People from lables are JERKS!!!

[fry112]

Yeah this next month I will be hitting the indie lables hope that goes alot different !!

[cmrmurray]

An interesting thread with some wise responses. But take heart from the person who said that if your material is best, it'll be released."if I fix these issues I def need to contact them again" - did that include the age issue? If he said it in so many words, he might be hinting that you could dress to look younger or, as many mainstream artists do, lie about your age.I too watch the age issue closely. I note that Glasvegas, for e.g. were about 28 when RCA signed them - there are exceptions to the rule, and in many acts a bit of life experience is integral to the songs.

[deantaylor]

Fry,Keep at it man. Prove 'em wrong. I like where he said to fix your issues then come back .... how do you fix the age issue ... get that fake birth certificate ... lol.But he loved your music .. so that's cool.Dean

[stephen]

My thoughts. Stay indie build yourself up. Develop your craft to the highest level you can. That way If and when they ever contact you again you will have more bargaining power. As my music business lecturer always says "You get what you negotiate".

[guscave]

May 14, 2009, 4:54pm, fry112 wrote: plus I have over 100,000 registered female fans ! Hey Fry, I just saw this on your post. If you have 100,000 registered fans, why not put this out yourself? Do the math: If only half of those fans buy your records at say $5.00, that will payoff the mortgage Selling 100,000 copies on a major won't do that.

[simonparker]

May 15, 2009, 9:48am, guscave wrote:May 14, 2009, 4:54pm, fry112 wrote: plus I have over 100,000 registered female fans ! Selling 100,000 copies on a major won't do that. That's true, but it's very hard to translate "fans" on websites into sales on iTunes. I hope it does work - 50K fans at $5 a piece would be much better than signing up for a major and owing a million dollars off the top in recoupment costs.

[Mark Kaufman]

Yo Fry, NB here. Yeah and I'm here to tell ya you better lose some damn weight, know what I'm sayin?. An after you do that, go get yourself a nice pretty face, like I got. You wanna play with the big dogs, you wanna look fit and trim like we do. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'. You do that, and I'll see ya at the top, kid!

[coachdebra]

Well, Fry - If you needed bucking up and encouragement - it sounds like you got it! Just remember - success is the best revenge, right? So, perhaps the message here is, those record labels - not your strategy - think outside the box and off the beaten path!And if, in that deep down dark place that we won't talk about, your feelings are a bit hurt - the real thing to ask yourself is:What am I thinking/believing that has me feel hurt about this? Because if what they said didn't touch something inside of you - you wouldn't be mad. You'd just shrug your shoulders and say - "silly people - WHO'S NEXT!"But you did react, strongly - so what did they trigger? People don't have the power to make you mad - unless you give them that power. So, take a look inside - because that's where your motivation, belief and power resides.Your coach,Debra

[fry112]

I do appreciate all of the response in this forum, But I really dont think of the response was because of me. I think that you guys all responded because the people on taxi represent the true talent in the music industry the ones who have to work harder because we arnt 18 years old and we know that the industry needs us ..The reason why I wrote this forum is because it really pissed me off because I am still in my 20's and hiphop has always been about talent now its about little thugs telling you to do the Halle Berry??!! I just had no idea that the industry would screw up every genre.

[chriscarter]

May 17, 2009, 4:19am, fry112 wrote: The reason why I wrote this forum is because it really pissed me off because I am still in my 20's and hiphop has always been about talent now its about little thugs telling you to do the Halle Berry??!! I just had no idea that the industry would screw up every genre.Hi Fry,From the perspective of someone who is perhaps a little jaded in this business. Hip-hop, and most genres, haven't been about talent for a long time when it comes to labels. It's worth it for you, and everyone, to really consider what business record labels are in. They don't care about talent, they care about FANS because fans buy records (and in the 360 world we now live in, they buy concert tickets, and t-shirts, etc. etc. etc.) They don't care how they get them, so long as they get them. This is business after all. So talent isn't a very big concern for them (not complaining, it DOES make sense!) This has ESPECIALLY been the case with hip-hop. Perhaps you are too young to know the olden days of hip-hop, but labels have always had a notoriously difficult time trying to corrolate talent to the ability to generate fans. When hip-hop started exploding, they starting signing everyone, and quickly discovered they had zero success at predicting who would hit and who wouldn't. The approach they took with hip-hop of the wait-n-see method (now a method they use for pretty much everything) was the only semi-reliable way they had to know who to sign.Yes, generally speaking (hopefully), talent tends to be a main ingredient in getting fans, but generating fans is so much more than that. Yes, having a killer record, generally speaking, tends to be a main ingredient in getting fans. Etc. But at the end of the day, it's still about fans. My point is this, NO RECORD LABEL THAT KNOWS ANYTHING, will sign a hip-hop artist based solely, or primarily, on the quality of their music or their talent. Their first and formost concern SHOULD be the fanbase they have already generated. You have to use your talent, and other resources, to secure fans, and demonstrate an ability to generate fans - part of that is a great sounding record, but it's still about the fans.... notice how many times I've said "fans" in this post??? Here's what concerns me looking at your myspace page. And I'm sorry if I'm making an example of you..... 1) You've got 25,000 friends. Okay, that's decent, but a lot of them aren't REAL friends (ie. "FANS"). Labels can check this by looking at your comments and there aren't a lot of legit personal (not spam) comments on your page. There's a HUGE difference between that and someone with 10,000 who gets three or four legit comments per day. Guess which one you want to be??2) NO SHOWS!!!! If you don't do shows, you are doomed. The biggest problem of most artists who ask me for advice is that they aren't doing enough shows. In the marketing mix (for the nerdy types), shows are in the "personal selling" category. There is no more efficient way to advertise yourself, generate solid fans, keep yourself on the local/regional/national radar, and sell product than SHOWS. Not having any upcoming shows, my friend, is a problem that you need to fix. Fix it now. Right now. Like now. 3) Where/what are your accomplishments??? I looked all over your myspace page and all I saw was some random guy with some good music. Well, any bozo with some vocal talent can go into the studio with me and come up with some great music and sell it on itunes. That doesn't show that you can handle the BUSINESS part of this business. No label wants to sign an artist that is 100% reliant upon them to do all the marketing and build the fans to buy whatever is being sold - that would be idiotic. There's not one blog posting about some press you've gotten, a chart you've made, a TV appearance you've made, a big-name collaboration you've done, stations you are in rotation on, whatever, ANYTHING. You have to show that YOU know how to do this on your own. You have to demonstrate that you have the ability to market yourself and generate this kind of activity necessary to sell product, in whatever format, yourself. Because when a label signs you, you are going to have to keep doing that sh!t. So start getting some press, some accomplishments, etc. and start posting them and putting them in your bio so that labels can see this.Forget about being 28 and a little chubby - that was their nice way of saying, "ya ain't done sh1t yet and I'm not ready to take any kind of chance on you". SO GO DO THAT SH!T. Besides, you have to do it anyway if you have any hope of moving any kind of significant sales, merch, etc. numbers, let alone getting a freakin' record deal.Sorry for the rant, it's a tough pill to swallow, but I hope it helps. I've been in this busines in so many capacities. Now I only make records, but I've managed artists and run record labels (one under a major), and done publicity, and done marketing, and even was in a band back in the day. Sometimes, if I'm lucky (lol) that let's me see the big picture. What you are currently missing is the big picture.Best of luck to you and keep goin' strong.