for me it's a demanding, obsessive hobby. i really put a big effort on my tracks in therms of creation, performance and production.

kay.

i am getting to the point where i am unsure of my future in music..i don't know where my direction is or how i am going to make a living..i am frusterated.

i find that the people i have talked to with these netlabels do not want to hear any of my music to begin with. perhaps i will continue to do this for personal enjoyment..but perhaps the greatest asset as a musician is to be persistent..maybe ive answered my own question.

Monotonik seems to be the label in which a majority of the talents of today's electronica derives from.

How to get signed (or how I did anyway)

Stop releasing
What I did was I STOPPED releasing ANYTHING on the net and prepared myself to send stuff off. Record companies don't want to release something people have previously been able to get for free (not always true, but as a rule this is the case) and you shouldn't send them anything that's been net released.

Quality control
I suggest you do this.. Get writing and get yourself a team of 4 people you really trust who you know will not distribute your music to anyone and will actually give you a REAL opinion, not just say "it's great!" when it sucks (that is VERY important)

When you finish a track, send it to these four people and get their opinions and some of them may surprise you. Especially when you stress how important honesty is with people and that you can't grow without it.

And of course... LISTEN to them.

Prepare

One mistake I made was sending demos off when I only had a few tracks that were album-worthy and I got uber stressed when making the album as it was real this time. SO what I'd suggest is write an album and an album where you like every track and would be happy for people to hear each one alone THEN start looking at labels.

Labels

Target labels you want and then labels you think "will do". I was very lucky because I got signed to one of my top choices. But there are various labels out there that should do the trick for either project just do some digging.

If they're a small label email them first giving a brief (and I mean very brief) discription of your music and do it in a personal, friendly way as the music industry is an industry with a friendly tone and if you start giving it "Dear sir.." You're going to turn people off. Ask if they mind you sending them a demo if they reply with yes, then send one in!

Packaging:
Ok, what I did was had a CD with a blank white label with band name, contact details and track names on it. and for the jewel case i did the same. The reason I did this is because artwork gives preconceptions as to what your work will be like and you want them to start from a clean slate. Plus if you give them artwork that is not to their taste, then they're more likely to dislike it, shoddy artwork - they'll assume you're shoddy etc. Plus it allows them to put their ideas on top of your music for design which may be to your advantage.

For IDM don't bother with a press release, it's not that kind of music.

Obvious thing - Put your best track first and don't go over 3 tracks.

Hope that helps.

BTW, I've not heard some of you but here's my opinion on who I have:

autpt: I'd say you really need to work on your variation. Your elements are good but instead of swaying and crashing it sort of plods along. That's somehing you need to work on. Also a bit more work on your production. Basically, you're not quite ready yet but you ARE getting there.

Equinox: You're not there but you know that, and I get the feeling you do it more for fun than anything.

Another piece of advice for EVERYONE: If you don't think your stuff is good enough for people to want to buy it then DON'T send it out to test the water.

I waited for a long time for a reason. The last thing you want is to send out an early demo to all your favourite labels and then when you send out your better work they recognise the name and go, "nah, that's crap!"

Ask yourself are you capable of writing an entire albums worth of material that people want to listen to? I'm not asking is your best track better than your hero's worst, because it probably is but people think that track sucks anyway.

Do what the rest of us do... have a job and do music anyway.

There's only about 3 people in the IDm scene who make quite a bit of money, there's probably only another 5 or 10 who make enough to live off without working.

even FENNESZ has to make music for art performances, multimedaias and stuff like that to pay his bills.

Exactly..

You want to make money? Do pop crap.

Keep your integrity? Either get a job or survive on welfare.

...well you can also find a work as a sound designer but then you will have clients....