Netlabels are everywhere. There are so many, it’s getting tough to stand out in the crowd. And yet, there is some amazing music to be had for free from these organizations that give out free music. This is what prompted me to start an online record label for electronic music by Philippine producers and musicians back in 2004. And yet, I’ve been looking for a good article on how to run a netlabel and couldn’t find one except for this wikihow article that seemed incomplete.

That got me thinking: why create a whole new article? Why not contribute to the Wikihow article instead, and add on to the wisdom already presented there? So here you go, below is the most up-to-date edit of the wikihow article after I got through with it. Hope this helps anyone thinking about joining the netlabel world.

How to Start a Netlabel

Taken from:How to Start a Netlabel at WikiHow.com

Ever wanted to get your music to new ears? How about helping others get their music heard? With a Netlabel, an Internet record label, you can do just that (and the best part is, it’s Free!).

Steps

Host Music Files on Archive.org

1. Visit Archive.org.
2. Set up a free account.
3. Read this forum post on Archive.org on uploading with a Netlabel (as per Archive.org requirements).
4. Email simon at archive dot org. You will need to tell Simon that you want to start a Netlabel and the name of your Netlabel.
5. Wait for a response from Simon. Once you get a reply, you’ll have a Netlabel. You’re now free to upload your releases on Archive.org!

Your Netlabel’s Website

1. Find a good name/domain name. Do the research to ensure your netlabel name is unique GLOBALLY. Then buy it or register it.
2. Find web hosting. Your website will need a home. Find a good plan and pay for it. Or simply use free hosting via sites such as WordPress.com or Blogspot.
3. Set up the website. Include a good, memorable logo. Ask for help from designer friends if you need it. You can’t go wrong by setting it up using a blog platform such as WordPress.
4. Set up the email. Your web hosting plan comes with email. But if you use free website hosting, you should set up an email address just for that website using Gmail.

Promotion and Networking

1. Register the name on social media. Make sure your netlabel’s name can be used on all the social media channels you intend to use. For example: Twitter, Facebook Pages, Youtube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, etc.
2. Connect! Get in touch with other netlabel owners and music lovers via the different web channels: netlabel community mailing lists, forums, Facebook pages, or even blogs. There are many ranging from genre-specific communities, to geographic-related groups. This allows you to share your releases with a larger, like-minded and GLOBAL audience.

Tips

Promotion & Networking

• Have your own Website. There is much more you can do to promote your netlabel when you have your own domain and hosting. You can still utilize the Internet Archive for hosting your music files.
• Make a Facebook Page. With so many people on Facebook, it would be a shame not to build a community around your netlabel using Facebook’s page tools.
• A Myspace music account can be a great way to promote your Netlabel and find artists to release. Use a Myspace music account to build a web of musicians, and display some of your artists.
• Use the Netlabel forums on Archive.org to your advantage. Promote your releases there. And you can find a lot of support on the forums and help for newcomers.
• Promote your releases to the larger netlabel community. One way is to join the appropriate mailing lists to announce your releases such as: the netaudio yahoogroup and the net_label_releases yahoogroup . Another way is to post on netlabel catalogs and indexes on the web (there are many).
• Use video! Create a video for each of your releases and post on websites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Even if you are not adept at video production, simply uploading a single image (like an album cover) and using one of the best tunes in your release should help drive traffic to your release.

Philosophy

• Remember that Netlabels are not about the money; they’re about sharing creative talents.
• However also realize that if you’re willing to take a chance, there are many avenues to monetizing your netlabel: merchandising, royalties, analog releases, and so on. Make sure that you have a contract with your artists that spells out how any profit will be shared.

Release Details

• Have a good description of the materials you release. Often, people will decide whether to listen or download your materials solely on the strength of your album descriptions. Therefore, write well!
• Sticking to one type of music or a certain style is a good way to let people know what to expect from your Netlabel and may help build a following.
• Including pictures, digital cover art, or artist biographies to the releases may be a good idea.
• It is usually a good idea to include multiple qualities and audio formats for convenience and listener satisfaction. (Note that Archive.org does this for you automatically if you allow it.)
• Tag your music files correctly! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to promote your netlabel’s brand by tagging your mp3s correctly. Include a link to your website, give out artist and release info as much as possible. Never, under any circumstances, release an untagged mp3 file. It makes it difficult for an end-user to find you.

Warnings

• Do not upload copyrighted material without the consent of the owner.
• Uploading releases may take a long time depending on your Internet connection and the size of the files. For this reason, you may want to use a computer that you own, and set uploads overnight.

Things You’ll Need

• Computer
• Internet connection (the faster, the better)
• Original music
• MP3 tagging software
• Your own website (gives you much more content and branding than archive.org)

Related wikiHows

• How to Create a Record Label
• How to Convert a WAV File to a MP3 File

Sources and Citations

• Archive.org
• The Netlabels Collection on Archive.org
• Uploading to a Netlabel Collection (Forum Post)

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Start a Netlabel. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Photo credits:CDs DVDs on White Background by Rob Davies on Flickr.

I just released an intrumental downtempo album from my electronic duo CLONE, which was recorded in 2004 and lost in the archives till now. The album is entitled CLONE – Live at Brazil Brazil [qd-4261] and is 1.25 hours of impromptu downtempo music created on the fly, and which mixes bossanova rhythms with electro, acid jazz with sampladelica. The entire album can be downloaded for free by joining or “liking” QED Records’ Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/qedrecords and is released as a celebration of QED Records’ 6th year of existence.

If you want to read the entire (humorous) story about the gig and how an artistic aunt defended our futurejazz music, head on over to my personal blog Lionhearted, where my 2004 entry actually says I planned on releasing the tracks to the public via a netlabel. Well that finally came to pass … 6 years later… And to that I say: better late than never!

Here’s the promo video for the Clone – Live at Brazil Brazil album on QED Records.

Clone – Live at Brazil Brazil [qd-4261] PROMO from QED Records on Vimeo.

Clone, for those who may not know, is my electronica group — sometimes a duo with Karlo Samson (One Lone Clone), and sometimes a trio with a vocalist Ria Mariano or K.Sheerin Castillo-Go, or with drummer Andre Quimpo.

So here finally, is my first music video. This is a track named “Midnight Monologue” which wound up becoming the title track from my 2007 E.P. entitled Logue (download it for free from QED RECORDS).

Way back in November 17, 2006, I performed at a gig and listened to a bunch of goth bands who got my creative juices flowing. The musical result of that night was this new wave/ electronic track which I’ve been told reminds people of “The Distance Between Us” by Fra Lippo Lippi. Trust me, it wasn’t intentional!

Why a Video, Why Now?

Anyway, for years I’ve had images which I’ve wanted translated into a music video for this track and I recently realized if I don’t do it, no one else will. So I fired up my dusty copy of Sony Vegas and got to work creating a video using a bunch of public domain moving images from the Internet Archive, accompanied by poetry which I wrote while in the process of editing. For clarity’s sake, I’ve placed the text of the poem that accompanies the video at the bottom of this blog post.

The inspiration for the the music, the video, and the poem was the five-year long distance relationship my wife and I endured while I waited for my visa to get to the United States. Hence, it’s angsty and emo — a perfect soundtrack for the lonely and emotionally unstable.

Enjoy! And please tell me what you think in the comments!.

Acid42 – Midnight Monologue [qd-4243] from QED Records on Vimeo.

Midnight Monologue: the Poem
Lionel Valdellon

there exists a granular wideness in all of creation
that echoes the distance between you and me

within the chambers of this black void
dust has gathered silently

there exists a chasm ever unrelenting
ever undulating, stretching, never-ending
from sea to shining sea

you exist in memories brilliant as the stars
you exist in shadows nestled in my scars

i grasp at the granules slipping through my hands
i will soon be with you in that foreign land

in this blessed silence, in this ennui,
i hope for the morrow
when , past the grief and sorrow
i hold you to me

- July 29, 2010 -

As a composer and a musical arranger over the years, I’ve had to use software to create musical pieces. Software is neat, it’s archive-able (unlike my yellowed, dilapidated music notebooks), it outputs to PDF, and it’s easily editable. The problem is music notation software tends to be huge, bloated with features, and difficult to learn.

I’ve used Finale over the years and really, it’s not made for someone who just wants to come in and get the notes down quickly or spontaneously. It actually requires you sit down and spend time making everything just right. Part of it is: it’s a complete notation package that pros can use to output orchestral scores — this means it has to be able to handle and output EVERYTHING. The other reason why it’s such a behemoth is that it has a built-in MIDI engine so that you can hear what your score sounds like using MIDI instruments on your computer’s soundcard. Suffice to say, I don’t have that kind of time anymore. Which is why I haven’t touched Finale in 2 years.

So I went looking the other day for freeware composer tools and stumbled upon Crescendo, which is built by the geniuses over at NCH software (they make all sorts of useful goodies — some of them freeware). And let me tell you: I haven’t been this thrilled to find freeware in AGES. Here are a few reasons why I’m loving it so far:

• Simplicity: It doesn’t have 25,000 menus and possibilities. All it has is note entry. Even a simple utility to add text or lyrics. How simple and easy things are, suddenly.
• Note Input Shortcuts: Just like Finale, you can hit shortcut keys to change note or rest values. No need to keep clicking using the mouse.

There are some limitations however:

• Text Limitations: You have to keep resizing any text you input. It doesn’t remember your last font size. In fact, you can’t specify a numerical font size and have to rely on manual resizing. You can’t even specify a font to use. Plus, you have no way to copy/paste text into the text box. Boo. Tough if you’re notating songs with lyrics.
• No Musical Feedback: You better know what your music already sounds like because there’s no way to play it back using this software. However, if you already know your melody and know your notes, then it’s not a problem. It’s a notation tool after all not a COMPOSING tool.

Overall, I’m glad I did a search and found it. And I’m glad it’s freeware. Hope you can put it to good use in your music.

LINK: Crescendo Music Notation Editor

Phil Hartnoll (Oribtal) @ Stealthunit 5 year birthday, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki 2008. Photo by Vilhelm Sjostrom on Flickr.

1. Tell a Story with Your Music

They don’t just unleash a wall of looped beats and call it a day. They create a story that begins, builds up, climaxes and then quits.

In “The Box,” Orbital starts slowly with the melodic theme before bringing in the main beat. By the middle section, the plucked string melody is doubled (an octave higher), then supported with steadily building distorted synths, and then pads. The soft beginning becomes harsh, before a short breakdown gives you a chance to catch your breath, then the final section simply finishes the story with a set of alternate chords. It’s about progression. Change. Flux. A song that doesn’t change, doesn’t progress, doesn’t build up, is boring.

Orbital – The Box from Libro ZloeAloe on Vimeo.

2. Add Layers to Add Interest

While there is much to be said about a single rhythm creating a simple groove, some of the most interesting songs have intricate layers which become obvious only with repeated listens.

Orbital starts off with a subtle gamelan rhythm in “The Box” which begins to get aggressive with the addition of a main breakbeat that pins everything else going on. But then there are the drum overlays such as the extra snare hits, the tom-toms in the background, even the ride cymbal off to one side which help propel the tune forward and give it more density. It’s a thick sound. With every part easily definable. With repeated listenings your ears begin to hear more and more.

3. Create a Mood with Sonic Textures

Undoubtedly, “The Box” is sinister because of the minor key it’s in. Minor keys typically add a dark, sinister tone to tunes. (Although a lot of happy pop songs are also in minor keys. Refer to Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”) But in this case, Orbital follow it up with the use of moody sonic textures.

Think about it: at the start, the plucked string melody is accompanied by an Indonesian gong (gamelan). These are hard, struck percussive sounds which sound exotic and mysterious. Then later on, distorted synths reminiscent of fuzzy electric guitars come in, sounding angry and dangerous. And then that repetitious bassline which reminds one of the soundtrack music to Jaws. The choice of the instruments and patches and samples adds up to a single overall dark and sinister mood. And it’s done on purpose.

Orbital links I found on the internets:
Orbital – The Box {on Mediafire 25.97 MB}
Orbital – Orbital 2 {on Mediafire 59.34 MB}

PAST POSTS IN MY “INFLUENCES” SERIES:
I’ve decided to take a look at some of the tracks and music that helped shape my musical taste and style. This category of posts will be called Influences. My first installment took a look at how the melodic new age instrumentals of Suzanne Ciani inspired me musically.

On May 25, 2010 I posted this on my social media channels:

“If the bass doesn’t match the key of your melody, what you have is DISCORDANT, DISSONANT, CHAOTIC. And frankly, amateurish. Sorry art rockers.”

I had been listening to some amateurish Middle Eastern electronic music borrowed from the public library which set some bellydancing rhythms to breakbeats and drum patterns. The results were far from stellar, prompting me to post my disdain for a lot of dissonant music which strikes me as lazy rather than artistic. A chat conversation soon followed with fellow musician and music producer Mark Redito (aka Spazzkid) of MyParasol who reminded me that some of it is done on purpose and we ought not to judge. Here is the edited transcript:

Musical Laziness or Purposeful Chaos?

Mark:  Funny status you got there

Lionel: LOL! I was listening to an album of bellydancing breakbeats which irritated me because it was dissonant! And not in any exotic eastern way… just in the “lazy composer who copy-pastes” way. Musical laziness irritates me.

Mark:  Wow, that is a touchy subject right there coz to me it’s all subjective.

Lionel:  I know it’s touchy for some. Personally, I can’t take too much art rock/noise /textural sound art — outside of an audiovisual exhibit. Audio alone? Intolerable most of the time. Unless it’s got a great concept behind it that I can latch onto. But that’s me.

Mark: Ah. That’s cool and you’re entitled to that. I guess I just embrace the fact that like any artform, there are things I cannot wrap my mind around. But I still consider it music — as an expression. It may be bad to my ears, but I respect the art behind it.

Lionel: True it’s an expression and a valid statement — one I’d rather stay away from. LOL.  Here’s the thing though: there’s too much “expression” out there that doesn’t have MUCH thought behind it.  And is simply copy-pasted together in randomness.

Mark:  Maybe so.

Lionel: … Which would be great if the concept behind the music is random copy-paste. But often there IS no concept.

Mark:  But aren’t there things that were brought up by randomness? Like probably… glitch? Or IDM? I agree on the concept  but maybe, there is no concept? And that is their concept. Hahah!

Lionel: Glitch and IDM  - I like the samples.  I can’t listen to too much of the music at any one time though. LOL

Maybe My Ears Aren’t Ready for it?

Mark:  For me, a lot of the music I listen to lately can be categorized as such: “lazy,” “discordant,” with  elements that don’t fit. And having been schooled in music theory and recording there are certain elements which I know are “wrong” in theory, but somehow work. And like any artform, it’s good to have the basics, but then again, for our artform to move forward, we bend the rules don’t we?  I guess that’s how I think. And if there’s something I don’t understand I’ll tell myself, “Maybe my ears aren’t ready for it.”Hahaha!

Lionel:  Bend the rules and become the next Miles Davis?

Mark:  Yeah man, for sure.

Lionel:  That’s a good viewpoint there. You could chance upon a new genre.

Mark:   A new genre sprouts out every week.  Currently they have “chillwave,” ” glo-fi,” all these genres I’m not really sure what describes what. It’s all just electronic music to me.

Lionel:  Hopefully, the genre lasts a few seconds more than “handbag house.” Hmm…. “Glo-fi” …  I need to Google this!

Mark:  Handbag house! hahaa

Lionel: Handbag house — shallow house for shallow people

Mark:  LOL.

Lionel:  I’m doing a lot of generalizations today, hahaha!  I guess another reason I think of it as laziness is I’ve been listening to some of the music I grew up with — melodic new age stuff by Suzanne Ciani. And origins aside, what stood out for me was: Ciani’s music is obviously assembled with loving care — each element fits into a unified whole. Meanwhile the producer of this middle eastern breakbeats album probably assembled most of it using Acid Pro and random loops which weren’t always interlocking nicely.

Mark:  What was the artist really thinking? We don’t really know, do we? Maybe it was a conscious decision for him/her for his stuff to sound chaotic, don’t you think?

Lionel:  True, we don’t know what they were thinking. But judging from the work I guess he was thinking: ” I have one week to get this material ready. Hurry , so I can get my paycheck.” Heheheh.  Maybe it was a conscious decision. I’m hoping it wasn’t.

Photo credits: “Jammin‘” by Flattop341 on Flickr.

“Everything Will Be OK” is a gloomy little tune that spouts optimistic lyrics — but has nothing bright or sparkly supporting any of the vocals. Even the melody is in a minor key.

The vocal melody line is taken straight from a dream I had back in 2007. I woke up with the tune in my head and sat down at the computer right away to get it recorded into my Reason software.

The only words I had at the time were “Everything Will be OK” so the rest were added today (06/23/2010). Finally decided to record the vocals this morning, finalize the backing music, put it all together in Sony Vegas and voila, one neat little gloomy song.

Acid42 – Everything Will Be OK by acid42

LYRICS:
Everything will be OK, all the things you worry about will fade.
Everything will be OK, Problems will soon fade away.
Everything will be OK, all the things you worry about will fade.
Everything will be OK, You’ll see that all will decay.

Creativity Tip:
Always be ready with a portable recording device or some paper and a pen next to your bedside. Then upon waking up, record what you dreamed about. Often the subconsious will give you a solution to a problem nagging you, or give you inspiration to create something new. Capture it and use it, or forever lose it.

Photo Credits: Perfect Sky by Joanne Plt on Flickr.

Tributary is basically a house music track done with some jazzy percussion, latin keyboard and bass parts and mixed in with some floating pads and ethnic male chants. Composed using Reason software. I imagine a raindance in the middle of a busy urban area. But that’s just me. This track has been in my computer for some years but never released. I’m not exactly sure why. Maybe I’m just waiting for a good collection of songs that fit well together.

Tributary by acid42

World music has always fascinated me. From the pygmy chants of Deep Forest to the Middle Eastern-influenced tracks of Dead Can Dance, to the world fusion of Grace Nono, there’s always been a soft spot in my musical heart for tunes that transport you to ancient cultures or give you a glimpse into foreign lands. No wonder then that when I get my hands on digital music-making tools, the sounds I immediately concoct lend themselves very easily to the fusing of modern and ethnic genres. That’s the beauty of composing with samplers: you get entire palettes of sound you wouldn’t normally be able to coax out of a single instrument, no matter how much of a virtuoso you were.

How about you — what music do you naturally tend towards when you hit the record button? Hit the comments below and tell me.

Photo credits: Photo of “Haeckel: Jungle River, Ceylon” taken from ragesoss on Flickr.

I’ve decided to take a look at some of the tracks and music that helped shape my musical taste and style. This category of posts will be called Influences. First up, the melodic new age instrumentals of Suzanne Ciani, which can be summed up in this one track: “Mosaic.”

Mosaic is one of those paradigm-shifting tunes for me. Being exposed to it in my 1st year of college, back in the smog of 1989, changed my perception of what could be done on an electronic device. I remember Jappy X letting me listen to his mom’s album of Suzanne Ciani’s “Neverland” on cassette tape. I was bowled over by the entire album. I made a copy. I listened to it over and over again. i love it because it was melodic, it was instrumental– and most importantly, it was all created and performed by one person without the drama of having to contend with personalities and egos.

One track in particular stood out for me: “Mosaic.” First off, it was propelling itself along without an obvious beat for most of the track. And yet it was distinctly rhythmic because of the percussions.

Secondly, it was so well produced, and so very transporting. It took me to a whole different place in my mind– someplace enchanted and fascinating. I learned from this that music should be a journey or a story. Even when no words are used.

And thirdly, I was told by Jappy X that the guitar parts were MIDI. I thought: “An electronic device sounding as real as this? Was it possible? What equipment was she using? It just couldn’t be MIDI, could it? It’s probably a real guitar!” For many years it amused me to debate with Jappy about whether it was real or MIDI. Remember this was before the Internet. We had no way of googling for album details. Listening to it today, i can’t believe I didn’t hear the signs of obvious electronic sampling. Still, it opened up my ears to possibilities. And made me wonder what a sampler like that would cost.

“Mosaic,” and the rest of the Neverland album spurred me to experiment in creating multitrack songs by using a keyboard hooked up to a karaoke machine to produce track 1. Then recording a second layer by playing live instruments while track 1 was playing . I had some compositions that went a full 6 layers deep. And by then, track 1 was barely audible. Still, Ciani’s overall musical style was very similar to my own, and I loved creating music that took inspiration from her melodic, new age direction.

Listen to one of my more recent compositions “Magenta Breeze” which still echoes a lot of that Ciani inflluence.

Magenta Breeze by acid42

“Bahay Kubo” (Nipa Hut) is one of those Filipino folk songs that every elementary child in the Philippines used to learn early on since it was a lesson in naming your vegetables set to a catchy tune. I’m no longer sure if this is still the case. Nevertheless, I used the folk song as inspiration for this track.

What I did was deconstruct every musical phrase (and lyrical line) of the song and gave that melody to a different synthesizer or tone generator. Thus certain phrases play back in a different sequence from the original, adding slightly different textures to the tune. I then drew everything together with a simple two-step drum pattern and some floating synth pads.

Bahaykubo Again by acid42

This piece is an example of what creative nationalism could be like — where composers use the folk songs from his or her country of origin as base material to build from, and from there create new music that both pays homage to, and reinterprets your ancestry and musical heritage.

I wrote about creative nationalism in a blog post way back in 2005, after conducting a magazine interview with maestro Lucio San Pedro — one of the foremost Philippine composers. And this track is a direct result of that interview, even if it was done many years later.

Other Resources:
If you want to learn what the original song is about and how it sounds on an acoustic guitar, listen to this podcast on Viloria.com about the song’s words.