Anyone with experience releasing a record/CD in Ireland?

frobisher

I'd love to hear any experiences that people have from either going total DIY or to doing it with a label. Or what works and what doesn't from success to failure.

miju

to be honest it's such a broad topic and would be better to try and break / narrow it down as i'm sure theres many (myself included) with successes and failures who have released records who wouldn't mind sharing their tips / methods

GonzoRecords

Anything in particular you're looking for information on?

frobisher

I guess that what I'd really like to know most about is the actual process of getting exposure in media, radio and TV. Any experience with distribution would be good hear too.

markyedison

this thread is very slow moving!

but could also be very helpful to a lot of people.

supposing you're in a band, you've been gigging around dublin ( or other city ) you've recorded a demo , what do you do with it aside from selling it at gigs?

miju

to be honest lads the questions asked here are so broad your best bet is to narrow it down slightly for a more concise answer otherwise respondants would be typing all year

Tuitser

I have experience releasing records!"! Its not dat mysterious of a process!! Everyone thinks its a dream come true by pure luck and talent, when actually neither have much to do with it!! Ya need to get a demo, then set-up a bebo, myspace and an online site dat lets you sell ur music online!! Den gig like crazy and give ur demo out for free!! Once ya have a good few friends n views and your gettin a few followers at ur gigs den ya need an E.P.! This NEEDS to be master quality! Sell this at gigs for bout €3 and sell it online for €5!! Send it off to every radio station and record label in Ireland!! Enter competitions and write into papers about ur gigs!! Start a mailing list and if ur playin in Dublin then txt everyone from Dublin n let them know, in Cork then txt every1 from Cork etc.!! Over time ya will build a big fanbase if ur good!! Other major things come into it like producing hit songs, image, gear, etc. but that should get you started!!

John

Tuitser, thanks for the advice but please don't use text speak on the forum, some of us have awful trouble understanding it

Cheers.

Frankiestylee

When trying to get exposure in the media, make sure you give them an angle/story to use. Don't just say "we're playing a gig", give them something they can use. So if you're aiming for local media, make sure you point out you're from the locality, if there's something special about the gig let them know. You just have to make it newsworthy.

miju

better yet write your press release like a news article in the first place so that lazy journalists can simply copy and paste the guts of it and then add their own tidbits and yes they are lazy

QUEEP

"When trying to get exposure in the media, make sure you give them an angle/story to use. Don't just say "we're playing a gig", give them something they can use. So if you're aiming for local media, make sure you point out you're from the locality, if there's something special about the gig let them know. You just have to make it newsworthy."

best bit of advice for sure & very interesting point.... in my own experience you always need an angle... wether it is your bands image or the music being different than whats out there for whatever reason, thats how you sell it to the media & make it newsworthy, and definitly have something that can be copied and pasted & a high resolution pic that can be used, the easier it is for them to sort, the more chance of them doing it

but, hard work is the most important thing to everyone i know thats releasing records... you need to get the record sounding right & promote it well... sadly promoting is where it makes or breaks! and this is where most of the hard work is too.... if your not comprehensive, not enough people will know about your music

well that my tuppence frobisher, dunno what other general advice id have, but if theres something in particular u want to know, drop me a mail

CmX

Released a single last summer with Tanya D.
Mainly we put it out as a download but also put cd singles in the shops.
It reached number 4 in the download charts which wasnt bad seeing as a lot of our promo stuff went wrong for us but we got some nice press and contacts and experience.
Its definatley put me in a better position for my next release as I know now what to avoid and what to spend more time on.
I think its fairly essential to get your tune played on radio if not even onto playlists.

richiejg

like the BBC TV programme 'Massive'

richiejg

Who is Tanya D

richiejg

What charts did it make to number 4, Ireland or UK?

Creeping-Death

Frankiestylee wrote: »

When trying to get exposure in the media, make sure you give them an angle/story to use. Don't just say "we're playing a gig", give them something they can use. So if you're aiming for local media, make sure you point out you're from the locality, if there's something special about the gig let them know. You just have to make it newsworthy.

Yeah some lads in Dublin (name escapes me) advertise themselves as " Dublin Bay Area Thrash Metal", similiarly, a mates band used "Cork Harbour Area Thrash"... Might sound tacky but these little things do work

Fiona500

It is always good to use your connections. You would be surprised by how many people you know, 6 degrees of separation and all that. I would be careful about putting songs on Youtube and such sites, it can lead to all kinds of copyright issues later on.

I am a sound engineering student and can vouch for the fact that tech institutes up and down the country are constantly looking for bands willing to let their students record them. You would be surprised at the quality of some of the recordings, course it does depend on luck. I recently recorded a song for a friend of a friend, once I had edited it he sent it round and has gotten himself a record deal with Sony. :cool:

Worst problem with bands is them showing up either late or not at all. It shows great disrespect for the people you are working with and can give you a very bad reputation.

Conor OH!

my quick bit of advice would be, do what you have to do, but dont let it drain out the fun of the whole thing. if that happens it will slow you down for ages, and it takes a LOT more work to get back up and running again once you lose your love of the whole thing. you just have to get your stuff heard as much as possible at the end of the day. if its something you love doing, dont let it become "work".

Corkscrew

Hey all...
I am just starting a Music Management/Music Agency at the moment. I just came across this thread.
The thread was great and very informative, my little bit of advice would be to try and have a little structure, make a plan... Starting off: if you are focusing on Ireland for example divide the country into provinces/counties... list all of the media outlets(press/radio)/venues etc in each city/town.. Constructively target these... there is no point in just sending out info about your act at random intervals.. you need to have an impact. For Example: if you are playing a gig in Cork, make sure all press in Cork are aware you are coming.. try and get one of the local radio stations to play your music before the gig.. create general hype.. on the day or week leading up to the gig try and do an in-store gig (HMV) or get a radio interview... Contact any friends you have in the area, or friends of friends, and drag them along to the gig.
This should create a bit of hype before the gig and will encourage people to buy any Single/EP/Album you have for sale on the night.. Better to play a small venue and pack in rather than a bigger venue and be lost in it.
Distribution is mostly done online today.. distribute to record stores yourself.. contact the marketing person in each store and ask if they will stock your music. Sell it online -ITunes,Amazon,MySpace,have a link from your own website for potential customers.. Make it as easy as possible for people to get their hands on your music.
Good luck! Hope this helped a little...

louloumc89

Does anyone have any more specific advice for me please? I'm in an all girl band, we've been together since September. We've recorded a demo cd. We gig around Limerick all the time. We entered are first battle of the bands last week in stables for UL rag week. We came second out of twelve bands. That's pretty much it. We're recording one song in a studio properly on Monday, but we really do not have the money to record a full album at the moment.

Oh and I'm doing video and sound in LIT, so I have access to top quality recording facilities. While the stuff we recorded their is pretty good, it's well recorded and mixed, but it's not professional quality for an album.

Here's our myspace if you want to have a listen www.myspace.com/veryangrygirls

So any specific advice any other bands have about recording an album, or starting out in general would really be appreciated!!

martyc73

We produced our own album from start to finish. www.myspace.com/rainbowcorner

Check it out

heers
Marty

beanie

Getting your contacts is super important.

Creating your myspace and facebook profiles is of utter importance now, bebo is failing, but facebook has taken it's place. Facebook now has more users than myspace.
Putting up a couple of tracks, possibly three is a good idea, don't stick up everything as it may be too much for people to take in, a small concise group of your songs that you think best put across the angle you want to come from or what genre you want to appeal too.

If you're new enough to the gigging scene, go to open mics, bring a list to get people's email/phone numbers/even address if you're willing to send them a free demo etc.
The open mic scene allows you to choose your best couple of songs and put them out to the audience, rather than having to fill a 30-45 minute slot with songs that may not be as strong as you want them to be yet, or are not quite ready for performance.

Going along to other independant original artists gigs, get friendly with them and the crowd. Let them know you make music too, and what genre you're in. Ask what venues around their area might suit you. Write them down. Ask them are they on a tour, if so, record all the venues they've said.
If it's a regular night they are playing in these venues i.e. a lot of places do monthly songwriter nights, or open mics on a certain day of the week etc, get all the details, and log them.
Eventually you'll have a decent list of these and the contacts to go with.

Next is contacting the places and pubs etc.
Hopefully you've built up a few online friends on you're accounts now, when you contact the venue and they go to check you out online, they'll see you've a couple friends and a couple of decent songs, and that's all you need to get the gig or slot they'll offer.

Using the lists of people from the open mics or earlier gigs, you can send texts/email/posts letting people in that area know you're coming.
Give people a week to ten days notice, then a second one perhaps the day before, that way they've time to plan it, and then no time to forget it ;-)

Handing out a free demo at these early gigs is advisable. If you've already gone ahead and made an EP at your pocket's expense, try push it but don't try to get €7 for it or anything close to it. You're new and people want to show support, but keep in mind, some sites online sell people's album now for $7!
€3 is less than a pint and most will be happy to part with it.
Remember with this release you're trying to get your name/band out there, not make your millions off it.
Breaking even is the best you can hope for with this release.

If you've enough time to book a small tour from these, petrol will be your biggest cost, it's super important for you to plan your tour route (none of this Galway on Monday, Dublin Tuesday, then Wednesday in Limerick malarkey) if they only do the one night a week, putting off until the second week of your tour for Limerick would be the best idea, then the tour will be two circuits when you will the dates this way, rather than a zig zag of gigs to petrol stations over and back.

My band, started out the complete wrong way, I did almost none of the above!
But having done a few tours now, I see for bands starting out that this is the way to go.
I've two albums completely independently released too, amongst other projects.
If you're interested in hearing about the method for those I can give another long winded post on that! ;-)

Spineryan

Hi all,

I have allot of experience releasing music both here and in the UK. I have been involved in everything from the recording/production right through to mixing, mastering, duplication, distribution, PR, marketing and Radio/Press/TV Plugging.

First thing is you need a BUDGET!!!! Once you know what you have to spend on the release you can then make a plan. Services cost money. You can do allot online by yourself but there are things you need to pay for such as: PR, Plugging, Mastering, Recording, Mixing, Duplication.....

Second you need to give 6 - 8 week for release working back from the release date. Only start the count down when you have signed off on the track and all art work etc. It will take this amount of time for your plugger to work the radio, press and tv...

Before picking the track to release try if possible get feed back from a DJ or someone working in radio. If you looking for air play you need to make sure that the stations you're targeting will play your track.

The track needs to be finished & as good as you can afford to get it. I'd recommend spending more money and time on the mix then the recording. Once the source sounds are clean and the quality is good a good mix engineer will work wonders.

Also mastering is very important. If I had a Euro for every time a track came back from mastering and sound duller then the mix I'd be a rich man. A good mastering engineer will in most cases stick to a genre and you need to find one you like and that suits your sound.

You need a story......!!! You need something to talk about. Saying "We're doing some gigs and finishing the album" is not a story. If you don't have something to say its harder for the PR / plugger to sell you. Also press need something to write about.

When sending out promo packs a simple CD in a plastic sleeve with a double sided inlay with art work, sleeve notes, contact info and web links. Also put a printed sticker on the sleeve with the release and artist name, release date and web and contact info. This is very handy for the DJ when on air it also gives the producer instant info on the release etc..

Spell check... have one or two others proof your press release and web content.

Coordinate your Physical and online campaign! Make sure that you up date all your online profiles with your release information and make sure it is the same across all platforms.

Some tools & sites I use.
Nimbit.com
Facebook.com - set up a FAN PAGE
Twitter.com - Artist Profile
Ping.fm - Manage all social networking profiles
Youtube.com - Set up an artist channel, record some video
Tubemogul.com - push your video content to all video sites at once
Myspace.com
Bandcamp.com - sell or give away your music. All bands/artist should use this site
Reverbnation.com
Artistdata.com
Trendrr.com
Fanstar.com
musicweek.com - check play list for up and coming releases.

meallat

Hey all i just got signed to a small record label in Germany, very excited! Recording the E.P (4 track) in January.
Any tips on which radio stations to approach to hopefully give some tracks much needed irish airtime??

mikesmt

get some good, but not bank-breaking pr. they'll get the media/radio/tv stuff done. a good solid manager to book shows and start making you money. easier said than done, but if you need contacts i'll give you a few.

you'll need to be committed to it. be prepared to put in about 3 hours a day in emailing and phoning etc. might be annoying and testing at the start, but you'll start seeing results in no time.

don't do anything half arsed. take yourselves seriously, but have fun too. maintain a good, professional website/myspace/facebook etc. keep it all tidy and easy to navigate. get a good www.yourband.com website. makes all the difference to the professionals who'll be looking at you.

consider giving it away as a free download if it's your first release. it'll stir some waves and spread by word of mouth. www.bandcamp.com is good for this!

jamjamjim

If your going to release a single without any major backing then do yourself a favour, don't waste your money.Just get a cd done that you can sell at gigs to people who like your music.If your good enough people who become your fans will become your voice.The only bands i've heard of making a name for themselves lately have all been from word of mouth.Not 2fm or Today fm. There is some regional broadcasters who have Irish shows but only a small select few of them have a reasonable listening audience so even these are a waste of time

If your willing to get out there and put in the hard work, good things will come assuming of course your songs are that good also

Quote i recieved from a producer at 2fm

'We don't look at the Irish charts,haven't seen them in years'

Even if you manage to get into the Irish charts, Today fm don't even play the official Irish charts, they play their top 30 most requested songs of the week. Songs which can only be requested from the playlist in front of them at the start of the week. So quite simply, people can only select the order of the songs that they tell you, not what people actually want to hear.

2FM are an even bigger Joke, won't even get started there.

The only thing i've found to have worked so far is gig,gig,gig,gig after gig. Persistance is the key

larrystewie

Really interesting post.

Mulan

This is a great thread guys. Thanks. Setting out on my solo career!!! Tonight. This thread has given me a good structured plan for the next 12 months. Cheers

Nhead

Agree with Mulan great thread with some really good ideas.

Dublinsoundguy

cool thread have experience in it here too so if any advice needed let me know just send me a private message, all the advice above is pretty cool but as said before you need an angle something that makes you stand apart from the hundreds of other bands out there gigging, fine line between success and failure and you gotta use everything and anything to your advantage

mehfesto

What I've seen work:

Use BreakingTunes. It's VERY important for all bands to be on this nowadays, it seems.

Contact Nialler9, Nay (on Entertainment.ie) or Darragh McCausland (Asleep on the Compost Heap) with your demos. They have big audience and have helped break lots of upcoming Irish bands (Adebisi Shank, ASIWYFA, The Minutes...etc, etc)

Get some good images. They're the first thing people will see. I know it goes against what you think - but you need an image these days as much as you need good tunes.

Good posters - get noticed when you advertise what you do. See Popical Island's posters. Eye-catching and doing a good job.

vrobot

I can only go by personal experience and here's what worked for us and also what I felt was a waste of time;

- compile a list of DJ's who play your type/genre of music. Post them a cd of 3 of your best tracks along with a press release and sticker on the back of the cd sleeve (with contact details, website, 2 - liner about the band etc.). I always include a letter with a couple of lines asking them if you could have a listen, that I like their show etc. The DJ's who have played our tracks most would be Dan Hegarty (2fm), Paul McCloone/Dave Couse (Today fm), Cathal Funge (Phantom) and Cian O'Ciobhan (Radio na Gaeltachta). You can get all their contact details on the stations websites and I would advise following up with an email a couple of weeks later to see if they received it alright. That would also be a good opportunity to ask them if they liked what they heard? If they give you content for your press release too.

- blogs are a good way of getting your music out there. It's just a case of finding a blog that you like and getting in touch. Include a decent image, soundcloud link, a bit of info about the band, some news about anything coming up for ye and a link to a video if you have one. I think Jim carroll & Nialler9 run 2 of the best music blogs in Ireland and they have dozens of other music blogs listed on their sites.

- IMRO have a good news section on their site plus Hot press magazine review demos. State.ie are also worth getting in touch with.

- Gigging is very important to get the name out there so get in touch with venues that you like, which have bands similar to yourself gigging at them. This can be really time consuming cause the person who does the booking might only work for example on a Wednesday afternoon or your cd gets mislaid or they haven't had a chance to listen to it....

- We've contacted a LOT of record labels, big and small, in Ireland and abroad and I actually don't think that it's worth the effort. 99% of them don't respond and most of them don't accept unsolicited demos either. I suppose it's a case of them wanting you to prove that you're worth their backing so you've to try and make a name for yourself first and foremost! They seem so seek out artists themselves that they're excited about.

Spinervan has some excellent links on this thread and I've probably repeated some of their points! He's right about the budget too - if you're to get a pr company to do a single release, it ain't cheap but they're the professionals so you're paying for their expertise and contacts.

From my experience it's worth paying for a reputable producer to mix your track. If you get the right person, it can bring it to a whole other level.

Hope some of this is of use to ya!

galwaybabe

Can anyone recommend a good PR company?

vrobot

Here are 2 that I've heard mentioned at various music talks.

http://ealtd.ie/

http://www.goodseedpr.com/

awilko

Rather then trying to sell your EP or album and break your heart chasing radio play, why not consider giving it away?

May not seem like a good idea at first but in the long run, it could excel your band far quicker. Here's a blog post explaining Why You Should Give Your EPs Away And Not Sell

Don't believe me, look how well Cast Of Cheers have been doing since they gave their album away.

TheGreatHuman

I have to agree with the post above; we have just recorded our first E.P, and have made it available as a free download off our website (check my bio for the website if you're interested!). If you are a new and unheard of band like we are it doesn't make sense to try and sell your content as it really limits the possibilities of anyone listening to your music.

That said, we made up a professional looking set of hard sleeve cds for our gigs and for sending to blogs/radio stations etc. and we do sell them at the gig for a nominal fee of €3.

I would also recommed Jango as their price per play is way better than Last.fm and we have had a huge fan/play ratio since joining.

Hope some of this helps.

Evan (The Manhattan Syndrome)

awilko

There is no harm in selling some physical copies as there are always people who will pay for that format over a free download. Alternatively you can sell a t-shirt to help pay a few bills. But only print one design and keep it to no more then 2 colours. Don;t print up new designs until you've cleared a load of of your first ones.

Jango is indeed better the LastFM (last FM is 90+% about ipod scrobbling), but Jango is still hard to convert to e-mail, so be cautious with your spending.

One thing I would suggest is that instead of using Bandcamp, you should use a squeeze page (landing page with no links, just a mini bio, some quotes and a mailing list subscription form). This way they need to sign up before sampling.

After that use autoresponders to embed you name and music into their subconscious.

A.

PS. I thought you were a folk band when I saw your pic!

TheGreatHuman

Awilko makes a good point, while we received 120 fans from 750 plays we only got around 25 email addresses. That said, Jango does allow you to send two group emails every week which is very convenient.

Ha! I know, we had to go with striking images and we thought that fitted with the E.P name, bit if a dichotomy with our music maybe!

Evan

Yakult

Hey guys, we've just done two new originals and we want to give them away as free downloads, where would the best place for this feature?
We have Myspace, reverbnation and bandcamp. Any others?

awilko

@Yakult

Bandcamp in exchange for an e-mail. Myspace is long dead and reverbnation is a horribly over cluttered site with no focus. You could also set up an mailing list on fanbridge as they allow you share music in exchange for e-mail addresses. You will also get sign up widgets that you can place on your own website.

digitalfunk

some great advice being shared. thanks everyone!

maccored

tunecore.com is great for digital distribution