released on Ambientlive Records
Content
Check out the kind of music we release, it's mainly electronic.
It's unlikely that your Bluegrass album, however good, would work here.
Take a look around the website, you'll see the kind of layouts we do.
This will give you an idea of the information you can supply to promote
your album. You can supply as much or as little as you like. We can't
make it all up for you, so some text at least is helpful, also images,
backgrounds, etc.
Samples
The customer will definately want to hear some short samples of your
album, in order to decide whether it's their sort of thing or not. These do
not need to be very long, 1 to 2 minutes is usual, and can be of reduced
quality if you prefer. Importantly, they are on your own webspace, so you
only need to give us the links. Customers hate broken links, so if you
decide to change anything, please let us know.
Alternatively the samples can be on a Soundcloud page, you could set
one up with extracts from one or two tracks from each of your albums.
An example of this in practice is here 4m33s Soundcloud page
Artwork
Before preparing your artwork for release please read these Artwork notes
Copyright
Ambientlive does not want the copyright to your material.
Artists are accountable for their own copyright responsibilities.
All the material on the CD must be your own original work, or be Public
Domain. Similarly, all samples used in your tracks must be either your
own original work or genuine copyright-free samples. Ultimately you may
be required to provide proof that you have the consent of the copyright
holder to use the sample.
So how much will you get paid per CD ?
We usually pay a fixed amount per CD sold, to be agreed between
the artist and Ambientlive. It's cleaner and easier to do it that way.
Remember here that a sale to a retailer will be done at 'trade' price,
whereas a sale to an end customer is done at the normal sale price.
The customer would expect to pay less for a CD when dealing direct
with Ambientlive, than via a retailer. Therefore the amount per sale
that you will get will be lower for trade sales than for sales direct to
the public.
Remember also that Ambientlive invests money in promotional copies
sent out not just to retailers, but to web-radio stations, review sites, etc.
We also have a facility where the artist can buy their own CD's at one
quarter of the sales price, and also in fact ANY Ambientlive CD at half
the sales price. Postage is charged for these purchases, sorry.
Payment is usually made via PayPal so it helps if you have an account
with them. You can ask for a statement of how you are doing at any time,
payments are usually made when the number sold makes it worth while.
eBay
You can ask Ambientlive to sell your albums via eBay. We don't do
this without your permission. We regard eBay as just another 'channel'
but with a slight difference, in that we usually start the sale at a low
price, it is a bidding site after all. So an album might sell for a lower
price than normal, that's the chance we take. eBay sales are paid
at the same rate as normal sales, unless the selling price does not
cover the costs. You are not expected to pay for unsold albums,
that cost is borne by Ambientlive, as is all listing and final-value fees.
Promotional Activity
Ambientlive will promote its albums online wherever it can, while of
course trying to avoid creating spam, which of course has a negative
effect. We will also culture relationships with online resources such
as review sites, web-radio sites, and of course other online retailers.
The artist can of course also promote his own material, and not just
online of course. At live gigs, in record shops, hand-outs, posters, in
fact anywhere that it makes good sense to do so without becoming
a nuisance to people or property. Another good way is to make up
a cdr of just a few tracks, and literally give them away on the street,
making sure of course that you have written the website link on them.
There are many ways that albums and artists can be promoted, there
is no point at all having an album available for sale if nobody knows
about it. On the other hand it is counter-productive to overdo it.
Getting Famous
First of all you are not 'signed' as such to Ambientlive, it is an album
by album agreement. The artist is free to release other material in
other places, clearly where it conflicts with the Ambientlive release
that's not always such a good idea. The artist is free to go elsewhere
without restriction, you are not locked in.
The actual Agreement can be written if required, at most a one-page
simply written agreement, not some huge complex contract written
in legal jargon. Most artists are happy with just a verbal agreement.
If an artist 'makes it' and becomes so big that they wish to sign up to
a 'major' label and becomes famous and successful, then we have no
hold over them whatsoever. We do not expect any payment or royalty
at all, though if you do feel inclined to give us a million dollars (hint).
We might just make a big publicity thing out of it though.
What to do Next
If you have got this far and are still interested AND you think that
you have something to offer, please feel free to email us at
(you'll need to type that in)