Thinking of starting a digital label - thoughts?

[Tyrisia]

Hi all,

ain't posted in a while, but thought i'd ask the various artists on here what they think about purely digital labels.

basically i've got the dummy website almost finished (a year's worth of php and actionscrit coding etc), and am 90% sure i'm gonna go live in the new year, selling primarily professinally mastered tracks of my own and artists selected from the usual demo route, releasing on a monthy or even fortnightly basis. i'm also looking to hear demos of most kinds of techno, from deep to minimal, detriot to just plain bangin:). digital is the idea because it's cheaper, but if things take off, there maybe the possibility of vynil releases of some tracks as well, but i will research this avenue once the digital side is up and running.

I'm looking to sign and support the up-and-coming amongst us, so all demos will be treated equally regardess of the name of the artist.

any thougths or input would be appreciated, and any demo links u've got please pm me. as i say this is a pretty definite plan, so please make em good tracks!

[audioinjection]

go for it!

let me know when u got it set up, i'll send ya some tracks :)

[SlavikSvensk]

call it "format wars" in honor of this forum's sticky

[dan the acid man]

good idea.

good luck with this though

[MARK ANXIOUS]

i say good bloody luck... i'd love to do something for ya down the line too. :)

[snooch]

This is a good idea. I'll work on a few.

[Tyrisia]

cheers for the great responses guys, with enthusiasim like that i gotta put me money where me mouth is:)

Mark and David, yes i'd love to put some of your stuff out, so i'll let you know when it all happens. i'm actually wanting a fair few tracks for the launch, which will hopefully give people the choice to keep a wide audience interested in what's comin next.

one thing i'd like to know is does anybody know any good mastering houses that'd do a good job on a budget? ideally i'd like the best of the best (ie Lawrie Immersion) but i've gotta at least get the tracks paying for themselves so the project is self sufficient, cause i'll be on the breadline for a while with this.

also Mark, as you run a label, can you give me an idea of contract details, as i'll need to get more familiar with this in order to give the artists a fair deal, as that'll be my number 1 priority - there's nothing more demoralising than gettin ripped off on you first release etc.

[Ms.Rhythm]

let me know when your site is on the go cause ill get the b/f to send ya his demo

[dan the acid man]

let me know when your site is on the go cause ill get the b/f to send ya his demo

get him to post some stuff on here, there's a whole load of very talented people to give constructive advice

[rhythmtech]

i'd def be up for throwin in a few.. keep us informed

[dirty_bass]

Well, it`s hard to start a digital label, unless you run it off the back off a physical label.
My advice is to put money into promotion, which is the hardest part of dance music mp3.
It`s harder to get DJ support etc
So magazine ads and ads on other websites, free links etc will help immensly.

There`s a very obvious (but tired) route of getting some big names on your label to essentially "Buy" their audience, but people aren`t stupid and these days, they follow the producer and not the label most of the time.
For example, you get dave clark on your label, people go to the label for the dave clark track, next month those same people go for his track on another label, as it is his name they are putting into the search engine.
Nah, I reckon your better off going with quality material from the onset, regardless of name, you`ll get more respect and peace of mind.
Good luck, and be sure to get you label supported by as many online sellors as possible (assuming you are even going to do it commercially)

[Tyrisia]

cheers for the level perspective on this Steve, I can see where you're comin from. My thought is that I want a label that can deliver to the masses without relying on a distribution service that is obviously in a bit of turmoil, and I'm thinking more about the future than the here and now.

Whether we like it or not, as gadjets become more advanced, we're gonna move with them, and it could be that in five years time Ableton is old hat and we've even more devices to dj with, possibly the concept of the dj as we know it will have changed completely (I'm hoping for the better).

Also I can get a whole lot of e-adverts sorted for the price of a thousand vynil from what I can see, so I'm gonna stick to me guns, make the process look after itself, get a job, and hopefully one day it'll pay off.

But you are dead right, it ain't about the names anymore (not techno anyways thank god), it's about the music, so I hope I manage to nurture my A&R side with all the lessons my Jedi forfathers taught me:)