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onekid



Last Updated: 11/26/2009

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Status: Single
City: Sydney
State: New South Wales
Country: AU
Signup Date: 3/21/2008

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October 17, 2008 - Friday 

Category: Music
Great tips on how to get your tunes signed to a record label. As a record company owner, John O'Flemming should know a thing or two about what record companies are looking for...

"In today's World it's easy to access music software and get into production. This means more of you are producing your own music and looking to get those tracks signed to a label. Well I'm going to give you advice as a label owner of how to send us your music.
There's one thing that bothers us at record labels, and that's the amount of spam emails we get. Not the regular Viagra and cheap loans emails, but spam from new producers hassling or adding us to newsletters informing us of their latest gig at their friends house! Yes we do get plenty of them!! We don't mind emails but we'll come back to that in a moment. The first and important thing is to only send your music when you're 100% happy with it and its finished. You'll be surprised how many tracks we get sent that are 'just an idea that needs finishing'. These tracks rarely get listened too or even at all. The important thing to do is catch the attention of the record label by sending hi-quality finished music. You can imagine how much new music we get sent every week, also how much of it is rubbish and doesn't even suit our label. So do your homework and research a label that you think suits your sound. Get an honest opinion from a very honest friend. You may think the track is the best thing ever and will be a top 10 hit, but you need someone to give you a wake up call and make you listen to it in a different way.
We get so many tracks that are really basic and badly produced; we honestly don't understand how people think these are ready? We do understand that the skill of production can take many years to learn and that some producers need extra help to reach the next level. Most labels have an ear for what they are looking for and if you offer what they want, they'll contact you to give you that extra help. I have done that myself with some of my JOOF artists. I've signed them and put them together with experienced engineers making a winning team.

Most labels today will accept an email with a link to your track. Many still accept CD's in the post; I think it's a personal preference of how the label owner works. Some like CD's to listen in the car on the way home, where I like to download them and put them on my iPod to listen to on airplane flights. Your music will do the talking, so I advise keeping your text to a minimum in the email. We see so many emails with life stories and essays trying to do the big sell, but honestly we never read them and head straight for the music, after all that's all we're interested in. You can be in danger of building yourself up to high expectations that could then backfire when you music doesn't follow it up. Never sent the track as an attachment, this can really annoy many labels as this huge file can clog up the rest of the mail, they maybe using a remote device to receive emails. Always send a link to where the track is uploaded. As I said before, labels get sent many tracks every week so it may take a few weeks for the label to listen to it. This is where servers like Yousendit or Sendspace become a pain, as they only hold the file for seven days. The amount of times we try to access a track only to get 'file expired' message. We ask for a fresh link, then the same thing happens a couple of weeks later when we eventually get round to taking the track. I advise upgrading your account so the file stays constantly active, or buying some server space. If you want to take production seriously then it's worth the investment. In fact it looks more professional sending a track from your own server than using free servers like Yousendit. After all first impressions last.
Only upload an MP3 of 192 or 320 Kbps. It can be time consuming downloading many big Wav files every day. If the label likes the track, they will usually request a Wav file for a closer inspection. If you don't know how to professionally master tracks, then don't try and do this yourselves. You may ruin the overall sound. Our A&R ears can hear how an un-mastered track can be tweaked in the hands of a professional studio, its part of our job. So leave that side of things to the pros, we know how it will sound.
Importantly don't hound the label. It's impossible to reply to all the emails and links they get sent, even if it's a straight no. If you don't hear back, then accept it as a no. Just keep sending new tracks when you make them. Naturally your production will improve over time so you may strike lucky in the future, so that's why its best not to become a pain hassling with many emails asking for a reaction, as they will just simply be deleted or you'll be added to a spam filter.

I hope this advice helps. Now get busy in those studios and we look forward to hearing that great new music "

-John OFleming
4:33 PM 
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October 17, 2008 - Friday 

Current mood:  amused
Category: Music
lol, found this and thought I'd post it here. Funny, but so true!

What not to say when making track requests to a deejay:

  1. Play something good...something we can dance to!
    -The D.J. has to play for more than one person...so, what you may hate may be another's favorite song and everything played here can be danced to one way or another.
  2. Would you play something with a beat?
    -Be Serious! We know of no songs played in a club that don't have some sort of a beat!
  3. I don't know who sings it and I don't know the name of the song, but it goes like this...
    -Please don't sing for the D.J.! They have to put up with smoke-filled rooms and dangerous decebal levels all night. Do them a favor and don't give them a rendition of your favorite song!
  4. Everybody wants to hear it!
    -Oh sure, you polled everyone in the club and, as their spokesperson, you are requesting the song.
  5. I can get laid if you play it!
    -If you are good enough, you can get laid to anything!! (also been known as "buy the album and get laid for a month!")
  6. I want to hear it next!
    -The only people who can get away with that statement are the one's paying the deejay!
  7. I don't know what I wanna hear.. what do you have?
    -It's a lot easier for you to go have another beer and figure out what you want to hear than it is for the D.J. to recite the name of every record in the booth!
  8. Hey man, nobody can dance to this!
    -It is not advisable to say this when the dance floor is packed (but, some people do anyway)! However, even if there is only one person on the floor, it still contradicts the statement.
  9. Everybody will dance to it if you play it!
    -Yeah but the dj won't...So I guess that blows a hole in that theory!

Tips:

  1. If you ask for a song and the D.J. says he just played it, don't say, "Well, I just got here." It makes absolutely no difference.
  2. Don't say, "Is this the only kind of music you play?" If you go to a Chinese restuarant, you wouldn't ask for Italian food. Rock clubs play rock, alternative clubs play alternative, discos play disco, etc., etc., etc...
  3. If you ask for a song, be specific. Don't say, "I wanna hear something, anything but this!" Try going to the bar and saying, "I wanna drink something, anything but this..." You can't complain if you're not specific.
  4. However, if you are specific and the D.J. says he doesn't have the song, don't say, "What?!! What do you mean you don't have it? What kind of d.j. are you? Why don't you get into the wonderful world of fast food! You obviously don't know what you're doing as a D.J.!"... He may shoot you!!!
  5. Give the D.J. a break! The next time you request a song, stop and think before you speak. And above all, if the Dj has one hand on the mixer, one hand on a turntable/CD player - wearing headphones, Don't bug him. he's mixing!!!
4:28 PM 
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