Your advice...

I would like to add a bit off networking in here. Also, gig your fucking arse off! You have to build things from the bottom up and the more people you get to know things that re helpful to you happen more often.

most people are polite and nice, and i've had the good fortune to have a lot of people tell me how much they like my music. of course, some people have absolutely hated my music, and tell me so in very certain terms. the negative comments tend to dig a lot more than positive ones soothe -- especially when the comments are on the mark. in the face of the natural impulse to avoid those negative comments, you can fall into the trap of pandering to your audience... which amounts to a dog chasing its tail. on the other hand, people that stay by themselves in a cave all the time tend to turn out a little weird. it's good to share stuff to reality check yourself -- the upside of negative comments.

i wager that making money off music requires a lot of luck, talent, and/or effort, though enough of any one of the three can probably get you there alone. i do it for fun, for a release from work, and i found that trying to sell music, promote it, turned music into work. i suppose this is the genuine advantage to having a label, they do the WORK for you.

i've accepted that music could always be a loss leader, something i do for personal development and expect nothing else in return for. if i wind up becoming massively popular, i'll set up a web store and sell tracks. otherwise, well, i'm not going to worry about it. i'm quite good at making money, i've been doing computer programming twice as long as i have music, and i love doing it just as much, if not more. writing music provides a right-brain balance to my left-brain career. i dunno if it'd actually be healthy for me to live off of music!!

anyways, i see people acting like i used to, trying to start netlabels and win remix contests, myspace addiction, etc. and i get a little flip and cynical. i suppose i am a bit bitter that i wasn't an overnight success, but i am also somewhat embarassed that i cared in the first place.

  Tamas said:

Making music is a form of communication, and if only a handful of people get to hear it, then it's not a really good form of communication IMO.

I don't think that's true, necessarily. Music, as one part of the mass media, has reached such huge levels of saturation, with back catalogue available in perpetuity, the abundance of home-based recording technology, the piracy free-for-all, mass participation in the creation of music.. The idea of music being a mass medium is starting to fray at the edges. Why not take the opposite approach?

  Tamas said:

2 - I went on Wikipedia and went down a super long list of labels (List of Electronic Music Labels on Wikipedia)

interesting, I wonder if there's an equivolent list of Electronica NetLabels on there?

best thing is, dont even think about this sort of thing. just make tunes.

honestly, if you make something that stands out people will find you.

really believe myspace is the best outlet. put your tracks up there and find pages of established artists who you think would like your music (or artists that make similar music themselves) and send them a polite, not fanboy message with links to your stuff. be nice, and they might start plugging you.

and never underestimate the power of the remix. its a great way to get exposure initially.

also, find a mate or a student willing to do you some sweet graphics that represents your stuff well. dont be afraid to use gimmicks, it helps to have a full package of other stuff besides the music alone.