Hi, I have been making all different kinds of music for years, but only as a hobby. Everything from EDM to alt-rock and hip-hop. This year I have been making more EDM in the trendy future bass style.
Should I submit my music to digital labels? Am I ready to start looking for promotion, or do I need more views and followers first?
I have never tried this before and just want to know anyone else's experience with this. Like what to expect from them and how to submit etc. Stuff to look out for in case I do.

My music is in my signature. Its only 5 tracks in this style right now, but Im churning out about 2 to 3 a month in my spare time.

Thanks in advance for any info and help with this subject.
subGENRE aka MIKEYTHAI

 

Last edited: Mar 25, 2017

your music is fantastic. the world needs to hear it! get it out there
you have +1 subscriber on YT now :D

 

Dude - you need to submit your music to everywhere you can. You are definitely good enough to release. But even so, there is LOTS of competition. and remember - even the Beatles were turned down a few times before they cracked it.

PS - your music is cool.... Sour Apple is my favourite.

 

Fact is, there is no A&R person out there searching for talent. You must make the journey to them. They're insanely busy people and because of their workload they delegate responsibility for finding new talent to their assistants, who in turn rely upon others to bring them news of artist availability.

Get it done, @subGENRE. Toss those dice and see what comes up. Put your stuff out there on the media channels. Grow your fanbase. You make wonderfully good shit, man. Sadly, there's not enough of us here to make a significant impact as you drive forward but, by the Lord Harry, we support you 100%.

 

Mikey first you need to copyright your stuff and register with a PRO(performing rights organisation), if you havent done that already.
Doesnt matter what it is, even if people will want to use your track for a tv show, documentary or a commercial, you need to have these things sorted out, otherwise they will not work with your or not pay you.
Possibilites for you are pretty big and i wish you good luck

 

@subGENRE I've listened to a lot of your tracks so my answer would be a resounding YES !!!

Make the leap and...

 

Thank you everyone for the words of encouragement. It makes me feel good!

Mine too, that piano gets me everytime First its like a walk in the park then bam the drop hits you, lol

I just registered as an artist/writer on the BMI website. How do I copyright my music? With the U.S. Copyright office I assume.

I also just realized that some of these songs are remixes etc and contain copyrighted material. What we used to call white labels, ha

 

Last edited: Mar 26, 2017

I agree with the fellows posters above:

Go GO GO!

 

We are under the same PRO now
Yea, U.S copyright.If those songs contain other peoples material you will have to probably check if you can use their material and then add that info on your BMI account in that formular for that song you will register, since then the royalties get split when you start earning some money with it, otherwise you can get served a lawsuit, in the worst case scenario that is.
I have never done any covers or remixes so i dont have full info on all of that, but it aint rocket science.

 

Copyrighting isn't too bad, and you can submit digital versions directly by uploading. Rather than register each individual track separately, we registered groups as a "body of work" similar to what you'd do if it were an album. Cost was about $35, if I remember correctly. Don't know about works containing samples of re-mixes though. Somewhere out there in Google-land, I ran across a music legal site that outlined things like this, not in legal-eze (lawyer speak), but in more "direct" language.

 

If someone from a record label hasn't approached you directly I wouldn't waste your time. If you send them your music, especially if you produce EDM (which they probably get 1000s of demos per day) they will likely just throw your CD in the trash and not even listen to it.

You should Google the countless stories of bands who were screwed over by record labels, and actually ended up losing money. Records labels are all about exploiting artists NOT helping them! If you can get your music played in local venues, and create a good web presence with a lot of followers, you should be able to monetize your music with iTunes or advertising on your website and/or YouTube videos. Perhaps you should look for an agent to get your music played and book you gigs instead.

 

After reading some of the previous posts, I would disagree with most people here. Do not worry about copyrights and protecting your music when you are starting out! Give your music away for free, let people use it in whatever they want, just ask them to credit you and maybe give a link to your website/YouTube page and likely they will. Who knows your music might end up in some award winning short film that will bring millions of followers (and potential customers) to your YouTube channel.

I would also look into merchandise as a way to bring in revenue if you don't think people will purchase your music through iTunes or you decide to give it away for free. Create a brand/logo for your self, slap it on t-shirts, hats, mugs, pencils and whatever else you can think of and have your fans support you by purchasing these items. You could also try creating a Patreon site (https://www.patreon.com/) or any other cloud funding site and see if you can get fans to support your art through donations.

 

Last edited: Mar 27, 2017

He has 50 or so followers on SoundCloud and 6 subscribers on youtube. And now you tell him to sell merch??? To who? His mom? Come on!
Also, merch from single artists has little to no commercial relevance in EDM if you are neither deadmau5 nor skrillex. From labels, yes.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 27, 2017

Ive just recently been through a bout of trying to get my tunes signed, you can get variety of responses you might not expect. I was met with a response of "sounding" like another famous artist within my genre, to which i was slightly baffled. When looking at the rest of the roster of the label, the majority of their contents also sounded like other famous producers in the same genre, but more simplified then the content i was making. I guess my answer would be prepare to get slightly burned. When the feedback/response matters more to progressing your musical career or getting your music out there, the more it sensitive you will be to feedback/repsonse you will recieve. It felt like my heart was ripped out of me; I kind of disagreed with who he said i sounded like claiming that my material was well produced but not "unique" enough. It felt like a slap in the face to be honest considering how i personally felt i had crafted the tunes to sound different, hell two of the 5 tracks were completely different sub genres but in the same vein. Sorry just being a bit bitter. I guess just expect anything from the labels if they do even respond...

 

Well first let me strart by saying that I used to run a independent label (underground hiphop, r&b, and house music) in NYC. I will be 100% honest and say that most of the demos people sent me...I either tossed out or they just collected dust.

If you're making music and ready to release it? just release it on your own! record labels (especially "digital") are probably a waste of time for up&coming artists/producers. You can do everything yourself... figure out a budget for promotion because you need promotion! get your music on Itunes and whatever other digital distribution services you feel match your music or target demographic.

Submitting tracks to labels is a waste of time unless you have a relationship with the person at the label or somebody at the label is interested in your music.. other than that it's a waste of time. build your online presence up.. social media, website,etc. some people may laugh or not get it but pressing promos up on vinyl (either 7" or 12") is still a way to get your music played by DJ's as many DJ's still embrace music that is on vinyl and these days DJ's are more likely to play something just because it's on vinyl (just keep in mind the DJ's that actually still embrace vinyl as well as digital are normally small in numbers but are also the types of DJ's that still can break your music)

Keep making your music and build relationships with other's trying to make it in the music industry.. believe it or not most people that find success in the business aren't successful because of their music but because of the relationships they have made.

If you still plan on submitting music to labels... find out the contact info for lower level people at the label.. like promotion people, interns, etc.. as these people are normally on the way up or trying to move up and getting your music in their hands can help build a relationship early on plus they are always in a position to get your music into the right hands.

The music industry has changed a lot but I will tell you that years ago having a good entertainment lawyer was one way to get your music into the right hands as these lawyers were locked into the right people. good luck! but please don't waste your time emailing your tracks to labels.

 

Do it, brother. You've got skills. I guess getting an agent to push your content and book gigs would be the normal way to do things. Personally, I would practice more guerrilla tactics. Uploading videos that aren't monetized and using specific keywords with artist name(which it looks like you're doing). If you're not getting money from the ads, then the worst they can do is take it down.
Kind of a cheat but take the hottest track out there this very day (hot as in TOP 40 commercial, not KEXP artistic) even if it's a dumb, petty song, add your own flavor and raise the quality level. This is a fun exercise in itself but it also almost always guarantees plays. I guess there's a chance you could be sued but if you're not actually making money from it, it'll be a waste of time/money for the corp. They could if it got 1 million plays but you just got your music into the minds of people who spread it for you and you can always argue Fair Use in court. Just don't monetize unless it's purely original. Or just don't monetize period.
We've created a significant number of listeners just by of word of mouth and things like burning 500pk rolls of CDs/really cheap flash drives with the artist/album name and the word "LISTEN" written on it and leaving them around the city in libraries, malls, bars, arcades, grocery stores (with the free newspapers and ads), bus stops, taxis, Ubers and movie theatre seats. We also made up business size cards with abstract/random words (sometimes of wisdom) and a URL or an FTP site on the back where they could listen or download and did the same thing.

For the record, I would totally rock this:

 

That is some bad advice!

Always care about your copyrights!!!!! it's your music! protect it!

Music publishing is how people really get paid in the business! you don't just throw that away! now as far as getting your music out there! hell yeah give away your music for free as far as free promo downloads and even working with other artists and not charging them for the track up front but damn sure make sure you are getting paid in the back end.. like back in the days people would produce tracks for free but get points on the album, etc.

 

You seriously need to read up on music law and record business! coming into the music a virgin to this is going to be asking for trouble. If none of your music is copyrighted... what's stopping anyone from taking that music and copyrighting it for themselves. something to remember is you're a songwriter as soon as your create music... you are a publisher! you have to protect your music!

 

Copyrights don't mean anything if no one is listening to your music! The best thing a new artist can do is get there music out there and heard by any means possible. Frankly 99.9% of people shouldn't be expecting to get paid for their music anyways and should just be content just sharing their love of music with others. If you take the business minded approach to music, chances are your music will become really cliche and only cater to the brainless masses losing all artistic integrity in the process. Commercialization, and the record labels in particular are the bane of music!

P.S. I love Pinkman's guerrilla tactics. That kind of thinking outside the box is what the op should be doing.