How do I issue an invoice and who should I contact?

So, looking back, I was actually super deep into music about five years ago...

I had a bunch of my own tracks—mostly techno and trance stuff—and I was honestly a pretty solid DJ, even though I never really played any actual gigs, but then everything just kind of stopped out of nowhere...

That itch is hitting me all over again today, which is funny because this is actually the second time I've walked away from music, once when I was like twelve and then again a few years back...

I still have this one album sitting there, just a collection of selected tracks that were supposed to go somewhere so I could finally show people what I can do, but nothing ever happened...

What I'm wondering is, are there any record labels out there that actually take on amateur techno producers, or is it more realistic for someone like me to just release my own album independently?

Why don't you just reach out to Aquarius? They run their own private recording studios where they can definitely give you a hand.

urbangardener said:So, about five years ago, I was really deep into music...

I had a decent collection of my own tracks—mostly techno and trance—and I was actually quite a solid DJ, even if I never officially hit the club circuit, but then everything just fell silent...

Now, the itch is back. This is the second time I've walked away from it; once when I was basically twelve, and again just a few years ago...

I still have this one album sitting there, a selection of tracks I intended to pitch to labels to get my foot in the door, but it never went anywhere...

What I'm wondering is, which record labels actually take an interest in amateur techno, and is it possible for someone like me to just release an album independently?

Take a look at this post. 🤷

oh come on, you're telling me they actually want you to pay $240just to have a song reviewed???

man, i honestly can't tell who's losing their mind here...

I’d say you aren't. $233? 🤣 What a bunch of idiots!

I’m not entirely sure. I just saw the registration notice and decided to jump in here, though honestly, Joseph has such a reputation for being involved in all sorts of shady dealings that I had my doubts about signing up in the first place.

That said, you might have better luck recording something in a studio and handing it over to an A&R rep at a local radio station or something along those lines. 🤷

What kind of mess are we even talking about here? 🤷

Here is the scam. 🤷

Everything is crystal clear now... Thanks for dropping that link so I don't accidentally screw things up. 👍

Man, this is just great...

So I shot them an email yesterday and basically told them straight up that all this whining is ridiculous, and he tells me I should just pay a $240 yearly fee, and if they happen to like a track or whatever, they'll keep working without taking a cut—like, they'll sell the song, release it, blah blah blah...

I mean, sure, that part makes sense, but $240 having to pay just to be allowed to listen to two whole songs???

It's like, what do they think they are, the President or some high-ranking Senator with divine insight or something, I don't even know... get this, you actually have to pay just for them to hear your tracks... what absolute idiots...

If he’d just said, "Hey, pay the fee and send us stuff every day," I could deal with that—but only two songs, and if you want them to even glance at a third one, you gotta cough up $8.25 per track

It's honestly terrible...

Does anyone actually know how to go solo and release an album? Because I've got my final tracks recorded exactly how they need to be, but then you need someone to handle the cover art, press the CDs, and actually get them distributed to places like Best Buy or local record stores...

Just to make things easy, since my old man works as an offset press operator, getting the CD covers and the packaging isn't even an issue for me because he handles all that...

So, the actual part where I burn the music onto the discs is something I can definitely take care of myself...

Let's say I end up cranking out something like 500 CDs...

Now, how would I actually go about selling those to a local record store??

I mean, my goal is really to just handle the whole process independently if there's any way to make that happen...

What if you just sent your manuscripts straight to some publishing houses?
I mean, with offset printing, it’s barely worth their time to bother with foil stamping or anything fancy if you're looking at fewer than 1,000 copies, but, I don't know... you might get lucky... 😬

swiftmaker20 said:What if you just sent your stuff over to some publishing houses instead?
I mean, with standard offset printing, it’s honestly not worth their time to deal with foil stamping or all that fancy stuff if you're looking at fewer than 1,000 copies, but hey, you never know who might be interested... 😬

I really need to get my songs cleared with ASCAP first... once that's out of the way, I'll figure out my next move...

I think there might be some other ways to handle copyright protection besides using Sony Music. Maybe look into that a bit more, because I heard Sony Music takes a pretty huge cut. 😉