TIPS FOR PRODUCERS PITCHING LABELS
Join us for an informative, collaborative Q & A discussion on Zoom, as our guest panelists cover several “best practices” and recommendations for producers looking to get their next release signed to a label.
Thursday, January 23 – 1-2:30pm Pacific (4pm Eastern, 3pm Central | 9-10:30pm UK | 10-11:30pm CET | 6-7:30am Fri, Jan 24 – Japan)
FULL MEETUP VIDEO!
GUEST PANELISTS:
Gert Holmfred (The Dance Division, Stockholm)
Sara Simms (Simmetry Sounds, Toronto)
JP Lantieri (Flemcy Music, Paris)
Wilson Costa (Silent Koalas/Being Humans)
Kevin Pajak (Electrofans, San Francisco)
*PRODUCERS: come and bring your questions for our expert Panelists!
**TO ATTEND: “Electrofans Connect” Membership required
SIGN UP FOR FREE HERE:
➡️ electrofans.com/connect
and you will be sent the Zoom meeting link (the meeting is also free to attend).
PS: All attendees will receive a link to a free pdf from JP Lantieri (“20 Must Checks to Do Before and During my Submission to Labels”!)
FULL WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING:
INTROS
Kevin: Hey everybody, welcome to this Electrofans Connect Meetup. My name is Kevin Pajak. I’m the founder and CEO of Electrofans. We are an electronic music blog and promotion company based in San Francisco. Just as a reminder, this meetup is part of our Connect group, which is a community and network for electronic music professionals, providing insight, resources, and collab opportunities for members.
So today’s topic is tips for producers pitching labels. And we have a list of questions that we’ll be asking our expert label head panel today. Following that, we’ll leave some time for questions for Q&A at the end of the session.
So yeah, we’ll start off by having our panelists introduce themselves. I figured we’d do ladies first. So Sara, if you could please tell us a little bit about yourself and your label.
Sara: Sure. My name is Sara Simms. I’m a DJ producer based in Toronto, Ontario for the time being. And I have a label called Simmetry Sounds. We release cutting edge, mostly house and techno music, also some tech house as well, by new and upcoming electronic artists, certainly with a focus on Canadian artists. And I’ve also worked with some artists from Europe. I have some artists from Detroit who are going to be releasing on my label. So definitely interested in working with international artists, but also introducing more Canadian talent to the world and the world stages.
Kevin: Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Welcome. Wilson, how about yourself?
Wilson: Hello. So I am Wilson. I lead both labels Silent Koalas and Being Humans. I founded them. One of them, Being Humans, was with Edwin Jack. So my partner. And so about Silent Koalas, we go a bit more chill out and organic, sorry, organic house. So we have a lot of stuff. I believe it comes with a feeling. Silent Koalas is a feeling. So if we feel the track, we release it. And about Being Humans, it’s more in the club’s side with house and more melodic house and stuff like that.
Kevin: Okay. Awesome. Got it. JP?
JP: Yes. So my name is Jean-Pierre Lantieri. I’m also known as an artist as JP Lantieri. So I’m a producer, a DJ and a label owner. Producer, I’ve released about 100 tracks in my already long career, I would say. As a label owner, my label is Flemcy Music. It’s mainly centered around melodic techno and progressive house. So far we’ve had around 70 releases, something like this. And going on. So I think this year is the 10th year of Flemcy Music. So I still don’t know how we are going to celebrate it. But that’s one of the goals of this year to celebrate the 10 years of my label.
Kevin: Awesome. Yeah. Gert, how about you?
Gert: Yeah, my name is Gert Holmfred. I’m running a small music company from Sweden, from my office in Spain. And one of our labels is The Dance Division. A label I created 20 years ago when I was kicked out from Universal. So I needed to do something else. And we are doing all kinds of dance music. We are trying to launch our music around the world. Yeah, simple as that.
Kevin: Okay. Awesome. Felix?
Felix: Hi, everyone. This is Felix. And as mentioned, I was a DJ and producer in Hong Kong. I as well as co-owner of Summer Melody, which is focusing on melodic progressive. And also a sub-label called NuHouse, which is more focusing on deep progressive, organic house, melodic breaks, and other kinds of different alternative sounds that we have from the main label. And it was very early morning for me. It was 5 a.m.
Kevin: Yeah, I know. So I appreciate that. Felix and actually Sara brought this point up as well. I know like these times I think for actually for the first couple of these meetups that we’ve done now are not really idealized for like folks in you know US, Canada, Mexico, North America between 9 to 5 hours so it’s kind of in the middle of like a regular workday.
So I think in future meetups we’ll kind of alternate. This is sort of more like the euro crew like friendly prime time kind of oriented kind of hour. So I think in the future we’ll have meetups maybe like 7pm Pacific which would be 10pm Eastern for Sara’s time zone in Toronto and then let’s see so 7pm Pacific would be yeah for you guys in Asia it would be well it’d still be like during a workday but it’d be like 11am 12pm or so yeah but yeah more info coming soon.
Jason, so this is the guy I was mentioning earlier from EML Recordings please introduce yourself and your label.
Jason: Oh hi guys yes so Jason from EML Recordings, Sub Generation Records, EDM Addicts yeah celebrating 15 years of my main label EML at the moment which is predominantly a trance and psytrance label and recently launched EDM Addicts which is trance sorry which is techno and house and then we’ve got the third which is drum and bass dubstep and breakbeats and yeah it’s all going incredibly well at the moment got a nice remix competition going on and forging lots of partnerships and really glad to be here amongst you guys.
Kevin: That’s awesome yeah thank you for being here I was mentioning to everybody earlier too that you guys do it all you have a I call it like a blanket umbrella of genres of electronic music so yeah all you guys can’t thank you enough for being here you’re truly experts and the right folks to be here.
Yeah so all right so let’s dive into our questions here.
MOST IMPORTANT THING PRODUCERS SHOULD KEEP IN MIND WHEN REACHING OUT TO A LABEL
Kevin: The first one as a label owner or a person what would you say is the most important thing that producers should keep in mind when reaching out to a label with your track for consideration? Sara we can start out with you.
Sara: Sure I would say you can think about does my track suit the vibe and the sound of the label?
JP: Sure exactly what I wanted to say. Very simply which makes sense sure anybody else?
Wilson: Maybe when you send a message just not a link you know say something about you and about yourself.
Kevin: Oh totally yeah I think we’re gonna cover that in a little bit later too I know JP’s brought that up and I got a I think something on Instagram the other day just like it’s just like play video I’m like okay um is there are there any words here has to say what this is just like a video yeah I think we have a question in a bit yeah we’ll cover that too.
Um yeah Gert, Felix or uh Jason any thoughts on like what the most important is things is for producers to keep in mind?
Jason: I think from my perspective um it’s about how they conduct themselves because how they approach me is you know I’m looking at that and thinking that’s probably how they’re going to be conducting themselves and maybe representing my record label you know to other people.
So yeah if it’s just a link for example like so many people do um it doesn’t even get listened to.
Um you know um so yeah I’m very very much about the type of person and how they you know approach me.
Sure totally yeah Gert did you have any thoughts on that?
Gert: Yeah I think it of course depends on what kind of producer you are have you do you have a history uh have you released stuff before if you haven’t you need to I think uh consider um how you will present yourself a small story about yourself.
One thing which is quite essential I think is um you need to define uh you know your own genre your uh brand your recording.
Because I mean we as in our people are maybe um we maybe know a lot about music but uh defining the music you want to have released is is very very important also you might need to have a little um well ready to have a little ready list of stuff you want to tell about your artist approach. If you have already recorded things, show links of your profiles on the streaming platforms you have, your social media roster, so people at the music company or the A&R people you’re approaching know exactly who you are. And that’s no matter if you are an artist with a history or a producer with a history or not. We like to see what you’re doing for your own career, what you do for your music. That’s pretty important, I think, for me to see, because as a little music company, you’re not standing alone launching the music. You can’t, you need the artist to be active. And in our industry, I mean, it’s not so easy to get gigs. And do you have gigs? Well, do you have the possibility to make a proper recording and so on? So to give the people you’re approaching a good idea of what they get by signing you is, of course, basics, I think. But of course, if you are very happy with the recording you just made and you want to see a record company and a music company behind it right away, you fire it away and then you can get signed. But there’s a little bit more into it. So all your surroundings are very important in order to get recognized.
Kevin: Yeah, that’s a really good point about including previous places you played. I know Sara has done that as well, like put for herself in her own bio and other, I think, of her artists, like major gigs that you’ve played. That helps kind of set a stage for people who may not be familiar with your music. Oh, you’ve played at this place, you played in Detroit, or you played at this techno festival in Berlin. Yeah, okay, awesome.
LABELHEADS, WHAT GETS YOU EXCITED WHEN LISTENING TO A NEW ARTIST’S MUSIC, and WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR WITH YOUR LABEL?
Kevin: So yeah, so in just a few words, what would each of you guys say that you’re looking for for your label and what gets you excited when listening to a new artist’s music? Wilson, maybe we could start with you.
Wilson: Actually, I like when you receive a demo, so you hear it. And I believe that in the first seconds you are hearing, right? Because we can’t hear all the track because you have too many tracks and stuff. But you know, you go from point to point and you often know very quick, you know, that will be the hook or that will be the rhythms or, you know, you will have something that will say to you, okay, that’s a good track. A good track is a good track. And if you feel the vibe and if you feel the soul and if you feel, you know, the story that the artist had the wish to give you and that this story fits your label. So I don’t see anything else.
I don’t care if the artist has a lot of followers. I don’t care about all that. That’s really about a feeling. And imagine that the track doesn’t fit, but that’s a good point to have an artist that you like something from him. And then you know that from time to time you will have some way to work with him. So that’s what finally keeps me pushing, you know, looking, going from point to point, from side to side to look for new talents. And personally, I like most, you know, really discover artists than, you know, you got these artists that you know that they are good, they could fit. And sometimes you work with them, but when it’s someone that you found and that you work with and that you can work his own brand with him, right? I say him, but that could be she. But I believe that that’s the most important, actually. Have this close feeling and this close place near the artist.
Kevin: Sure. So picking up on that vibe straight out of the gate.
Wilson: Yeah. For example, I got this artist, Oliver Spaten. I just met the guy. It was very cool and his music was amazing. And today we got a lot of releases from him. One album on the label. And we got him on another band working with us. So that’s a really cool feeling.
Kevin: Yeah, sounds a little bit like Connect, yeah, across clubs. JP, how about you? What are you looking for for the Flimsy sound?
Yes, of course, like any of you, I look for a track that would move me and that would fit the sound of my label. But in addition, as it is a dance music label, it would be a track that I would play at my gigs or that my artists would play in their gigs or in their mixes.
Kevin: Okay, I like that.
Yeah, Sara?
Sara: Well, specifically, what am I looking for for my label is like new techno, new house music, new tech house. And I’m looking for great tracks, good people to work with, with good character, who are going to also be willing to promote their own work. Also looking certainly for people who are going to create content around their work too, because I’m going to do that as a label. And because the business is changing, like content creation is so important. So I’m also looking for artists who are willing to work together on some of that, right? And help create some buzz around what they’re doing.
Kevin: Exactly. I just had a meeting with one of our main partners, another UK person yesterday, and we agreed, as I mentioned your name, JP, content is king. And so she agreed.
Yeah. Gert, what would you say would make an artist a great candidate for The Dance Division?
Gert: Well, of course, it’s not completely up to me. I’m not considering myself as an A&R team or anything. But when I’m approached by an artist, no matter if they, well, have been doing anything before or completely green, I’m, of course, thinking about and listening, matching it to what we have in our catalog already and what I think we can do in some cases commercially. Sometimes we sign things just because it sounds great and we think there is a market for it. And also because we are a dance label. And if we sign things sometimes, which is not commercial, it’s simply to set the example that we are a dance label and we sort of service all kind of genres. And that counts as well for our artists.
We have one very commercial dance house producer right now. Last year he delivered, well, four tracks, four singles. Two of them were not very commercial, but the quality of the music was great. And it feels good to accommodate things which is not only meant for being, you know, heavy streaming or something like that. And it’s both building the artist’s brand and it builds our brands that we have a possibility to show a different kind of attitude to the music we are releasing and to the artists we have already. Of course, we try to live off the music we are bringing out. So we are also thinking about the commercial value of the stuff we are signing in in order to get some rotation and some streaming. We have some salaries, so of course finances in that aspect means something, but it’s not the whole truth, of course. We love music, so that’s also a point.
Kevin: Sure, so you’re looking at commerciality, salability, big box, but you also feel like you want to represent maybe more of the cutting edge, the underground sound aspect as well. Got it.
Yeah, Felix, how about you for NuHouse and for Summer Melody? What are things that you look for for a good fit for the artist with your label?
Felix: So, given with some of the background that our label has been more for towards new and uprising artists, we often do get some surprising releases. What we’re looking is much more of a spark and also uniqueness in terms of the genre of melodic progressive, but also something different as we have been getting something different like melodic breaks recently to our sub-label Newhouse, which also provides an interesting perspective towards the melodic sounds that we have been looking for.
So, I would also say that what we are also looking for is new opportunities if possible, because we have been trying to reach out only to a particular more known artist, but mostly we depend on organic reach. Basically, most of them just saw us, saw our label, how we have been providing music and they reached out to us. And I also would like to put a little bit of perspective on towards active reach, which there are certain labels out there that has a lot of releases, which I mean, it’s fine, but through looking at their catalogue, like new releases, I’ve been seeing a lot of new and fresh names, which for myself, I would say, why do I miss that kind of artist out there? That they decided to release, even though they are new, they only have like one to two tracks on, for example, like their SoundCloud profile, but they already have some sounds which already meeting our expectations, which sometimes I would personally follow through my artist account and see if they would organically like saw my follow and if they would be interested to reach out, even though that is a little bit less.
So I would say what the uniqueness is through how they deliver through their melodies, structures, elements, atmospherics, and also other elements that they will provide, which also may provide the opportunity if they will get signed or not. So a little bit maybe like JP and Wilson, you’re looking for something that kind of clicks to you right away, like a soulful vibe that kind of resonates and also a unique, original angle, something innovative.
Kevin: Got it. Yeah, Jay, how about you with EML Recordings?
Jason: Yeah, so I think what gets me excited is when I find an artist or an artist comes to me and the music kind of sits at the heart of what we do at EML. But because we’re very much a family, so the way that I run my labels is that we all kind of pull together. We all help each other. We all buy each other’s releases. We all share each other’s releases and it works. Not everybody does that. But when I do find an artist that is producing quality music that I really like, regardless of, you know, a bit like what Wilson said, I don’t care if somebody’s got one follower and it’s only their mum, or if they’ve got a million. If they’re willing to work with my other artists and get involved in what we’re doing and kind of come into the family, if you like, that’s what gets me excited.
And when I start seeing on our, you know, Instagram group chats or WhatsApp group chats that people are kind of coming into the family, you know, they’re getting to talk to their artists, they’re kind of immediately collaborating and they’re fantastic producers, that’s what gets me excited because I know that I’m going to hang on to them for a long time and good things are going to come.
WHAT INFO DO YOU TYPICALLY REQUIRE FROM THE ARTIST?
Kevin: Yeah, great point. I totally agree. I think Sara alluded to this as well. And I, JP, I agree that I’m long-term, forging long-term relationships, people that you can get along with well and work with. Yeah. Okay. So next question. What info do you typically need from the artist, say about the artist’s bio, release, et cetera? And I think we touched on this a little bit previously, say with Gert, but Jay, maybe we can start with you on that one.
Jason: Yeah. So information. So ideally I would like to know a little bit about them as a person. I want also to kind of have a look at their social network profiles, of course, to do just to see not how many followers they have, but how active they are. And I think Sara said as well about, you know, if they’ve kind of created their own content around their own work and doing some self-promotion. So I kind of look for that. I’m interested a little bit maybe to know about some of their other releases. I don’t do a huge amount of research on artists’ past releases. I do look at the labels that they’ve released to though previously. I’m interested to see who they’ve released through. But other than that, I don’t require a huge amount.
One thing I do though insist upon is correctly labelled tracks. So when somebody’s sending me a demo, I need their name. I need their artist name on the track. Because the amount of demos that I get where it’s just the track name, you know, and then I’m having to create a folder myself to put that track into so that I know who it is and it’s just extra work for me. So that gets up my nose.
Kevin: Or “Final_Master_320bit…” Or when they put the freaking *mastering company name* instead of the label or the artist name (in the file name of a demo mp3 or wav).
Jason: Yeah. And I don’t like getting works in progress as well. I’d much rather listen to a finished track than a second, third, fourth version. And I think we’re going to get to that in a second here, that question there.
Yeah. JP, what would you say is the main info that you typically would want from the artist for the release? And if we covered it, then I think you’re on mute there, JP. Maybe if you unmute your mic there.
JP: Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. I was talking in the void. Oh, no problem. So in addition to what we said, which is perfectly right, specifically for the release, if the artist puts his track in, if he’s a DJ, if he puts his track in one of his mixes, of course I want to know this because this is a very good content for promotion.
Sara was talking about content. Any good content is good. If the guy has a picture or if he’s in his studio playing the track that is going to be released, this is also fantastic content if I have a video of this because this is very good to put on an Instagram or a story or a post that brings attention to the people and which makes the feeling for the people who watch what’s happening on this social media. It’s more human. It’s not only a track with artwork. It’s good to see the artist doing something that brings a lot to the table.
Sure. Yeah. You’re the mix guy. Yeah. Great.
Yeah. Gert, how about you? What do you think?
Gert: I think maybe you kind of covered it. You really want to see the bio.
Yeah, but for instance, a completely new artist, you can expect to have social media, have a lot of followers and so on. It’s about also seeing how they communicate their music, how they communicate with their audience and so on. That’s a point when you’re signing something you feel sounds good or match your label or whatever.
So the social media is, well, for a new artist who never done a gig or not released anything before, the reason why they contact you is because they have made a great track and before that they might have communicated with an audience, how big or how small it is on social media, it doesn’t matter. But for you as a music company person, it’s good to know that you have an active artist behind the track you are just considering releasing. So I feel it’s very important. And if it’s an artist who have been out there already, of course you want to see their profiles on not only Spotify, but if they have been out there, it’s good for you to know that they professionally have brought a profile up on Apple or other services where there is profiles now.
Gert: So you are dealing with a person who’s already in the business and is capable of supporting what you are doing for them in order to bring them to the next level. And of course, a good picture if there’s nothing else, a good picture of the artist, how they want to present themselves, and a five line story of their artistry and all their lives. I mean, you are selling stories with music or you’re selling music with stories. So that is important as well in order to deliver things in a nice way to the audience.
So there’s many aspects and it’s of course always a question of where you as a label want to start with an artist. I mean, some like Jay say he wants to communicate with them and develop them more personally. We, of course, also do that kind of things, but talking very general, I think this is what I’m looking for, as I just mentioned. But the personal touch is, of course, very important in it all and also in the process of developing an artist for sure. Sure, that human side, as JP mentioned.
So Gert, sounds like you’d probably really want that the artist have something filled in for, say, for example, like their Beatport or SoundCloud profile. You’re going to want to have them have some bio on there so it looks like they’ve already been established or they look professional and that they have a presence in those channels.
Yeah. Sara, anything you might be able to add to that info that you typically want? A lot of it’s been covered already.
Sara: Yeah, yeah, sure. How far along the artist is in their career, they might not have all this information together. You know, if they’re just starting off, they might not have that much background history, a story yet. They might not have a bio that’s put together, you know, so it depends how much artist development I think some of the labels are willing to do. I’ve had to help some of the artists on my label, like, you know, write a better bio so we can put better, you know, content and build a better story around them online and in press releases because they haven’t had a lot of that together, right? So I think people come with it as much as they come with, you know, like their track titles, their names, their bio. I always definitely ask for pictures and whatever they don’t have, you know, I think the label can kind of help them create, right?
Yeah, and I think we’ll cover that a little bit more in a bit too about, like, promotion aspects, which would kind of tie into that too.
Yeah, okay, awesome then. So, okay, moving on then.
Felix: I would like to add one more thing.
Yeah, sure. Again, because we have been receiving a lot of, like, new and arising artists, especially debuts. Especially we’ve previously have provided a platform, like, through our compilation series, Summer Melodies, and as well as now we have the Intertwine series, which these two are often promoting new and rising names, especially, like, the past few years we have a lot of new artists debuts.
So exactly what you guys have mentioned, like having a social media page is not applicable for them. They even don’t have any releases before, they doesn’t have any accounts before, they only contact us through emails, which is great because they have shared, they would like to release with us as with the demo, even though they not necessarily say that it would be the debut, but it would be eventually.
And it would also be great to have, like, what’s their inspiration of their track. Especially these are very important because they have no background, you don’t know where they are, but once they have provided, like, a little bit of background why they decided to send it to us as their first release, we will understand that, like, because they are inspired from previous artists that we like, or even we even have releases of them before. And it is, and of course for, like, more veteran artists, this is not necessary because once you have your profile set up, once you have reach, once you have certain audience, when you send us a demo or an email, it will be a surprise to us and we will have a high chance that we would like to have you, obviously because of your name. But for those who are not [who don’t have an established name], something from them like inspiration, why they decided to send to us, would be much more special to us.
Kevin: Okay, got it. Yeah, so you’re looking for, which is some really good points there. Yeah, so what was the artist’s inspiration behind a particular track? That’s a great one. And also, why us? Why did you want to reach out to us versus the 17,000 other labels out there? Awesome.
YOUR PREFERRED WAYS FOR ARTISTS TO SEND THEIR MUSIC FILES
Kevin: Okay, yeah, next one. Best ways for artists to send their music files. If you guys had a particular preference, say either like, for example, private SoundCloud link, Dropbox, Google, you know, WeTransfer link. Obviously, I’m going to assume you’re probably not, as myself, not going to accept any raw MP3 WAV files as such.
Yeah, Sara, do you have any, or anybody else want to jump right in?
Yes, I can. I’m sorry. JP, go ahead. JP, yeah.
JP:Okay. Yeah, so my favorite one is a professionally written simple email with a private downloadable SoundCloud link, which could be the track or a playlist with two or three tracks. I don’t like when I receive more than three tracks because it shows somehow that the artist doesn’t want to throw everything in my basket and that’s not my rule. He has to know what he presents to me. I usually ignore all these people who are not professional, and there are quite a lot. The link without explanation, or as you said before, these links, please listen to this. Why should I listen? I don’t even know you. Or an email which has been sent to 100 labels. I had it a few times.
Yeah, I know that’s… I have all these labels at the point. What am I doing there? I ignore these people. The music is a totally different genre. I’m into melodic techno and progressive house, and I’ve received some hip-hop, some heavy metal, and I don’t even know why I received these people. Some of them, they don’t do their minimum research. At least they have to go to… If they want to submit to a label, they have to at least have a feeling with the label. Otherwise, it’s just spamming.
I also tend to avoid unpolite or not correctly written emails. These people who start, hey bro, or hey dude, I don’t know the guy. I don’t want to be called bro or dude. We were talking about how we can work with these people. If the guy starts to be not polite with you, the relation might be difficult in the future. Even if the music is good, I would tend to avoid this kind of people.
Otherwise, a simple email with a couple of lines about what the guy or the group is doing, what they have in mind, and they propose me. I also receive sometimes some emails. Oh, I love what your label is doing, and then the track they submit is totally irrelevant to my label.
Kevin: Yeah, I’ve had that too. They just start off with a, we love what you’re doing to get your attention. So would you actually kind of prefer to get like two or three options for a track rather than just one?
JP: I don’t mind. For a track, it should be two or three options, two or three tracks.
Yeah, well, you mentioned playlists. Yeah, it’s even better to have two or three tracks because if one track, there’s a chance that it’s missing the marks. But every three tracks, I know they are more or less. There might be one that I really like, maybe the three of them.
Okay, sure. Yeah, Sara, did you have a, sorry to cut you off earlier there. Did you have preferences? Would you like to receive your files?
Sara: Oh, I’m easy. I’ll Dropbox, Google Drive, like however the universe sends it. I would say maybe not Transfer.
Yeah, okay. Any of the other ones, you know.
Kevin: Sure. Yeah. I think that’s kind of it universally. Jay, did you have any really quick comment on that?
Jay: No, pretty much everything’s covered.
Yeah. Yeah. And the next one then as far as track files.
JP: Sorry, there’s some labels who are using some other systems like some portals where they do the screening. The most famous one is Label Radar.
Jason: Oh, Label Radar is amazing. I absolutely love that.
JP: So many labels, you can only submit through Label Radar and they don’t entertain the emails or whatever.
Jason: I mean, that’s one of the things that I’ve got, you guys have probably got as well, on yours is a portal where people can upload an MP3. So that way I don’t have to worry because it just comes straight through to my email box. And they can put a message on it as well.
Kevin: So then when you guys receive that, it’s directly from Label Radar. You just go to Label Radar and it has all the uploads.
Jason: Yeah, I’ve got demos coming out my ears.
Kevin: It’s sort of like the other promo services.
JP: Okay. It’s a label service. It’s for the artists who want to submit the promos or the demos to labels. I’m not on this service. I know some labels who are doing it and some who are not. It’s one way for the artists. They can find their labels, the target labels in Label Radar.
Kevin: Okay, so they take care of the file.
Yeah, speaking of which, track file format. Did you guys have, I know JP and I have discussed, and I think Jay a little bit in past meetings, we’ve discussed this in brief, but track file format, is there a particular preference, MP3 versus WAV? Wilson, did you have any preference there?
Wilson: For a demo?
Kevin: Well, no, more for like a track for consideration. If you want to release with the artists, did you have a preference, MP3, WAV, or is that not necessarily such a big thing?
Wilson: Basically, receiving a demo in MP3 is not a problem. Even if it’s not, how could I say, it must be finished or almost finished. But basically, an unmastered MP3 is not a problem because we will do the master ourselves.
Kevin: Okay, yeah, we’re going to cover that question in a second.
Wilson: Yeah, that’s why. So basically, yeah, once you enter in the funnel of, we will release together, so then the final master usually will not come from the artist. So it will send for mastering, the pre-master, so then you need to have the WAV 24 bits and 44.1 kilohertz, right? But yeah, for a simple demo, I don’t look at the, even if it is unmixed, even if it is bad mixed, really bad or something, I always go the way that we are a team, right? We got a lot of skills all together and then we can cover.
So if we have to do a mix or a mastering, but the guy is cool and we talked about him and so we go for it. The same, for example, we received some months ago a really, really amazing track and you got a chill track and the same vocal, dance track. So he sent the chill and the dance version. The chill, it was amazing. We took it and released it like it was, just making mastering and stuff. But for the dance track, it was just not fitting, you know, not fitting.
And the artist asked us if we could take the track and with our band, Humans Out Loud, make some kind of collaboration, right? And so we reworked it and it sounds amazing. I believe that you always have a lot of solutions when the person in front of you is cool and then when you have, you know, this close effect to the person and that you’ve been talking with her and that you feel that this person is like you, she feels the music industry is a life experience. It’s bigger than us, right? It’s a life experience and that you will leave something big, no matter that you are big or small artist, but you can leave something big and a lot of emotions, actually. So once you feel that you artist go that way and that it takes the measure of what he’s doing and that the track is fitting and it’s good or it doesn’t fit but the vocal is good and so we can make something out of the track. So we go for it.
Kevin: A living organism, exactly.
And yeah, actually Wilson, you kind of touched on one or two questions that are kind of, I’d say, bundled with that being, for example, regarding audio quality of tracks submitted, how good does it have to be and then also mastering. Do you usually take care of that or does the artist? So it sounds like you’re handling that.
MASTERING/MIXING EXPECTATIONS FROM A LABEL
Kevin: Gert, yeah. How about for you with The Dance Division? If you know about that, so do you have a preference for MP3, WAV, and then how good does the audio quality have to be and do you guys actually take care of the mastering? Say, for example, if an artist gives you a really cool track but you’re like, oh, the mixing could be better, do you send that back to him or her or do you kind of bump that up yourselves?
Gert: Well, to start with what kind of things you want to receive, I would say I never take something for download from a person I don’t know already. So a link should be sent to me from SoundCloud or from a Dropbox or what have you. When we consider a track, we are not expecting it to be in perfect shape when we’re considering. We are trying to listen to the quality of the music and then we start asking for things. When we get to a certain point, we agree with the producer, the artist, what they should do with mastering or we should do with mastering.
Mastering today is not like in the old days when you wanted to have a record mastered. It cost you, you know, three, four, five, six hundred euros or something like that to get tracks mastered. Today you can get it for smaller money at least. And we have some good connections and we use even in a position where we are not sure we want to release the track as it’s presented. But sometimes we use a master studio to get the track freshened up and to verify how to deal with it.
In some cases, we have one studio we work with in London where if we are not sure about the mix and the mastering is not helping it, sometimes we ask them to set the stems to the mastering studio and have a test mix done outside the producer or the artist domain in order to make sure that we are not missing anything if we really are starting to be living in the track. So that’s a way to both support the artist and ourselves that we are doing things the right way.
And many artists approach us and say, hey, this is already mastered. And I’m always getting a little bit scared about that. The outputs from the streaming platforms and so on is not something I’m the master of. The mastering companies know exactly what kind of frequencies and what type of master you expect to get uploaded to Spotify or Apple or whatever. So we very much leave it to them. But of course, many artists today are completely on top of these kind of things and are delivering a perfect mastered thing. So in that case, we of course save money and time and go straight to the release planning. So there’s many ways of acting on this.
Okay. Awesome. Thanks, Gert. Jay, how about you at EML Recordings?
How do you usually deal with polishing up or do you kind of expect the artist to be kind of ready to go or do you kind of handle like boosting of an EQ and everything, mastering finished products on your end?
Jason: Bit of both, a little bit of both. Majority of what I get sent is usually finished, usually probably I would guess it’s kind of 90% towards what I would call a proper professional master.
Those that send me tracks whereby there’s room for improvement, I will, you’re going to hate this, but I have a premium subscription to eMaster and Lander and I’ve got pretty good at knowing what reference track to use for a specific track. So for example, if I get sent a track and maybe the bass is a little bit too distorted, you know, could do with some compression on the bass and the mids aren’t really coming out, they’re being kind of swallowed up by the bass. But at low levels, I have a kind of preset on eMaster and I know that if I put it on there, it’s going to do what I need it to and it’s going to come back as kind of 95% towards a professional master. And it literally takes five minutes, you know, it’s so quick.
And there are tracks that I just get sent and I just think, you know, it’s a great track, but I can’t do anything with it. Neither could a professional master, so you need to go back and rework on it and send it back to me with some changes. So it’s a bit of everything, but as Gert said, it’s so much easier, it’s so much faster, it’s so much cheaper. And, you know, the music landscape with generative AI is changing so fast in so many different ways. Yeah, it’s crazy.
Kevin: That’s going to be a topic as we touched on last few months now for a future meetup [AI].
Yeah. JP, how about you guys at Flemcy handling finished product of the output?
JP: Most of the times the track I receive are 100% finished. If they are 95%, if I can hear that the kick is not exactly there or the bass is too strong, then I would ask the artist to do a slight modification, but it’s minor tweaks most of the times.
If a track is only 50 or 60% done, I cannot do anything with it. I am not the artist, I’m not the one who will spend hours and hours with the guy to tell him to finish the track. That’s his job to learn how to send me a track which is at least 90%, 95%, preferably 100% done. For the mastering, usually I send it to my mastering engineer. In a few cases, the artists, they are themselves mastering engineers or they are using their usual mastering engineer. If what I receive fits the sound that is compatible with the other sounds on Flemcy Music, I say, okay, I take it. We are more than 90% of the tracks released on Flemcy are being mastered by my mastering engineer because he knows what I want and how to put it out.
Kevin: Mainly, you kind of have the expectation that artists kind of have a pretty good finished sound, but if not, you can kind of round it out then.
Okay. Yeah, Sara, how about you at Simmetry Sounds?
Sara: I get a combination of tracks that aren’t mastered and some that have been mastered by the artists.
Kevin: Okay. Sort of similar. Okay. Got it.
Yeah. Felix, how about you for mastering and finished output? Do you kind of expect the artists to cover that or do you kind of do the mastering on your end as a label?
Felix: So we mostly do mastering ourselves. Before, we have our in-house and then now we have another mastering engineer, which is also a community friend of ours, Cosmaks. And we also do have only a few that are mastered. But I would say, which not all of us have covered, is that the artists themselves have the responsibility to learn how to better their mix.
It is often a case because, as mentioned, we have received a lot of new and uprising names and they not necessarily have quite an amount of experience in terms of their mixing. And we have a couple of cases that after we have provided feedback like you should, like balancing out with EQ, balancing out the sounds, the volumes, and after that we don’t receive any more updates. And it often gets signed to another label instead, which through that experience, we do say that some certain artists are lazy. Lazy to not further furnish the tracks. Our advice is actually wanted to let them know that you could be better, but they decide to just submit to another label instead. This label doesn’t care about my original sound. It doesn’t mean like that. We literally wanted to provide great feedback to let you know to grow. Instead of just having a dull mix and just send it to another label instead to get it released quickly. Releasing music isn’t just like business. You’re not selling a product very quickly without caring anything. The quality is also important as well.
Kevin: Yeah, totally.
JP: Yeah, but some artists are so eager because they’re still new and they’re so eager to have something released that they would cut corners and take some advice from a label and then release on another label. This unfortunately can happen. They’re not patient enough to build their career.
Kevin: Yeah, and I know the topic of mix quality, Felix and JP and Jason, we’ve covered this in a couple of our other Listening Lounge sessions and we’ll continue those next time. I think next month we’ll probably have another listening lounge session where we’ll preview different tracks from artists. But yeah, it’s moving along.
COVER ART
Kevin: So, cover art. Do you guys usually take care of that as a label or does the artist or is it kind of mix and match?
JP: In my case, always, yeah.
Felix: The same, the same. And basically myself make all the cover art actually. Which I also have other artists like a veteran reach out saying like my design. But it’s mostly the photos are often like commercial free photos. And I just use the assets from the label to include it.
Kevin: Okay, but however you roll it up, you kind of take care of that yourself, whatever, however you source it.
Okay, yeah. Gert, for Dance Division, how do you usually do the cover art? Do the artists kind of take care of that?
Gert: I like the artist to take care of it. But, you know, many artists do not really care for their visual output. Stick to the music, yeah. They are about the music. In designing process, we are, of course, looking a little bit about that as well. How are they graphically? How do they present themselves? Et cetera, et cetera.
So I like when an artist comes around with a graphic idea and present it. And I would say in half the cases, we are taking the graphics and the sleeve design or what have you directly from the artist. They are the best provider of the image they want to bring up on their music. But it’s not ending there for sure. You need to take the sleeve into a presentable environment for social media when you’re marketing it and so on.
And so we have a little staff of part-time workers from different parts of the world. We give, you know, small amounts to develop a sleeve for an artist coming in, not having really a great idea or want somebody else to look over their shoulder, listen to their music and say, I think I get this and that picture when I hear your track and so on.
So we have two people. We are using constantly for that. They are also doing small visualizers for the sleeves. And what we need in social media to present an artist, we have these two people helping us. And who we choose of those two people is depending on what style of music it is and so on. And we like to set the artist up with these two people, helping them, advising them. And they together… Helping them, advising them, and they together brainstorm some nice design.
But of course, a lot of artists come with, you know, they have been out on the internet buying a photo or some graphics and, you know, tape it up and say, hey, this is my new artwork. And two months after you find the same photo in the same color.
Gert: I just hated seeing the same photo going up. I had a very, very bad example. A bigger American producer and artist we are working with for the moment insisted on using his own artwork. And it’s ended up with he has just chosen a photo in a media bank somewhere. And we were coming up with a chart and his picture and the other artist’s picture was similar. And it looked wrong. Unfortunately, we nearly had the same funds as well. And it’s really, really bad when it goes like that. The music was great though. And the song was great and it made good, but it’s annoying.
So, yeah. So it’s kind of a mix of the artists and you doing it from the label.
Yeah. Sara, how about you for cover art?
Sara: I would always take care of that for the label. I’ve never had an artist come to me with an idea actually for their cover. I see, at least with a lot of the labels that I follow, they’re all really well branded, right? And there’s some sort of art director for taking care of things. So that’s the way I always looked at my record label. And I like cover art a lot, but I feel like it’s kind of becoming less and less important as we move forward kind of in the music business. It’s certainly not as important as it used to be. People these days are more interested in like watching a little video, right? About the work than they are like looking at the cover.
Kevin: Okay. Yeah, I was going to ask you why you think that would be. Do you think that’s because they’d rather see like multimedia? I know Jay does a lot of visualizing stuff for his releases as well. Do you think it’s more people want more like dynamic visual stimulation versus static image as to why that could be?
Sara: Well, if you look at like Spotify, right? Like if you play a track, most people are uploading Spotify canvas, right? They’re uploading a video. Okay. Not everybody is uploading the artwork there anymore. So yeah, we’re still in the times where we’re like making the cover art. Yeah, but just I think kind of having a futuristic look on it. Like I wonder how long this cover art is actually going to be around.
That being said, in the early days of my label, when I was just starting up, my sisters always designed all the cover artwork, which is really nice to have that relationship and started working with a couple other artists for the cover art as well. But it’s always like a big challenge, I think, for a label owner, right? It’s like got this track, you know, it’s a great track and like we have to make some artwork to go along with it, right?
Kevin: Yeah, I know. One more thing. Yeah, JP.
JP: A still image is still useful for these downloads sites like Beatport or Traxsource or because that’s the only way they can show the track on their sites is with a still image. But you’re right, the image somewhere is very small on the corner. So it’s less important than it used to be five or ten years ago.
Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing. You know, you’ve got a new record and there’s like a great picture and like a little book inside, you know, and like…
KevinYeah, back in the days of physical CD jackets and whatnot.
Yeah, that’s true.
Yeah, Jay, do you… Do you do a lot of visualizing stuff?
Jay: I do, and for me artwork is actually quite important because especially with my main label, well, and EDM Addicts, I think, in that we’re trying to kind of create a brand. So we have certain colors. So essentially it’s kind of neon pink and neon blue. So the artwork that I choose, again, I have… I pay so much money on generative AI sites, but I know that whatever I create is going to be unique to me. You know, it’s not going to be… It’s going to be impossible for someone else to create the exact same artwork and, you know, have all the licenses to use it for commercial purposes. But for me, the artwork is really important because I want it to stand out on sites like Beatport. You know, I want the artwork to capture somebody’s eyes, especially once we get into the charts, you know, for people that haven’t come across us before. So I think that works quite important. And yeah, it’s very much about having that kind of brand.
If you look at like big trance labels like Positiva, for example, and Aviva and Armada, they all kind of use a very standard style of cover art. They generally just change the colors, but you get to recognize it. You know, you’ll know a release just from its cover. You’ll know what label it’s from without having to look at, you know.
In my type of genre, in melodic techno, the big label is Afterlife, and they are very well known for their huge graphics with this inverted hanging person. But they’ve done their fame on the music and on the videos, the live videos. So video is so important nowadays. But when you buy a track from them on Beatport, you will immediately see it’s coming from Afterlife. Like you said, you know when it’s coming from Armada or from these big labels, they really have a style which makes the label recognizable.
Like you said, I’ve also started, I’ve asked my graphic designer, he’s starting to use AI to generate new images that don’t exist anywhere else. And with AI now, we can have some very fantastic results in terms of images that do not exist anywhere and that you don’t find in these libraries. There is no risk if we ask AI to generate something, there is no risk that somebody would have exactly the same image like the story you said a bit earlier. And you’re only limited by your imagination, aren’t you?
I mean, it took me a long time. So I have some of my artwork now, I have a cube. So it’s a bit like a Borg style ship. So we’ve got the actual label logo on one hand side of the cube. And on the other hand side of the cube, we’ve got EML, one’s in kind of neon blue, the opposite side is neon pink. And that kind of sits in the center of the artwork. So the plan, you know, yeah, it’s important. Sorry for me.
Kevin: Yeah. So branding consistency and uniformity and originality. Yeah, no doubt. I’m thinking like, for example, like Anjuna, you immediately know, you know, Anjuna or Anjuna Deep when they have a new release, that font, which is tough to do in today’s world.
So moving on, we just have a couple of questions left here. We want to squeeze everything in here before we have about time here. So about 15 minutes or so.
RELEASE SCHEDULING
Kevin:So assuming you guys have decided to sign a new artist who’s pitching you, how long does it typically take for the producer’s track to be released through your label? I know that this kind of differs probably for different labels. And someone I spoke with yesterday, she said that she has her releases scheduled out for like six months in advance.
So Wilson, say you want to go with a new artist, how long from first pitch of the producer to you as a label, would you say it might take them before they could see the release?
Wilson: It can really depend. It will be linked with the question before. I am the graphic designer of both labels. So it depends. I have a lot of talk to make with the artist, what they want, where we go for the cover. And then you got the video and then you got eventually some motion design. Right. And so it can take a lot of time.
So depending on what the artist wants, what is his vision, is that vision fitting our label? When we find the concept that will fit the label and the artist vision, then we begin to work on all that stuff that we will be promoting. And so it can depend. It can be, for example, if the artist just tells me, oh yeah, go just with a cover. So I will make a small video, really simple, but something lighter. But if the artist really has a really strong universe, I will try to really make something bigger. I will try to really make something that will take both our universesand then make something almost new that will fit our and the artist’s universe. And so that can go from one to two months to five months easy. Because you got that time of preparing stuff and make the content. And otherwise, the artists that know me and how I work, they generally know and they take it easy, basically. They know that, okay, we will wait, but we will have this, this, this, this.
And otherwise, that’s why often when I got a new artist, very often, I will put them on a compilation and then release the track on a single. Because they will see with the compilation, oh, he made a video for the compilation. You arrive to the label, the label has his logo animation signature. It happened to me to help an artist to make a logo as well. So they see small by small, step by step, that yes, it can take time, but the more time I got and the best it can be, actually. So it can be long.
JP: But it’s very good that your label, my label, I think all our labels, we are trying to do some promotion and some preparation for the artists. Because I’ve seen so many labels, as I am an artist, I send many tracks to labels and sometimes I have some releases. The label is doing nothing. It’s just placarding a stock image, as we said, and then put it out. Sometimes they send it to a DJ promo pool, but there is no promotion, nothing. Sometimes they don’t even put anything on their own website about their own social media, about this release. So there are a lot of labels, unfortunately, like this.
Wilson: So it’s good that our kind of labels, we are trying to do, in my case, for example, I try to get less than six weeks is a bit too short to prepare everything. That’s the way I do on my label.
Kevin: Yeah, hold that thought, JP, because it’s actually our last question. But yeah, so you’re saying about six weeks, Wilson’s saying like maybe anywhere from one to six months. Gert, in terms of time frame, what do you think might be ballpark figure?
Gert: I think we have a lead time of eight to six weeks. Okay. And I mean, then we just need the sleeve and the master to be ready. And in the meantime, we, until the release, we prepare for everything else. So we try to do it as short as possible. But the platforms want a long lead. So we give them a long lead.
But I mean, I hate to hear or see a release where I’ve forgotten the song and forgotten the project because it’s so old to me. You want to have it in your blood. You don’t want to have it on your desk and see how it goes. And you can’t just leave it and then wait for the release and then start to get excited about it. You sort of want to have it out as soon as possible in order to feel the momentum. And I mean, also marketing ideas and promotion ideas and so on come because you start the release and then you get reactions and then you build on those reactions and so on. So long lead times for me is killing my excitement. But we have to accept that our distributors and our platforms have an expediting time. But I basically hate it, to say it straight.
You’ve taken into consideration from Beatport or Spotify, they may say, well, other outside considerations as to how far you do that. Jason, how about you as far as typical? Yeah, I guess I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum to Gert, but that’s probably because I don’t have the staff helping me. So at least at the moment anyway. So six months. Yeah, my lead time is six months. I have a very specific order in which I do things. So as soon as I get a track, well, within the first kind of four weeks, the clip goes up onto SoundCloud. And then that’s kind of done on a rotation basis. So as I get releases in, you know, that’s the first part of the stage for me. case of creating, you know, the short videos so I can build up a bit of hype on various social platforms. Then eventually get the full video up on with audio watermarks onto YouTube. Then it’s a kind of sending it over to the DJs maybe a couple of months before the release. Getting it onto the promo pools really quickly, you know, close to the release date. And then, of course, there’s the post-release kind of like sharing the successes and any other kind of hype and blogs. Yeah, chart positioning. Yeah, so it is six months. That’s the short answer. But there’s a reason for that. I have so many artists coming through to me, you know, so many releases. That makes sense as well. That alone. Sure. Yeah. So bottom line is don’t expect probably within a month. I mean, give it some time.
Kevin: Yeah. Sara, what would you say is your typical time for release for Simmetry Sounds?
Sara: It really depends. On the small labels still starting up at this stage in the game, definitely don’t have a big staff support team yet. So it could be anywhere between three months to a year. And it will depend on how much time I have to invest in the artist at that particular time, how much content development they need, how much kind of support from me they need in developing that because everyone is a little bit different. And then how much time we have to work together to kind of create some of what’s needed, right? Photos, videos. Some people come and they have a lot of stuff and other people come and they don’t have too much of that created, right? And they need different support in different areas to kind of build up everything we need for a successful release because I think these days it’s not enough to just put a track on Spotify and expect, you know, you’re going to be a big success, right? Because the world is, we’re living on the phone now. Yeah. People have to find you and that’s our last thing too. Yeah. So it kind of depends and every artist is at a different stage. That makes sense. I think Gert alluded to that too.
Yeah. Felix, do you have a typical time frame, like a range of what it might take to get artists released?
Felix: I would say it’s also quite similar, like three to six months. Okay. And I also, we used to like similar to Wilson that we do have compilation releases, but it really takes a long time for the artists to wait for at least six months because at that time we have our compilation series, which is Summer Melodies, which took six months for each compilation because we don’t want to cram too much. And because of that, we switched the method into our intertwine series, EP series, which is much more on monthly thing. If there are new and arising names that we would like to mention through the series and which shortens that kind of waiting time for some sort. And it also depends because we wanted to keep a regular schedule for like at most one release per week for our labels, which we don’t want to cram too much. And for some labels out there, they may be cramming different amounts of releases for one week, which is absolutely fine because if you wanted to release it, like, for example, like I’ve heard from like an artist friend that after they have signed to a large label, which you have mentioned previously, Anjuna, it takes a year because they have too many releases. And of course, this is understandable because they are a great label, big reach, but cram releases, of course, which like for the past year, if you check back the Anjuna release schedule that they sometimes post it out like Instagram or Facebook, you have seen that some of the releases, even though they have not shown some of their special releases, but some of the releases are crammed like one week having three releases like Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I know that sometimes it’s tough for them, especially, but for us, like smaller labels, when we wanted to keep a much more regular schedule, you need to have the artist to expect to wait. At the same time, when we send out releases, like promo pool, like to the platforms to release, it also needs at least two weeks to send it to stores because they have to prepare the release on their end. And at the same time, if you also wanted to prepare like pre-orders, you also need to expect to have two extra weeks before the release date. And that is already almost a month or so. And then mastering, artwork, video previews and such and promo, who promotions. This also takes time. And of course, demo selection also takes time. So counting all of these steps together, at least we need to have like three to six months is actually an acceptable time. Got it.
Yeah. So there’s takeaways. There’s allow for some time. And there’s also a couple of ways that you can have releases put out: They could be on a compilation album. They could be on EPs.
Kevin: And you have to make sure that or be aware if you’re the artist that you have to fit in with the label’s current release cadence or schedule.
EXPECTATIONS FOR PROMOTION
Kevin: Yeah. Okay. So basically, this is our last question. Expectations for promotion. And this is a whole huge one. Of course, we could spend, you know, one to X number of hours alone talking about this. And we kind of covered, you know, some points with that. But maybe we could start with JP’s really good point about I’ve heard this some artists kind of complain or if not complain, at least note that they were kind of frustrated that they put their, you know, signed with a label and the label didn’t really do that much for them. So that’s part of the reason why I figured I would ask that. Like, what are the expectations for promotion?
JP: One of the first one I’m trying to do. That’s why I don’t have that many releases on Flemcy Music. And I even slowed it down because I want to do things correctly. So when I want to release music, of course, I discuss with the artist. But on the label, we are doing the normal things like sending to DJ promo pools. That’s a minimum. But also trying to secure some blogs, some reposts, some premieres, some prepare the stories.
One thing I do, I’ve started to do for some time now, and it helps is when I’m doing an Instagram post or a reel is to collaborate. I don’t know if you all know this, but you can ask for a collaboration with the artist. And so.
Kevin: Oh, like on Instagram and whatnot.
JP: Yeah. Co-posting, exactly. And that’s very useful because the artist doesn’t have to worry too much about doing some content. Some of them are not very good at that. So if the label is already preparing a post and as the artist to collaborate, the artist just has to click yes. And it appears on both the label site, Instagram site and the artist’s Instagram. And it doubles the reach automatically. This is a very small but helpful tool.
As a label, I also like when the artist is doing a bit of his share that sometimes he makes his own stories or he makes a little bit of something. I’ve seen some artists were doing absolutely nothing and so on. And that’s a bit of a loss of time for the label to work with an artist who is not promoting himself. It’s a it’s a like we were talking about family, but it’s a bit the case. It’s both of them are helping each other to support the label, support the artist because he offers him the promotion tools, the distribution tools and a lot of other tools. And the artist helps the label because he has great music. That’s the first thing. But also because he wants to pursue his career. And I think this is a combination which makes things happen and which helps the promotion to grow further.
Kevin: Yeah. And that reminds me, JP, of what Sara brought up earlier about her kind of expectation that the artist has already been kind of. And I think Gerd mentioned, too, he wants to see you guys want to see that the artist has been out there and that they are releasing content because no doubt content is king.
So maybe for JP and Sara, then maybe is it kind of like sort of, again, a co-piloting kind of thing. So the label and the producers both kind of pushing that. Sara, I know you’re pretty big, have a good presence on social media. And so you want your artists to kind of handle that. So you kind of split that expectations for promotion with your artists, would you say?
Sara: I kind of talk to them, you know, and find out if they’re willing to, you know, to create more buzz around what they’re doing. And most people are, you know, they want to promote their own work. I think in the times we’re in, you know, artists can’t go to a label and expect the label to do 100 percent of the promotion. The label should do most of the promotion. You know, the label needs to pull their weight to bring these artists right to the world. I think that’s the responsibility of the label. But just in the times we’re in and with the state of the music business, the artist has to help as well, right? Sure, and they know themselves probably as well, should know themselves more than anyone else, their artistic identity. That’s a good point. It looks more authentic too, and the human element when their own person’s artist’s face is on there.
Kevin: Yeah, Gert, I know you do release scheduling and also promotion quite a bit of that. You guys are very prolific, although Felix, man, one release a week, and it sounded like you said you didn’t think that was a lot. But Gert, yeah, how do you… What are you approaching the expectations for promotion with artists?
Gert: Yeah, we demand them to be active, you know. We have seen too many examples where artists get a deal with us, and then they lock themselves into a studio in six months in order to make their next single and completely leave everything to us. And I mean, we do promotion and marketing for the artist. That’s our part of the deal. But if it’s not also coming from the artist, I’m not taking it seriously. The artist needs to be there posting on all the important medias for their music, commenting on their progress and so on. So I expect them to be active from day one of a release and even before supporting a pre-sale period and what have you. So it’s very important. It makes the music live that the creator of the music is also participating in the releasing process. If not, I feel that we are losing an aspect. Sure.
Kevin: So you guys, the expectations, you feel like you kind of share the workload. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, so kind of, yeah, Jay, did you have any quick comments on that too?
Jason: Everything’s covered, but I would say, yeah, it’s important to me that my artists are proactive with their own music releases. I can help them build their social media profiles through the work that I do. But yeah, I need to see that they’re utilizing the assets that I provide them with, that they’re also kind of creating their own assets as well around their releases and that they’re just being proactive with their fans and also engaging with the existing kind of army of artists that we have across our labels.
Kevin: I like that you provide them with the pre-release graphics, maybe with the label and whatnot, and they can kind of use that to go forth and kind of forge maybe that bond between the artist and you as a label. That’s awesome, yeah.
FOLLOW-UP FROM THE LABEL
Kevin: Yeah, so kind of just wrapping up everything kind of briefly. So regarding follow-up, what would you guys say are typical next steps if you’re interested in accepting an artist track for release? And also, say, for example, if a producer didn’t hear from you, how long should they wait before following up with you if they haven’t heard back?
Felix, how do you typically do follow-up? If you say, okay, I want to work with you guys, how do you typically start that process off?
Felix: First of all, they need to expect to wait for the email and also for the track through at least a week to two weeks. You know, working days, we do have working days, we do need to expect like five to 10 working days, which is equivalent to one to two weeks, because we need time to check, we need time to let the others like A&R to check as well. And after that, if you still want to know the progress, you could send us a follow-up email. That is totally fine, like follow-up message to see. And we also do provide a little bit of follow-up email that we need some time to check, but we receive your response. We do provide that as well, but it depends. And of course, after that, eventually, if your track gets signed, then we’ll provide more further details like artist information, pre-masters, or if you have preference, like previously mentioned, if you have any outward preference. I mentioned if you have any, our preference or something like that?
Okay. Wilson, how do you typically let artists know, okay, start the process off?
Wilson: So if I receive a demo and I don’t answer in two weeks, usually that’s a very bad sign. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. But as a human being, you know, sometimes you are doing stuff and you are, okay, I got to send an email to that guy because I want to sign him, right? And I don’t know, you know, your daughter comes, oh, daddy, can you do this for me? Or you are working on something, right? And you got to do this work and you can’t do the nail and you forget. So it’s, in my sense, always a good idea to send another email two weeks to two weeks and a half. Maybe two weeks. Yeah. Because, yeah, we are human as everyone, right? And we can forget very badly and sadly how we can forget. But usually if you don’t receive any answer, that’s a pretty bad sign.
Kevin: Yeah. JP?
JP: Well, typically when a producer sends music, I think he can expect not to receive any answer for two weeks, after two weeks, about two weeks. He can send a gentle reminder. Because the labels are often so busy that they put it aside or they haven’t read it or whatever happens. So it’s quite common to send a gentle reminder, hey, I’m not sure if you read my email. Have you checked? Have you had the opportunity to check? It’s very polite and very simple. Two, three lines are more than enough.
Then if when I receive something, if I don’t reply, I explain earlier, it’s because the guy is a cunt. And if the music is reasonably decent and if the guy is reasonably polite, I mean, I reply. If I reply positively, then I start the process. I can reply negatively, but I’m always trying to be encouraging. Yes, your music is very nice, but it’s not exactly our style or something like this. If it’s positive, I say, okay, I love your music, I want to release it. Then I start to ask for the first assets, the unmastered file, so that I can send it to the mastering and a few of the pictures, a few other things, and the information to prepare the contract. The first thing to do is to make a contract with the artist.
Sorry, JP, Sara’s going to jump off. Thank you so much for coming, Sara. I really appreciate that. Take care and talk to you next time. Have a great night. Stay warm out there in Toronto.
Wilson: I’m actually okay with JP. If someone is polite and sends… That’s my first, actually, the thing I said. Someone that makes a great message, it helps a lot to answer, even if it’s a no. Because you create a link already with that person, and that’s very important for us to have links, to know people. Today, maybe it’s not a good one, but tomorrow could be the good one.
Kevin: Yeah, I was going to ask, too, do you guys typically… I know, like you say, it’s not always feasible to reach out to everyone one-on-one. Of course, if you’re something like Armada or Anjuna, but do you guys typically try to let the artist know, even if… Of course, that could be kind of touchy, too, if you think the artist’s stuff stinks.
Yeah, I think you guys… But do you typically… What I’m saying is, do you typically try to, even if it’s a no, do you try to let the artist know, well, sorry, or do you just think it’s easier to kind of just not respond?
Jason: I think for me, it’s a bit about… Sorry, I’ve jumped in there, didn’t I? I think it depends on how they’ve approached me. So if it’s just a link, and I do listen to it, and not that I really do if it’s just a link, but if I do and it’s rubbish, I just won’t bother replying. But if someone’s taken the time to kind of represent themselves and kind of give me a little bit of information, and I can see that they’ve taken time to… Then if it’s no good, then I’ll return that favor, if and when I can.
JP: Yeah. That’s somebody who does not respect me by sending a track which is absolutely not related to my label. I think it’s lack of respect because he hasn’t done the minimum research. I don’t bother replying to him.
Yeah, same. He’s making me lose my time, so I don’t want to lose more time.
Wilson: Respect is the word, actually.
