By February 2009, with the mixing done, it was time to try and find a deal. I asked a few friends for suggestions of indie labels that they could recommend and sent out about 15 unmastered copies of the album. The weeks passed. The silence was deafening. Some labels did get back to me with positive responses but stated that they were very much part time ventures and had a full release schedule already planned for the year. Others told me that there just wasn’t any money in releasing indie records anymore. If the record was good, someone would upload it onto the internet for punters to download for free. So if it was good it would be stolen.
And if people didn’t want to steal your songs, it probably meant that they were no good anyway.
I did have some luck when I contacted the Foghorn label in Sydney. They’d only put out self financed releases from the artists who were signed to their publishing arm Fogsongs. But they were interested in doing a publishing deal with me on the new album songs and a selection of my older place specific tunes like King Street and Miracle (in Marrickville). The deal would include advances that would allow me to remix and polish a couple of key tracks and to master the recordings ready for CD manufacture. The sessions for these remixes took place in Damien Gerard Studios in Balmain.
Parallel to this I’d been interviewed for the King Street Rock n Roll Walk of Fame podcast that was being produced for the Sydney City Council. I was talking to the SCC about performing at the podcast launch at the Vanguard in King Street. So I pitched the idea that I could launch my CD at the same show and give my new album away to the invited guests. It was agreed that the performance fee would help cover the manufacturing costs of the CD.
So I was able to go back to some labels that had show some interest with what amounted to guaranteed “sales” of 200 CDs. What a scam! I got Black Market Music in Melbourne interested and we stated to talk turkey. It ended up looking like they would come in as the distributor and I would have to act as my own label. Now things got really complicated. Because there are a number of cover versions on the album, AMCOS, the Australian music copyright agency would make me pay a fee per CD copy made for the right to use other artists songs. And here’s the twist, because I now had a publishing deal, I’d have to pay for the right to use my own songs! At this point Foghorn stepped in and with the help of the SCC podcast launch gig fee, I was able to do a record deal with them with Black Market handling the distribution.
So after over a year, the quick follow up album was ready for release. Blind optimism and pig headed determination along with the help of friends have pushed the CD out into the light of day. This release has been like a walk in the park compared to an earlier release, Fiction Facing Facts, that had taken four years and four labels in four different countries to get out. But this still felt like I was starting over from the beginning.
Has it been worth the effort? Of course. I’ve got a strong ego and I’ve never really relied on anyone else to tell me that the music I make is good. Will it sell? Who knows? I hope there’ll be some people who’ll cherish it. But at the end of the day I’m making music for myself. And I’m already looking ahead and planning the next album.
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Is This Not Paris? CD: Part 3 -The deal
By February 2009, with the mixing done, it was time to try and find a deal. I asked a few friends for suggestions of indie labels that they could recommend and sent out about 15 unmastered copies of the album. The weeks passed. The silence was deafening. Some labels did get back to me with positive responses but stated that they were very much part time ventures and had a full release schedule already planned for the year. Others told me that there just wasn’t any money in releasing indie records anymore. If the record was good, someone would upload it onto the internet for punters to download for free. So if it was good it would be stolen.
And if people didn’t want to steal your songs, it probably meant that they were no good anyway.
I did have some luck when I contacted the Foghorn label in Sydney. They’d only put out self financed releases from the artists who were signed to their publishing arm Fogsongs. But they were interested in doing a publishing deal with me on the new album songs and a selection of my older place specific tunes like King Street and Miracle (in Marrickville). The deal would include advances that would allow me to remix and polish a couple of key tracks and to master the recordings ready for CD manufacture. The sessions for these remixes took place in Damien Gerard Studios in Balmain.
Parallel to this I’d been interviewed for the King Street Rock n Roll Walk of Fame podcast that was being produced for the Sydney City Council. I was talking to the SCC about performing at the podcast launch at the Vanguard in King Street. So I pitched the idea that I could launch my CD at the same show and give my new album away to the invited guests. It was agreed that the performance fee would help cover the manufacturing costs of the CD.
So I was able to go back to some labels that had show some interest with what amounted to guaranteed “sales” of 200 CDs. What a scam! I got Black Market Music in Melbourne interested and we stated to talk turkey. It ended up looking like they would come in as the distributor and I would have to act as my own label. Now things got really complicated. Because there are a number of cover versions on the album, AMCOS, the Australian music copyright agency would make me pay a fee per CD copy made for the right to use other artists songs. And here’s the twist, because I now had a publishing deal, I’d have to pay for the right to use my own songs! At this point Foghorn stepped in and with the help of the SCC podcast launch gig fee, I was able to do a record deal with them with Black Market handling the distribution.
So after over a year, the quick follow up album was ready for release. Blind optimism and pig headed determination along with the help of friends have pushed the CD out into the light of day. This release has been like a walk in the park compared to an earlier release, Fiction Facing Facts, that had taken four years and four labels in four different countries to get out. But this still felt like I was starting over from the beginning.
Has it been worth the effort? Of course. I’ve got a strong ego and I’ve never really relied on anyone else to tell me that the music I make is good. Will it sell? Who knows? I hope there’ll be some people who’ll cherish it. But at the end of the day I’m making music for myself. And I’m already looking ahead and planning the next album.