luke vibert releasing music

im thinking about a dec 21 2012 release. im going mad trying to figure out which stuff to put out. im contemplating sticking to the old plan which was basically to horde it for eternity. its hard categorizing this much music. what are some ideas on releasing music? releases that are from certain time periods are amazing. its like a little nugget of time saved in the form of music. this isnt going to be as exciting though for anyone else but the musician. one could release music based on style, though it seems random and incohesive to me to throw together tracks from different time periods. again, the listener wouldnt know the difference, but a release should mean as much or more to the artist than anyone else. someone once said, "release your best stuff". i think this is the most solid method of releasing music, however it doesnt seem to take into account, the aforementioned incoherent structuring of the time and history of that particular music. some of my favorite albums have been made this way, taking tracks from different decades even, and mixing tracks from all sorts of time periods, places and recording setups, and it works amazing sometimes. still, the nugget of time concept is more beautiful and more my style. i already have a bunch of mini albums for myself, there is something about releasing music though that should have a sense of inclusion for the listener. another issue is my constant improvement as a musician. i feel every 6 months or so, sometimes more frequently, i become a considerably better musician and producer. i just keep learning, and it really shines in my music as time progresses. i dont want to release something and then regret it a year later. im so glad that i havent released my music yet, some of my music hasnt aged as well as i thought it would, although some of it has aged beautifully. i remember an interview with luke vibert, where he mentioned releasing his music. he would have his complete set of work, release it, and then listen to it a couple of weeks later and realizing he should have changed this or that. that is completely unnecessary to me. for some reason i feel a strong sense of art in the releasing of my music, i dont really understand a lot of these artists who seem to just toss out new albums like candy ever few months or so.

some of my oldest memories of which im most fond of, are of how i used to collect all the albums of my favorite bands. i used to just listen to them in the late hours of night in my bedroom. i would lay out the entire discography of the band in chronological order and just look at it. i would study and analyze it. my mind would enter into fantastic realms of wonderment. it was everything i used to think about. i used to dream that one day, "that will be me", and ill release amazing music that im really proud of and worked hard on. i dont want my album being anything less than that, and there is no reason for it not to be. some of the my my memorable experiences in early adulthood have been simply owning records. richard d james album, kid a, to name a couple, had an incredibly powerful effect on the outcome of my life. if i could recreate that experience for someone else with my music, i would be honored

anyway, other considerations are about the formatting. is this a vinyl only record? should this music be put online? will there be marketing involved, and what level of publicity do we want here. are we willing to advertise, and perhaps charge for the record? what kind of goals have been set as to the future of the artist and albums to come? will this record be self released? should we attempt to get it on a relatively decent label? will i start my own label for the music and future releases to come? ive put off putting my music out there for years for the above and similar reasons. some new ideas into this project would be a breathe of fresh air for me, and might help untangle the mess of thoughts i have surrounding my music. maybe im thinking about it too much or taking it too seriously. anyway, the irony is in that none of my music is finished yet

is all this nonsense? perhaps. is it careful? indeed

tl;dr, but my way of releasing music is that I write with the sole purpose of making an album every year or so (I like album based writing because I like to use similar sound design and melodic styles as a 'concept'). I'm not sure if it's some subconscious thing or just coincidence that my albums tend to get finished by the end of a year. But anyway, my point is that a time-based collection is the way to go, imo. Or, if you're going to include older tracks, update them so they sound similar to the newer ones.

Also, forget labels, just use bandcamp. That way you get all the money (or; most of it). The downside is that you have to do your own advertising, I guess.

In the end, just fucking do it. If it's no good or doesn't work for you, you can always modify the approach and try again for the next release.

I'm just thinking about putting out a diy cd and then selling it for £1 on the London streets just to increase awareness of me as an artist. I'll probably just do a initial print run of about 25 just to see how it goes and then take it from there.

I think FSOL have done this well with their Environments and 'From the Archive' series as you can relate it to the albums they released back then and (if your an uber geek like me) appreciate the technological challenge of the available equipment and influence of the time. Mr RDJ tried the same vintage technological approach with Analord and whilst some tracks certainly show evidence of a total retro conception you'd be a fool to think the whole series was done this way. Ceephax however does this really well.

The main problem with releasing old archived stuff to those who are unfamiliar with the work is the fact they wont know so some information or archive labeling of the music itself would be necessary to avoid the risk of people perceiving it as dated or "people were doing this type of stuff ages ago".

Saying that if you wait long enough the curious retro cycle of music trends will eventually make it sound fresh again like all the hipster 80's stuff right now.

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

im thinking about a dec 21 2012 release. im going mad trying to figure out which stuff to put out. im contemplating sticking to the old plan which was basically to horde it for eternity. its hard categorizing this much music. what are some ideas on releasing music? releases that are from certain time periods are amazing. its like a little nugget of time saved in the form of music. this isnt going to be as exciting though for anyone else but the musician. one could release music based on style, though it seems random and incohesive to me to throw together tracks from different time periods. again, the listener wouldnt know the difference, but a release should mean as much or more to the artist than anyone else. someone once said, "release your best stuff". i think this is the most solid method of releasing music, however it doesnt seem to take into account, the aforementioned incoherent structuring of the time and history of that particular music. some of my favorite albums have been made this way, taking tracks from different decades even, and mixing tracks from all sorts of time periods, places and recording setups, and it works amazing sometimes. still, the nugget of time concept is more beautiful and more my style. i already have a bunch of mini albums for myself, there is something about releasing music though that should have a sense of inclusion for the listener. another issue is my constant improvement as a musician. i feel every 6 months or so, sometimes more frequently, i become a considerably better musician and producer. i just keep learning, and it really shines in my music as time progresses. i dont want to release something and then regret it a year later. im so glad that i havent released my music yet, some of my music hasnt aged as well as i thought it would, although some of it has aged beautifully. i remember an interview with luke vibert, where he mentioned releasing his music. he would have his complete set of work, release it, and then listen to it a couple of weeks later and realizing he should have changed this or that. that is completely unnecessary to me. for some reason i feel a strong sense of art in the releasing of my music, i dont really understand a lot of these artists who seem to just toss out new albums like candy ever few months or so.

 

some of my oldest memories of which im most fond of, are of how i used to collect all the albums of my favorite bands. i used to just listen to them in the late hours of night in my bedroom. i would lay out the entire discography of the band in chronological order and just look at it. i would study and analyze it. my mind would enter into fantastic realms of wonderment. it was everything i used to think about. i used to dream that one day, "that will be me", and ill release amazing music that im really proud of and worked hard on. i dont want my album being anything less than that, and there is no reason for it not to be. some of the my my memorable experiences in early adulthood have been simply owning records. richard d james album, kid a, to name a couple, had an incredibly powerful effect on the outcome of my life. if i could recreate that experience for someone else with my music, i would be honored

 

anyway, other considerations are about the formatting. is this a vinyl only record? should this music be put online? will there be marketing involved, and what level of publicity do we want here. are we willing to advertise, and perhaps charge for the record? what kind of goals have been set as to the future of the artist and albums to come? will this record be self released? should we attempt to get it on a relatively decent label? will i start my own label for the music and future releases to come? ive put off putting my music out there for years for the above and similar reasons. some new ideas into this project would be a breathe of fresh air for me, and might help untangle the mess of thoughts i have surrounding my music. maybe im thinking about it too much or taking it too seriously. anyway, the irony is in that none of my music is finished yet

 

is all this nonsense? perhaps. is it careful? indeed

lolt before reading

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

im thinking about a dec 21 2012 release. im going mad trying to figure out which stuff to put out. im contemplating sticking to the old plan which was basically to horde it for eternity. its hard categorizing this much music. what are some ideas on releasing music? releases that are from certain time periods are amazing. its like a little nugget of time saved in the form of music. this isnt going to be as exciting though for anyone else but the musician. one could release music based on style, though it seems random and incohesive to me to throw together tracks from different time periods. again, the listener wouldnt know the difference, but a release should mean as much or more to the artist than anyone else. someone once said, "release your best stuff". i think this is the most solid method of releasing music, however it doesnt seem to take into account, the aforementioned incoherent structuring of the time and history of that particular music. some of my favorite albums have been made this way, taking tracks from different decades even, and mixing tracks from all sorts of time periods, places and recording setups, and it works amazing sometimes. still, the nugget of time concept is more beautiful and more my style. i already have a bunch of mini albums for myself, there is something about releasing music though that should have a sense of inclusion for the listener. another issue is my constant improvement as a musician. i feel every 6 months or so, sometimes more frequently, i become a considerably better musician and producer. i just keep learning, and it really shines in my music as time progresses. i dont want to release something and then regret it a year later. im so glad that i havent released my music yet, some of my music hasnt aged as well as i thought it would, although some of it has aged beautifully. i remember an interview with luke vibert, where he mentioned releasing his music. he would have his complete set of work, release it, and then listen to it a couple of weeks later and realizing he should have changed this or that. that is completely unnecessary to me. for some reason i feel a strong sense of art in the releasing of my music, i dont really understand a lot of these artists who seem to just toss out new albums like candy ever few months or so.

 

some of my oldest memories of which im most fond of, are of how i used to collect all the albums of my favorite bands. i used to just listen to them in the late hours of night in my bedroom. i would lay out the entire discography of the band in chronological order and just look at it. i would study and analyze it. my mind would enter into fantastic realms of wonderment. it was everything i used to think about. i used to dream that one day, "that will be me", and ill release amazing music that im really proud of and worked hard on. i dont want my album being anything less than that, and there is no reason for it not to be. some of the my my memorable experiences in early adulthood have been simply owning records. richard d james album, kid a, to name a couple, had an incredibly powerful effect on the outcome of my life. if i could recreate that experience for someone else with my music, i would be honored

 

anyway, other considerations are about the formatting. is this a vinyl only record? should this music be put online? will there be marketing involved, and what level of publicity do we want here. are we willing to advertise, and perhaps charge for the record? what kind of goals have been set as to the future of the artist and albums to come? will this record be self released? should we attempt to get it on a relatively decent label? will i start my own label for the music and future releases to come? ive put off putting my music out there for years for the above and similar reasons. some new ideas into this project would be a breathe of fresh air for me, and might help untangle the mess of thoughts i have surrounding my music. maybe im thinking about it too much or taking it too seriously. anyway, the irony is in that none of my music is finished yet

 

is all this nonsense? perhaps. is it careful? indeed

lolt before reading

Go someplace and DJ. Then play your stuff. DJs have great networks and the ones I know that produce stuff get released, not hard to figure out.

  On 1/13/2012 at 6:04 AM, modey said:

tl;dr, but my way of releasing music is that I write with the sole purpose of making an album every year or so (I like album based writing because I like to use similar sound design and melodic styles as a 'concept'). I'm not sure if it's some subconscious thing or just coincidence that my albums tend to get finished by the end of a year. But anyway, my point is that a time-based collection is the way to go, imo. Or, if you're going to include older tracks, update them so they sound similar to the newer ones.

+1. Sometimes you can take an old track to new heights with your new found perspective. My latest project or album is taking close to two years because i keep putting new standards on it. It also spawned two more artist names/projects in the process. It's getting ready soon though...

I don't know how my mind works with these things. All I know is that some tunes seeem to fit together for a certain concept or idea. Sometimes those tunes become an album, sometimes they need an artist for their own.

Anyway, the biggest problem isn't the stuff you're thinking of ET, it's giving your project enough time and TLC for it to fit your vision. Just give it a proper start, after you release it will have a life of its own.

  Quote

Also, forget labels, just use bandcamp. That way you get all the money (or; most of it). The downside is that you have to do your own advertising, I guess.

Bandcamp is just really swell whether you release for money or not..

Good questions!

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

im thinking about a dec 21 2012 release.

As much as I love to release albums on the least arbitrary dates I can think of, which tends to be solstices and equinoxes, I have to admit that people aren't going to be thinking much about checking out new music in the middle of winter and all its associated holidays. You'd probably be better off releasing material when people aren't generally preoccupied.

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

one could release music based on style, though it seems random and incohesive to me to throw together tracks from different time periods. again, the listener wouldnt know the difference

The key phrase here is indeed that the listener wouldn't know the difference. While a release should appear cohesive, that's the release as it appears to the general public, not as it appears behind the scenes. A film can look cohesive despite using a variety of special effects including models, matte paintings and CG. Similarly, it's good to group tracks together into cohesive albums with good narratives, but you can achieve this by using an eclectic collection of tools and cherry picking tracks from many different eras. Just look at the back of ...I Care Because You Do.

All too often I fall into the trap of setting myself arbitrary limitations such as making an album just of tracks written on one particular piece of equipment, whereas instead I should always try to do whatever sounds best, and worry about the presentation being cohesive, not what's behind the scenes that the listener neither knows nor cares about. Thankfully, when working for clients, I don't make such mistakes, as it gives me extra incentive to do what's really right rather than what irrationally feels right.

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

another issue is my constant improvement as a musician. i feel every 6 months or so, sometimes more frequently, i become a considerably better musician and producer. i just keep learning, and it really shines in my music as time progresses. i dont want to release something and then regret it a year later.

Tough. You should release something and then look back on it later and think you can do much better now. That's how you can tell you're still learning and progressing, and you should always still be learning and progressing. Every website I make, I look back on it after one or two more and marvel at how primitive it now seems compared to my later work. It's the same with every story I write, and every album I release, although with those at least they can be radically different genres so good in different ways. Releasing your music is like fossilising it. It shows what was the best that you could do at that time, and you'll have to let go of your ego not wanting to admit later on that you were ever that naïve to be proud of such humble work. You'll just have to accept, and even be proud of, the fact that you're constantly learning and improving. Trust me, it's a good thing.

Part of making art is learning when to let go. Real artists ship. Keep on improving your current work, and when you can't improve it anymore, release it and move on to a new project. All that you've learnt in the meantime should go into that new work, not in rewriting the last one, otherwise you'll never release anything.

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

is this a vinyl only record? should this music be put online?

Would you like to actually sell it to a wide audience? If so, release it online. I'd recommend Bandcamp for this.

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

will there be marketing involved, and what level of publicity do we want here. are we willing to advertise, and perhaps charge for the record?

Again, is this a hobby or a business? Are you content for no one to have heard of you? There's no shame in letting people know you exist.

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:21 AM, ET said:

maybe im thinking about it too much or taking it too seriously. anyway, the irony is in that none of my music is finished yet

You are indeed worrying too much. You should take your music seriously, but not to the point where you never consider it good enough to share with anyone or to finalise and move on.

You clearly put a lot of work and effort into constantly improving yourself as a musician, which is great. Now you need to focus that amount of energy into learning to market your music and acting like you're in charge of your business, especially if you want to start your own label. You've learnt the music making discipline well. Now you need to learn the business side of the music business to complete your skill set and become self sufficient.

(Also, take everything you read online with a pinch of salt, especially if you read it from me...)

  On 1/13/2012 at 6:04 AM, modey said:

you can always modify the approach and try again for the next release.

Exactly. Performance, feedback, revision.

thanks for the input people, really (esp. zoe b). its amazing to hear some of you talk about music because your perspective is so blatantly different than mine. more ideas folks, im learning!

  On 1/13/2012 at 4:09 PM, ET said:

thanks for the input people, really (esp. zoe b). its amazing to hear some of you talk about music because your perspective is so blatantly different than mine. more ideas folks, im learning!

You're quite welcome! I just made the decision a year and a half ago that I wanted to start writing music as a profession rather than a hobby, to change my career over to that with an eye towards eventually composing full time. It gives you a wonderfully clear perspective because you can answer a lot of questions with economics. For instance, I wondered if I should have CDs or records pressed up, then researched how much warehouses and storage services are, not to mention postage and packaging, time spent queueing up at the post office instead of actually making music, and actually having the albums pressed up or glass mastered in the first place, and realised that I'd be better off selling intangible products. Once you've created an album, it's pretty much free to mass produce and transport on demand if it only exists as digital downloads, so I already have an advantage over older, more traditional record labels. Now I just need to worry about sales and licensing combined exceeding the costs of cover artwork design, advertising, new equipment (more modules, yay!) and rent / grocery shopping for any time off my day job I need, pretty much. So far I'm starting to segue closer to full time music making quite comfortably.

  On 1/13/2012 at 3:46 PM, chimera slot mom said:

  On 1/13/2012 at 6:04 AM, modey said:

tl;dr, but my way of releasing music is that I write with the sole purpose of making an album every year or so (I like album based writing because I like to use similar sound design and melodic styles as a 'concept'). I'm not sure if it's some subconscious thing or just coincidence that my albums tend to get finished by the end of a year. But anyway, my point is that a time-based collection is the way to go, imo. Or, if you're going to include older tracks, update them so they sound similar to the newer ones.

 

+1.

+2.

Anyone can release physical CDs with no money required:

www.kunaki.com

Been using them for years for my stuff and dozens of clients. Full color, full fidelity, shrink wrap, online ordering, etc.

1.00 USD per disc on-demand manufacturing. They will ship anywhere in the world as well.

Apparently you haven't taken note from the greats this forum was built in dedication of....

Releasing music is so passe, just tell everyone a release is coming and then don't worry about it any more.

This is interesting but I have no idea how I could make money from music.

dont bother with vinyl, tbh you're best to stick with online.

I really like your stuff ET, I hope you do well and if you were to sell I'd buy it!

  On 1/13/2012 at 10:39 PM, Promo said:

This is interesting but I have no idea how I could make money from music.

License it out to directors for use in films. This gets you a revenue stream in itself if you can do it consistently, and it also gets the general public aware of your music.

get your music into porn

Haha yeah one of my ambient tracks was used in a girl on girl porn scene, it was super weird. Unfortunately it never got released and I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share it, bah!

Quit music and just do porn.

  On 1/14/2012 at 3:35 AM, BCM said:

get your music into porn

One of my dreams is to write music for a really low budget porno some day. That was my main motivation behind learning how to play slap bass.

Also, regards releasing music - I try to put something out each year. So far it's always been thing made that year, usually updated & refined to be consistent (though on my last album I mostly used snippets chopped directly from first draft mp3s because I was going for a sketchy patchwork kinda feel). I only put tracks I like on albums, but I'm not going to hold off for years waiting for a dozen masterpieces. Way I see it is, when I'm an old dude it will be really cool to look back at albums dating back to when I was 13, & in a lot of ways it would be more effective at showing what I was like than family photos or a diary.

Also I like musicians like Jandek & Tonetta who seem to put out everything they've ever done because you don't just see their best tracks, you see the dozens of interesting experiments & failed one-offs they did to get there. Adds a certain sort of human feel I think

Zoe knows whats up

  On 1/14/2012 at 3:49 AM, Cryptowen said:

Way I see it is, when I'm an old dude it will be really cool to look back at albums dating back to when I was 13, & in a lot of ways it would be more effective at showing what I was like than family photos or a diary.

I always find it curious how some people who have read my stories or listened to my music think they've got this intimate glimpse at my psyche. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't, I don't know. There tends to be a lot of reading into things what isn't there, I think. At any rate, I've recently been uploading to Soundcloud the music I wrote when I was about 16 (under yet another alias), and I'd dread to think what it said about me.

  On 1/14/2012 at 8:11 AM, marf said:

Zoe knows whats up

Thank you! I'm by no means what I'd think of as a proper professional, but clients are more frequently calling me such, so I guess I'll take it. :D

Skepta does porno music don't ya know.

http://rundat.co.uk/view/120/skepta-all-over-the-house-official-video-ft-majestic-shorty-1/

  On 1/13/2012 at 10:45 PM, rixxx said:

dont bother with vinyl, tbh you're best to stick with online.

 

 

 

I really like your stuff ET, I hope you do well and if you were to sell I'd buy it!

Oh right you talking about my music?? :D