How some crappy labels (owners) think?

::BLM:: · Post by **::BLM::** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:49 pm

I think its far too late to solve the problem unless the ISPs start taking responsibility. People will always find a way of getting around around it like recording vinyl if its not available in digital format. All of the vinyl only releases we released were on the pirates before release date of quickly after. The thing is these people that upload stuff to sites like Wiki get paid for doing so, so they personally gain from it. These people just have a different attitude to us and its impossible to change it. I have friends who do it and they think that the artists should get paid for gigs/live shows. i hear this response quite a lot.

PsyTox · Post by **PsyTox** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 4:37 pm

::BLM:: wrote:I have friends who do it and they think that the artists should get paid for gigs/live shows. i hear this response quite a lot.

yeah, that's always the excuse number one, but then I always say that this is the exact reason why all producers start being "dj's", and your ticket prices doubled and all parties have gone to sh!t because of that evolution. Problem is that people just see the 'free' download, but they don't see beyond that and how it affects the entire musical scene, from labels to clubs and whatever.

Anyway, we do still sell vinyl and numbers are even going up finally, while the digital thing is going down for us, so why wouldn't I just quit focussing on digital and simply spend my money and time doing vinyl

I'll still continue to do digital, but f.e. just on Beatport and at least a month later then vinyl. Hell, even considering not releasing digital files until the vinyls are gone, are sales on vinyl are now close to that point where we can think of that.

Illegal copying will always exist, but it's just gone so extremely out of order that I just don't want to make it easy on them. And when our events in the summer start again, I'll have no bad feelings for asking hefty prices at the door.

Roy Koch · Post by **Roy Koch** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 6:02 pm

About recording vinyl's. I rip most of my records for myself as a back-up or as a way to listen to it in places where I don't have a record player nearby. Ofcourse I send these rips every now and then to some of my friends who don't have the record (for whatever reason), don't have a record player or have the record but would like to have a back-up as well.
I don't think any of my friends would place any of my rips on the internet, but I am sure it happens with other people.

ps: Let it be clear that I would never put these releases -and especially not just released or even unreleased materal- on any blog or whatsoever.

::BLM:: · Post by **::BLM::** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:01 pm

Anyway, we do still sell vinyl and numbers are even going up finally, while the digital thing is going down for us, so why wouldn't I just quit focussing on digital and simply spend my money and time doing vinyl Smile I'll still continue to do digital, but f.e. just on Beatport and at least a month later then vinyl. Hell, even considering not releasing digital files until the vinyls are gone, are sales on vinyl are now close to that point where we can think of that.

What about all the fans you will be missing in the digital world? I used to care, but now I just thought fck it. Digital is their chosen media so if I can why would I not sell to them?

If the release is a wanted one, then people will rip it from vinyl and put up for everyone to download. these people dont care what the quality is like, mostly i suspect its for them to listen to at home or on an ipod or something.

FOF varies with digital. Basicly you need to be featured on that front page on the selected genre or get the release charted by someone big to get decent sales. Some tracks do 250 and some do 1000+, but for me even one sale is enough to put something up because you have at least reached one fan of your music.

LouisVee · Post by **LouisVee** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:59 pm

Of course the solution is not withdraw from the digital releases!
People who actually support your label by buying your tracks on legal mp3 sites would be punished because of thiefs.
I would never mix a illegal track, all tracks that I mix are bought and I think (I hope) that a lot of DJs think like that. So by releasing vinyl only, you would lose a lot of sales from CD djs or Traktor DJs and also lose the exposure that those DJs can make to your tracks.

steevio · Post by **steevio** » Fri Jan 07, 2011 8:41 pm

i dont see any harm in doing a vinyl only label, many of the biggest and most respected DJs are very much still vinyl based, and i want to support those guys as well.
if you give them something special it means we get variety in the clubs, instead of everyone just banging out the beatport topten.

i personally dont run my label like a business, i used to with my first couple of labels, sending (vinyl) promos to all the top guys in the hope of chartings etc. but to be honest sales figures dont interest me, if a tune is quality and is timeless, it will permeate out into the ether whatever you do.

sending digital promos to DJs for charting and pushing sales figures isnt for me, i just want to put out timeless music. every now and then, some well known DJ will discover a track we put out 6 or 7 years ago, chart it, and all of a sudden that track will shift loads on Beatport for a couple of weeks, so in the end the sales figures balance up. it happened a few weeks ago to one of our releases from 2005, and it lead to a release request from another two labels.
release timeless music and dont worry about money, thats the key for me.

theres nothing wrong with a business approach, its just not my thing thats all when it comes to releasing music. its more important if you feel you need to be on the cutting edge and an integral player in the current scene.

PsyTox · Post by **PsyTox** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 3:17 pm

LouisVee wrote:Of course the solution is not withdraw from the digital releases!
People who actually support your label by buying your tracks on legal mp3 sites would be punished because of thiefs.
I would never mix a illegal track, all tracks that I mix are bought and I think (I hope) that a lot of DJs think like that. So by releasing vinyl only, you would lose a lot of sales from CD djs or Traktor DJs and also lose the exposure that those DJs can make to your tracks.

well... the problem is that most (I do say most) people who buy vinyl won't be ripping the records to put them on blogs. Some might, but not in the vast amounts of what I see now: everytime I see our stuff on illegal blogs it's been bought from Beatport. So I figure, fine, then we first do vinyl, and there will be some digital people who will buy the vinyl instead if they like it, and once those costs are covered, all the digital sales we do after that (and the loss from illegal downloading) is a bonus.

Exposure on digital sales is hugely overrated btw. Vinyl gets you heaps more attention to be honest, while in digital you drown into the massive pools of releases that come at you every day.

I do this for the love of music, but that doesn't mean I want to give people that don't respect anything the easy way to steal from us (and make me lose money I put in there with my own funds from working). I'm at a point where I can cover my costs with vinyl alone, so why would I be bothered with giving a lot of disrespectful people amunition for their blogs? I've seen tracking numbers where I sold 100 downloads on Beatport, but on a blog the file had been downloaded 7000 times... I mean, if only a tenth of those downloaders had bought the track legally, I would have been able to pay out artists, get the mastering and promo guys payed (instead of from my own pocket) and maybe save up to do something special...

Anyway. My next vinyl release just arrived so I'm happy as a hippo

PsyTox · Post by **PsyTox** » Mon Jan 10, 2011 3:18 pm

double post.