Daniel Sokolovskiy’s Blog: posts tagged Music Industry

Fleming on genres, naming, and energy levels

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 01:22:33 +0100

In 2020, John 00 Fleming gave an interview with the Finish More Music YouTube channel, and I wrote out some interesting parts from it.

On stepping away from genres

What I’ve learned recently is to step away from genres because if you get tied up in a genre, there’s a thing that you had to be part of it. Stepping away from any genre gives you more freedom and it allows you to venture into different [musical] worlds and not being tarnished from the Internet people, like I was associated with Trance, for example. They expect me to play Trance but where Trance was originally in the underground world it’s very mainstream now and then you just letting Trance people down because I think I’m playing Trance and they call it something else. It just adds these layers and layers of confusion. So step away from it, people accept it plus they’re discovering new music by accident, so it opens you up to more audiences.

On renaming Global Trance Grooves to JOOF Radio

My old show was called Global Trance Grooves, I think it was 17 years old when I let it go. I should’ve let it go years before but I wanted to get Edition 200, it was so special to me. And it was like this switch from when the name change, the next month we saw the plays fly up, we saw it on DI.FM, on Soundcloud, Insomniac Radio came in straight away and took it on board which is a really big deal.

Go and ask 16-year old kids, what is Trance to them. Even if you click through the Beatport 100 top-selling Trance tracks, that’s their introduction to Trance music and it’s predominately very powerful, uplifting, vocal, big arpeggiators, 138 BPM and it’s that sound, whereas I remember and you probably remember Trance for something completely different years ago. So by letting go off that, this is a generational shift, the sound evolved to what this sound is now, a big euphoric main room festival sound. Whereas Progressive House for example reminds me what Trance used to be, the Progressive Trance great days, Hooj Choons, Platipus, that stuff. So having the word ‘Trance’ was confusing. The old generation got it, singing appraisers for me ‘Yay John’s hanging onto that true spirit’, but the next generation would confuse, so I was losing the next generation. They’d see the word ‘Trance’ in a radio show and not even click through it just presuming it’ll be that vocal epic kind of sound. So just that simple realignment, getting rid of that genre tag, it just opened the doors.

On energy levels

Some of the DJs just want to start off with an impact, but if the energy is up here an hour or half an hour in, where do you go from there? You’re already there, so then it seems to go flat. If you’ve just been punch-punch-punch for an hour, that impact of that high energy does wear off. That’s why to me it’s like a journey, like watching a movie: if there’s a massive manic car chase scene with gunshots and everything going for an hour, you just lose interest in the film. It has to be broken up, so when the chase comes you’re like ‘Wow, I wasn’t expecting that!’, so you’ve impacted with the energy again.

There is a lot more on the studio sessions and music industry, so definitely watch the whole interview.

What music can be used for a podcast

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 20:40:36 +0100

Hello Daniel, I would like to create a podcast with chillout, ambient, and deep house music. What should I do? Can I use any tracks I like without changing them, but just make a single mix of 50 minutes, for example? Let’s say, download them off the internet, mix them up and put them on Apple Podcasts? Do I need to get permission from every label and artist? It’s not for commercial use, right?

Aiya

In short, it’s simple: you take the tracks, mix them, and put them out – that’s it. You don’t need any special permission or anything fancy. But as always, there are nuances.

First of all, some DJs think that if they buy music, for example, on Beatport, they can do whatever they want with these tracks: mix them in podcasts, put them into videos, or play them in cafes. But in fact, this is not quite true: speaking specifically about podcasts (videos and cafes are separate topics), from the legal point of view there is no difference between music that you buy and music that you download for free. I myself am all for buying music legally whenever possible, but you have to understand that in this context, buying music doesn’t give you any special rights compared to free downloaded music. Commercial or non-commercial use also makes no difference in this case.

Secondly, in general, you don’t need permission from artists and labels. However, if you want to put a podcast on YouTube and monetize your channel, in this case, you do need permission from the rights holders (they are usually labels, not artists), but this is a complicated and often unsuccessful process.

Third, you’re free to do whatever you want with the tracks themselves: trim, cut, and layer, or leave them as they are. It’s up to your DJ skills and what you want to do with them. You can do any length you want, too.

Finally, I would like to advise you to watch carefully the sites where you upload your podcast. In my experience:

Soundcloud can block a track in the mix and hide the entire podcast episode from public access. In my ten years of using the service, this has happened once.
Mixcloud accepts DJ mixes and podcasts, but only them: you can’t upload individual tracks or even use several tracks from the same artist in a row there.
Apple Podcasts, according to my observations, are not moderated in any way, that is, mixes can be posted there (or at least not prohibited). Important point: Apple Podcasts is basically a directory of links, but not a repository. In other words, to add your podcasts to Apple Podcasts, your audio files must be stored somewhere – such a place on the Internet is called hosting. But typical web hosting services have a number of limitations and inconveniences, so it is easier and more convenient to add your podcasts to Apple Podcasts via some service – again Soundcloud, for example.
Spotify Podcasts, on the other hand, are designed exclusively for talking podcasts: DJ mixes are not accepted there. That is, you can talk in the episodes, but you can’t play music. It seems like Spotify is working on making it possible to upload music mixes there as well in the future, but that’s about it for now.
YouTube allows you to upload mixes, but with restrictions: you can’t monetize channels that use other people’s music if you want to in the future. Here you can either try to get permission from the rights holders to whitelist your channel (which is exactly what I wrote about above) or just give up on monetization.

I hope it helps.

Goal matters. Understanding why are you making music is important

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 21:00:00 +0100

When people ask me how to start making music, I answer with a counter-question: “Why do you want to do that? What is your goal?”.

The answers vary, but more often than not they can be divided into two groups: to make music “for myself” (just for fun, to show my friends etc.) and “for a career” (to turn music into a profession, to make a living on it).

It would seem, what is the difference? Here some dude does something at the computer, pressing buttons and spinning knobs. Why should anyone be bothered with this goal question?

But there is a big difference.

Imagine that you like to cook food. You haven’t had any special training, but you love to eat good food and treat your loved ones. You can make ratatouille, chilli con carne, or pad Thai. Or you can not cook anything if there is no necessary products or you just feel lazy today, and just order a pizza. In this sense, you have complete freedom, and your loved ones will likely enjoy whatever you cook.

It is quite another story if you are a chef. Before you get a job, you must learn culinary science, food chemistry, food processing, stock management, delivery, and much more. While cooking, it’s also important to follow the recipe, keep the yield of the product, and watch the serving, because the restaurant has certain standards and the customers have expectations. About fourteen years ago I was thinking about a career as a chef, so I know a little bit about it.

Well, in music, it’s the same.

Making music “for yourself” means being like a free painter: if you want to write it, you write it, if you don’t want to write it, you don’t write it. If you want to write something super unusual, even if it seems like bullshit to others, no problem, you can always say that it was “the author’s idea”. There are no standards. There is no external deadline. In short, do whatever you want.

On music standards

It’s quite different if you aim to be a professional producer. You need to know the production, sound design, acoustics, arrangements, composition, and mixing – and that’s just the basics to make a high-quality track. Then there is more: you need to know the industry, know how to market yourself, bring the music to the audience, negotiate, plan the budget, understand the contracts, organize yourself, play DJ sets and do many, many more things. After years in my music career, I know a little bit about that.

To summarize, to do something professionally, you have to know more related disciplines, understand the market, and work hard. A lot. And if you generalize even more, for a hobby, the process is important, while for a profession the result is important. I think that’s the main difference.

In a hobby it’s the process, in a profession it’s the result

I want to end with an important point: You don’t have to become a professional. Don’t have to build a career. Cooking a meal for loved ones or making music for yourself is fine. If you enjoy the process, just enjoy it.

Distributed income

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 21:12:25 +0100

Cancelled gigs and plans, closed clubs and country borders. Thousands of DJs and producers have lost their jobs. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic has affected all areas of our lives, but I would like to talk specifically about the music industry and the income of artists in particular.

Almost all artists strive for a busy touring schedule. And that’s not surprising since the primary income for artists comes from performances. But here’s the problem: if you put all your resources into one single source of income, you become very vulnerable. The artist had ten confirmed performances, and then they’re gone. The situation with closed clubs and cancelled airlines seems like something from a science fiction area, yet it’s happening worldwide right now.

The main lesson for artists should be the saying “don’t put all eggs in one basket” and striving for a distributed income structure. Ideally, three or five sources of income should generate roughly equal shares.

No	Yes
Gigs fee — 90%	Gigs fee — 30%
Streaming royalties — 10%	Streaming royalties — 20%
	Educational products — 20%
	Soundtracks for films and commercials — 10%
	Mastering services — 10%
	Web graphic services — 10%

The structure in the right column is not ideal either and here just for the illustration. Still, the main thing it provides is an active reserve and the ability to pay the bills, even when the primary source of income is lacking, like many artists all over the world are sadly experiencing now. For example, months with no gigs (which can happen even without coronaviruses) is no big deal if other sources of income can generate 70% of your regular income, so you can pay the bills and use this time to focus on other projects.

In my educational talk back in 2017, I advised aspiring producers to have a financial backup and not be in a hurry to quit their day job. The combination of regular work and music is an example of a distributed income structure.

I don’t have a recipe or advice on making a distributed income, but it seems like a good idea to start by understanding the importance of the concept itself. And, of course, this does not apply only to the music industry.

How to grow as a DJ after learning the basics

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:00:20 +0100

Beginner, advanced, and expert depending on the learned skills

I took a basic DJ course in my hometown, learned how to mix tracks in several ways (bass switch, Echo, Filter, Loop) and understand in general what you need to do with the mixer to make the music play. But after I uploaded a couple of mixes on SoundCloud I have a question – what’s next?

I understand that I have a 100% very compressed understanding of this industry right now, but it’s not clear where to get new knowledge to improve skills and how to grow. Here I mix music in standard ways, but I feel that it’s just a drop in the ocean. I tried to send my mixes to a couple of places where I would like to perform for the first time in front of an audience, they said they will listen and write back but they didn’t.

I really want to grow, but after the basic course, it feels like a huge ocean of information and I just drown in it. If you can help with advice, I would be very grateful.

Nikita

Nikita, that’s an excellent question, thank you. And it’s great that you’re asking it.

“What’s next” – the answer to this question depends primarily on your goals and ambitions. You mentioned that you would like to perform in front of an audience, so I would assume that’s what you want to do. But even here, there may be variations:

For example, a DJ wants to become a resident at a local club to work there every Thursday. Or a DJ wants to become the best DJ in his town, playing in different venues. Or a DJ wants to travel all over the country giving shows. Or a DJ wants to become famous outside his country so that foreign promoters invite him on international tours.

These are all very different goals with different means to achieve them. Note that neither option is better or worse than the other – it’s just that they are different, and some may like one more than the other.

So I can only give general advice: increase your value. This sounds abstract, so let me explain.

In the DJ circles, people like to argue about the right or wrong mixing techniques, the coolness of new equipment, the”true spirit” of vinyl, live vs not live sets, and fake or not fake. But the truth is that the technical side of DJing is only one aspect of the profession, not even the most important one. It’s easy to push the buttons, but it’s a real challenge to become and remain in demand.

Vinyl vs sync button

For example, here are some disciplines and skills in which a DJ can grow:

DJing	Education of taste, a constant search for new music, work with DJ collection, knowledge of equipment, understanding of the ”phrases”, learning the advanced techniques and gear, harmonic mixing, MIDI mapping
Work on stage	Understanding the types of sets and roles of DJs, programming the set with energy levels, switchover with other DJs, switching, “reading” the crowd
Music production	Synthesis, processing, composition, notes, rhythms, arrangement, sampling, layering, mixing, sound design
Marketing	Spreading awareness about you as a brand through releases, podcasts, radio stations, blogs, vlogs, conferences, magazines, mailing lists, social networks; working with an audience
Negotiations	Building relationships with promoters, labels, designers, photographers, and other people in the industry
Economy	Understanding of financial models of clubs, events, labels, streaming services
Management	The ability to manage projects and yourself, so as not to get bogged down in routine and not to go crazy

The list is by no means complete, and only an example, but the main idea here is this: the more skills you master and the deeper you understand each of them, the higher your value as an artist will be.

I emphasize that even knowing all of this doesn’t guarantee success because the music industry is much more complicated than the typical career ladder on a “regular job”. But it will definitely give you a better chance than someone who has never in his life been interested in anything but mixing two tracks with each other.

Learn and develop skills to increase your value

I also want to comment further on this part:

“I tried to send my mixes to a couple of places where I would like to perform for the first time in front of an audience, they said they would listen and write back but they didn’t.”

I can understand the promoters who didn’t answer you. Everyone who has ever hosted an event and invited a DJ has understandable fears: what if this DJ has never seen the equipment and will shamefully play with trainwrecks? What if the DJ we invited to warm up the event will be blasting Beatport’s top 10 hits? What if he burns the hell out or floods the club’s equipment? What if he doesn’t show up at all?

On warm-up DJs

The fact is that despite the seemingly huge competition, there are very few decent DJs. And even if you are decent and able to work well, the promoters don’t know about it. Your task is to help calm their fears and tell them why they can trust you.

On decent DJs

For example, pictures from gigs are one way to show a DJ to potential promoters that he has the experience and other people trust him.

Hire photographers

But what if there are no gigs? There are options here, too: wait for promoters to invite you; seek out performance opportunities yourself; organize events on your own, even if it’s a private event for friends. These are all big topics, so let me know if you’re interested and I’ll try to talk about it someday next time.

I hope this gives you some vector.

Can we drop social media?

Wed, 10 Mar 2021 12:51:18 +0100

Back in the late 90s and early-mid 00s, there were websites, emails, and blogs that you could read directly on the site or by using RSS. That’s basically how content distribution worked. You’ve put something on the web, and people read it if and when they want.

Today, the majority of content seems to be in social media, and no surprise since Facebook alone has almost 3 billion active monthly users. So it seems natural that many of public figures, music producers and DJs included, focus their energy and post everything here.

But, to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of social media. The fact that the content you work hard for is owned and controlled by some companies and algorithms is worrying, to say the least. I’m fortunate to have certain skills allowing me to run my own blog where all my content is safe from those corporates, but still, there are just too many things I don’t like in social media: from censorship to selling users’ data. Frankly, to me, social media seems to be less and less ethical to use.

That makes me think about whether I should use social media for my public communication at all. I mean, I don’t like doing so, but do I have to? For music producers and DJs, the audience is the most valuable asset, any marketer can tell you that. But should we really rely on social media to gather people to let them know about our work?

I wonder what you guys think about a sort of ”web 1.0” with plain and simple RSS feeds and emails instead of Facebook, Instagram etc.? Would you still follow the artists you like in such a way? Or is there no way to get around without social media for artists?

I totally get that other people might have different opinions on that, so I’m curious to hear yours.

P.S. Added a few hours later.

Ironically, this post I’ve put on Facebook got more engagement than any of my typical posts. I’ll just add a link here for archiving purpose.

Music standards

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 09:42:12 +0100

Every music genre has its own substandard. And it is very important to understand that there are no abstractly “good” and “bad” individual sounds or tracks, but there is a matching or failing to meet the standards.

Listen to these two audio examples:

Kick-1

Kick-2

Which one is better?

The answer is: it depends on what we’re trying to do and what problem we’re trying to solve.

Speaking from the point of the nature of sound, the second kick sounds excessively distorted, flattened, clipped and formally unusable. But suppose a producer has set a goal to release a techno track. In that case, that rough and formally useless kick is potentially more suitable for this purpose because in some subgenres of techno it is so accepted. In general, we often make the sound objectively worse so that subjectively it seems better to us and meets certain standards.

It is also essential to understand that such standards always change over time. The sound design, production techniques, and character of tracks that were relevant ten years ago are hardly the standard today.

Listen to a few examples:

In Techno:

Adam Beyer — Compressed A1 (Original Mix), 139 BPM [Drumcode, 1996]

Wehbba — Coup Of Doubt (Original Mix), 128 BPM [Drumcode, 2020]

In Progressive House:

Shmuel Flash ‎– Chilling Moments (Bedrock Vocal), 128 BPM [Bedrock, 2002]

Sugarcoat - Knives Out (Sasha Remix), 124 BPM [Bedrock, 2019]

In Psytrance:

Bitkit — Burn Out (Original Mix), 145 BPM [Yellow Sunshine Explosion, 2011]

Outside The Universe — Another You (Original Mix), 144 BPM [Sacred Technology, 2019]

Notice how the timbres of individual instruments have changed and how the tracks sound as a whole. Of course, music is produced now for all tastes, including music that sounds like it was ten or twenty years ago. Making ‘oldschool’ music on purpose is also fine if you understand what the musical standards were at the time and why you need to do it in the first place.

Does this mean that a young producer has to follow certain sound standards? Not necessarily at all. Anything is possible, including ignoring the standards at all, especially if you just make music for yourself.

Nevertheless, it is handy to observe the existence and change of these standards, both in order to follow them, if necessary, or vice versa, to know what to move away from.

Anything is possible

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 21:23:56 +0100

Sometimes I get questions in the advice series that boil down to, “Can I do this or that?” or “Can I not do that?”.

For example:

Can I send a demo track to a few dozen labels at once?
Can a DJ not post anything on social media?
Can I not use equalizer?
Can I come to the club ten minutes before the start of my set?

That is, a person has probably heard that something should be done, but is looking for a way to refute it: “Are you sure it should be done? Maybe it’s not necessary? Can we do it differently?” And that’s okay because it’s good to ask questions.

And the answer is very simple: anything is possible. Anything at all. But every choice has consequences that are worth bearing in mind.

For example:

Can I send a demo track to a few dozen labels at once?
Yes, you can, but be prepared that your demo will either be ignored or signed to some third-rate label. Here’s the best way to send a demo.

Can a DJ not post anything on social media?
Yes, you can, but then it will be harder for people to hear about you, and your audience will grow slower. Because social media is important.

Can I not use equalizer?
Yes, you can, but then don’t be surprised if the bass in your track is sluggish and dull. If you at least check and cut the extra low end, it will be cleaner already.

Can you come to the club ten minutes before the start of your set?
Yes, you can, but then you won’t have much time left for “plan B” if something goes wrong – and a lot of things can go wrong. I recommend arriving early.

Anything is possible, but it’s worth bearing in mind the consequences of the choice

Note that in the examples above, I didn’t call any of the outcomes bad. Maybe you write music purely for fun, so you don’t care about releases on credible labels, audience growth, or performances? Well, that’s fine, because those things are neither good nor bad in and of themselves.

But if you have certain career goals in mind, then you have to consider the possible consequences of any of such “yes, you can”.

Pros and cons of releasing music directly via a distributor

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 08:57:46 +0100

Websites of popular artist music distribution services

What are the pros and cons of releasing a track directly through a distributor, without a label? What are the pitfalls of this process?

Vlad Zabolotsky

What we’re talking about
First, let me explain a little bit for those who don’t know. The concept of a “release,” or digital release of music, means making that music available for listening on streaming services and DJ stores. The biggest ones are Spotify and Beatport.

The difficulty is that, unlike regular services like YouTube or Soundcloud, where anyone can create an account and upload music, streaming services and DJ stores don’t work that way.

Spotify and Beatport only accept music through special intermediary services — distributors. When music is traditionally released through labels, it is the labels that take care of all the distribution work. Like this:

producer → label → distributor → services and stores

However, what Vlad is asking about is the release of music directly, that is, without the label’s involvement. Like so:

producer → ~~label →~~ distributor → services and stores

That’s what I’m going to talk about.

Vlad, I’ll tell you right away that I personally didn’t release music directly through distributors. All my releases are signed on the labels, so I didn’t deal with distributors. What I do know on this subject is my general knowledge of the music industry, so take it with a grain of salt.

Why release music on your own

I see three main reasons why someone might want to release music on their own, without labels:

Timing control. With labels it’s usually like this: you send them a demo, and wait. You wait a week, two weeks, sometimes three. Then the label says: “Sorry, your track doesn’t work for us.” You send it to another label, you wait again. If you’re lucky, they accept the track, and then you wait again – for the release date. Some labels have dozens of releases in the pipeline, so sometimes you have to wait for your release for half a year or more. With self-releases, you don’t have this problem – you release as much as you want, whenever you want.

How to send a demo to a record label

Financial control. All the labels I know have a rather complicated, non-transparent, and slow reporting system. As a rule, the sales report comes either quarterly or semiannually, reflecting the previous reporting period. That said, some labels put a minimum threshold on royalty transfers of $100 to simplify accounting, meaning they withhold anything below that amount for themselves, and thus aspiring producers may not see any income for years. To be fair, sales and streaming really don’t bring in much, so it’s not the labels’ fault here. Anyway, by releasing music on your own, you see all your pennies earned and can withdraw them at any time.

Creative freedom. Usually labels release music in a certain style, concept, and sound – it’s called a format. But sometimes they follow their own format so literally that they release tracks that are almost no different from each other. They say they are looking for originality, but in fact, they accept only the same-sounding tracks. The independent release of your own music allows you not to adjust to any format and make whatever you like.

Now I suggest we look at the specifics of distributor work.

Without a label, you can release whatever you want, whenever you want, and have 100% income from it

Cost

First, I think it’s important to understand what distributors are like and what their financial models are. Two of the most famous and popular ones are DistroKid and CD Baby; Spotify also recommends them.

Spotify: recommended distributors

These distributors have two fundamentally different payment models:

Subscription. DistroKid charges $20 a year for an unlimited number of releases. For that amount, you can have a release every week like Stan Kolev, but the key here is “per year”: if you don’t renew your subscription after your last paid period ends, all your music will be pulled off from the streaming services. In fact, if you choose a distributor with a subscription, you’ll basically be committed to paying every year for the rest of your life. DistroKid doesn’t take a commission, which means that 100% of your income goes to you.

It’s also worth noting that $20 a year is the minimum basic version with a limited set of features. For example, if you want to choose the exact future date of your release, that costs $36 a year.

One-time. CD Baby charges $10 for a single and $30 for an album, but only once for life. They take an additional 9% commission from the income, which leaves you with 91%.

CD Baby also has advanced versions which cost $30 for a single and $70 for an album respectively. The main difference between the regular and the “pro” versions is the publishing administration included in the price, we’ll talk about that below.

You should also have in mind the mastering and cover artworks cost, which in the case of self-release you also have to do yourself: either with your own money or with your own time.

For a self-release, you have to pay with your money and your time

Publishing

The main functions of a distributor are to put music on streaming platforms and then collect royalties from them, i.e. income. But income from music can come not only in this form, but also in other, less obvious ways: from the use of music in videos, from playback on Internet radio stations, and so on.

There are three main types of royalties: mechanical, synchronization, and public performance. I’ll write more about it someday

Now, by default, almost all distributors don’t collect these kinds of royalties. For example, some vlogger used your track in his video, and that video got millions of views. If you don’t worry about it beforehand, you won’t get anything out of that million views using your track, even though you could.

For example, DistroKid doesn’t collect royalties from anywhere except the platforms where it delivers music. The exception is YouTube: for an extra $5 per single and $15 per album per year, plus a 20% commission on revenue from YouTube.

CD Baby has a royalty fee collection included in the “pro” versions I talked about above. If your tracks get played on radio stations, clubs, or anywhere else, CD Baby will collect royalties to you as the author.

Those who work with DistroKid and other similar distributors usually have to use separate royalty collection services. For example, one such service is Songtrust. It costs $100 for a one-time registration, and then takes a 15% commission on the royalties collected.

Platforms

Every distributor has a list of platforms they deliver music to. As a rule, they all work with major streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, and others.

So, all such distributors don’t deliver music to Beatport, because you have to have a label to be placed on Beatport. For example, DistroKid technically does it, but your music ends up on their label page, where all the music they’ve distributed that way is mixed up, which isn’t great in my opinion. The only exception I’m aware of is the distributor called Record Union: for $60 a year, it will deliver music to many platforms, including Beatport, though publishing administration is not included.

Some producers create their own labels with the sole role of putting their own music on Beatport, but that’s another story.

To release directly or not

Everything I wrote above is distributor features that are important to consider. But whether they are pros or cons depends solely on your goals, plan, and strategy.

For example, some people can’t imagine releasing music without being on Beatport, while others care only about streaming services and don’t care about Beatport. Or someone releases a single a year, so it’s okay to pay $30 for distribution through CD Baby, and someone releases a single every few weeks, so DistroKid might be more suitable for them.

Whether or not to release music directly depends solely on your personal goals, plan, and strategy

Personally, I think that whatever distributor you choose, an independent release, unlike a label, won’t give you the most important thing, which is your name’s affiliation with the brand. It’s like a quality mark that others say, “Oh, that producer’s from Anjuna!” Well, or Drumcode, Armada, Toolroom, you name it — any credible label in their genre. When your name is associated with a label like that, it gives you extra value, credibility, and an audience, which in turn can help to open up new possibilities.

What record labels do

What’s more important to you is up to you.

DJs: hire photographers for your gigs

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 11:48:04 +0100

A few thoughts on the pictures from DJs’ gigs and advice based on my own failure

First of all, the most obvious: photos are a good thing. They’re personal memories that feel good to revisit and share with others. Who doesn’t love pictures?

Now the slightly less obvious: Pictures of DJs’ gigs are your work assets. If a DJ has good pictures from his gigs, it’s easier for promoters to work with him: to run an advertising campaign for the upcoming event, to sell tickets. Also, photos from performances help to remove fears of potential promoters: when you see a DJ behind the club gear in front of live people, you know that at least he has such experience, which means less chance that he will screw up (remember that decent DJs are pretty rare). And, of course, photos are great content for visual communication for your blogs and social media.

Read what about social media John Fleming and Ace Ventura

Finally, something that would seem unobvious or even wrong to many at first glance: making sure that a DJ gets photos of the gigs is the DJ’s own job. I’m not talking about how to get those gigs (that’s a big separate topic), but about the photos from them.

It’s the DJ’s job to get pictures of his gigs

When I was young and inexperienced, I used to think something like this: “Since the organizer is doing the event, he most likely hires a photographer. And since there’s going to be a photographer at the event, that means I, as the DJ, will have some great shots from there, especially when I’m an international artist in the lineup. Right?”.

With these thoughts in mind, I flew to my first international gigs in Switzerland in 2014, then to Hungary in 2015, then to Switzerland again in 2017, and soon to Greece. Events in different countries with big lineups of international artists; big clubs and festivals. Guess how many pictures of me are from there? The answer is zero. None. At least I’ve kept the posters, or else it was like there were none. Wonder how that’s possible?

See all my posts about the shows: posters, photos, mixes and other snippets from the tour

Well, the thing is, when organizers hire photographers, they do this for a very different reason. For the organizer, the main goal of the photos is to make people want to come to their next events. To do that, they usually try to show a good mood, people, vibe, location, deco, and all that that typically catches people’s eyes. And that’s not necessarily DJs at all.

For example, this is what one of such shots can look like:

Shankra Festival, Lostallo, Switzerland, 2017. The photo is cool, but not about me

I ended up having great gigs, but there’s not a single shot of me from there to use as my asset. Don’t be like me.

After realizing it was a complete failure, I’ve since made it a rule to hire photographers myself — not for the entire events, but specifically for my sets.

When you hire a photographer, you can explain to him what angles to shoot and from what not to; he certainly will not be late for your set; you probably won’t have to wait for the photos for weeks; the files will be in high resolution and thus they can be used even for posters, or anywhere. With this approach, I now have several hundred good pictures that I use for promotional needs, social media, podcast covers, and other uses.

I add the best shots in high resolution to a special page for promoters and press

Of course, I’m not the first to think of this. I remember in 2018 noticing that Boris Brejcha is touring the world, yet almost all the photos on his Instagram are signed by only a few photographers. In other words, Brejcha doesn’t rely on local photographers from the organizers (who, of course, are certainly present and take photos of Brejcha anyway), but he flies with his own, trusted guys.

Boris Brejcha on Instagram

Boris Brejcha in Moscow, 2018. Photo: Ruben Schmitz. The pictures like this “sell” well very

At the time, I thought it was a great idea and started doing the same thing. As an artist, I don’t gather stadiums of people like Brejcha, but even if there are only a hundred people on the dance floor, you can still ask the photographer to take at least a few close-up shots of the DJ — shots like that are useful and important too.

Me at a gig at Gorod Club, Moscow, 2018. Photo: Pavel Tzimisce. A nice, working shot even without the stadium of people

All in all, DJs, a word of advice: don’t rely on the luck of the draw, but hire photographers yourself. These investments are worth it.

Insta DJ

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 14:06:00 +0100

A good documentary from Pioneers about the impact of social media on DJs and the industry. I liked the fact that the view is not one-sided, but both pros and cons are expressed.

I tend to lean more towards the “everything is good in moderation” approach: if a DJ spends every minute of his free time on social networks, something has gone wrong; if people on the dance floor don’t let their phones out of their hands, something is all the more wrong.

I’ll leave these quotes from the film here:

‘Being at the clubs for a moment itself is all about being amazed by the music, feeling the atmosphere, meeting other people who feel the same as you do about the tracks being played. As soon as you pull your phone out, you lose all of it, you lose the essence of the reason why you’re there.’

There’s definitely a danger that we’re losing human connectivity as a result of living through our screens. When you used to go to a club, it was about the music but it was also about meeting people. And now it’s about the music and taking photos of that music and posting it in real-time and not about people around you. And I think we’re all missing some of the magic of the moment because of it.’//

Highly recommend watching the whole thing.

Cubixx on marketing

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 18:02:25 +0100

Matthias Sperlich, also known as Dj Cubixx and the head of Iono Music, gave an interview to Mushroom Magazine talking about his love of the Psychedelic Trance and about the music industry.

I’d like to highlight one particular part:

“Reality is that people who work in the music industry need to be paid the work they do. Whether it’s as artists, promoters, label owners. Nobody can survive on fresh air. Marketing is a necessary tool to spread the word in this global scene – to keep people engaged and attract a new generation.

Of course, we do it for the love and the passion, and sacrifice a regular salary with the benefits of a holiday, sick pays and unions – we do it for the love and because we believe in the power of music so much. But if everyone rips our music for free, and people don’t pay for tickets to parties, then the reality is we can’t afford to eat and pay bills, let alone maintain our studios, so we’d eventually be forced to quit.”

Marketing is a necessary tool to spread the word in this global scene – to keep people engaged and attract a new generation.

This is essential to understand for all nowadays producers. I know many think that music speaks for itself and marketing is bullshit for commercial music only, but the reality is you as a producer have to do some efforts — quite a lot actually — if you want to be heard and pay bills for the work you do.

Live Q&A with John 00 Fleming and Tim Penner

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 18:44:09 +0100

Livestream highlights

The live stream’s banner

Two of my favourite artists, John 00 Fleming and Tim Penner, hosted a fantastic Q&A live stream yesterday that was full of insightful information and motivational speeches that every producer (myself included) should know. Seriously, go watch that video if you missed it live. It’s 2-hours long, but it’s worth it.

For those who don’t have two spare hours, I’ve written a quick summary to highlight some of the most important quotes from these two masters. And in such way, it’s also easier to come and read this again at any time.

On social media

I feel sorry for the next generation. Running a specialist label you definitely get to work with super talented producers and DJs, but they can’t make a career because they don’t know how to handle social media or they not doing it whatsoever. And it pains me because that person should be on main stages on the festivals and have a fruitful career, but they haven’t because they don’t understand social media and not doing what they should be doing.

Ace Ventura on social media

Music is used to be first, and if you were a good DJ, you’re good to go. Now it’s the other way around. If you good at social media, your career will take off regardless of what you got behind you, the music comes afterwards. Nail the social media, and then worry about the music afterwards. It pains me to say, but that seems to be the way it is today.

Nail social media, and then worry about the music afterwards

On organising music

I can only answer from me personally. I organise playlists as the tools that I need in hand. I never pre-plans set at all, I woke up to every single gig whether I playing an hour set or a 10-hour set, I never know what I’m going to play until I step up to the stage. But the way I’ve got my playlists it’s the musical tools that I know, let’s say ‘Progressive’ which is deep and melodic, you got ‘Progressive’ which is dark and driving, you got ‘Trance’ which is driving, ‘Psychedelic’ which is deep.

Organising music library

I must have to have about thirty different playlists, but the key to me is learning the tracks. It’s identifying by looking at the track exactly what it’s gonna do as soon as you start playing it.

Sometimes I secretly spy on other DJ’s playlists, when they come along playing before or after me and they got the USB connected to the players. It just pains me that some DJs will have just twelve tracks and nothing else on the USB. I couldn’t play like that!

When you first get tracks you don’t really know how good is gonna be until you play it in a live situation. It might sound quite driving at home but when you play it a club it’s not driving, so when I get back from the gig the first thing I do is spend an hour just going through memorising what I played and adding the extra notes.

What makes a good warm-up set

John 00 Fleming: The short and sweet answer is basically what you [Tim Penner] do. You got a respect the person that you warming-up for, you got to do your homework. And this is a big moment. What a lot of newbies think is their head is “Wow, this is my gig, this is my moment to shine, this is the moment my career going to take off!”, and they just want to play a headline set in that warm-up set. But it does the opposite, you just really upset the DJ you suppose to be opening for.

The importance of proper opening DJs

The point is you’ve got to get people in the room, you got to keep your levels down. You don’t want to walk in a club when everything is just screaming at you and you can’t go to the bar, get a drink and hang out with your mates.

You want to warm-up slowly, but then when everybody standing around the dancefloor that’s the magic moment — it’s knowing exactly when to drop a track that has a bit more energy or familiar track, and that’s when your levels come into play.

You got a respect the person that you warming-up for, you got to do your homework

Tim Penner: It is a really important job to be the most humble artist in that room: you’re setting the mood and you’re setting the vibe for the night. And the thing is that people are too smart now. They may not know that you are the best DJ in the world but they know that fit that motive perfectly for the night, and you set what that whole night is supposed to be about, people know this.

On productions skills

When new artists come into it, there is something that cool and hot at the time and that’s what they wanna make. So it takes time to become a skilled producer, and they’ll start to make that genre. So what you see now is all those artists starting to get better, they started to sound like that generic sound from four years ago. And when I listen to such music, I’m like “it’s not current anymore, it would’ve been four years ago”.

So the best turning point that also was for me is the hardest, is staying true to yourself but also looking ahead of the curve and seeing where the trends are going.

Keeping close to what you wanna make and expressing yourself through music while becoming more skilled as a producer, but not going by trends and trying to cut them off. Those artists that are cutting edge and trying different things, they are the one that stands out now.

On balancing production and life

This balancing production is a battle that every artist faces whether you touring or not, balancing life, in general, can be really hard. That could be one of the biggest hurdles for an artist to get over. You know, you have a family, a spouse, you have emergencies, and other things you want to do to fill your time with.

And wheater it’s touring or Game Of Thrones, there’s a balance between life and work. And you need to find that balance. Everybody faces this battle, and I think it’s a number one reason why people give up.

You need to find a balance, it’s a number one reason why people give up

On the mixdown

There are certain misconceptions about what makes a good track in the end. Mixdown and mastering, I think there are misconceptions about what that is, you know, a lot of artists will put sounds together and try to make a track and be like “well, we’ll fix it in the end”. But mixdown and mastering start at the very first sound that you put down, it’s very important to understand the physics of the sound and what you are trying to accomplish.

What is sound

One of the tricks with figuring out how to make music is how to make sounds sound full. A lot of people will just load their Ableton with a lot of sounds to make it sound full, when in fact the whole goal of making good-flowing music is to give each sound it’s own space to move.

So that is actually a backward concept where you make a sound and you need to let that sound work its magic in its own space. It’s not fighting with other sounds, and that’s the key.

On sharing the knowledge

A lot of people keep things in secret, and if anybody knows me that followed me over the years, I’m an open book. And I think being an open book, sharing your knowledge and helping people is the best way to strengthen our industry, as opposed to keeping it sheltered behind your own wall.

Advice series

We want to be around for as long as possible, that genre and our feeling, and the way to that is to embrace young artists, help them to get over the hurdles so they gonna be there decades down the road.

sharing your knowledge is the best way to strengthen our industry

How much I earned on the album sales

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 20:18:51 +0100

Behind the scenes in facts and numbers

Last year I released my second studio album 2000 Years Ahead, my the most successful release to date.

Success shows in different ways: followers’ growth, bookings, smiles on the dancefloor. But today I’d like to share specific numbers, and that is how I earned on the album sales. Just in time as I recently got a financial report from the label.

How many copies sold

The album was released in two formats: digital and physical. Label — Digital Om Production. At that time Bonzai Music was taking care of the digital distribution, whilst Arabesque Distribution for the CDs.

940 tracks and 140 CD copies sold so far

For the first quarter, people downloaded 940 tracks and purchased 140 CD copies.

Is that good enough or not?

Let me answer with the fact: the album was #1 on Psyshop and #2 on Beatport top charts for the whole month:

“2000 Years Ahead” in the top sales charts. Source: bptoptracker.com.

Overall, the album spent 18 days in the top-10 and 69 days in the top-100 on Beatport. Sitting in the charts for more than two months considered as quite an achievement.

How much I’ve got

Now comes the more interesting part. To be clear, all numbers below are net, i.e. after the deduction of the stores and distributors commission, which is roughly 50% depending on the platform and region. For example, when you see $1,99 retail price per track on Beatport, the real income from it is about $0,9. That’s the numbers I’m operating below.

Stores take 20—50% cut from retail price

So, this is what’ve got from all sources — digital sales (including streaming), physical sales and sublicensing:

Revenue
Digital sales	+€815
Physical sales	+€610
Sublicensing	+€200
Total revenue:	+€1625

A thousand and a six hundred euros sound nice, right?

But revenue ≠ profit. The album also had some expenses on production and promotion that we have to take into account:

Expenses
Mastering	-€225
Artworks	-€200
CD printing	-€300
Logistics	-€100
Marketing	-€100
Total expenses:	-€925

Now let’s calculate the profit: €1625 (revenue) – €925 (expenses) = €700. But we’re not done yet since all profit splits between the artist and the label — that’s a typical deal in the industry. So, then: €700 / 2 = €350. And that is how much I earned before taxes.

€350 is how much I’ve got a year later for the first quarter of sales

Added in 2021: I want to emphasize that all numbers above are given for the first quarter of sales only since the release date. For the last two years since I wrote this post, my total net profit from the album is over €1500, mainly due to streaming.

Now we can make a few conclusions:

Once again I’ve got a confirmation of my own words that a music producer cannot make a living on the music sales alone. I’ve written about it earlier and talked on my master class.
Music release is not only income but also expenses. And whilst you may not gain profit at all, it will cost you something for sure.
It’s important to mention that in my case the label took all expenses since we already worked together and I got a trustworthy reputation. Keep in mind that not every label would want to invest a thousand dollars if you are a new producer with a debut release.
People still buy CDs!

Why I’m telling this

Perhaps, not everyone aware of that, but we actually have a problem in the music industry: many young producers expect to make a living on the debut release sales, then they see a financial report with a 2-digit number (or nothing, at all), start to accuse everyone around and eventually quit their career.

I’m sad to see these things happen all the time and hence why I share my experience on how things work behind the scenes.

I’d love to tell you that “I released my album and bought a house”, but the truth is after a year of hard work and a fantastic appearance in the charts, the album sales directly gave less than a monthly salary of a janitor. That’s the true story.

That’s why you need to remove the pink glasses and start working hard — a something that musicians do not really like to do. And threat your music releases simply as a portfolio.

Bonus: stats

A financial report is not only about the money, it’s also a lot of juicy data. I’ll put some metrics that I find interesting down below.

Digital sales, by store:

Beatport	75%
iTunes	18%
Juno	4%
Google Music	2%
Amazon	1%

Digital sales, by country

USA	20%
United Kingdom	13%
Germany	12%
Australia	9%
Switzerland	7%
Japan	5%
France	4%
Canada	4%
Brazil	3%
Finland	3%
Netherlands	3%
26 more countries	14%

Streaming, by service

Spotify	50%
Apple Music	38%
Google Music	5%
iTunes	4%
Deezer	3%

Streaming, by country

USA	10%
Germany	9%
United Kingdom	7%
Mexico	6%
Russia	6%
Netherlands	5%
Switzerland	4%
Australia	4%
Japan	4%
Sweden	4%
France	3%
Canada	3%
37 more countries	25%

On easy money

Mon, 28 May 2018 11:49:30 +0100

Jiz Lee

I’m going to put here some quotes, and try to guess what I’m talking about:

“There are performers, there are lighting people, there’s a PA, there’s a manager, there are all of those people and that’s the production day. And then there’s post and editing. Even beyond just the set, the industry is so much more of a business than people realise. Like every company has a sales team and an accounting department. [...] There are so many people behind the scenes.

Just like any other job, there are some days that are like the most fantastic days ever and it’s ‘I like my job!’ and there are some days where it’s like you’re working. Not everyone in the industry makes a lot of money, but it costs a lot of money up front for sure. I put more hours into being a star then I think the average person puts into their nine-to-five job.

People might know me for being up from the camera but I do marketing and I set at a desk most of my day. If you do it as a career, you end up wearing so many hats: some performers learn how to do makeup, some learn how to edit [...] Creating your own content, creating your own mini-vids or clips for sale, learning how to edit and upload. All of these things are the learning curve that you have to have in order to be a... I don’t even say successful, that steady working performer.”

All of these things are learning curve that you have to have in order to be a... I don’t even say successful, that steady working performer.

That’s must’ve been about the music industry for sure, right? Well, you’re wrong: these are the quotes of the porn stars interview for Iris.

It’s amazing how similar the expectations of newcomers to the porn business and the music industry: both seem to think that being a performer is easy money and pure pleasure.

Many think that once you’ve learned how to mix two tracks, you’re a DJ. Or just make some music and the gigs will come along, automatically. Or act in porn and just get some free sex and fun (and even get paid for that). Sounds easy!

Well, in reality, there’s a ton of hard work behind the scenes and not every performance gives you satisfaction. I think everyone who wants to make a ~~porn~~ music career should know about it.

Laidback Luke on music sales

Sat, 20 Jan 2018 14:55:39 +0100

Laidback Luke

This is brilliant. Today, Laidback Luke uploaded a new vlog episode where he is telling about ripping of tracks on SoundCloud. And by the end of the video, here is what he said about the music sales (watch at 11:55):

“So I started this vlog by telling you that I run my own record label, I even run my publishing company, so why would I promote this type of stuff [ripping off tracks on SoundCloud]? I need you to realise right now is that music is mainly promotion. The amount of money that is earned by selling your tracks is way less than back in the days. The most important thing is that your name gets spread, and because the money is in performing mostly, it’s always good to get your name out there.”

Music is mainly promotion. The most important thing is that your name gets spread.

This is exactly what I was written about in my “The truth about music sales” advice, and I’m happy that such a credible artist like Laidback Luke confirms it from his experience as well. By the way, all of his vlogs are amazing, make sure to check it out if you haven’t seen it yet.

Video from my talk @ Audio School, 05.12.2017

Thu, 18 Jan 2018 16:26:59 +0100

In December, I gave a talk at the Audio School in Moscow, where I shared my personal experience as a musician, and now it’s available on YouTube as well.

The video is in the Russian language, but you can still watch it with the subtitles:

00:00 Intro
03:56 Expectations and why they are important
08:02 Studio: how to avoid writer’s block
14:05 Release: what to do with music next
24:26 Audience: why artists need it
39:23 Routine: how to organize things

It was my first public performance where I had to say something, and I was terribly nervous. There is a lot to work on in the future: intonation, gaze, posture, and all that. Right now I look pretty dull.

However, this doesn’t make the information less valuable, so if you’re a beginner musician – definitely watch it.

I would be happy to give a talk at a conference, electronic music school, or any other music-educational event. Please get in touch if you would like to invite me as a speaker.

My A&R duties

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 17:15:40 +0100

“Please tell us about your duties in the position you have at the label: is your pay fixed, do you get paid a lot, how do you combine it with other things and how do you do it remotely, and how did you get the job? Maybe you can tell something else interesting that I didn’t ask?”

Konstantin Karpachev

About the label

The label I work for is called JOOF, an acronym of its founder, John ‘00’ Fleming. The label was founded in 1998 (celebrating its 20th anniversary this year!) and today is highly respected among fans of underground trance music.

JOOF consists of three sub-labels: JOOF Recordings, JOOF Mantra and JOOF Aura. Each one has its own style. I’ll throw a couple of examples below to make it clear what we are talking about.

On JOOF Recordings we release progressive, trance, sometimes a little bit of techno:

Eeemus – Dunes Of Kaatrah

Facade – Vuohi

On JOOF Mantra we have psytrance with a non-mainstream sound (secretly, Mantra will have a little rebranding, I’ll write more later):

Amygdala – Soaring Flux

Robert Elster – Recrystallization

On JOOF Aura we have progressive house:

Tim Penner – So Far From Here

Rick Pier O’Neil – Throaty

My role

My position at the label is formally called A&R-manager, and I’m in charge of artists and repertoire.

Since the label is quite famous, a lot of artists want to release music here and send us their demos – a hundred emails a week. My main task is to listen to all the incoming demos and decide what fits and what doesn’t.

If the track fits our labels, I add it to Trello and we discuss it with the team there. The final decision on each track is made by the boss, John Fleming. In this sense, I act as a “filter”, first passing everything through myself, and only putting the best demos up for discussion. From my experience, it’s about 1 out of 200~300 demos.

Managing a record label duties with Trello

In addition to that, I also communicate with the artists on the label and help with internal communication. In a nutshell, that’s it.

How I got the job

I got the job almost by chance: I just received an invitation letter and I took it. I hadn’t even thought about such a job before.

I had already released a few of my own releases on JOOF Recordings, so I had a trusting relationship with the label. I don’t know what criteria I was qualified for the position, but later the general manager said that he liked my writing and blogging.

I won’t tell you about the pay – that’s confidential information between me and the label, which I’m not going to disclose. And as for the how to manage everything, that a whole another topic.

How I use to-do lists

In the end, I will share an experience about what all this has given me. Working as an A&R allowed me to look at the industry “on the other side of the border”, gain new experience, reputation, and acquire hundreds of new contacts. If you are a musician and have an opportunity to work for a record label, I recommend you to take this chance.

All in all, I don’t know how such stories can be useful to anyone, but if you are interested in anything else about labels or the music industry, feel free to comment below and I’ll do my best to answer.

Ace Ventura on social media

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 11:20:46 +0100

Yoni Oshrat aka Ace Ventura

Ace Ventura gave an interview to a South African-based Psytrance portal Psymedia.co.za, and here’s what he said about social media:

Psymedia: You’re incredibly active on your social media channels. Is it an important role?
Ace Ventura: It’s not just important, its a must. With the overflow of so many new producers around, combined with the short attention span of this generation, making music, as good as it is – isn’t enough. If you want to actually be heard you must get yourself out there and let the public know about it.

Being active on social media is not just important, it’s a must.

It’s nice to see a confirmation of what I’ve been written before by such an experienced artist, it makes me think I’m on the right way. And it’s a lesson for upcoming producers around as well.

Read and watch also:

Playlist or tracklist

Sun, 12 Nov 2017 06:14:54 +0100

What’s the difference, or why you probably use the wrong word

Rekordbox 5. Example of software that lets you create playlists.

Quite often I see DJs posting their mixes with a list of played tracks, and they call those lists a “playlist”. Well, that’s wrong. A proper word for this is a “tracklist”, or “tracklisting” if you will.

Here is the difference between these two.

A playlist is a list of audio or video content that can be organised and played back in any order. The point is you as a user have control over the playback of individual items. You can playback it sequential or you can shuffle it, or you can add more items — like adding songs to a playlist on iTunes or adding videos to a playlist on YouTube.

A tracklisting, on contrast, is a list of tracks appearing in a particular given order. In the case of DJ mixes, it’s set in stone, you cannot change it.

So, when a DJ plays a set he may have tracks organised in playlists, but once he recorded his set, the list of the tracks he played become a tracklist.

Perhaps, I sound like a nerd (and I am, indeed) but I hope it’ll help to make things clear.