question on finding and using artist names

so i go to discogs to look if "X" artist name exists and whether i could use it

i find one album with "X" name

he is listed as mixed by ( half tracks) and joint producer but not as composed by

am i safe?

some german '95 single

Check last.fm as well - that's a better indication if there's already a name in use that's, um, relevant. It's crazy how many artists sometimes share the same name/alias.

See if any duplicates of name "x" appear as well on discogs. Sounds you found a one-off alias and not a full-fledged artist name. The fact that it's from 1995, when one-off names were common with 12" releases, means you're probably good to go.

Only 1 single from '95? I'd say so...

Does 'X' have any aliases though?

  On 2/5/2013 at 4:08 AM, Goiter Sanchez said:

Only 1 single from '95? I'd say so...

Does 'X' have any aliases though?

no. no other aliases.

I would say it depends on the name, exactly....

If you check discogs, there are like 11 artists named Darkstar.

But if you called yourself something really unique, like Aphex Twin or something.... Probably wouldn't fly.

Not sure if I'm making sense here, but if the moniker is relatively generic go ahead. If it's really unique, probably a bad idea.

last.fm shows a few :/ back to the grindstone..

I remember the Chemical Brothers got into trouble for calling themselves the Dust Brothers, hence Exit Planet Dust. They had a pretty similar style to their namesake though, who still use that name.

^That was a rather amicable one too - the Dust Brothers remixed the Chemical Brothers later on - the Chems have mentioned that they didn't expect to ever become popular, used the name as a tribute, and figured their 12" releases would only stay in UK clubs.

The LFO versus LFO is perhaps the only one that comes to mind that really annoys me. Also, there's watmm Mosca and then there's Mosca the dubstep/future bass guy.

See if you can either change the spelling and or add another word to your potential moniker if it's already rather unique (versus something like "Mono" or something)

Also, consider how similar genre wise the other person's release is. A lot duplicate names aren't issues either because the music is so different or because of geographical reasons.

Too bad it wasn't just one of Wolfgang Voigt's aliases so you could just use it - he wouldn't notice and if he did he'd probably just tell you his was better because it used a 4/4 beat. After all, Gas has been used by him and and Mat P. Jarvis and neither seem to have issue with that despite both being ambient projects.

Deerhunter didn't google fluorescent grey (same spelling) before they used it, so honestly i don't think it really matters. Just go for it, especially if you think the way corpses look is cool

unless it's a name anyone recognizes, you're safe. i don't think anyone will care unless you sign with EMI or something (see the dfa1979 drama for reference). but it's better to have a name that's not on discogs/rym yet, solely to avoid future confusion.