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Thread: So I started a record label...

  1. #11
    So here's an update on some recent failures:
    1. My hot lady friend sending out e-mails worked for getting attention, but not the attention we were looking for. Go figure.
    2. Some of the smaller clubs I reached out too that are in bigger cities are already associated with a label, so they simply don't have the interest in associating with another label. Makes sense.
    3. As big as the interwebs are, it seems that there is no replacement for some good ol fashioned face to face time with people.

    My potential work arounds that I've been pursuing.
    - I found a young guy who's fresh out of college and works in marketing and promotion. He happens to be an aspiring producer (still learning a good bit), but he's unfamiliar with management and booking, but he is familiar with all of the local clubs and the scene. He's hopped on board and interested in teaming up to become my own personal manager and booking agent. While he doesn't know the in's and out's of the club scene, he seems to have good business sense about him and eager to give things a whirl.
    -Since it's only myself and one other artist at the present moment, I think my best bet right now is just getting myself out and DJ'ing again to build exposure using the label as an "additional offering" Where I came from, it always sounded good when I told GM's and Owners that I was signed to a record label, and now that I even own one, seems even perkier. I havent DJ'ed since New Years of this year and I was offered an actual EDM DJ'ing residency in my hometown just prior to that, but I had to move thus declining it. So I've gotta grind my way back up to where I was, but in a new spot. I'm also planning on moving directly to a bigger city when my lease is up so I no longer have to commute to try and get these gigs and can make more face time with clubs in person again. I've always been pretty good at landing gigs, making contacts and building connections when I get face time with people, but it's been next to impossible via interwebs.

    So again multiple failure after failure, but that's what makes it fun! I'm no discouraged very easily and I take rejection as a sign that I need to try something different. I'm a Critical Care Flight Paramedic as my "day job" and our biggest asset is that we manage patient's who can no longer support their ability to breath very well. When we RSI people (a procedure where we sedate, paralyze and then put a tube in their lungs to breath for them), if we miss getting the tube in on the first time, stats have showed that our failure rate on the second attempt skyrockets almost 74%. So how do we reduce that increase in failure rate? By trying something different, because obviously the first attempt didn't use something right. In relationship to the business world of a record label, either your pursuing things in the wrong manner, or your simply barking up the wrong tree to begin with. Take a step back and see what errors you may or may not be making; if you're sure something COULD work, then keep at it if you believe it's the right thing to do, but don't get so caught up and afraid to change things up.

    I released my first track with my own label and it's gotten good feedback so far. Since we've gotten two solid releases under our belt now, I've submitted to DJ'ing record pools (so far only MyMP3Pool and ZipDJ) in hopes to get our music in front of more DJ's. Soundcloud seems to be the best "bang for your buck" from a financial point of view if you don't have the following. Looking at the stats, the plays from repost networks are so random and far in between at this point it's hard to judge it's consistency, but from the networks I have pinged so far, their following appears to be very legitimate with genuine followers/listeners and DJ's. If I could offer any word of advice at this point is that FACEBOOK PROMOTED POSTS ARE A FUCKING SCAM!!!! Holy crap; the stats, viewership, likes, etc. from there are absolutely worthless so I'd concentrate your efforts on other avenues. If it were cheaper, I would say it's justified, but it simply doesn't garner the reward that adds value to the amount of money your spending on promoting posts. I'm 100% against paying for fake likes or anything like that to simply "look better" so I am trying to gather a genuine following and it seems that the above option is my only current option.

    The inspiration for pursuing this route is from the record label Night Bass who the owner is AC Slater. Talented DJ/Producer who started the label on his own and he had a club that always hosted their event nights and he's got some serious talent under his belt these days. I'll keep this post updated with any more successes and/or failures as inspiration for you other guys who have always wanted to pursue starting your own label!
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by DoomJockey View Post
    1. I have an insanely hot woman to send out my facebook message inquiries for me.!
    that's a idea haha

  3. #13
    So I've finally figured out some of this Facebook Ad thing:

    My biggest tip to add on to this is that if you're looking strictly for quantity, target India and Venezuela.

    We just did our third release and it has a music video, so I placed a video ad for 2 weeks with a $75 dollar budget. In 5 days on the video ad alone we've gotten a reach of 51,823 and views are at 12,046. Looking at the stats, the highest view rate was from India, then I removed it and then Venezuela took over and crushed their numbers. I just changed the ad today to try and get just United States views and likes to see if the ad was still just as effective. I've only been using cities and not countries as a whole. I also ran a "like our page" ad along with this video ad for only 7 days, and in the 5 days I've added about 570 likes to the Facebook page. I'm currently focusing on increasing our Facebook image to increase our "social media value", thus all the effort here.

    This was our first actual video too and within the ad this only translated to 135 views on YouTube and 4 subscribers!! I know that's actually terrible and little, but I absolutely indulge in every like and follower, but that also inclined me to change around the ad to get genuine clicks and likes versus the fact that targeting some of these places might be "fake views/clicks/likes etc.".

    I also found this website that gave instructions on how to make a post that gave the best results that contained links. If you've been around facebook long enough, it's easy to know that certain things are prioritized. Here's a link to it and it seems to have worked incredibly well considering the numbers we've gotten along with good ad targeting. http://tubularinsights.com/youtube-views-via-facebook/

    Obviously our next goal is continuously releasing music; at the end of this week I'll be signing my 3rd permanent roster artist. One of the guys from the EP that the video is a part of might be good enough for a permanent spot, but still unsure at this time. Working on building the YouTube and Spotify followers, views, etc. to actually start working on getting money out of this thing by monetizing our channels, but it's a work in progress obviously Will keep this post updated as I go along and get things figured out!
    Last edited by DoomJockey; 06-14-2017 at 09:07 PM.
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  4. #14
    I'm back with more maybe useful info!
    So we're still cruising and just finished our first EP release which was a pain in the ass, but ultimately it's finally done and learned a lot in the process. Apparently the distributor I use will let you know two days before it's supposed to release while I'm on vacation that the album artwork doesn't meet the standards

    Anyways, with all the crazy news about SoundCloud we're still figuring out on how to focus on trying to build our Spotify and YouTube numbers. SoundCloud is still where we get all of our plays at through reposts, but now requiring follows on our YouTube channel, Spotify account, and e-mail address for free downloads to build our followers. I think were up to over a 100 emails, 20'ish YouTube subscribers, and 30 Spotify followers now which is a good start I feel like. I wish I didn't screw the pooch on starting getting followers on these earlier, but we're making up for some lost time now and have more music on the way.

    One big thing that I like that I've found so far is a website called SubmitHub. So one big way to get your productions heard, is by submitting to EDM bloggers to get "indexed" into Hype Machine. Apparently if you can get music on there in some shape or fashion, it's much easier to be "discovered" so to speak because it's a huge source for music gathering. What SubmitHub does is indexes all of these different bloggers by genre, tastes, type of support, etc. You pay x amount of money for credits and each blog costs one credit (large ones are two credits) and you submit your music to them, quick and easy right? The greatest thing about it is that they have 48 hours to respond to your submission and if they don't you get your credits back! So I bought the max amount of credits (like 40 credits for 20 bucks or something) when I first signed up and got a 10% off discount code to give it a whirl. On the first one I submitted to 9 blogs and got 4 responses, so a pretty good return rate. Unfortunately the ones who did respond all denied; they all loved the production, our video and the song itself, but it "wasn't anything they haven't heard before". The artist much appreciated the feedback on it though. I have managed in the mean time to secure a great connection with a YouTube channel owner with over 700,000 subscribers by following some simple "email pitching" guidelines. Working on building some other connections, but always a work in progress.

    So! So far so good, still learning a lot through this process. One of my own personal biggest set backs is that I'm social media retarded, so I suck at keeping things updated. One of the artist's girlfriend is majoring in things like social media marketing and stuff, so just the other day she is going to work on building our social media imprint which is pretty sweet.

    We're up to two permanent roster artists now, Kevin Trax and Steinhause. We have released others, but these two are great contacts who want to help build the label along with their own brands. Others we have released are LaCroix, Arc Nade, Janny Hosmin, and me Rhox! But I don't really want to be a big famous traveling DJ, I really love working on the label stuff and the business aspect so I just use it as my own outlet to release my music for free

    I'm sure I'll be back soon to post more updates on anything I discover along the way!
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  5. #15
    Technoez Rek_Aviles's Avatar
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    Thanks for sharing. Definitely interesting to see your progression, keep it up.

    subbed to all your SM account

  6. #16
    Thanks for the support!
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  7. #17
    Best of Luck to you! Appreciate you sharing your story with your startup label.
    Ive noticed there's a bit of hangups with signing to someone elses label who may not give the proper support & nurturing that's needed with the exceptions of a few noteables such as Christian' Smith's Tronic label, Armada & Defected

  8. #18
    Thanks man! I've got some new stuff to add here in a bit, but we've gotta figure out how it's gonna work over the next few months

    I think most of those labels it still takes "getting to know somebody" for them to take the effort to want to build on an artist. All of the artists I have so far are unpolished and could use some work here and there (minus our main guy Kevin Trax), but we're small so I don't care that they need work. I'd rather build relationships with a small number of artists who I know have the capability to grow over time and investing in them. Most of the larger labels are at the point where they don't need to do that anymore and they just need to make a profit because it is a business after all.

    My business model is probably a recipe for disaster for myself financially speaking, but I don't really care. My feeling is that if I can help a couple of artists reach at least one goal, then I've done my job. I'd rather have a broke, trustworthy label with a good reputation than a shitty label that's out to steal talented people's and creativity.
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  9. #19
    You sound like a good guy; Wished I wouldve caught up w you earlier when i was perusing thru different labels; I worked with a label previously but parted ways bcause I didn't get the support that was needed even though he had a decent aggregator & got me on beatport etc.
    As a corollary, I started up a label as well recently & also opened a bandcamp site. Its worth noting Bandcamp does get hits & their infrastructure is mature; i've received over 100 listens in 3 days time but alas no sales as of yet. Music is pretty subjective & I think you have to play the numbers game. I know when I threw parties the ratio was like 20k flyers to get about 500 people on average.
    I think its more of a mellow mature crowd and or mostly indie rock crowd? Kinda feel its not the goto site for electronic dance like Beatport. Or the genre is still young with BC and more tuned to ambient or chill electronica as opposed to Full on Ragers.
    Anyway I signed also with Ditto as opposed to Tunecore & Symphonic which seems to be proper.
    I think I'll keep tabs with your post and help out and show my progress as well.
    With YouTube check out how to copy tags of successful Youtubers in the same genre which helps I think in the long term
    Also, Soundcloud eliminated their groups so I migrated in joining groups on Google +.

  10. #20
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    Start a monthly or bi monthly at a local bar or club with your artists. Talk to them and tell them you will be able to bring people in (You have to be able to bring people and provide something for them). That's what my friends and I did when we had one for a couple years. Digital marketing will help a lot too. Congrats on the label too!

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