Why aren't there more releases?

[nose]

I have noticed there aren’t that many releases here from IDMf artists, whether that is from user input, mod output and support, musical content, or otherwise.

I brought about this context on the old forum, but if it’s a matter of bandcamp tokens, funding, or otherwise cash—maybe it should be discussed?

@bfk/XVF latest release is fuckin’ dope, but it totals at like 11 minutes+. Just saying, with a forum collective and the state of the internet, we could easily increase our volume to producing an hour+ of tunes of user generated content per month, yeah? We could be on the forefront of IDM/breakcore/trap/EDM shenanigans with hosting a lot of contests, comps, featured submissions monthly, if not weekly, with the right people in line.

more exposure for us artists, more exposure for the community, and more opportunities across the board, yeah?

I’m all in for this, where is everyone else? I recently posted on reddit about the new forum and had some decent response, https://www.reddit.com/r/idm/comments/a80bq2/idmforum_netlabel_is_back/ I think with the right people advertising and promoting the community, we could make for a lot of presence.

Let’s get the most music we can out there! we’re a badass community, let’s show it. Just my thoughts.

[TaleTwist]

I will be posting mine real soon. Even though I am not a officially IDMf artist.

[bfk]

You make some good points, there were mostly comps in the past for reasons unknown to me, and plus all the releases including the comps have to go through a process to ensure quality of the release and to give time to spread the word so to speak, also some of us have different living situations which can make it difficult for the creative process and to put out material in a timely manner it takes time, and people have certain priorities/obligations that have to be taken care of, me personally im just a hobbyist that does this in my spare time, but with that in mind it’s like the parable of the tortoise and the hare, slow and steady wins the race, also there is the old adage quality over quantity, however i’m not completely shooting you down so to speak, maybe some collaborative releases or featuring remixes of track on a release can lighten the workload somewhat…also i’m just going by what I have noticed…i’m not trying to speak for anyone or for the label itself…

[Auto-meh-geddon]

Good points on both posts. From my personal point of view, I prefer a slower and more planned approach, for a few reasons:

• we only have one volunteer mastering engineer
• the more releases we put out, the less we can promote them (remember we have zero promotion budget)
• quality: we want to believe we’re releasing high quality tracks.

At the moment we’re focusing more on ep and singles as they’re more approachable to all artists but should we receive a full LP, we would surely consider it too.
As for compilation, there will be more as usually they get a good community response.

[bfk]

Just an idea I had maybe somewhere down the line maybe consider releasing a “best of the best of the beat battles” type release if you think it’s a good idea OK if not that’s OK too, if not the label than maybe under the how do music thingy, also not volunteering anyone for anything just throwing a suggestion out there

[nose]

As for compilation, there will be more as usually they get a good community response.

Good to hear, some of my favorite memories of IDMf were participating in the open genre comps. Those albums gave such a unique vibe and palette of sound.

[Auto-meh-geddon]

I’m in favour of this, are you volunteering to put it together and send it over?
Please bear in mind that if there’s any issue about the samples though, we’ll have to take the track/tracks down.
But I’m completely in favour of this.
Maybe aim for a best of 12/15 tracks?

[RFJ]

I’ll just say…

If you take a look at the release dates of the last 6 releases vs the 6 before that I’d say the Netlabel is releasing far more content now than it has in the last five years. Also we have moved from comp spam to single artist affairs which is a move in the right direction I’d say. Yes, we’ll still have comps but we’ve actively trying to take the label in a different direction recently.

I like that “best of” idea as well, something like that would definitely get my vote as well.

[bfk]

thing is I don’t have an archive of the previous bb winners also and i wasnt around for awhile because of certain life situation and so I’m not sure who won which beat battle and I am not able track down/find the winning tracks in question being that idmf got reincarnated, so maybe a year/few months from now see what the situation is in terms of having tracks to be considered for release… and to determine how many releases will come forth per year…and to see if the releases are successful/operate smoothly…

also yes i’ll volunteer to do this, I don’t mind taking the reigns for this for a time being, I was thinking maybe having around somewhere between 2-4 “best of the best of the beat battles” aka bbbb releases per year depending on how many bb’s there are… so yea 12/15 tracks sound feasible, and i’m hoping some at least 1 or 2 people from the idmf netlabel team (basically whomever is available at the time of preparing the releases) will be involved in throughout the process and be kept in the loop in regards to everything and give everything a seal of approval, helping to oversee stuff to ensure quality and to also help judge and screen each winning bb track in terms of quality and based upon the legality of the samples used

if anything…I’ll help by archiving the winners from this point forward, and for now as temporary thing, i’ll also come up with some artwork ideas for the best of beat battles release,… I’ll even take a shot at mastering them even though my setup is limited being that i don’t have monitors everything I do is in the box and I’m kind of a noob when it comes to mastering

and if my masters/artwork ideas don’t get the final seal of approval from someone on the team then someone else hopefully could take the reigns in those aspects… and if something comes up and if I am unable to be reached I’ll send a dropbox link to what I have archived to the net label as a backup beforehand in case something happens in real life thats out of my control…

maybe the bbbb releases can be done under like a sub label of idmf (and will have a different name) and all the winning tracks of each beat battle will go through another judging process to be considered for release, with at least 1 person from the idmf netlabel team that being whoever has the time at the moment giving the final seal of approval for everything and participating in the judging process to ensure quality, but im only suggesting this in order to lighten the load for the netlabel team…being that you guys are busy moderating the forum, running the netlabel, considering individual submissions for release, and are busy with real life stuff…

I’m thinking that some of those with a trust level of 3 here on discourse i think that’s one level below mod privileges and including some idmf artists will handle the footwork for the best of the best beat battles releases, by either being some of the judges, or by being responsible for coming up with the artwork, or help handling the promo, and even mastering, and eventually in due time someone else will take over being the person that takes the lead for the footwork, also I kinda suck as a salesman… so the promo stuff i will probably need some assistance with…

basically my idea is that those of us involved with the bbbb releases will operate like a B-team to assist idmf’s A-team solely for the bbbb releases, it’ll be centralized to a few select trusted users (consisting of idmf artists & forum regulars) with at least 1 or 2 people from team A being active throughout the process, acting as representative(s) for the netlabel and will oversee team B by giving everything the final seal of approval and be active in the judging process and all stuff will be discussed/handled using group pm’s/email’s instead of public threads…

once again im only suggesting this being that I don’t want to dump more work on the idmf staff…

but then again my ideas might not be feasible, if they aren’t let me know because right now i’m just spitballing at this point, also i don’t expect to be granted with a trust level of three…being because of my past behavior on the old forum, which is fair/understandable…but thats another thing, so yea if anyone thinks otherwise about the feasibility of this you are welcome to chime in with your suggestions…

also @FMB, @bb regulars, and the rest of the idmf netlabel team, i’ll step aside if any of you wanna/are able to take the lead for this, i’ll still help out by coming up with with some ideas for the artwork, being one of the judges if needed, and taking a shot at mastering the bbbb releases to lighten the load for white noise…

also if the community thinks that someone other than me is better suited to be the lead person for the bbbb releases than say so…

but if not, then i hope I have all your blessings to proccede being the lead person for the bbbb releases for the time being…

[TheTeknomage]

I feel the label name doesn’t really conjure up much in the way of 'This looks exciting!" It’s kind of bland, if you know what I mean. I know you want to keep IDMF in it, But how about something like InDeMniFy Records/Music. You Keep the IDMF part, but have a label name with a bit of “umpf” behind it.
Indemnify means to pay back in full. Just a thought.

[_ms]

quality over quantity has already mentioned plenty of times but let’s face the fact that most regulars don’t seem to be making music at all. If they do it’s really a rare occasion because life happens, you know, you can’t blame on that. Most of LB feels completely unrelated to whatever happens in other forum sections even back in old IDMf. Anyways, whoever did idmf’s bandcamp did a great job. it’s very nicely presented but it’s not complete yet. Is there anything beyond that, like spotify? Did you guys know that someone made an entire torrent of 2008-2010 label releases? This means a good thing despite that it’s piracy, I have my entire discography there and I shouldn’t blame anyone for doing it. Someone did it, means they thought it’s worth sharing. Simple as that. For me, this current label brings good music, but rest of effort lacks of bit of continuity. it’s not music related obviously. Last 5 album arts were just black screen with a title. That’s such a IDM or whatever thing 101, easy to pull off but boring in general. Stock photos with complete CC0 exist, full rights to do whatever you wish with them. Mix those with even the most basic pic editing skills you can pull off great things. It’s all about presentation. And that thing really sells. Would you prefer black screen vs cool looking album art? Art that basically describes music, what to expect at least, you do a click because it looks interesting. Other thing - tags. Reach the bigger number allowed, this is how music gets found on internet. You don’t need a promotion.It’s ok to use these most widest terms like “electronic” or “experimental” but go with something much more detailed, you can even put things like “aphex twin” and it will lead people to releases because that’s how search engine works. Just make sure music is kind of related to such music style. Don’t leave any empty room for tags.

[bfk]

updated my previous post with a more in depth response

[TheTeknomage]

Have to agree with @_ms about the covers. Fact is you can barely see the title on the last one. I feel The Forum and The Listening Booth are like 2 separate identities. A lot of people join just to push their music into the listening booth and that’s pretty much it, while others {most of the people who are here now because we new to check out the FaceBook page to see what was going on) Spend more of our time out of the listening booth in discussions and on the community projects like Beat Battle, QAWM, Soundscape Challenge, How Do Music, etc, which it seems to be overlooked in general. These should be front and centre for the forum and the netlabel to be honest, because that’s the community.

[1roomstudio]

I feel The Forum and The Listening Booth are like 2 separate identities. A lot of people join just to push their music into the listening booth and that’s pretty much it, while others … Spend more of our time out of the listening booth in discussions and on the community projects

Interesting, in the old forum I spent more of my time in the Listening Booth, partly because I wanted to be heard, but mostly because I was learning a lot from listening and discussing other peoples tracks; and then when I got feedback to my own tracks I really felt like the LB was a place I “belonged” because I felt useful.

I always made a point of checking out other areas but found it hard to fit in (except for the Composition and Theory threads but those were mostly dead… I think I put the final sword in a few of them…)

Now that everything is new I’m all over the place, because it’s easier to jump in on something new… I guess. I barely have time for the LB… but need to get back to it.

Why aren’t there more releases? Good question… I’ll try to do my part (not a member of the label, but maybe someday?) … but yeah… as others have pointed out. There’s the “quality vs quantity” issue and of course “life happens” to most of us as well. I’m one of the mere mortals that is fortunate enough to have a day job to support my music habit.

[RFJ]

So yeah, the covers were my call. Ive made the last 5 and actually really like the xvf cover Problem with covers is they take time. The label in the past was bogged down by so much nitty gritty it was literally paralyzed. I watched it wither and die over a period of about two years. Again, check previous releases and the associated dates.

So with the cover art we decided to cut the fat meat on that end in favor of getting stuff out. Not sure if you remember or not but releases used to take months and months to get released. Sure the covers looked rad but at what cost? Album titles too took soooooooo long to select that by the time something came out everyone was pissed it took so long.

Release threads getting bumped by…

“Update?”
“Hello?”
“Anyone?”

Remember that? It was really laughable the way much of it was handled. Sure flashy covers would be great but flashy covers take time.

I’m open to kicking the artwork back to the community. I’m not arguing here. Just trying to explain some of the reasoning behind recent Netlabel decisions. We’ve had volunteers to make covers in the past but the other thing is people have a hard time following through. That’s fine, people have lives, we understand that. The goal more recently has been content over presentation because at the end of the day if the music isn’t getting out you don’t have a label.

[Artificer]

So yeah, the covers were my call. Ive made the last 5 and actually really like the xvf cover Problem with covers is they take time. The label in the past was bogged down by so much nitty gritty it was literally paralyzed. I watched it wither and die over a period of about two years. Again, check previous releases and the associated dates.

I think this is at the heart of why a measured release schedule makes sense. Though it may always not seem like it, the artist producing the release is just one puzzle piece to putting something out. There’s manpower required at all steps after the product gets handed off, and these people are also mods and admins while also having lives and jobs. There’s only so much they can reasonably do, and letting them keep a schedule that they feel they can keep up with is going to be mandatory when working with limited resources. You really don’t want them rushing it.

It’s also worth pointing out that the quality of those releases, from the music to the mastering to the packaging to the promotion, affects everyone on the label, and to an extent everyone related to IDMf.

I don’t know the process for releases, but I think it’d make sense to put some of that workload on the artist. Showing up with a fully mastered release that has artwork is going to be really attractive to a netlabel, as all they have to do is post it and promote it. Obviously standards need to be kept and some people need help with that stuff, and that’s fine - it’s obviously been part of the package thusfar. But if you feel like there should be more releases on a faster schedule, showing up with a shovel ready package that meets or exceeds quality standards would probably be a good way to make it happen.

[Creepr]

I’m open to kicking the artwork back to the community. I’m not arguing here. Just trying to explain some of the reasoning behind recent Netlabel decisions. We’ve had volunteers to make covers in the past but the other thing is people have a hard time following through. That’s fine, people have lives, we understand that. The goal more recently has been content over presentation because at the end of the day if the music isn’t getting out you don’t have a label.

Fair enough, but I know that Metaside had a sweet cover for his that was scrapped in favor of the blackness…just sayin. But ok, that was then and now we are talking about it again, so cool. I think the label would be most fairly served by being able to say “no cover delivered by release -2 weeks, we go with a black one.” Then the community could be told in ADVANCE that a particular artist with a particular style is releasing something, and submissions for covers are being accepted. Preferred visual topic is sharks with laserbeams. A title of the release would be required knowledge too.

It would help if there was a media kit for labels made available too. You know, icons, preferred fonts if desired, a basic template or templates of which sizes are required maybe the label color codes…I know from experience (i.e. drunken googling) that a lot of covers are scanned or made at 1417x1417 pixels. but what about banner length shit? or thumbnails? CD backsheets? If that shit is codified on a one-pager of notes the community will surely be able to step up their cover game.

[nose]

So yeah, the covers were my call. Ive made the last 5 and actually really like the xvf cover Problem with covers is they take time. The label in the past was bogged down by so much nitty gritty it was literally paralyzed. I watched it wither and die over a period of about two years. Again, check previous releases and the associated dates.

So with the cover art we decided to cut the fat meat on that end in favor of getting stuff out. Not sure if you remember or not but releases used to take months and months to get released. Sure the covers looked rad but at what cost? Album titles too took soooooooo long to select that by the time something came out everyone was pissed it took so long.

I actually had 5 designs mocked up that I sent in 12 hours after the posting happened. Didn’t ever receive a hard deadline on WHEN the artwork was due… and I thought the ones I mocked up were pretty flashy in some regards (I still sent them to XvF).

I think communication is key. I also liked when we’d all post our own concepts and the community would vote on them, that was fun times.

[nose]

Speaking of artwork (sorry if this is against the rules, delete if so) I figure I may as well post these concepts as b-sides here, as they are just wasting away on my drive anyhow. I think with the forum going down after I was requested to do it, along with crazy work happening, really got a bit bummed I missed the unknown deadline by 12 hours.

Regardless, none of these may have been chosen anyhow, but I tried to at least mix up the latest release motif. Maybe a little too radically.

If anyone wants to use me in the future, would be happy to produce more. It really wasn’t that labor intense, just done on a fucked up time schedule so it missed the mark.

[1roomstudio]

Those are all very cool!

I find the black label uninspiring… it literally does not entice me to listen.

I do understand the whole coordination and deadline dilemma… you can’t let “cool” get in the way of “done”

It would be great to set up a work flow that allows “cool” to happen in time for “done”