Label Startup

alright folks.

a good few of you guys are already in the business. and I need a few pointers.

Me and a couple of other serious hedz here in Dublin are putting the framework down for Irelands first hard-techno label. I know.. its been a while coming for such a techno orientated city.

A couple of questions.

Distribution.

We know what the score is in general but whats the best possible way to impress these guys. Well take for granted that the tunes are good but how many releases down the line should we have sorted\decided before banging on their door?

Recognition.

People have been stressing to us the value of having a 'big name' remix at least one of the tunes on the first release (to get people to acknowlege us obviuosly). I know its going to vary from producer to producer but how big a fee (roughly) will we be looking at? Give us a ball park figure if you can... (I hear Mark has a special offer on for anyone who can fix his PC.)

Dont worry, i'm not trying to rope any of you guys into remixing some red-haired potato eating leprechauns higgldy-jiggildy techno track (yet!) but any pointers on this sort of back-slapping would be greatly appreciated.

Sound, I'll get me shillealegh (F*CK i cant even spell it and im irish, we can thank the yanks for glorifying a big stick which most 'oirish' people dont even know exists!!).. no offence to any big name yanks who were considering helping me out untill they read the above.

anyway
Sound, I'll get me big stick.
Steve

PS: If anyone on this site is ever in Dublin. Giz a bell and well look after you...

actually.. if anyone here is in dublin THIS weekend coming. Mail me privately for something extra special...... serious underground shenanigans happening.

anyway
feck off!!
Steve

that's very decent of you to offer to look after us :D

party at massplanck's house saturday night.. waahheyyyyyy!!! :lol:

if you really want to impress distributors here's my advice. you need 3 solid releases done and ready to go. you need labels/sleeves designed and you need everything in place to go at the drop of a hat. work out costs etc - everything.

if you ask me, unless you have 3 releases under your belt that are easily going to compete with the top labels (which the chances are you don't being a new label), then remixers are the key. we used remixers all the way with blackout audio cause our stuff just wasn't strong enough.

when you're happy you have a killer product, then approach the distributors. if you wanna be 100% pro about it, arrange meetings. go along personally.

all i'm saying it if you wanna go for it with a label, put everything you have into it. once you've been down to the distributor with a half assed job and they know who you are, you'll kick yourself in the future. do everything the best you can.

then at least if it goes nowhere, you know you tried your best.

good luck m8.

To be honest mate this is a really bad time to be starting out right now with sales in general in decline etc etc etc im sure you've heard all that before anyway so if you still want to go ahead with it fair play hope it works out for you. First up i would have the first 3-4 release's ready to go when you approach the distributor's initialy and it would probably help to have some "names" involved for the first couple as much as anything it helps the sales as well as getting your foot in the door with the distribution.As for remix fee's this is really gonna depend how far up the sales scale your looking to go but a decent enough guess is going to be £500-£1500 if you dont know the artist's involved.Also if you can afford it i would recommend doing your own manufacture if you can this will help get your cash turned around much faster as you wont always be tied up in a p+d cycle.Hope this hasn't put you off too much mate and if you go ahead with it good luck.

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Originally Posted by MARK EG

that's very decent of you to offer to look after us :D

party at massplanck's house saturday night.. waahheyyyyyy!!! :lol:

good luck m8.

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Man theres a party in our gaff every saturday night!! Claude Young and Bryan Zentz have even showed up. Typical of me though. I needed sleep that night and was in bed when the 'boys' decided to throw another party, those two showed up and when informed that these royalty were in the gaff i promptly told them to f*ck off and let me sleep. It didnt hit me till i woke up the next morning though. Anyway from the reports Bryan is a nerd. Claude is sound though and he's been in the gaff before..

Anyway, thats enough name-dropping from me. I think thats as close i've ever gotten to techno celebrity so there'll be no more arse licking from this end . But I'll let ye know if i bump into anyone else famous soon. Just to increase my profile of course!

yeah get your asses over to Ireland.

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Originally Posted by herman

To be honest mate this is a really bad time to be starting out right now with sales in general in decline etc etc etc im sure you've heard all that before anyway so if you still want to go ahead with it fair play hope it works out for you. First up i would have the first 3-4 release's ready to go when you approach the distributor's initialy and it would probably help to have some "names" involved for the first couple as much as anything it helps the sales as well as getting your foot in the door with the distribution.As for remix fee's this is really gonna depend how far up the sales scale your looking to go but a decent enough guess is going to be £500-£1500 if you dont know the artist's involved.Also if you can afford it i would recommend doing your own manufacture if you can this will help get your cash turned around much faster as you wont always be tied up in a p+d cycle.Hope this hasn't put you off too much mate and if you go ahead with it good luck.

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Cheers for the help but nothings gonna put us off. The sales decline is a blessing in disgiuse. It'll sort out the good from the shit. I dunno why people are getting so bloody depressed. Soon the only people who are left in the scene are gonna be the passionite ones. And thats when the Summer of Love part 2 is gonna happen.

Am i the only one who is over the moon about the fact that the bullshit is being stopped in its tracks? sorry i'm loosing the run of myself. another discussion another day..

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Originally Posted by herman

To be honest mate this is a really bad time to be starting out right now with sales in general in decline etc etc etc .

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just on this note.. surely techno vinyl sales are UP since Fergie, Jules, Piccotto & the mainstream have started pushing it?

erm cheesy pop "techno" maybe?

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Originally Posted by miromiric

erm cheesy pop "techno" maybe?

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listen! lets not go there!!!

indeed let us not my valor friend.

hahaha...

silly f**kers

ok so have you got links to your stuff? perhaps we can point you in the right directions for distributors etc if we can hear it?

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Originally Posted by MARK EG

hahaha...

silly f**kers

ok so have you got links to your stuff? perhaps we can point you in the right directions for distributors etc if we can hear it?

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I'll post some stuff up soon.

yeah maybe sales across the board are up but sales for individual label are down because there are twice as many out there as there were a few years ago....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by herman

To be honest mate this is a really bad time to be starting out right now with sales in general in decline etc etc etc .

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it is true. now is a rough time for new labels...