How do Netlabels get known? How to build following?

They sell emu eggs at the local farmer's market. Haven't bought them yet but I want to; they're green & approx the size of a fat baby.

I dunno, this thread has some pretty good tips for other people interested in doing a label. Mine's still on the 'to probably do' list and I'm picking up snippets of interesting stuff.

  On 8/15/2014 at 8:36 PM, purlieu said:

I dunno, this thread has some pretty good tips for other people interested in doing a label. Mine's still on the 'to probably do' list and I'm picking up snippets of interesting stuff.

I have to agree with you. Definitely some good food for thought in here.

you can make some mean french toast with eggs

if you've got the good ones that is

  On 8/16/2014 at 1:09 AM, VIII said:

Your work will sell itself.

That's great! But you're probably in the minority. I was just trying to be funny and I agree that persistence is key - to simply keep making tracks and putting them out will always be beneficial. I'm going by my experience and other artists I know who have been making music for 10, 15, 20 years still working as bartenders, waiters, in call centers, etc.

The majority of artists I know who have had some enough success to eek out a living had to become session players, engineers, play covers regularly at bars, and/or really push the PR and marketing aspect of their craft on their own. It's a lot of work outside of just making music and I give major respect to them to being to do that without going totally crazy.

And then there are artists I know who catch that right wave at the right time and are able to ride it to a level of enough popularity to simply focus on their craft while managers and booking agencies can do most of the leg work. Of course those are very few.

So my advice is - don't give up thinking it's impossible, but don't bank on that break happening just by sharing your tracks on soundcloud, bandcamp, a label or a netlabel. There's usually a lot of work to do outside of simply creating. It's the reason why I still just make and share my music for the enjoyment. I'm really not interested in doing that music biz leg work.

As an added plus, I think most countries have a grant system where you can apply for funding to kick start your career. In Canada we have Factor. That's great help to take your possible career seriously to get more support and exposure.

  On 8/16/2014 at 6:06 AM, paranerd said:

That's great! But you're probably in the minority.

Understatement of the century. The odds of just making great stuff and chucking it out the door for people to hear are so small it would make you cry. It's a business, and it's mostly about knowing the right people.

do podcasts, try to get known people for that or eps or remixes.

do partys.

send your stuff to online radios, djs or hosts.

Think about your target group. Market to your target group.

Some great advice on here, I've been running my label for about a year, I would say I'm happy with all of the releases but interest has dropped off lately. I put together a sampler to download for free on bandcamp and it got a grand total of 0 downloads... even though it's FREE! very depressing.

The compilation I'm talking about ----> http://deadmexrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mixed-bag

I was thinking of calling it a day but maybe I'll release something on CD and if that's unsuccessful then it's game over.

  On 8/20/2014 at 10:29 PM, The Dead Mexican said:

Some great advice on here, I've been running my label for about a year, I would say I'm happy with all of the releases but interest has dropped off lately. I put together a sampler to download for free on bandcamp and it got a grand total of 0 downloads... even though it's FREE! very depressing.

The compilation I'm talking about ----> http://deadmexrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mixed-bag

I was thinking of calling it a day but maybe I'll release something on CD and if that's unsuccessful then it's game over.

Something I notice is a lot of artists and labels tend to put a lot of effort in one or a handful of key releases or tracks, promote and make connections, then grow from there. The random times artists, especially cryptic and mysterious ones, get viral hits or hype, is a fluke and the exception rather than the rule. Getting traction at first seems to be the biggest challenge.

There's good tracks on there - I dunno, I would re-package and rework the look and context of that sampler. It's all the little things - for example there's only two tags for it "UK" and "electronic" and those are pretty vague and broad tags. Maybe focus on your own music and send your best tracks to labels as demos, or just put all effort in the label. It's easy to bite off more than you can chew and try too much. It's never too late for a revamp. Good luck either way!

  On 8/21/2014 at 3:27 AM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 8/20/2014 at 10:29 PM, The Dead Mexican said:

Some great advice on here, I've been running my label for about a year, I would say I'm happy with all of the releases but interest has dropped off lately. I put together a sampler to download for free on bandcamp and it got a grand total of 0 downloads... even though it's FREE! very depressing.

The compilation I'm talking about ----> http://deadmexrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/mixed-bag

I was thinking of calling it a day but maybe I'll release something on CD and if that's unsuccessful then it's game over.

 

Something I notice is a lot of artists and labels tend to put a lot of effort in one or a handful of key releases or tracks, promote and make connections, then grow from there. The random times artists, especially cryptic and mysterious ones, get viral hits or hype, is a fluke and the exception rather than the rule. Getting traction at first seems to be the biggest challenge.

 

There's good tracks on there - I dunno, I would re-package and rework the look and context of that sampler. It's all the little things - for example there's only two tags for it "UK" and "electronic" and those are pretty vague and broad tags. Maybe focus on your own music and send your best tracks to labels as demos, or just put all effort in the label. It's easy to bite off more than you can chew and try too much. It's never too late for a revamp. Good luck either way!

 

Some good points there, things for me to work on, thanks for the feedback and advice

out of interest what do you think is fair amount for the label to take with sales on these tape labels like 1080 or opal.

maybe label takes 100% of the tapes and 50/50 the digital? must be selling a lot to make a living off gigs + tapes

Every label I've worked with has just sent out artist copies - the artist will get between 10% and 50% of the copies (depending on the label) to give away, sell, whatever. Then the label will recoup the costs and fund future releases with sales of the copies they sell themselves.

The ultra sellout plan version 1.2 (+netlabel mod):

-become a highly contributing member to over 100 online forums in varying genres of life

-do this for 10+ years to gain legitimacy and make several thousand close online friends, expanding 2nd generation close network to over 50,000

-in this same time, make 10 YouTube channels with over 100,000 subs each, again, dealing with various aspects of life

-after becoming a mod on over 100 forums and being a solid member on all- and being a YT celeb in 10 channels- casually self-release magnus opus album on bandcamp or whatever

-make several million dollars in 1 month

-retire

-spend the next rich minutes, trying to remember how to not base your life on hard work

-realize hard work is essential for quality life

-realize that you care about all the forums and YT channels

-solidify your online empire into brand you can continue to not care about, by literally selling out to a major conglomerate

-spend your easy total $50 million+ on giving inspirational seminars that cost $200/head

-tour these seminars 5 days a week, across the country; across the globe

-end year making $300,000+ extra by repeating a speech you only had to master once

-but during that year you had $10 million invested in 4% return diversified portfolio, netting an extra $400,000+, doing nothing

-keep re-investing 100% of funds aggressively; day trading sure fire stocks and having your options guy sort that out

-15 years from original plan start; net worth $350 million

-spend $320 million for 40 minutes of SuperBowl ad-time, with just you in front of the camera telling people you have a netlabel

-now people know you have a netlabel! And you have $30 million left to spend on limited run cassette releases.

I couldn't see any releases not by Corn Cat ??

Hi, SWIM knows who SWIM is, or CC or whatever.

This thread is good getting all of us little "musicians" and "creative types" into the proper marketing/branding/corporate headspace that's really conducive these days to getting heard and being successful. Then again, it has always been that way I guss.

Anyhow, I'm giving up on music and the label permanently. CC and DM is a dead brand. I have assembled a team of corporate marketers and analysts to think of a new name and graphic design plan that will appeal to as many segments of the population as possible. See you at Lollapalooza!

Sounds like you're really taking seriously the legitimately helpful advice many forum users gave you in the thread you created.

  On 8/27/2014 at 6:05 PM, vamos scorcho said:

Hi, SWIM knows who SWIM is, or CC or whatever.

 

This thread is good getting all of us little "musicians" and "creative types" into the proper marketing/branding/corporate headspace that's really conducive these days to getting heard and being successful. Then again, it has always been that way I guss.

 

Anyhow, I'm giving up on music and the label permanently. CC and DM is a dead brand. I have assembled a team of corporate marketers and analysts to think of a new name and graphic design plan that will appeal to as many segments of the population as possible. See you at Lollapalooza!

So you want a following and critical attention, yet look down on people who do what needs to be done to get a following and critical attention?

Well done.

just fyi feeding corn to cats can cause obesity and other health problems

your cat is an obligate carnivore

pls respect its dietary needs

A male cat with a diet with corn-based food could get a blockage that effectively crystallizes its dick and needs to be removed surgically.

Please feed your cats wet food.

As much as a crystal dick sounds well IDM, please look after your cat's dick. He'll appreciate it.

  On 8/29/2014 at 4:03 AM, Braintree said:

A male cat with a diet with corn-based food could get a blockage that effectively crystallizes its dick and needs to be removed surgically.

 

Please feed your cats wet food.

Sad but true. I had this happen to one of my cats recently, and it cost about $600 in vet bills, which I could have spent on duplicating cassettes or a publicist.

  On 8/26/2014 at 9:41 PM, ieafs said:

this opal guy apparently aside, i don't think anyone's making anywhere near a living off of selling 100 cassette tapes...

Yeah most labels seem to break even or maintain enough profit to plug along, and they have day jobs or some other source of income. Some individuals run disto sites as well as labels, others put out more than 100 tapes (ctatsu and holodeck do like runs of 250 I think), others have decent digital sales, etc. I think it's the exception more than the norm to make a living off DIY labels.

  On 8/26/2014 at 12:56 PM, sun drugs said:

out of interest what do you think is fair amount for the label to take with sales on these tape labels like 1080 or opal.

 

maybe label takes 100% of the tapes and 50/50 the digital? must be selling a lot to make a living off gigs + tapes

  On 8/26/2014 at 11:31 PM, purlieu said:

Every label I've worked with has just sent out artist copies - the artist will get between 10% and 50% of the copies (depending on the label) to give away, sell, whatever. Then the label will recoup the costs and fund future releases with sales of the copies they sell themselves.

I'm trying to get a formula down myself, something fair and mutually beneficial. The labels I see doing like decent looking $5 tapes for bands - I honestly don't think they make any money off those. Maybe the label breaks even. Now if it's a solo bedroom producer putting out a nice $7 tape online - there's some money be made for sure...has to be if the artist isn't going to sell the tapes IRL.

NETLBL would be a sick supercar number plate