L-tron
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I was just thinking about how the chip-scene is flooded with an abundance of great music as well as great labels.
I hate to say it, but there is also a lot of stuff out there that isn't very good.

As lovers of lo-fi/chip/8-bit music, we are forced to sift, filter, and selectively choose what to listen to and what to pass over. Just like any type of music we listen to there are particular styles, sounds, and artists that we dig. There's also definitely tons of stuff that we would probably love, but miss out on as there is so much stuff out there and only so much time.

There are a number of ways to filter through stuff.

1.) Listening to new releases from artists you already are fond of.
2.) Coming back to existing labels that continue to put out quality releases (kittenrock, Calmdownkidder, 8bitpeoples, II, mp3death just to name a few).
3.) Genres/styles you like.
4.) Et cetera

Also, sometimes you stumble upon random tunes and discover new music and artists you love via randomly checking out new labels, listening to uploaded tracks, or suggestions from friends; which is great.

Where am I getting with this rant?

There are so many established artists and labels that many people know and love, and can go to for quality music. If you're going to make a new net label and your goal is to get people to listen to the artists/releases, my advice to you is to fill a niche that hasn't been filled.

Being genre/stylistically selective in the music you release (in addition to having a quality filter) is one way. Offer people a reason to listen to your releases and continue to come back to your site. Cater to a particular group of listeners.
Your base of listeners are probably going to be smaller than that of the larger, more established labels, but you will have a dedicated fan base that will come back time and time again.

Hexawe is a great example of this.

http://www.hexawe.net/

Although it is not new, it caters to a smaller base and in my experience has a smaller, but extremely dedicated following.

I'm not saying you should ONLY release 8-bit DnB, House, Electro etc, (although that is one way to do it), but offer the good people something specific, neato... Something they can grasp onto.

Of course there are those of you who just make net-labels for fun or to release the music of you and your friends, which is okay too.

Basically, do whatever you want, but I wanted to throw this out there in hopes that it may help some.

Just my 2cents. :}

low-gain
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

+1

e.s.c.
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IL, US

totally starting a label for darker sounding chip stuff with daur after reading only half this post, luke

Subway Sonicbeat
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Brazil

Like Pause, who - in my view - has the niche of progressive chipmusic and a more experimental aproach, just to exemplify.

Shriker
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Hoxton, London UK

take your pick i guess

http://www.shriker.co.uk/netlabels/

Saskrotch
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Chicago IL

:cough cough handheld heroes cough:

Crystal Labs
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San Luis Obispo, CA

Good points made here, L-tron. It seems that a lot of folks start record labels / net labels in an attempt to share what they love musically, but don't realize that there is more to the process than starting a blog and sharing some links. My humble opinion is that those who are operating labels should take on the responsibility of sifting through the thousands of musicians who aren't really that interesting, so that they find the .05% that is. I've had the luxury of being a part of a few labels who are are quite well received within their respective communities. The thing that sets them apart from the rest?

Serious fucking dedication.

It takes a lot more than the average person might think. Here are a few questions I think those considering starting a label should ponder before registering their domains:

-Why am I starting a label?
-Am I willing to spend more money than I have to make my label good?
-Do people care about what I am releasing?
-What do I offer artists who are a part of my label's roster?
-How dedicated can I be to the label I am starting?

I feel like I could go on at length, but will spare the tl;dr sort of folks who might be reading this. I have a lot of experience in the music world, and would be down to share any more thoughts, if anyone cares enough.

heart U CM.org

e.s.c.
Offline
IL, US
Shriker wrote:

take your pick i guess

http://www.shriker.co.uk/netlabels/

wait, in response to that post you basically just linked pretty much every netlabel you could think of?

Lazerbeat
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Tokyo, Japan

Two labels who set very good examples in my opinion are

http://home.no/metrodub/ & http://www.iimusic.net/

Because

1: Quality Quality Quality.
2: Presentation.
3: All releases viewable on one clear page.
4: Regular releases.
5: Something a little different.

Any label which does all the above should do pretty well.

herr_prof
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Unsubscribe

Dear labels: Releasing is the BEGINNING of the hard work, not the end.

e.s.c.
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IL, US
herr_prof wrote:

Dear labels: Releasing is the BEGINNING of the hard work, not the end.

word, you have to make sure to promote it after its out, or youre basically just a webhost

Lazerbeat
Offline
Tokyo, Japan

Im not super super sure there is anything wrong with the passive style label. I mean I think most people would agree pause are a shining example of how to do that REALLY well. I mean as far as I am aware they aren't really pushing their artists hard on forums or organising a pause music festival (although please feel free to take that idea and run with it) nor do they have huge amounts of marketing.

Not sure what their goals beyond providing awesome music are but they do that really well. I mean DWD have some awesome releases but when was the last time anyone checked their site?

cheapshot
Offline
Tokyo, Japan
Lazerbeat wrote:

Two labels who set very good examples in my opinion are

http://home.no/metrodub/ & http://www.iimusic.net/

Because

1: Quality Quality Quality.
2: Presentation.
3: All releases viewable on one clear page.
4: Regular releases.
5: Something a little different.

Any label which does all the above should do pretty well.

Agreed. Especially point number 1.  It's all about quality. If its good people will do two things: tell their friends (increasing the fan base and promoting the label for you); and look forward to each release, meaning that they will be back to the website on a regular basis to see if anything new has dropped (read: you won't need to promote the label aggressively).

L-tron
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Lazerbeat wrote:

Two labels who set very good examples in my opinion are

http://home.no/metrodub/ & http://www.iimusic.net/

Because

1: Quality Quality Quality.
2: Presentation.
3: All releases viewable on one clear page.
4: Regular releases.
5: Something a little different.

Any label which does all the above should do pretty well.

YES! Good call Lazerbeat.

Also, something that grinds my gears in general is:

People giving you a zip file where all the songs aren't in a album folder. So instead of just dragging the album folder to my desktop from
the unzip program, I have to create a new folder on the desktop and name it whatever the artists name/album is. This isn't a huge deal, but if you're downloading releases regularly, it's SUPER annoying. Call me lazy or whatever, but I'd say it's the artist/label's laziness.

/rant

Decktonic
Offline
Westfield, NJ
L-tron wrote:

Also, something that grinds my gears in general is:

People giving you a zip file where all the songs aren't in a album folder. So instead of just dragging the album folder to my desktop from
the unzip program, I have to create a new folder on the desktop and name it whatever the artists name/album is. This isn't a huge deal, but if you're downloading releases regularly, it's SUPER annoying. Call me lazy or whatever, but I'd say it's the artist/label's laziness.

I'll two-up you on that:

- People who don't give you anyway of streaming / previewing the music in a release. I don't have room on my laptop to download every single chipmusic release but I would like to be able to listen to it and give some feedback... I just can't do that if I can't listen to it. And if I don't know your music, and I don't have any way of previewing it, the chance I'm going to actually download it goes to zero.

- People who don't tag their releases properly. Sure, all the MP3s are in a folder, but when I import them to iTunes I get a jumbled mess or no info at all. Great, now I don't even know who made this song. Happens with stuff uploaded to 8bc / chipmusic.org too. Just remember: ID3 tags are just as much a place for marketing / promoting yourself / building your brand as anywhere else.

Star Fighter Dreams
Offline
San Antonio, Texas

- People who don't tag their releases properly. Sure, all the MP3s are in a folder, but when I import them to iTunes I get a jumbled mess or no info at all. Great, now I don't even know who made this song. Happens with stuff uploaded to 8bc / chipmusic.org too. Just remember: ID3 tags are just as much a place for marketing / promoting yourself / building your brand as anywhere else.

This..so much