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Thread: So I started a record label...

  1. #1

    So I started a record label...

    This is more so an outlet for my thoughts for anybody who has the thought of starting their own label

    So I started a record label on a whim this year and to be honest, so far so good! I've been working on a divorce and have basically lost everything out of it, so I figured it would be the perfect time to go balls deep and start this thing up. That and I've always wanted my own business and I can do whatever the hell I want with it.

    The biggest troubles I've encountered so far is that A: everybody wants to sign with a big label and doesn't want to start small and B: social media marketing is confusing and C: there is SOOOOO much terrible music out there. I'm still trying to figure out how to get our name out more and get more "social media currency", to which I've already lost some money in doing so, but I always learn from my mistakes. I'm a small time producer and DJ myself from a smaller city without a following so I'm basically building from complete scratch. So what I'm currently working on is doing some events in the southeast U.S. region with some smaller clubs and/or larger clubs once we get a little more established. My thought process behind doing so would be to hopefully draw in local producers with some following so that the name attached with that DJ playing would naturally draw us some attention and social media currency. If a DJ they already know is playing, slap our logo behind them and bickity bam! At least that's what I'm hoping for anyways, but we'll see how it pans out.

    On the subject of terrible music...my goodness. I joined several facebook groups to find producers and you have to sift through sooooo much works in progress, bad mixing, bad production, weird experimental stuff, just to find anything halfway decent and it gets quite tedious. So if you've ever wondered why it's so difficult for a major label to even just listen to your music, this is why. The world of music is just sooooo saturated and everybody and their mama wants to be the next Martin Garrix or Hardwell. Hell, set your sights a little lower and build your brand and your sound. If you're good enough, you'll be found...from my experiences I can almost assure you that, but you've gotta put real work in. Which brings up the same idea that some of the talent I have found weren't interested in signing with a small label; some just want go big or go home and I get that too. To each their own.

    As for the label itself, it's Aced Records (same name for soundcloud, facebook, twitter, and our .com if you'd like to follow). I named it after my kids oddly enough - Adrien Cameron Ethan and "Da 4th kid I'm never having". I found my first and only artist (other than myself) from a like on a post I had made in one of the groups. He's a young Dutch guy with tons of talent and already has a decent following; he happened to sign with me because he had signed to a small label previously and had done everything himself and had a bad experience. I truly believe he will make it big one day; I doubt it will be with my label, but I really just want be a part of helping him get to the big stage more than anything. Which is kind of my meaning and what I want my label to stand for. I don't want some douchey label where we steal your money and dick around with the music; Hell, my artist really only wants to do free releases because he's more about the exposure and I thought it was the greatest idea. And I still put my money behind it to promote it. That being said, I could be so picky behind the music I select to try and sign because I want people that I truly believe have the talent to "grow out of" my label.

    A few things I've done so far that I'm hoping to turn out to be positives:

    1. I have an insanely hot woman to send out my facebook message inquiries for me. This was a funny idea, but I think my logic behind it is pretty sound as sexist as it may or may not seem. So most of the club owners, promoters, etc are all stupid horny douche bags and they'll listen to or do anything for a hot girl. I mean hell, I'm a guy and I'm probably the exact same way. So a friend of mine I've known for years who used to be big into the club scene and is really really hot, has agreed to let me turn her into my messenger. She'll send out all of my e-mails, make phone calls, facebook messages and such so that essentially she's the "face" of the label until we get more established. I dubbed her signature in the e-mail I gave her "Supreme Executive Lady".
    2. I did a somewhat successful prize giveaway. I lost some money on this one big time unfortunately haha, but I think ultimately it was good exposure for people to stick around with "liking us" I spent $150 on an audio interface and only got about 40'ish likes on the facebook page for it plus around $50 in the sponsored facebook posts. I was hoping to get at least more than 100, but I suppose it's really so specific the producers that it may have been a bit too specific. I plan on doing more giveaways, but I think this next go round I'm gonna target the fans a bit more and do some t-shirts, stickers, type stuff.
    3. I'm trying to target newer, smaller, EDM related groups who are more willing to "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours" type promotional things. I don't really care what they do, as long as my labels logo ends up on the promotional material.

    I'll add some more stuff and trials and errors as I go along to help anybody else out. I'm always open to sharing experiences and knowledge as I don't see a need to hide it. You can know all the super secrets in the world and still not be successful. As a shameless plug, send your demos to demos@acedrecords.com and our second release (first one from me on my own label) is March 31st with another freebie so follow us!
    Last edited by DoomJockey; 03-18-2017 at 10:04 PM.
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  2. #2
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    My first thoughts are to "there is SOOOOO much terrible music out there." "just to find anything halfway decent and it gets quite tedious" "everybody and their mama wants to be the next Martin Garrix or Hardwell."

    You've referred to most of the music as terrible (which is subjective) so that's who you're looking for, not so much in style but someone already marketable. If their songs are already really good, they don't need YOU to find them, you have little to offer. It's the people who are terrible that need your help. Like you said for them "set your sights a little lower and build your brand and your sound." follow your own words.

    Why don't you try helping some off these terrible producers become who they so desperately what to be.

  3. #3
    For starters, I have always been more than happy to share my knowledge. If I could ever figure out how to get this freaking screen capture and audio thing to work at the same time, I've wanted to start a little youtube channel thing to help producers advance. So there's no ill will in holding back from sharing knowledge.

    On the terrible music subject, you're absolutely right that it is subjective. Ultimately it is the entire purpose of a label to find somebody who is at least somewhat marketable and to me their sound doesn't have to be perfect not by any means. Hell I'm actually working with a local producer who has a great sound, but his mixing isn't up to par and mostly does remixes, so I offered for him to start an original track and I'll sit down and help him with it so I can release it for him. I'm never beyond offering feedback or helping somebody that I believe in, but they have to have the fundamentals already built before you can sell their music. I surely can't go around trying to release random horn beeping and the same old stuff regardless of how good it sounds or how many followers they have on facebook.

    So it's there. Just not in my post
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  4. #4
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    Congratulations for making Your own label !! I'm thinking about this from time to time but I always realize that I will not find enough time to do this working in my current full-time job.

    As far I'm looking for an label to release my music, but well - it's pretty hard to convince anybody. I don't say that I'm making amazing as fu*k music but I think that it sounds preety good and could be released - that's why I think about starting a label

    I wish You to make Your label known and to work with many talented producers !!

    Best regards,

    Tomek

  5. #5
    Huge bigup for starting a label! Whenever I see people complaining about their small local scene, I just think to myself "why not make something yourself"? And if it works out, you'll be respected in your area because you were the first to think of something new in that particular scene.

  6. #6
    Batman andymunro's Avatar
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    Yeah I fully agree with alencr, well done for going for it

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  7. #7
    Yes. Surely it costs money and time to start something but sometimes you just gotta take risks to suceed something. Ok, off the forum now, time to sort my library and make some music.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by mitchiemasha View Post
    My first thoughts are to "there is SOOOOO much terrible music out there." "just to find anything halfway decent and it gets quite tedious" "everybody and their mama wants to be the next Martin Garrix or Hardwell."

    You've referred to most of the music as terrible (which is subjective) so that's who you're looking for, not so much in style but someone already marketable. If their songs are already really good, they don't need YOU to find them, you have little to offer. It's the people who are terrible that need your help. Like you said for them "set your sights a little lower and build your brand and your sound." follow your own words.

    Why don't you try helping some off these terrible producers become who they so desperately what to be.
    Why would he do that? Theres so much excellent unsigned music about, why would he spend time developing someone whos not very good at his own expense.

  9. #9
    Thanks all! It definitely wasn't as expensive as I thought it was to initially start the label, but I did save a ton of money in the beginning by doing things myself. For instance, I tried to use that Fiverr website to create a logo, create the website and stuff like that, but several times I kept getting the shaft! People wouldn't meet the deadlines set and hell one lady just didn't even make the logo at all and marked it as completed. So I taught myself to use WordPress, designed the website myself, and taught myself to use Adobe Illustrator and made the logos myself as well haha.
    I had signed with a small label for a few of my previous releases and they sucked balls and I absolutely hated what they were doing and it really seemed more scam-like than anything which was the origin behind starting it. Not even really for my own music, but just because I knew there were so many labels out there who were doing the same sort of thing and making a killing at it. Why not make an actual legit label and figure out how to make a dime the right way? I figure artists would take a much higher appreciation for what's being done with their talents that way.
    Find me everywhere @youseenofilter

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImNoDJNo View Post
    Why would he do that? Theres so much excellent unsigned music about, why would he spend time developing someone whos not very good at his own expense.
    ERM! i think you missed the point I was trying to make. Judging by DoomJockeys reply i'd say he got it.

    Perhaps when I wrote... "It's the people who are terrible that need your help". i should have put 'terrible' in these '...' it would make for better understanding. But there is a lot more behind the reasoning than just that, way too much effort to try explain.
    Last edited by mitchiemasha; 03-21-2017 at 11:24 AM.

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