How to make it happen

[slinky]

Hi friends, slinky from the UK here. It`s a while since I haunted these pages, but something I need to know. I`ve been producing music for a while now in cubase; I`m basically a lead guitarist who likes to compose in a variety of styles. What I am asking is what might be my first step to enticing the industrial ear to give my music an evaluation. I have material on cd and wav. files. Thankyou to anyone who cares to reply

 

[stonepiano]

Hi friends, slinky from the UK here. It`s a while since I haunted these pages,

welcome back!

Something I need to know. I`ve been producing music for a while now in cubase; I`m basically a lead guitarist who likes to compose in a variety of styles. What I am asking is what might be my first step to enticing the industrial ear to give my music an evaluation. I have material on cd and wav. files. Thankyou to anyone who cares to reply

It depends what you want from the industry. You say evaluation of your music but to what end?

Are you ultimately looking for distribution of the music you've produced? Are you looking for press and marketing representation of your tunes? Are you looking to produce more music for other artists?

Knowing what you want from them is invaluable in helping you get it.

 

[slinky]

ok, I see my role here as a composer and what I need is an outlet; a demand for my product. There comes a point where the best way to fuel creativity is to be led by a demand or ultimately by commission. The record contract perhaps. Personally, I have composed tunes of different genres and I would like to be able to present my work to people who could possibly make it commercially successful. I am very independently minded and I try to have as much control over what I do as possible. I think it would be useful to learn more about the market. Take for example a cd of ambient music which you might find being piped in a public space. Is the best way to investigate a possible market, to get hold of the record company and see if they want your music? Am I answering my own question?

 

[glynb]

Blimey Slinkey, this is a thousand threads in one!
There are whole sections in this board that discuss issues like the ones you raise. it's really not possible to give to comprenensive answers in a few sentences here. You need to read through some of the other threads, for a few days/weeks and you'll start to get a feel about what you need to do in YOUR circumstances. For example do you want to play live and develop a following, if not then how are you going to get a 'label' interested in you, sending off demos is apparently a waste of time we're told. So you'll need to network and make contacts withing the industry in order to get your music heard, blah blah blah... all this is discussed endlessly on some existing threads.

Not being mean, don't take it wrongly, but what you ask is a massive subject!!

 

[pashop]

Hi friends, slinky from the UK here. It`s a while since I haunted these pages, but something I need to know. I`ve been producing music for a while now in cubase; I`m basically a lead guitarist who likes to compose in a variety of styles. What I am asking is what might be my first step to enticing the industrial ear to give my music an evaluation. I have material on cd and wav. files. Thankyou to anyone who cares to reply

Well it all depends on what styles of music you are doing. If its rock 101 don’t bother sending it but if its house, trance, R&B and hip hop send away to everyone but keep in mind you need allot of material before anyone will take you serious. As well make sure the beats are amazing ….I have seen more stuff get tossed because:
1 whoever did the programming knows nothing about how a real drummer would play
2 the same 8 bars go on and on and on and on
3 sounds are weak and or not suitable for the piece
Do some remixes…there is always a call for this and it’s a way to get in the door
One of the young lads in the small studio on the second floor gets paid 2K a month for doing remixes

 

[lotuscent]

There comes a point where the best way to fuel creativity is to be led by a demand or ultimately by commission. The record contract perhaps. I am very independently minded and I try to have as much control over what I do as possible. I think it would be useful to learn more about the market.

creativity is an instrinsic trait of us musicians. fuck the industry. i have recently had some very eye-opening experiences with those sharks. they are scared and desperate and doing anything possible to exploit people with talent.

have you noticed they are trying harder than ever to sell the rock star dream? the funny thing is, it doesn't even exist anymore!

if you are indepenent and want control, best thing to realise is that you already have control. make it happen for yourself. how? well that's a question of your drive and yes, your creativity.

record contracts don't mean squat. check the fine print. you work for them, all the while accumulating indebtedness to them.

stay away.

 

[Recording Chick]

excellent points made by everybody. If you do not have a fan base and significant sales (like 10,000 units) Don't bother contacting them. They will not develop you. They do not want to do any real work. I guess that's why they got into the music biz.

 

[lykwydchykyn]

I've got friends who make a living doing stuff for music libraries. I've done a few projects with them. It can be fun, but it can be a real drag.
I think for a lot of us the ideal job is just sitting in a room making music and being creative and pawning off whatever we make for a nice income. That's a tough gig to come by.
Some guys I know here in town just make music and music and music and keep sending it out to music libraries and licensing groups. It takes a few years of this to build up enough royalties to get a decent little income. It can be done, though.

I wish I could get some remix gigs. Not much call for them in Nashville. At least, I don't get called for them. I should say, though, the few remix jobs I did kind of stunk. I mean, you get this piece, you pour all this creativity into it, and end up with something that's 95% your composition, but you get no royalties from it because you didn't write the song.

One thing I've been told by my friends who do this stuff full time is that you really only have a limited amount of ideas. When you only do it part time, you think you've got more ideas than you will ever have time to develop, but once you have to keep coming up with them, you don't have as many as you think. The key is to maximize the profit from your ideas.

 

[thembuzz]

Yeah - depends what you want to achieve. If you just want to be evaluated, Computer Music and Future Music (they're British mags - I take it you're also British, being called Brummy Git and all) both have reader demo sections, and they comment on everything sent in, but it can take up to about six months before your demo makes an appearance.

If you actually want to go about getting signed, first thing you should do is trawl your collection for records in a similar vein to your own stuff and make a note of the labels. Then look them up on the internet (most record labels have websites), find yourself some contact details - anything will do, even the standard 'info@...' email you'll find on most sites - get in touch with them, let them know who you are and what you're about and then wait for a reply. If you're looking at indies (and if you're unsigned, you need to be), they will generally get back to you if they're interested. It's best to actually get some kind of response from them before you send anything out, because they might tell you specifically who to address your demo to (plus, of course, it establishes some kind of rapport with them, which can never be a bad thing). Still, if you don't hear anything from them after a few days, just send your demo anyway.

Mind you, I'm still not signed yet, so chances are, I could be talking crap.

 

[thembuzz]

Yeah - depends what you want to achieve. If you just want to be evaluated, Computer Music and Future Music (they're British mags - I take it you're also British, being called Brummy Git

EEK! You're note Brummy Git, are you? That's someone else. But you are from the UK, so phew...

 

[David Hooper]

Hi friends, slinky from the UK here. It`s a while since I haunted these pages, but something I need to know. I`ve been producing music for a while now in cubase; I`m basically a lead guitarist who likes to compose in a variety of styles. What I am asking is what might be my first step to enticing the industrial ear to give my music an evaluation.

If you want to get a deal, you'll need to show that there is a market for what you're doing. This usually means selling some records yourself.

But just to get an evaluation, you pretty much just have to make the connection and ask. A&R Registry is a great book to get contact info. And if you want to meet these folks in person, try a conference like 2NMC.

David