Case Study: First Release: Raindance

Back in October my track "Raindance" was released through Red Robot Records.  At the time I was busy setting up a company and so was unable to dedicate time to self releasing. 

Red Robot had a good reputation and a solid backlog of  tracks on Beatport - and as it was unlikely that I'd be able to churn out the volume of tracks and sales that Beatport wanted in order to stay eligible from month to month, it made sense to go with a sturdy record label with a proven history.

The deal with the label was profit share - we each take a certain percentage each in return for them releasing and promoting the track to their mailing list.

Initial reviews have been good, although without a large budget to push the track marketing has been kept to a minimum.

By Jez with 1 comment

How to get your music onto Beatport

If you make dance music then the chances are you've heard of "Beatport". In their own words:  "Beatport is the recognized leader in electronic dance music downloads for DJs and club music enthusiasts."  Whilst certainly not the largest online audio store they are certainly the most recognised.  They certainly have the power to make careers - with progressive house producer Deadmau5 and Steve Duda amongst those whose careers have been launched through the site.

Beatport are renowned as having a strict policy in regard to their record labels.  In order to launch a deal with them you have to either be a recognised label and have some marketing muscle behind you.  They rarely deal with "vanity labels" - those labels set up just to deal with one artist - unless you are the kind of artist who can guarantee large volumes of sales.  In addition they monitor all sales - if you're sales dip below $500 per quarter then the chances are they'll cull you from their roster.

By Jez with 59 comments