So as you may have pieced together by now, Silber is predominantly a record label. Though at times I do think Silber has little to offer artists in modern times I know that I’m wrong about it. Sometimes it takes something like Trent Reznor admitting the need of a record label to realize that I do provide a valuable service to bands, even though they can’t always see it.
I was just chatting with a friend of mine about the recent explosion in upstart labels throwing comps together on Bandcamp (or whatever) & then immediately collapsing & what the place is of a label owner advising bands on the label. Now I like to think everyone on Silber is grown up enough that I don’t need to even tell them this, but here’s the take I have on comps in general.
(1) Pay to play is bullshit. Are people still doing this? Yeah, they are at least trying to.
(2) It’s valid to ask who else is going to be on the comp.
(3) It’s valid to ask how profits will be split & what rights if any they want. Rights in exchange for money might be acceptable. Rights in exchange for exposure is generally a lie. I wouldn’t think about giving my royalties away to someone in exchange for exposure unless the comp was in a series that had a track record of over 10,000 sales/downloads. A lot of people have some stupid contract for all rights they copied out of a book & have no problem changing it.
(4) If you need to spend money going into a studio, you need to ask for that money upfront. If they say no, then say you can’t do it.
(5) Given almost no one will listen to the average compilation, make your track strong enough that you will be the one band on there that people might check out later. Comp appearances are part of building your legacy of songs & a clunker might keep people from ever checking out your catalog. A chud that got cut from an album is only for a hardcore fan, not a first experience on a comp.
(6) If the label doing the comp is unprofessional, associating with them may make you appear unprofessional. Which totally sucks, but is true.
(7) It’s your musical career & reputation do what is right for you.
Spent most of the day landscaping again. Did some chatting with Jason about the upcoming Irata. It will be available on November 1. Did the layout for the digital booklets for Irata & Plumerai. Hoping to get the press releases knocked out by Monday so I can get the Silber Newsletter out next week. Oh, & I did the interview with Kickstarter about my experiences using Kickstarter, I’ll let you know when the interview goes up.