Net Labels

[zhao]

even after experiencing many quality net releases, i still have a (probably) lame but hard to shake prejudice that music published on net labels, often for free, is somehow substandard to music published on official labels? or do you think this is pretty much a sound generalization, exceptions excepted?

what are some good ones? i just ran across a decent dubstep one the other day... will get de name fa de massive latra...

 

[Lethem]

I think its because anyone can release their music for free on line, its the same with everything. The more there is, the lower the total quality becomes.

My DIY/net label http://www.ontheshelfrecords.co.uk has been getting a lot of love from Huw Stephens and mary anne hobbs. Going into madia vale to do a session soon.

I guess at the end of the day its about the amount of effort that gets put into the releases and the skills the producers/bands have.

Lewis

 

[Papercut]

yup, similar prejudices.

I've given them a go, but i never find anything i'm wild about. lots of competant tracks, but nothing thats excited/challenged me. i'm sure there is loads of good stuff somewhere, but i just think most of the people i respect still buy and release vinyl.

i think netlabels have a good opportunity to be really experimental, but i don't hear it too much, but would be happy to be totally wrong.

 

[michael]

For me it's not a prejudice, it's a conclusion. I've downloaded gigs and gigs and gigs of net label stuff over the past ... I dunno, must be closing on 10 years. And, yeah, taking away the costs involved with releasing music is necessarily taking away a big incentive to be critical with what you bother to put out there.

The exceptions are where people still want to be cautious for curatorial reasons, i.e. want their label to be really refined and something special, etc.

I wrote a primer for a bloopy electronica webmag a few years back, but don't want to show it to you. I do a weekly free mp3 link thing on my blog, and at least a third of the mp3s I link to are net label things as opposed to just band site giveaways or what have you. My tastes seem to be softer / more polite than those of a lot of bods on here, but you might find some things you like.


I think Jahtari gets over the competent-but-not-awesome threshold as often as most physically-releasing labels.


Zhao, you might like con-v for microsound type adventures?


Zymogen and 12k off-shoot term. put in the effort and generally get great results, if you like crackly contemporary ambient type business.

 

[Dunninger]

I have this prejudice too, even though I have released music on netlabels myself and have music by artists that had both music released for free and on CD/vinyl and I can't really hear a difference in quality. I guess the signal/noise ratio is just worse, with people releasing rubbish just because they can and but also listeners being less critical before they click the download link.

 

[DJ PIMP]

I'm the same... did a net label bender ages ago and simply can't be arsed any more.

Jahtari is the exception (and sure there must be others), but as far as free-ish music goes blogs are a much better bet.

Go the thieving hipsters and obsessive archivists!

 

[dubble-u-c]

there is some good music on this netlabel:

http://www.acroplane.co.uk/

but i agree it takes a lot of sifting to find good music on netlabels. the signal to noise ratio is high.

 

[oblioblioblio]

the signal to noise ratio is high.

this.



however, it's the same with all music and all life i suppose really.

it's a shame with netalbels. as there are some people investing heavily in quality control, innovative schedules and selections, etc etc.

thinner.cc is supposedly pretty legendary. (though have moved into paid downloads... all their old stuff remains free tho)

 

[Dusty]

There is so much rubbish... someone must have written blog highlighting the few good finds out there? If not then it needs to happen.

I have found some belters in the past, the two Marsen Jules albums on Autoplate are a must-have. I think they have been re-released as paid-for downloads now. And one of my favourite ambient albums of all time, easily up there with Koner and Deupree is Miles Tilmanns 'Melt' album on Experimedia.

 

[Sectionfive]

There's few nuggets if you dig around here.

Everythings reveiwed too

http://phlow-magazine.com/free-mp3-music-download

 

[Ory]

it's a bit bizarre that while most people now prefer downloading music, artists who release vinyl (and even CD) are still held in higher regard. consumers like to act like they're leaving old media behind, but it sure as hell influences what they pay attention to.

 

[michael]

it's a bit bizarre that while most people now prefer downloading music, artists who release vinyl (and even CD) are still held in higher regard. consumers like to act like they're leaving old media behind, but it sure as hell influences what they pay attention to.

I don't really think it's bizarre, at least not as a music listener. The reason put forward in this thread make heaps of sense to me.


Just finished listening to all the net label stuff I've downloaded. It was over two weeks of stuff, so it took me about a month of work days to get through it all. I should really cut it down to about two days... most of it bored the shit out of me. Especially all the techno. Meh.

 

[Papercut]

^^^

Yes, some of the techno netlabels are the absolute worst. You'd wonder why people can't just stick to having a few tracks on their myspace or something, whats the difference?

how do people feel about the "if you haven't got a product to sell, you haven't got a product" idea? I'm not saying it stops bad music but if someone lost a couple of grand on a few vinyls they might get the message.

 

[alex]

ez, so I have been digging netlabels and I agree, the pap to good ratio is unbeliveable. However there are some good releases @ thinner records (or something similar)

anyone reccomend any good house finds?