If you're in a band or record your own music...

GordyR

GordyR

GordyR

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2003
Posts
6,533
Location
Kent
Hey guys,

I'm actually after a bit of a favour. Across the last couple of months i've been working on a bit of a small web business in my spare time which has actually started to gather a bit of interest from within the music industry.

What i've done is set up a website with a paid membership forum and i've struck up deals with various A&R reps of several record labels. The deal is that these guys are active on the forum and get paid by me to listen to customer demo's.

As anyone who has ever tried to get their music heard by the record labels knows, it's an almost impossible task without some serious names behind you in terms of management, producers etc. Anyway what I'm asking for, is for a few of you that actually record your own music and have your own demos, to sign up (for free) to my website/forum and to use it for the next couple of weeks and provide me with a bit of feedback.

For you guys it's good because your demo's will actually be in front of several genuine A&R executives from various labels and for me it's good becuase I get to find and fix all the bugs and little quirks etc with the website/forum i've set up.

Now, I am not a web designer but i've done the best I can. Remember this is only kind of a hobby for me but i've been getting some rather interested calls from some pretty big names in the music industry so i'm really interested to see if there is a market out there for this. For those of you that know me well you'll remember I used to work in the industry myself which is how I managed to get a few of these people involved in the first place.

What I would like you to do is the following:-

1. Go to http://www.get-me-heard.com and click on the login button on the left hand side.
2. Choose "sign up" from the sliding panel and then choose the free account and register etc.
3. then E-Mail me at [email protected] telling me the username you have chosen and mentioning that you are from OcUK. I will then upgrade your account to the full paid version so that you can use the services.
4. Upload a demo in the "promote your music" and just generally post anything you wish in the various forums.
5. I will then let the A&R guys and the other industry professionals know and they will start listening to your songs, commenting on them etc.
6. provide me with some feedback regarding the experience. i.e. how did you find the website? is the price fair? what else could I add? any bugs in certain browsers? that sort of thing. I would like this feedback either via this thread or via E-Mail if thats okay.


I kind of want this to be a bit of a trial run before I go live with it. Will it ever do anything? Who knows? But it's an interesting concept and i've been playing around with it for over a month now and would like to know what people think of the idea. And besides you never know... You might just get picked up by a record label!

I will probably run this test for 2-3 weeks at the end of which you guys that have signed up can finish your months three membership if you so wish.

Lastly I just want to say I am not here to promote this thing and I don't think I am breaking any forum rules with this post. I am purely here to get some feedback from you fine chaps. If I am mistaken and have broken any rules then I sincerely apologise and hopefully a passing mod will just delete the thread. But as I said this is not a promotion of my website, I just want to see if it works! And i'm really hoping that the community that i've been a part of here for so long is willing to get behind me on it. :)

EDIT: At risk of sounding cheeky... Any facebook 'likes', 'tweets' or google +1 clicks would also be great. :p
 
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The Bear said:
Hello mate,

This sounds quite interesting, are you bothered about the style of music uploaded?
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Not at all... The whole point of this is to get talented artists closer to the people who can actually offer them recording contracts. The more variation the better :)
 
I'm possibly going to sound a bit pessimistic here and all that sort of thing but -

There are so many more variables than just having an A&R listen to your music these days that it's quite tricky.

The things like 'how to get a record deal' section that there seemingly is going to be (it takes me to a dead site?' - I'm not sure how this is going to come across as it's such a broad and individual thing, there isn't a set way about how to do it.

I personally don't 'get' websites like these and I have seen a few on a similar sort of thing over the past couple of years. There was one that I remember that used to hold unsigned nights were bands would turn up to hand in demos to A&Rs and things like that - it never really came across great and didn't produce anything IIRC.

Along with this I don't think they will ever really work without a major backing from a large company within the industry.

The reason something such as BBC Introducing is so successful is because it's backed by the BBC, they are a respected company and something that everyone will want to be a part of. Same with things such as Amazing Radio, XFM, Kerrang etc that all have their own Unsigned sort of things.

They already have a reputation as a credible music business, therefore they have a substantial reputation that they can begin with.

I think if you can get some sort of public backing, so that they are promoting and saying 'this is our new service' from some sort of respected industry company, social network or something of that way then you may stand a better chance.

The other problem that if it does take off then the amount of traffic and submissions you may be getting could become far too much for the industry people to handle. It could become that bands aren't getting replies, aren't being listened to and end up - as you say at the first part - getting an automated response.

It's something that's very very tricky to break into and I personally think there are a lot of things wrong with the industry, there are also a lot of quality acts that aren't on major labels but are still kicking around the festivals on smaller stages etc, but I personally don't think sites that work in this way work.

(Note: this is quite different to something such as BBC Introducing, which I think to a degree does work and is a good thing, despite some faults)

These days it's as much about making a presence on the live stage and getting noticed that way by playing A LOT of gigs and spreading the word that you are great live band.

I've probably rambled here and said quite a few different points, got mixed up, typed something stupid as well and not got my point across but hey, lets see where it goes!
 
Bucket said:
I'm possibly going to sound a bit pessimistic here and all that sort of thing but - snipped!
Click to expand...

Good post and very valid mate... I certainly don't disagree with a word you've said. This is a bit of fun, a hobby on the side of my real job that you never know, may actually help a few people.

It's not about expecting huge things from it... It's about helping a few artists that otherwise never would have and an A&R exec listen to their music. It gives them another option so to speak. I know that when I was trying so desperately to break in to the industry I would have done absolutely anything just to have one song heard. I would expect many artists to feel the same today. If it gives a few of these guys exposure then it's all worth it. :)

Aside from 14 A&R execs (currently... I have a meeting with two more on Wednesday) I have other people from other areas of the industry involved now such as Jeremy Glover who is the founder of the Indy music awards, several pretty big producers who work with Kylie, Rod stewart and similar other household names. Funnily enough these guys approached me and asked to be involved on some level, which I will admit was quite a shock.

Regardless, right now... It's about finishing the website, fixing the bugs, getting a few demo's uploaded and getting some momentum going. WIll it go anywhere? I have absolutely no idea but as far as i'm concerned it's a far better hobby to have than watching Eastenders every evening. :)

If it does ever make any moeny, all the profits will probably go into getting the website redone professionally. I've the best I can with my limited knowledge but it would be great to see this in a modern "social network" form.

Any more specific website/dead link related feedback would be absolutely great. Where exactly was the one you noticed?

Cheers!
 
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No promotion of business interests
You may not promote any website or business you have a financial or other interest in, or use the popularity of this community to help build one of your own. The forums are here to allow people to freely share knowledge, not provide them with personal financial gain, or free advertising.
 
^^ Thanks for chiming in there... I guess the thread will be deleted. Which is a shame as this was never about promotion but rather getting some opinions and hopefully getting a few guys to help me bug test. I think most people knew me well enough to understand that I am genuine with this. but regardless rules are rules and my apologies to all for breaking them (if that is how it's been seen) as it was not my intention. :(

EDIT: If there are any musicians out there who are interested in helping me test the site while promoting their own music. Please drop me a message and we will keep it away from the forums. Again my apologies.
 
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With regards to the promoting a business rule, I could go and pick out TONS of threads on this forums of people asking the same thing that Gordy is.

For example the carspy one in Motors spring to mind, several in the HTML section.

It's just me that took it off topic and into a more musical business sense.

I understand about the hobby etc and all that bit Gordy, sorry if I came across wrong. I mainly posted it just because I thought it might be nice to discuss!

The dead link I found was in the banner 'The Modern Way' - it tries to take me to http://www.heard.com/

Sorry again!
 
Bucket said:
With regards to the promoting a business rule, I could go and pick out TONS of threads on this forums of people asking the same thing that Gordy is.

For example the carspy one in Motors spring to mind, several in the HTML section.

It's just me that took it off topic and into a more musical business sense.

I understand about the hobby etc and all that bit Gordy, sorry if I came across wrong. I mainly posted it just because I thought it might be nice to discuss!

The dead link I found was in the banner 'The Modern Way' - it tries to take me to http://www.heard.com/

Sorry again!
Click to expand...

No worries at all mate! You've helped by pointing out a dead link so i'm pleased with that for starters :)

Many thanks!
 
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