I'm Looking To Send Out Demos

I would like to mail out some demos to the corporate bigwigs to pursue my goal of becoming a career musician. This question is basically directed at anyone who's heard my music and knows what labels would publish something of that nature. I don't even know where to begin. Any help is greatly appreciated.

No netlabels please, I plan on staying loyal to Retropublik for my net releases.

Thanks,

Wes

hhmm.. I'm rubbish with label knowledge, wouldn't have a clue. Just thought I'd say good luck though

Thanks, dude.

Someone must have saved the huge label list that that created at the old WATMM...!

First off, why do you want a label? For your support? For marketing? For production of your CD and manufacturing?

A label's job is to make money. IF you are not attracting listeners and have a following, and putting out CDs/releases that peopl are listening to with stellar, marketable quality, then a label isnt really your career choice right now.

Going independent, especially with this type of music - if you are good enough to sell a CD- you will make way more money and the following will come to you. Think Of Flashbulb - no label support, made a living. Wisp attracts listeners and has been doing releases for years and JUST NOW he is getting on to a newly started label. BUt his label will not be bringing him money to live on. THey have a million artists on the roster -etc etc...But nevertheless its great, and gives him some nice exposure.

Im just saying that maybe a label isnt what you want to be thinking about. BE thinking about making great fucking stellar music - and the labels wil come to you.

Also, Getting a list of Labels and sending your stuff to them in envelopes with a letter will NOT GET YOU SIGNED. Build a relationship with a person at a label.

Put yourself in the labels position - why should they sign this hack?

Anyway, I cant think of any labels that will pay attention to unsolicited demo arrivals. Good luck.

TheSSS makes a valid argument

TheSSS, you make some excellent points and i agree with a lot of what you wrote. however,

  TheSSS said:

Anyway, I cant think of any labels that will pay attention to unsolicited demo arrivals. Good luck.

how do you know this? there seems to be quite a few labels that have their 'send demo to' addresses on their websites. are they just putting that info up there to stop people from emailing them? i dont think the sentence of yours i quoted is entirely true.

so good luck E/V and i would say send those demos regardless. i just think if labels really didnt want unsolicited demos, they would just say so (some of them do).

as far as a list of labels, i cant really help - but look up the website of the labels you'd like to be signed with and more than likely youll find contact info.

ive found a few addresses that way, i just havent sent any out yet and part of what keeps me from doing so is what TheSSS wrote. pm me if you want me to find those addresses ive saved or if you want links to sites. i made a text document and stashed it somewhere on my hd.

  TheSSS said:

Also, Getting a list of Labels and sending your stuff to them in envelopes with a letter will NOT GET YOU SIGNED. Build a relationship with a person at a label.

 

Put yourself in the labels position - why should they sign this hack?

 

Anyway, I cant think of any labels that will pay attention to unsolicited demo arrivals. Good luck.

that's not completely true though.

for example mike p says on the mu site how he first heard some of the artists. lots are from demos.

ARTIST: CAPITOL K

TITLE: KRISTIAN CRAIG ROBINSON

FORMAT: MALE

I was djing at the Sprawl club in London in mid '98 when a girl came up to me (which they do) and handed me a demo tape (which they don't) entitled "Capitol K". I didn't hear what she said (I was mixing in Urban Shakedown's Arsonist VIP dub at the time) but I assumed it was hers. When I got home I put on the demos I had received along with a few others as you do, but the Capitol K one jumped out at me.

ARTIST: dDAMAGE

TITLE: FREDERIC HANAK

JEAN-BAPTISTE HANAK

FORMAT: MALE / MALE

They are 2 French brothers Jean-Baptiste and Frederic Hanak from Paris. Despite their persistant emails I really enjoyed their demo(s) and the fruit of these labours is "Radio Ape", their third album.

ARTIST: DYKEHOUSE

TITLE: MIKE DYKEHOUSE

FORMAT: MALE

I couldn't believe it was his real name. A demo from a guy called "Mike Dykehouse" isn't what you expect. But here it was. And it was pretty good. Mike has been sending me his stuff for over 3 years now (perseverence pays, demo senders) and it has slowly grown on me over that time.

etc.

I appreciate all of your input...alot of good ideas to chew on, but I'd like to say that I don't think making enjoyable music and just waiting for something to happen to me isn't neccessarily going to propel my career forward. Too passive a method for my tastes.

Aswell as spamming labels with your demos,

play lots of live shows, send demos out to promoters, in the end you'll end up supporting a big act, you, lots of exposure etc, SORTED. :D

honestly, earvalve, there are a thousand different ways to do anything. getting label support is no different.

just try a few different things out for yourself. keep following your heart, and all will fall into place.

  TheSSS said:

Wisp attracts listeners and has been doing releases for years and JUST NOW he is getting on to a newly started label. BUt his label will not be bringing him money to live on. THey have a million artists on the roster -etc etc...But nevertheless its great, and gives him some nice exposure.

It has nothing to do with the fact that the label has a bunch of artists on its roster. It all depends on individual sales of each artist. The label does there fair share of promo,but an artist in this scene cant just give up on self promotion. You cant think of indie labels like you would a major label. No fat cat comes to your house smoking a big black dick cigar,with a contract in hand and a bundle of cash,ready to give you a makeover and change your life. It happens by word of mouth and respect from other artists. And when you do get signed,although you make some money from sales,you have to think about other things to live off of,if thats your goal. Dont put all your eggs into one basket,and end up screwing yourself in the long wrong.

5 stars for being a good discussion and read! I have a vision for myself :-) but it takes way too long to write it down.

Make connections talk to people, carry CDs give them/sell them to people, any person. Play shows, sell cds at shows. Internet is not the best way alone. If you give out CDs personally, most people will listen to them, But if there is a link on the internet, I don't think that many people will stop to download it unless they have a good reason. Make yourself know in a veriety of crowds and play lots of shows and be good and try hard and you will have a very good chance, no matter how talented you are.

Wanna be a career musician doing electronic music?

I suggest forgetting it.

I reckon you could count the electronic music musicians who make any kind of comfortable living out of it on two hands.

Unless you get a lot of gigs.

You'll make more money out of 5 good gigs than the first 6 months of an album release.

But it's still a lot of fun.

it'd be fine doing on the side with some other job.

In-depth replies that I previously did not have time to compose...

TheSSS - I want a label for the marketing, production, and distribution. If someone in California wants some CD-quality Earvalve music, I'd like them to be able to acquire it without having to go through me.

Thad - My problem is that I have no real knowledge of electronic labels. There's no specific ones I "want" to be signed on. I just want to be able to reach a wider audience, including the audience that doesn't browse the internet looking for free electronic music. Thanks for the good luck wish. :)

Tauboo - I like the positive outlook.

Suitcasepimp - I would LOVE to play a live show, but currently lack the technology to make this a possibility. Or perhaps I should just find a way to do so using the technology I have...

Luke - I like the idea of following my intuition. It has rarely steered me wrong, except in those times I confused my subconcious conditioning for intuition. ;)

Wisp - I agree with everything you said.

Max - Indulge us! I'd love to read it.

Bubba - I've been giving out copies of CDs to people for about a year now, and it's always been met with positive response, so I second your comments, except I think talent is subjective because there's people out there that will listen to anything.

Keef Baker - I don't do electronic music. I don't know what genre I do.

Celatid - I have a day job to pay the bills, and I plan on keeping it.

So once again, thanks for all the responses! This was not the direction I expected the thread to take, but it certainly is a pleasant one.