metatronaut
Offline
Chips & Dip :3

As an artist:
1) Do you see any inherent worth to releasing your music through a netlabel?
HELL FUCKING YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!
2) What are the three most important things you look for in a label?
- Collab opportunities with established people
- More exposure
- Compos!!!!
3) What are the top three labels on which you'd like to have your music and why?
- Kawaii 8 Bit because they have so many good people on board, they have lots of live shows, and they just plain ROCK!! They check all the boxes on my list. big_smile
- CheapBeats Very well known (as far as I've seen) and they have plenty of awesome people on board!
- Basebit. 'Nuff said. tongue
4) What is the percentage of the money you think should go to the label?
It depends on the service they offer as a whole that would help better the quality of my releases. Otherwise, as long as it's not like a 40ish-50%+ take on their end then I'm ok with it.
5) What services should the label offer? (art, mastering, physical CDs etc etc)
CDs for sure, mastering is definitely a plus although I can live with doing it myself. If they gave me a budget for artwork that would be a major plus, as I have sort of an "official artwork person" who does a lot of my *recent* stuff.
6) Your feelings on exclusivity and copyrights?
- They're mine. I would like to be able to hold the rights to my music indefinitely.


As a customer
1) What, if any, influence does a label has on your purchasing habits?
If the label is well known and has a good reputation I will gladly buy the album (like Hyperwave and Basebit). Otherwise, I will be a bit more reluctant.
2) Do you prefer to buy directly from an artist, or through a label?
Artist for sure.
3) What are you top three favorite labels and why?
*same as artist thingy tongue *
4) What would you consider an appropriate price range for chiptune albums?
Pay what you want - $8
5) Does the storefront (bandcamp, custom website, etc) influence your purchases?
I only buy through bandcamp. Anything else is a deal-breaker for me.
6) Your opinion on physical copies? (cd, tape, vinyl, etc)
Eh.
7) Your opinion on merch? (tshirts, stickers, garter belts, etc)
Eh.

Brother Android
Offline
TX
Dire Hit wrote:

the chiptune equivalent of being famous

phrase of the day / week / month / year

gotoandplay
Offline

As an artist:
1) Do you see any inherent worth to releasing your music through a netlabel?

Yes, because it can channel the idea of writing in a particular style. Sometimes you need a backdrop, theme or purpose to write effectively so a particular label's style would be a good one for that.

2) What are the three most important things you look for in a label?

Hahah errr... the artists I like smile
I guess a stylistic statement as a filter. Sure you could have a label that does anything and everything, but then it doesnt have an identity as such.
Also if one type of artist are in one place, it makes it easier to know where to find the stuff you like.

3) What are the top three labels on which you'd like to have your music and why?

Personally I don't know.

4) What is the percentage of the money you think should go to the label?

Depends how much work the label does with the release. If all it exists for is to publish it on their bandcamp website and that's *it*, then not a lot.

5) What services should the label offer? (art, mastering, physical CDs etc etc)

Online presence, interviews, airspace... it's not necessary for it to be about the physical goods, because what if there isn't a market for it?

6) Your feelings on exclusivity and copyrights?

From external sources? Then I think it's only fair to ask permission for song usage and see where it goes from there.

As a customer
1) What, if any, influence does a label has on your purchasing habits?

I follow some labels on social media so there would instances of never hearing about an artist if it were not for the label

2) Do you prefer to buy directly from an artist, or through a label?

Through whichever medium the artist chooses, out of respect for their choice.

3) What are you top three favorite labels and why?

I've never listened to something on inpuj that I haven't liked.
4) What would you consider a appropriate price range for chiptune albums?

I don't know. With a net label you get the chance to listen to it online a lot so it's likely that whatever the set price is, if you like it enough, you'll get it, it doesn't matter.

5) Does the storefront (bandcamp, custom website, etc) influence your purchases?

No.

6) Your opinion on physical copies? (cd, tape, vinyl, etc)

You could have a whole lot to shift with noone to buy it, which could breed resentment for your music or the choice maker behind the merch. It has the potential to create losses for an artist. Test the market first, consider a crowdfunding option rather than just going all-out with creating the merch, as a safety net to see if people would actually commit to buy this stuff.

7) Your opinion on merch? (tshirts, stickers, garter belts, etc)

Same as above.

calmdownkidder
Offline
Liverpool, UK

It's somewhat more difficult running a netlabel now, as bandcamp/soundcloud weren't really as accessible/easy to use a few years ago. For me, especially nowadays, I like having releases on a separate server outside of the big sites, just incase. I'm not really a fan of netlabels which are just a bandcamp page - what's the point? Have the music on bandcamp as well, of course, but solely relying on a third party site seems risky and silly, to me. For the artist - the more sites music can be accessed, the merrier.

However, back in the day I was never too keen on artists releasing the same thing on multiple netlabels, especially as most of the time it would have been on two chip labels, which always seemed pointless to me. If it was a chip label, and something completely different, then maybe I would have felt differently. CDKr is all but dead nowadays - I message a few peeps every now and then, and if it works out, it works out.

However, a label that carefully selects their releases, issues them in a timely manner (not ALL THE RELEASES ALL THE TIME) and maybe has a consistent theme/idea/aesthetic with their choice of releases is always welcome. With some labels, when a new release comes out, you know it's worth a listen.

CDKr was always free releases, so money was never an issue. If all a label is doing is running a bandcamp page and posting social media updates, then why should they get a cut of the revenue? At the very least, it should be known to the buyer what the deal is. If a label is risking their money putting out physical releases, then obviously that's a whole different ball game.

I'm not too keen on being forced to pay for a release (obviously that's a personal opinion - demoscene/warez mentality?), but of course I understand why artists would do that, especially as some musicians are coming close to working on music full-time, which is fantastic. I'm a big fan of "pay what you want", I'm more likely to buy a digital release if I *can* download it for free, funnily enough.

My physical chip collection is p cool, and I'm always looking for MORE, so physical releases are king. I prefer tapes/records, or even home-made CDs. I'm not a fan of those single-press copy/paste sites for CDs, they seem a little too easy, if that makes sense. A little customised cheap-o CD-R is more fun than those "enter your jpeg, enter your wav files, job done" CDs.

Last edited by calmdownkidder (Apr 28, 2015 10:37 am)

SuperBustySamuraiMonkey
Offline
Madriz, Supain

As an artist:
1) Do you see any inherent worth to releasing your music through a netlabel?

Not really. Unless its a HYPERFAMOUS label. But still, netreleasing is not "releasing".

2) What are the three most important things you look for in a label?

Fanbase, trustworthy, affinity of styles
3) What are the top three labels on which you'd like to have your music and why?

Warp, Subpop, Sony. Ideology, ideology, money. None of them are netlabels.

4) What is the percentage of the money you think should go to the label?

10% tops.

5) What services should the label offer? (art, mastering, physical CDs etc etc)

Budget, budget, budget. Promo. Press presence. Artistic freedom

6) Your feelings on exclusivity and copyrights?

Exclusivity thru a contract for X years while retaining your copyright is fine. It would suck to release a record to a nobody, he gets famous and then he cheats on you and signs with Sony.


As a customer
1) What, if any, influence does a label has on your purchasing habits?

Lots. There's labels id buy without hearing, because of their good taste.

2) Do you prefer to buy directly from an artist, or through a label?

artist.
3) What are you top three favorite labels and why?

Warp, subpop. Im not sure I ever had a three. Radiograffity and Datathrash are my fav chip ones, wish they'd do even more physical stuff.

4) What would you consider a appropriate price range for chiptune albums?

One buck or two. Theyre just 1's and 0's. If theyre physical, standard pricing. 5-8 for 7"'s, 10-12 for LP's

5) Does the storefront (bandcamp, custom website, etc) influence your purchases?

Of course. And design and presentation. Nowadays I wont buy a records if i dont like the cover. Put some effort on it, lazy fucks.

6) Your opinion on physical copies? (cd, tape, vinyl, etc)

Thats the only way i consider something as released. If you have 10 digital ep's on bandcamp I'll assume ( and I KNOW) youre just calling your home demos a "finished" product. If i can not hold it, it doesnt exist.

7) Your opinion on merch? (tshirts, stickers, garter belts, etc)

I buy all of it, given the money and liking the band.

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil
BLEO wrote:

There should be a third part, "As a label."

extreme zan-zan-zawa-veia
Offline

As an artist:
1) Do you see any inherent worth to releasing your music through a netlabel?
imo netlabels have a really useful curating value and you get to see how other musicians understand your music and what styles they relate it to because as an artist you will probably have a bad idea of where you fit in unless you set out to meet some fantasy audience

2) What are the three most important things you look for in a label?
an IRC channel where people laugh at my jokes
people who actually know how to master and draw cover art
possibly hoping people on the label will have photos of their cat grooming against a pineapple or old copies of computer gaming magazines from around 1994

3) What are the top three labels on which you'd like to have your music and why?
aanaaanaaanaaana
inpuj
ninja tune

4) What is the percentage of the money you think should go to the label?
more than i give

5) What services should the label offer? (art, mastering, physical CDs etc etc)
the first two
I know everyone dreams of releasing on EP but its impossible to make money on that unless you are already out of the closet and sort of rude to expect it

6) Your feelings on exclusivity and copyrights?
imo i am very sensitive about exclusivity

As a customer
good luck I never spend money on anything but chocolate cake

1-Down
Offline
Huntsville, AL

I speak as a techno guy that has a small label with distribution on Beatport and am applying it here. This is just from my experience from being on both sides of the coin. I've payed people to create product, I've distributed with other labels, and have also had a physical brick and mortar business. The biggest lesson has been that there's a lot more going on on the label side than appears if they are doing their job right.

As an artist:
1) Do you see any inherent worth to releasing your music through a netlabel?
If they have a following with quality releases.

2) What are the three most important things you look for in a label?
Quality, consistency, and a presence in the real world (events, parties, etc not just online)

3) What are the top three labels on which you'd like to have your music and why?
DIY a label and see what goes into it, then try to get to bigger platforms, really just whoever you want to be on so it's subjective.

4) What is the percentage of the money you think should go to the label?
50% is fair if everyone is putting in equal efforts, but we're talking about chip music it's not going to be enough for it to matter.

5) What services should the label offer? (art, mastering, physical CDs etc etc)
Money to pay for what's needed.

6) Your feelings on exclusivity and copyrights?
Non-exclusive on everything UNLESS they are investing a significant amount of money in you or giving you dollars up front as an advance.

As a customer
1) What, if any, influence does a label has on your purchasing habits?
As a brand? Not all that much. For example, I know that Defected and Toolroom are going to always have quality releases, but I look at the artists first, then the label is like cred.

2) Do you prefer to buy directly from an artist, or through a label?
Don't care.

3) What are you top three favorite labels and why?
Mentioned above.

4) What would you consider a appropriate price range for chiptune albums?
Same as any other album. Depends on the release medium. iTunes .99. Band camp name your price. Vinyl $10-20, but $15 is a good place to be.

5) Does the storefront (bandcamp, custom website, etc) influence your purchases?
The ease of checking out on the shopping cart is the most important. I wanted to buy every song on a guy's label, which was about 20 releases. he used a free cart, and you could only buy one at a time. I didn't buy any. Then, I told him, make an item with all of your relases priced accordingly and I'll buy it (mentioned the cart problem). He didnt' fix it, I didn't buy anything. Shame...

6) Your opinion on physical copies? (cd, tape, vinyl, etc)
Way more likely to actually sell physical items at shows. No one cares about digital products cause it's no secret that it's all duplicable for free...at least that's what I think.

7) Your opinion on merch? (tshirts, stickers, garter belts, etc)
Yes, if you play live shows.