Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

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Will Frances
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Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Will Frances »

Hi all, hope everyone is well,

Ive been producing for a few years daily, I'm feeling like quitting, bit fed up at the moment with a combination of my output quality (not knowing if it is any good) and complete lack of labels getting back to me. Ive got dozens of completed tracks, its hard to let go of stuff thats just been sitting there rotting on your HD for a while and accept it may never see the light of day.

Id love to know what some of you lot think, is my production lacking? Does anyone else feel the same?

Ive put a few private examples below for anyone who has the time to listen to a couple.

Many many thanks...

https://soundcloud.com/will7frances/wil ... v3/s-eLnSR
https://soundcloud.com/will7frances/wil ... ew/s-JiAy8
https://soundcloud.com/will7frances/wil ... ng/s-c1RYw
https://soundcloud.com/will7frances/wil ... nk/s-3v1JK

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Mslwte
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Mslwte »

hi mate, im not in a position to listen to your tracks as im at work at the moment but all i will say is maybe you should take a break for a few weeks or even months. then you can recharge the batteries, so to speak. i have done this myself and i think it can help.
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Will Frances
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Will Frances »

Thanks for the reply man, This thought had most certainly crossed my mind, I've been actively trying not to force creativity (without being lazy) recently and maybe some distance is the answer.

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daunzila
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by daunzila »

I feel you Will, heard 7am Dub V3 and Time Changes Everything, im not a pro but to me it sounds really good and well produced!

The advice about taking some time out is a good one, it works for me, other thing that worked for me was changing the way i produce, int he box, out of the box, jamming with some friends, those things get me refreshed and full of new ideas, idk maybe it works for you, dont give up man, you have some good stuff there
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dubdub
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by dubdub »

Your stuff is quite well produced by Subsekt/amateur standards but I don't think it's quite there to be released yet. In today's landscape your stuff doesn't have to be ok or even good, it has to be excellent. I say stop worrying so much and just keep knocking out tracks, patience is key. In the end you have to accept that most of your stuff will never come out, every big producer will have an archive of hundreds, in many cases thousands and thousands of tracks.

Will Frances
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Will Frances »

Thanks daunzila appreciate your thoughts. You are quite right actually changing the way you produce is a good idea, I'm quite closed off to be honest and have been producing the same way from the start, alongside experience development, I don't have any friends who produce and it's hard to be subjective on your own work. I enjoy the process when it's quite organic. I used to think rinse and repeat was the best way to move forward.

Will Frances
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Will Frances »

Hi dub-dub,

Thousands! Wow that is a lot. I mean when thinking about it you look at the discography of some artists they havnt actually released that many tracks over all, so even a release ratio of 1 in 10 completed tracks is good if not very unlikely I guess? Forgive my negativity on this thread, maybe it is burn out or disiiusion maybe every producer feels the same!? I have 250 finished tracks in 2-3/4 years which is something I guess. I must admit I thought it would be easier than this! I thought- you see the amount of people releasing stuff of a good standard and couldn't imagine all of them plugging away every day for 4 years to get a first release. Must be my ignorance

dubdub
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by dubdub »

A lot of people have been making tracks for 10-20 years and they are in the studio almost every day...

I think almost anyone releasing quality music has spent a few years making tracks. There's just a looot of people making music now.

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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Cloaked »

I'd say the first 2 there, maybe three, ARE excellent by my most standards and good enough to be released on a smaller label, perhaps that is also finding its feet.

There's some really interesting sounds and ideas, and a certain vibe there that is kind of quirky, refined, stylish and not one you hear every day. Reminded me in parts of some French house people like iCube or Chateau Flight.

Mixes / masters also sound really clean to my ears.

I suspect labels not getting back to you is because you're picking the wrong labels, or you don't have any reputation or "social proof" in the scene. You need a foot in the door with a small label, promoter, or DJ.

dubdub's comment is fair but none of us are realistically expecting to get released on dystopian or prologue. At least not yet. Judging yourself against rodhad isn't fair or accurate, there's plenty of space in the scene outside of that rarefied air.

Will Frances
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Will Frances »

Thanks for the feedback Cloaked.

I've not heard of those artists either so will check em out.

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TvSkY
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by TvSkY »

Nice tracks

start with small/free net labels

try and build a profile

move up

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Mattias
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Mattias »

You've come a long way already with your music. What you need is to keep making music and gain experience that way, and of course keep gathering knowledge on all technical aspects, it's a never ending learning process.
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The_G
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by The_G »

Your music is good, dude--don't quit! But I do think you might need to free yourself from the weight of your own expectations. I mean, I understand why you feel discouraged, but it's not like to old days when you really needed a label to get your music out there (and even then many "labels" were just names slapped on self-releases).

So if you aren't getting any positive responses, why not self-release an EP? Easy to do via bandcamp and DistroKid or another inexpensive distributor.

Will Frances
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Will Frances »

Thanks Mattias and The_G.

I guess part of it is self confidence with regard to self releasing etc. But I don't want to just add to an already saturated market, especially if the music isn't quite there quality wise. Also I don't quite understand the reach of the small startup labels or where self releasing will move you forward developmentally as an artist starting out, it seems common for people t establish themselves on popular labels and then start their own thing. I heard that releasing too early and on any old label can be damaging to an artist. I could be looking at this all wrong to be honest, can anyone shine a light on this?

Thanks

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daunzila
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by daunzila »

Will Frances wrote:Thanks Mattias and The_G.

I guess part of it is self confidence with regard to self releasing etc. But I don't want to just add to an already saturated market, especially if the music isn't quite there quality wise. Also I don't quite understand the reach of the small startup labels or where self releasing will move you forward developmentally as an artist starting out, it seems common for people t establish themselves on popular labels and then start their own thing. I heard that releasing too early and on any old label can be damaging to an artist. I could be looking at this all wrong to be honest, can anyone shine a light on this?

Thanks
I have my doubts about self releasing too, how far a new guy could go just throwing some tracks out alone in bandcamp?

Who dosnt have lots of tracks to check every week, only from the artist/labels you already filtered?

I've been talking with some friends who live here and in the cities nearby to do some kind of "split" release, so maybe like that we can go a little further then each one could go alone, i dont know if we have good enough material to do that, but i think we gonna try that until the end of the year...

Anyone has experience about this to give some kind of advice on that?
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Lost to the Void
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by Lost to the Void »

A few years is not that long, give it time, find the right labels for your music and talk to them, never flat out cold call spam a demo, develop a dialogue, it`s all about relationships.
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1nfinitezer0
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Re: Carry on regardless or throw in the towel

Post by 1nfinitezer0 »

Your work is solid, certainly don't give up. I would DJ them at a restaurant, lounge or patio gig for sure.

Self-releasing them will only get them as far as you can promote them yourself. So, even if tagged and described well that they will show up on a search for someone looking for that specifically, they will not make it into the hands of very many. Some small labels will live on, most will disappear. Invest in those that you believe in, not just because they will sign your stuff. Whether to release on small labels or not at all, I'm certainly not an expert in the industry, but the netlabel wave served a lot of people, but so have many other methods. The problem with looking at who has succeeded is that it doesn't necessarily tell you why they didn't fail. The double negative is important, because it relates to survivorship bias. Classic example to explain that: bombers that survived runs in the wars were used to reinforce armour locations. They started with observing where the bullets were, but it was more important where the bullets weren't. Because those bombers didn't come back.

My recommendation would be to start building yourself the community that you dream of. Rather than sending your tracks to labels, send them to DJs who's style you like, or other artists at the level you want to be. Ask them for direct feedback or to offer them downloads to play out. Aim to establish relationships, not to ask them for something. Networking comes from generosity and persistence. Most won't respond, but if you keep sending them they'll either like it enough to engage with you, share it with their own network (ie recommend a label or something) or get tired of your messages and ask you to stop. Worst case is you get more rejections (which often brings useful feedback on communications process), best case is you get a perfect connection, likely case is you start to build online friendships with peers in a domain you love.

Be nice, be persistent and serious, and this intention will eventually click where it is meant to.


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