Help with NewAge CD List, please

[guilhermek]

This is for the listing bellow:A wide range of commercial-sounding NEW AGE ARTISTS are sought by an Independent Music Distributor that represents North America. They want song-oriented Ethnic Fusion artists in the range of Enya, Deep Forest, Dead Can Dance, Enigma, Clannad, etc. They're looking to license completed CDs from talented artists from around the world.Now, I have several questions about this:1) I don't have a CD yet, but I could get one done by November. Do I need to press the CD or www.SwiftCD.com would do? They support bar codes and good printing on the CD, but its still a CDr. Or could I wait for the company to approve my songs and go after a CD producer next to the distributor location?2) The song I did: Nova Era - was rated as like Enigma - NewAge Fusion by a Taxi critique. BUT, what about the song The Fields 2.0? Is that also NewAge fusion? The track The Fields 2.0 was produced by my wife, that asked for a more up-beat song. So I took the original one and speed it up. But I'm a bit worried that it got side-tracked now. The same goes for A New Dimension 2.0Please, any advice would be good. Thank you. WilliamK

[guilhermek]

Anyone?

[mazz]

Typically it takes 4 to 6 weeks to find out if you were forwarded. If you get forwarded (and I hope you do) it could take months to hear from the listing client. That puts you way past November. Even if you did hear from them quickly, you really are working on finishing a CD so you could speak to them about that at that point. IMO, I don't think it's being misleading or misrepresenting yourself to go ahead and submit for this listing.Good luck,Mazz

[guilhermek]

Thanks Mazz. That makes total sense. Now I wonder about the NewAge-Fusion theme. Please, if you can, check out my question #2.Best Regards, WilliamK

[mazz]

Hi William,Your stuff sounds very good. New Age music is very hard to classify. It started out in the late 70s as very ambient synth music with some acoustic sounds added in, mostly sold at health food stores as music for meditation, massage, and the like. It was inspired a lot by Brian Eno's ambient music. By the mid to late 80s, it became a category for music that didn't fit any categories and so it is a broad label that contains a lot of styles.Some of the elements that, for me, would put a piece in the New Age category are: slower tempos, acoustic instruments (or samples of) such as wood flutes, harps, slow harmonic progressions, world music elements such as african percussion or native american drums, voices such as choirs, chants. Of course, electronics are a huge part of New Age music as well. (This is just my criteria for classifying New Age. I worked with some of the original New Age musicians back in the 80s but have not kept up with the "style" for some time).The first piece, Nova Era, I would classify as New Age and the comparison to Enigma is a good one. The other two pieces sound, to me, more like Electronica (another huge, catch-all, category), as in The Orb or Moby. If the dance-like drums were toned down and more of the other elements I mentioned were added, it would feel more like New-Age to me, but I'm kind of an Old-Age New-Age guy so take it with a grain of incense!!Good work!!Mazz

[guilhermek]

Hey, that's actually some very good input. Thanks Mazz! I was listening to the latest Enigma album, and its impressive on how they deviated from NewAge/Pop to something more Electronica/Ambient. But again, Voyager was already a step to that direction. Such that some enigma-lovers hated the album. Not me, I like every album from Enigma. But again, I'm eclectic. ;-)Best Regards, WilliamK

[matto]

Hi William,I agree with mazz that your music is somewhere between New Age and Electronica. I don't know that that's necessarily going top be a problem for this listing, although the artists they mention tend to be more on the organic/ethnic side overall.The one thing that caught my eye/ear is that it says they are looking for "song oriented" New Age, which I don't think yours is so much. Your pieces tend to be more ambient/cinematic/minimalist in nature from what I've heard. IMHO. So that could mean you're not quite on target for what this company is looking for.HTH,matto

[guilhermek]

Matto, thanks, I'm VERY worried about this. As I really want to be forwarded to this list.What "song oriented" means exactly?Best Regards, WilliamK

[matto]

It just means the tunes are, formally, more like regular songs...with a typical song form and about 3-4 minutes in length on average. Think of the kind of stuff that would get played on a New Age radio station, where listeners usually don't have the patience to listen to 7-10 minute or longer "epic" pieces.Remember Enja has had mainstream pop success, and a lot of the other "a la" artists' tunes tend to be on the concise side.I think you shouldn't get too worried or fixated about getting forwarded to this specific listing...IMO, judging from the way the listing is worded, your music just may not be the best fit for what this particular company is looking for...nothing that can be done about that. If I were you I would still submit, but realize that it's not 100% on target for a listing that specifically ask for "commercial- sounding", "song oriented" "ethnic fusion"...none of which accurately describes what I've heard of your songs, IMHO.HTH,matto

[guilhermek]

Thanks Matto.Wk