Labels

I'm on my third label now and the only thing I'm positive helps is networking and building relationships with people.Everything else makes a difference but what kind and how much difference are arguable.
There are huge bands I could name that played ever show ever offered and like-wise there are huge bands that didn't tour until their 2nd or third record.
I can tell you that my band, while certainly not huge, signed w/ relapse w/ maybe 10 shows under our belts....all in NC. We got there b/c my drummer just naturally networks his ass off. If you talk to enough people sooner or later you meet somebody that can help you or whos endorsement means something. Just make sure your demo is solid when it gets there.
 
Make sure your demo is packaged professionally and not on CD-R. When a label sees that you have the dedication to raise enough money on your own to get a CD pressed they pay more attention.
 
the thing is: if you don't have the help of a label you can't spend all your money in a tour where you're just "nobody"....
come on guys be realistic, if you're not signed and you're not advertised most of the times people (the audiance) don't give a fuck about who you are.
I got in touch with slovenian metal camp, they were really kind, if you want to play there even if you're not signed, all you have to do is send a press kit with a demo to them then they'll see if you meet their standard as band.
How many festivals has ever replied to you guys about playing one of the remaining open slot?
I think that the only one caring about young band is metal camp, the rest are just very small festivals that for me don't count really that much.
A label is important to me, even if it's really small you got a little bit of advertising (ok many times is down to none), but you know at least you hear people telling "oh they're signed I have to check their record".
if you're not signed you're just nobody....
the only band that comes to my mind that has been signed because of an heavy spamming on myspace is "in this moment", have you seen how many friends do they have?
I guess they were signed because of that really beautiful and big busted girl, because I don't see so much "greatness" in that band as century media claims.
 
You are right Maurizio, we can do good records, we can move our asses out of our town, but a lot of money going out of our hands....if a label will sign up a band only for the heavy spamming on my space...I don't wont this label....is a pure shit!! pure shit!! :erk: :erk:
 
if century mediA will sign my band band, I will drink everything i see...but this thing is bad
 
The Broodwich said:
ah c'mon, don't pretend you wouldn't want to be on century media!
Click to expand...

The point is not I don't like to be on Century media catalogue, I can kill for that ahahah (kidding), the thing is: it's just pretty lame signing a band because of that heavy spamming and a big pair of boobs.

p.s.
heavy spamming means that band has huge following... well a huge emo shit following
 
The Broodwich said:
Make sure your demo is packaged professionally and not on CD-R. When a label sees that you have the dedication to raise enough money on your own to get a CD pressed they pay more attention.
Click to expand...
No offense intended, but this makes absolutely no difference in my experience. I have never sent anything but Cd-R's. I printed labels and clearly marked contact info but that was it. I don't think labels care whether you spent $1500 on pressing. It could show you're dedicated but it might just show your Mom is rich or your drummer deals coke...
 
The Broodwich said:
Make sure your demo is packaged professionally and not on CD-R. When a label sees that you have the dedication to raise enough money on your own to get a CD pressed they pay more attention.
Click to expand...
egan. said:
No offense intended, but this makes absolutely no difference in my experience. I have never sent anything but Cd-R's. I printed labels and clearly marked contact info but that was it. I don't think labels care whether you spent $1500 on pressing. It could show you're dedicated but it might just show your Mom is rich or your drummer deals coke...
Click to expand...

We've gotten CD-Rs (!) from (huge !!) labels to review so I'm not sure if pressing is really necessary.

If I was to send out a demo I'd actually not make any layout or stuff. Just clearly written Song and Contact Info. Of course it depends: If you've already made up all your layout/logo and stuff like that and you're only seeking a distribution deal that doesn't apply. But I guess huge labels might wanna work on your stuff anyway so your hard work (and money) would be wasted...
kaomao said:
I got in touch with slovenian metal camp, they were really kind, if you want to play there even if you're not signed, all you have to do is send a press kit with a demo to them then they'll see if you meet their standard as band.
How many festivals has ever replied to you guys about playing one of the remaining open slot?
Click to expand...
The replied to you because they have an extra stage for (very) small and unsigned bands. So if they wouldn't reply to you they wouldn't have bands that played there! ;) Plus: I don't know about the current situation but a few years ago you had to sell a certain amount of tickets (I guess it was 40 if I remember correctly) if you landed a slot there. If you couldn't sell them (and there was a lot of competition among Austrian bands - the promoter is Austrian - selling their tickets back then when applications were not possible for bands more or less from everywhere) you had to pay them yourself. Then with no money for playing its not so funny for you as a band anymore...:Smug:
 
HeadCrusher said:
The replied to you because they have an extra stage for (very) small and unsigned bands. So if they wouldn't reply to you they wouldn't have bands that played there! ;) Plus: I don't know about the current situation but a few years ago you had to sell a certain amount of tickets (I guess it was 40 if I remember correctly) if you landed a slot there. If you couldn't sell them (and there was a lot of competition among Austrian bands - the promoter is Austrian - selling their tickets back then when applications were not possible for bands more or less from everywhere) you had to pay them yourself. Then with no money for playing its not so funny for you as a band anymore...:Smug:
Click to expand...


Yes I heard about this I didn't know if it was true or what!
Thanks for having clarified that topic ;)
 
egan. said:
No offense intended, but this makes absolutely no difference in my experience. I have never sent anything but Cd-R's. I printed labels and clearly marked contact info but that was it. I don't think labels care whether you spent $1500 on pressing. It could show you're dedicated but it might just show your Mom is rich or your drummer deals coke...
Click to expand...
The reason I say this is because I've seen it written specifically on label websites to send a pressed CD and not a CD-R, so I would assume if you mean to have it sent to as many labels as possible you wouldn't want to start off by ignoring guidelines and pissing people off. For the majority of metal labels you're probably right
 
Since the subject of distribution deals has now been mentioned...what exactly does a label see/want when they set up said deal with a band?
 
I see. So it seems that a distribution deal is basically a way to take a band who is already pretty successful on their own, and boost their promotion to an even bigger level.
 
Yes... but they typically just put you in the stores... you're in charge of promotion... and doing so, you dont lose as much of the profit as you would if you were signed and gave away all the rights to your music...

A typical dist deal is to split the cost of the sale 50/50 after they recoup they're cost to press the discs...

I.E.

hypothetical sale price of cd is $10
cost to make said disc is $1.50
minus promotional costs (if any)
if none... $8.50 / 2 = $4.25

thats typical...
 
We discussed P+D with another label before we signed w/ candlelight. P+D can be very good but you do need some leverage to get labels interested b/c they aren't locking you into a multi-album deal.
Who handles promotion etc. is 100% deal dependent.
 
I don't know about the rest of the world, but who is dumb enough to do a distribution deal with a record label when you still have to do all the promo yourself?

I mean, any band pressing 500 records can go to any distributor (Indigo, Soulfood, ...) and use them to distribute their records. If you sell 10000 units on your own, you probably don't NEED a distributor.

Most acts these days sell far less then 5000 records ... as sad as it is ...

If you sell 10000 records these days, you'll be a heavy hitter for most indie labels ...
 
It's very hard to get Soulfood as a distributer btw.
We have a distribution deal, and we keep more money. But I wouldn't recommend it for a first album. But when you know which sales you can expect you can try it.
 
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