Promo agency

[Lost to the Void]

I think you deserve a plug fella.

I`ll second my recommend for Louk, he`s the only guy I would deal with in this respect, and I`m anti-all of this kind of stuff.
He`s been around for ages with history of reviews from magazine days, works hard, zero bullshit, great rates, nice to deal with and super positive, well known and liked in the scene (and therefore his promo mailouts are trusted), trustworthy, and is our promo guy for Subsekt label for precisely that reason.

[0dd]

Just bumping this for a subtle plug!

I own iCan Promo. www.icanpromo.co.uk - specialising in tailored and tastemaker promotion of releases, mainly Techno.

Often send out tracks on Missile, New York Trax, Animal Farm, Gobsmacked, Obscuur, UKR, Hard Electronic/Industrial Strength, iG, Fe Chrome,Bass Agenda (T Series), Forte, Gomboc, Singularity, Variance, Pitch Dark, TrashEra, Schmer/Serotonin, Taro Records, Filth Infatuated Digital, Hardcoded, C O U P and more... oh and sent out Subsekt 001!

Rates are very reasonable!

Shit mate, nice to have you on board! Did that asshole ripping you off motivate you to get in the bizz?

[Críoch]

Another positive for Louk here.

it's always a pleasure chatting to him. known him for a while before subsekt label. He's genuine, friendly, & doesn't hide his personal opinion. Id second everything Steve said.

& hes never been pushy. A straight up chap who prefers the long game over short advantage. he'll always be the same whether you spoke to him last week or last year, I reckon.

[winston]

For my recent EP on 100 % Pure (https://soundcloud.com/andre-crom/sets/ ... 100-pure-1) they arranged a Slam Radio guestmix, Mixmag, Data Transmission and deephouselondon (even if my track's more techno) premieres, and a couple of smaller things, like reviews, further podcasts, etc.

That was a full campaign which is not exactly cheap, but i felt it was defo worth it.

is this payola?

[Lost to the Void]

For my recent EP on 100 % Pure (https://soundcloud.com/andre-crom/sets/ ... 100-pure-1) they arranged a Slam Radio guestmix, Mixmag, Data Transmission and deephouselondon (even if my track's more techno) premieres, and a couple of smaller things, like reviews, further podcasts, etc.

That was a full campaign which is not exactly cheap, but i felt it was defo worth it.

is this payola?

Basically.
I would say it is an increasing problem in Techno.
Well..problem. It's just something that happens more and more.

[winston]

i was surprised about the "arranged a Slam Radio guestmix" because i know more about Soma than any other label i know about and assumed that they would just feature people they knew and were probably going to appear at their events at some point. knowing that it could be arranged by a fixer makes it all sound a bit questionable.
same with the mixmag premiere. any perceived gravitas of getting a featured track like that makes the recommendation less valuable.

[Louk]

Thanks all for the kind words!

Nah, my background into this was grew up listening to trance (don't shoot me) and techno from the likes of Mark EG etc playing at my local club, that I used to go to when I was 16 and never ID'd me. Was spoiled for choice. Got into making lots of music but also writing mag reviews, posting on sites like Blackoutaudio and skiving off school to make music and miss lessons at school to go up the library and use the computer to listen to juno and german trance on a weekly basis.

In 2004, I moved to Uni in Birmingham. Worked for a distributor there, who had me on sales for 2 weeks which I hated then I saw his promo releases and he was hugely ineffectively wasting money sending tunes to people who wouldn't play them (sending hard house to Armin, and trance to Karim etc and wasting TPs on people who weren't playing out), when I said that to him he let me handle their promotion. Put people in touch with him to distribute their stuff who he seemed to think was a green card for ripping my friends off, bootlegging their tracks, pressing more than he should have done, and making multiple copies of a cd pack and selling them on ebay. Obviously I was angry at this, we majorly fell out, told the guy to get fucked and that he was a cunt and he soon closed his business with hundreds hating him.

At the same time, I was still doing radio work, productions growing and mag reviews, a dutch label wanted some UK Djs to send their promos to. I handled this for them and they paid me the second time. Built a website that could handle digital promo mail outs as MP3s were replacing test pressings and it grew from there, I already had the contacts working for said cunt, and made an effort to get to know those via email/myspace that I didn't know to get them the music.

Partnered with two friends but am in the process of solely acquiring the business myself now as I do most the work and have done for years. Regarding the techno, have been a fan since I first heard Mono Meltdown - Pegelfest on Superstition back in 1999, and also RKTIC's set as Ronny Pries from The Party 99 with Dupont (https://www.mixcloud.com/randomsets/ron ... 7-02-1999/) and loved what I heard.

Now host a monthly show on RTE 2FM after Dave Clarke's White Noise. Been there for nearly 4 years and happy to promote techno to the world. Glad you like my honest approach, I just say how I feel as a punter and what I think DJs will like. This is why sometimes I send people tracks that might be left of field for them but they end up supporting for that reason. Ie Amelie Lens playing an experimental track, or Oscar Mulero dropping a recent Serotonin release that's Electro. Each mail out I do I go through and select a list of who I think would like it rather than blanket spam people and it makes me buzz when people play my friends work!

[Louk]

i was surprised about the "arranged a Slam Radio guestmix" because i know more about Soma than any other label i know about and assumed that they would just feature people they knew and were probably going to appear at their events at some point. knowing that it could be arranged by a fixer makes it all sound a bit questionable.
same with the mixmag premiere. any perceived gravitas of getting a featured track like that makes the recommendation less valuable.

I think it's more a case that they probably supported the release and thought, we really like that, let's ask him for a mix! Lots of the acts on the show are by artists they've recently supported.

Louk

[Lost to the Void]

i was surprised about the "arranged a Slam Radio guestmix" because i know more about Soma than any other label i know about and assumed that they would just feature people they knew and were probably going to appear at their events at some point. knowing that it could be arranged by a fixer makes it all sound a bit questionable.
same with the mixmag premiere. any perceived gravitas of getting a featured track like that makes the recommendation less valuable.

Mixmag, fact etc do take cash for promo. It's nothing new.
Places like Tailored specialise in that. They call it promotion, it's basically bribery.

[winston]

i was surprised about the "arranged a Slam Radio guestmix" because i know more about Soma than any other label i know about and assumed that they would just feature people they knew and were probably going to appear at their events at some point. knowing that it could be arranged by a fixer makes it all sound a bit questionable.
same with the mixmag premiere. any perceived gravitas of getting a featured track like that makes the recommendation less valuable.

I think it's more a case that they probably supported the release and thought, we really like that, let's ask him for a mix! Lots of the acts on the show are by artists they've recently supported.

Louk

well that sounds more like i how i would have expected it to be.

[Louk]

Yeah that's what happens here. I'm really into Deep Dimension's music, looked em up when Triple Vision sent something through by them and asked em straight away for a mix. Having produced quite a few radio shows for people in the past regarding guest mixes it's usually the case.

[0dd]

Thanks all for the kind words!

Nah, my background into this was grew up listening to trance (don't shoot me) and techno from the likes of Mark EG etc playing at my local club, that I used to go to when I was 16 and never ID'd me. Was spoiled for choice. Got into making lots of music but also writing mag reviews, posting on sites like Blackoutaudio and skiving off school to make music and miss lessons at school to go up the library and use the computer to listen to juno and german trance on a weekly basis.

In 2004, I moved to Uni in Birmingham. Worked for a distributor there, who had me on sales for 2 weeks which I hated then I saw his promo releases and he was hugely ineffectively wasting money sending tunes to people who wouldn't play them (sending hard house to Armin, and trance to Karim etc and wasting TPs on people who weren't playing out), when I said that to him he let me handle their promotion. Put people in touch with him to distribute their stuff who he seemed to think was a green card for ripping my friends off, bootlegging their tracks, pressing more than he should have done, and making multiple copies of a cd pack and selling them on ebay. Obviously I was angry at this, we majorly fell out, told the guy to get fucked and that he was a cunt and he soon closed his business with hundreds hating him.

At the same time, I was still doing radio work, productions growing and mag reviews, a dutch label wanted some UK Djs to send their promos to. I handled this for them and they paid me the second time. Built a website that could handle digital promo mail outs as MP3s were replacing test pressings and it grew from there, I already had the contacts working for said cunt, and made an effort to get to know those via email/myspace that I didn't know to get them the music.

Partnered with two friends but am in the process of solely acquiring the business myself now as I do most the work and have done for years. Regarding the techno, have been a fan since I first heard Mono Meltdown - Pegelfest on Superstition back in 1999, and also RKTIC's set as Ronny Pries from The Party 99 with Dupont (https://www.mixcloud.com/randomsets/ron ... 7-02-1999/) and loved what I heard.

Now host a monthly show on RTE 2FM after Dave Clarke's White Noise. Been there for nearly 4 years and happy to promote techno to the world. Glad you like my honest approach, I just say how I feel as a punter and what I think DJs will like. This is why sometimes I send people tracks that might be left of field for them but they end up supporting for that reason. Ie Amelie Lens playing an experimental track, or Oscar Mulero dropping a recent Serotonin release that's Electro. Each mail out I do I go through and select a list of who I think would like it rather than blanket spam people and it makes me buzz when people play my friends work!

Wow man, doing promo with such a personal approach. Big up!

[Louk]

Nice one!

Louk

[Inscribe]

Easy Louk, James from Listen Up - good to see you on here!

[Louk]

Ah happy days mate! Good to see you here!

Reminds me, new demo cd coming your way this week when I pull my finger out.

Louk

[Mslwte]

Another icanpromo user here. Cant fault the service at all. Decent price point, swift service and loukas is a nice chap as well. My tracks have gone out to a variety of people in the past and I've had tons of feedback from the mailouts. You can easily check the feedback as well (which can get a bit addictive).

[Louk]

Top man, thank you very much! And yes pressing F5 is addictive!