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Permalink Reply by Throbber on June 22, 2008 at 4:27am

Hey Dan,
As far as I am aware, you have to get registered and set up with a site like CDbaby or something like that. I can't even remember properly. Don't you think it's a bit early for that.

Are your production skills up to the required level yet ?
Probably not a good idea to go punting disks you would probably pay twice as much to get back in 12 months.
Wait until you can kick the competitions ass in your sleep. Practice, Practice, Practice, forget everything else. If you still stay with your folks, then make sure they don't slack off and stop doing everything for you. You need all your time for practice. Tell them that. Folks can be real lazy.
You need to make sure that you sound like you have ten fingers on each hand before you do anything else.

You are a young man, you have got plenty of time, so don't be in a hurry to mess up before you are really ready. Remember to get plenty of sleep.
Although, I seem to remember I was a young man like you and had plenty of time, only to wake up one day and discover I was now Forty odd. Seems like two weeks ago I was twenty, no kidding, how did that happen ? Watch out for that one !!! Nobody warned me.

You will know when you are actually ready, when people you think are good at music begin to say to you "I hate you", "how do you do that ?" "You can't do that !" Then you are ready and not until.

Sound advice.

Thanks,
Throbber.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Sullivan on June 22, 2008 at 4:51am

Thanks for the advice, You have do raise good points.

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Permalink Reply by jason gray on June 23, 2008 at 2:41pm

I Think you would have to ask them, i am not 100% certain but i think you would have to hook up with a lable that uploads to the Australian iTunes store.

Homework
First point of call check out the store and figure out which is your niche/genre, check out these tracks, and their Lables. Then its on which lable would go with you, you would have to set your sights on maybe? a smaller Independant lable, as i would imagine the bigger lables would all be asking for Cds/MD demo's as suppose to uploading and streaming which would be a quicker solution .
All this will take some Delving and research their is no simple solution to this, their are alterantives, and site's you can upload too' and sell your own music, and their is one or two sites that will go to these stores for you.
It goes beyond this, as you have to Consider which will be the best scenario in the long runs, quite a gamble, and leaving you on this note, Its up too you to take the step,

Maybe other members can also give you a few ideas and sites, to get you started, i will add a few over the week.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Maleney on June 23, 2008 at 9:02pm

Well with Itunes you can register yourself as a label and do everything yourself as long as you have a bank account. I still wouldn't recommend it, Itunes is huge and if you just put something on there it will in all likelihood sink like a stone. Thats what a real label will do for you, promotion and distrubution.

If you want my advice, go and check out every label you can think off, all the ones that are associated with your type of music and those that aren't. Australian woulld be best for you, but not essential. Get your demo the best it can be, start a myspace/bebo/dmusic for yourself, upload all your songs to it and email all those record labels the link to the page and some info about you. Make it original as much as you can but be professional. Then burn off 100 copies of that demo and send the CD to each of those same labels. Make sure they hear it. Also go along to gigs in your area and hand out demo's to everyone and anyone who may have some influence or might pass it on to some one who might. Sound engineers, band members, the guy behind the bar, anyone. Exposure doesn't hurt.

But really, the single most important factor in getting a deal will be playing live yourself. If you dont do this it will weaken your position so much. Whenever you do play live, again sell/give away demos to everyone and anyone. Something might happen.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Sullivan on June 24, 2008 at 9:03am

Thanks for your help in this, this information is very helpful and I do agree with Ian's point about promotion. I have at least one place to distribute the album, through my piano teacher's annual concert
which I will be performing at.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Maleney on June 24, 2008 at 1:22pm

Thats a start. Is there anywhere local that you can play? Any clubs or bars thaqt cater for the type of music that you play? Start making phone calls and sending those demos!

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Sullivan on June 24, 2008 at 1:25pm

I hate to say, but I'm 15 so that rules out bars and clubs, and besides, I don't know of any places that would have classical music vacancies in Mackay.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Maleney on June 24, 2008 at 1:27pm

Ah well thats too bad, keep looking anyway though, you wont be 15 for ever!

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Permalink Reply by Throbber on June 24, 2008 at 3:54pm

Sorry, there now follows boring but essential information,

You had better check the tax declaration situation if you intend to sell any merchandise.

In fact before you sell anything or attempt to sell anything, speak to a tax or small business advisor, there may be rules and regulations governing trade sales specific to your locality.
You may need to obtain a traders licence of some sort or indeed inform some authority of your intentions.

You are proposing to embark upon business activities, this is something that must be done correctly.
I'm sure one of your careers advisors should be able to point you in the right direction.

This is something you must find out about sooner rather than later, it is no good saying "I never knew about that " as they take all your rewards from you.

Find out, It may transpire that there is actually nothing involved, given that you won't even have a tax code yet. There will be something though, there always is.

Don't decide that it will be okay and cool, make sure it is someone who knows in authority, that tells you your business activities are okay and that it's cool. You don't know.

If you want to do things properly, then there is only one way to do that. Get it right from the beginning and save yourself from headaches later. Info, Info, Info.

.....And , most important of all, keep your plans secret from people with no ideas of their own, they will steal your plans and try to copy you. Don't tell your friends anything.
Friends have a bad tendency to impede your progress and will put obstacles in your path if you start to become sucessful.
Sad, but true.

Go for it.

Thanks,
Throbber.

PS. I wish I knew some of this stuff when I was your age.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Sullivan on June 24, 2008 at 9:58pm

The legals aren't a problem, I will be making less than $6000 a year and therefore I will not have to pay tax and I don't think that Sole Traders have to obtain a license or business name, but I will check up on this.

Thanks for your help.

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