of your work (jewel-box, good art, dummy UPC, etc…) into your local music stores, and stock them yourself! This has been done before. You might get lucky and have come clueless dude go ahead and hand-key/sell it to someone. I’ve seen this happen.

[/end[/big frikkin’ dislaimer]]

Again, I like what I’ve heard so far. But then, I have odd tastes in music. Stick with it. Work hard. You’ll never get a contract. Who cares? Have fun.

I do make music for own enjoyment though, I still have yet to earn a single penny. Dont think for a moment I do this for reasons besides the fact that I love to do it, becuase I for one know that I may never be recognized in the world EVER.

www.kidwonderful.com

I wasnt trying to be too critical on people who don’t like my music, but some of these cats here cant dissassociate my political beliefs with my music, they’ll probbaly hate anything I do, but when you say things that are unpopular that is just something you have to face with down the road later…

Oh well.

Peace
AVA.