[Discuss] The MB RECORDS members album releases thread
 

In lieu of our recent MB members' music compilation success and additional ideas contributed by James1 and other members, I'm proposing that we make an unofficial "official" MB record label in which our established members collectively release their own music in the form of albums, LPs, and EPs to share with our community.

The basic idea is that members create and submit their own music and these submissions are made into a compilation album of about 12 or 13 songs, regularly instead of one a once-in-a-while basis as demonstrated in the MB comps.
Album artwork could also be supplied for each album by members, and mastering for the albums could be provided in-house, as we have several people here who have the means to do so. (since I can't volunteer anyone else, I'm just throwing my willingness into the hat at this point)

Overflow submissions could be counted towards the following album, or made into an LP or EP.

Another idea is that we vote on themes for the upcoming album so that there would be a general cohesiveness to the albums/LPs/EPs.

In any regard, I wanted to create this thread as a forum of discussion about the idea so that all the people who are interested in being involved can have a say and come to a general consensus of how this will work.

Please reply with your ideas. This will be a temporary thread, so once we come to an agreement, this one will be closed and the official thread will be launched and we can get to work. :)

I think we may be onto something fantastic, though I must confess due to horridly selfish reasons I might be afraid to get my track mastered by someone else. Not that I have the means to, I don't.

I know this is a rather odd question but in what stage are songs usually handed to producers?

Well, in this particular scenario, you're all of it.
The idea behind mastering in an album sense, in our scenario anyway, is getting all the songs to a cohesive tonal balance and volume, and arranging the songs in a fashion that's not random and creates a progression throughout the album.

Just saying "Ok here's 12 songs, I'm going to randomly put numbers on them and make sure all their peaks hit around the same DB level" isn't going to give you good results.
Some songs may need a little bit of compression to even out the dynamics a bit, others may need a little bass removed (like mine), while others may be just right.
The idea is to make the album cohesive and make it flow, possibly fix some glaring frequency errors, and add a little sparkle and sheen.

Obviously, if any major work needs to be done, the person mastering the album would provide the artist with the edited work for approval, or ask the artist to bring something up or down in the mix, but judging from the submissions we had in the members comp, most of everyone's sound was good and maybe just called for some light compression and limiting across the board. And above all, some arrangement.

Ah, I see. A different concept than the one I was thinking about.

Well, it's still a great idea and I thank you for going forth with it.

Regarding the mastering of tracks, I have no problem with it so long as the artists get a chance to sign off on any changes before comps are submitted, especially since we have some talented folks capable of doing so.

The first come, first serve idea makes sense to me but perhaps we could restrict artists to a certain a amount of tracks per month. Maybe there could be some leeway pertaining to different projects by the same person.

Maybe even more than compilations, people can work together to put out whole pieces of work, ex. musician, producer, visual artist combining their efforts to make an EP or full length.

Just some thoughts, sounds like a great idea to me and I'd be happy to contribute.

Good ideas!

As far as first come, first serve thing... My personal opinion is that it would be better if we looked at things not as a time-frame thing, but more as an album-frame thing if you will. Instead of releasing per month, we simply release when we've met the album quota in terms of submissions and agreement, and release when that point is reached regardless of time-frame.

I especially like the idea that certain artists may want to team up together for releases, and maybe incorporate releases consisting of collaborations as well.

And of course, if one person wanted to work alone on a release, that would be welcomed as well. I would just hope that wouldn't detract from people wanting to be a part of compilations and collaborations.

Overall, I think this would be a good opportunity for the musicians here to have a dedicated output and rally point for their music in a community aspect.

Keep the ideas coming!

Can I work on Artworks ?
Well with a handful of others members, maybe suggest some squared artworks for the albums/EPs to come ?

Ah yes, I should have said 'a limit on contributor's track per-release'.

Perhaps eventually we could do some sort of remix comp or should remixes just fit in amongst a regular comp? Maybe I'm thinking a little too far ahead here but there should be some sort of consensus about the place of things such as mashups and remixes.

I love this idea.

I recommend having submission deadlines...perhaps 4 per year to start...and actual planned release dates for the "albums."

Reasons: I think planned release dates will help stop this idea from dying a slow death during implementation, and I am probably not alone in being motivated by deadlines. Like you wrote in the shoutbox, if there is more interest in contributing to albums during the year, then the number of "albums" could be increased.

Having set release dates will also put a cap on the amount of time the "producer" (you, FD?) will have to dedicate to getting the compilation up.

You could also set up release special "Theme" albums (songs of same genre or songs about some topic) in addition to the four "albums" on which people just contribute the songs they want. For example, over the last year there were already 2 such "albums," kind of: the MB song contest (songs about MB), and Conan's mini MB Festivus song contest.

A more general comment: I always see newcomers getting rebuffed here for "self-promotion," which is supposedly against the rules until you have "proven" you are planning to stick around. Won't this album idea be creating the very blatant self-promotion that MB ostensibly rejects?

Since I know that sometimes musicians are motivated to make and share music with others simply because sharing their creativity is fun, I don't mind people sharing their music at all. Still, if others are worried about self-promotion, then you'd best set up some more MB "Country Club" rules for who can contribute to the albums (probably based on post counts).

Since I dislike country clubs very, very much, I wouldn't myself recommend rules about *who* can submit songs...I'd just put the cap on the number of songs per member per compilation, as others suggested. However, if a newcomer submitted some songs (not knowing about the supposed "no self-promotion" rule) and was told s/he he wasn't "acceptable enough" yet to do so, then that would be unfortunate and depressing to me. Making the rules about who may submit songs to the "albums" clear and consistent from the start would be best.

I'm glad you're doing it FD. You were my first choice.

Finally go that name change, eh? Good for you :D

I would say there's a big and very obvious difference between someone like yourself, who is an active member of the site, posting things they wrote, and someone whose fifteenth post is "hey guys, check out my band's myspace page."

Thanks, it looks awesome.

Maybe, Janszoon. Perhaps I'm just a little bit more subtle. And like to write long posts as camouflage. ;)

I do feel, though, that it would be good to clarify just who can submit songs to the compilations so that it's all out in the open. Some newcomers won't realize they shouldn't submit music to a community compilation, and why, unless this is stated.

I can't fault people for being excited about their music and wanting to share it, but I do understand that MB doesn't want people to just use the site to promote their work. It probably makes some members here feel used, and that doesn't feel good.

if you want i know how to get it on amazon.com, in fact i know a lot of awesome music business websites.
adn then by using this one site to get it on amazon i'll have a upc so i can use a different site (without spending the $15 upc setup fee) to get it on itunes as well

the sites are:
Createspace.com
Distrophonix.com

We're not really trying to "release" in that sense. This is meant to be strictly an MB thing. Thanks for the suggestions though. :)




Ok, so far here's a revised version of the idea, based on what's been proposed:

• Members release original music as compilation album, EP & LP length releases as planned. These releases are coordinated between ESTABLISHED members before hand in an album planning stage that allows members to get a general idea for a theme and to establish participants & submission numbers.
• Albums can be compilation albums, solo albums, remix albums & collaboration albums. EP and LP releases can be negotiated in the same way, and serve the needs of the artists. Single releases are not allowed.
• General deadlines should be implemented for planned releases involving multiple people.
• If an individual wishes to release a solo album/EP/LP, it can be submitted and released at any time and will be showcased, but the artist must be a contributing member and the submitting party WILL meet that criteria. Spammy noobs will simply waste their time and be rejected.
• Any member can submit album art, but it may be a good idea have a dedicated person to manage the submissions and be artistically minded enough to filter them and submit a final to the album producer for inclusion in the file. I'm not that artistic person, so if we can work out an art-director unanimously, that would be Le Tits.
• Mastering will not be intrusive in any musical way. For the reason of meshing well with the rest of the songs on the album, sonic characteristics and song order are the only thing in that realm that may be affected, subject to the artists' approval.
• Releases will be presented as compressed archives, akin to the members comp, with an accurate track-list and no volume meta-data included in the files (as it shouldn't be necessary after general mastering), and available to our members to download and comment on in the subsequent album release thread.

If you guys have anything to add or subtract to/from the above, please let me know. :)

I like Stone Birds idea. If it isn't a hassle, I would mind throwing my stuff up on itunes for free.

Otherwise things are looking good to me.

Well, no one can stop people from submitting their own music to iTunes, but it's a different story when an album contains multiple artists.
If those artists agree to do that and do it on their own accord, go for it.

I realize that. Just saying if there was agreement about it...

I was just saying that the intent here isn't to sell music to the general public, but just serve as a creative outlet for our members. Outside of that, it's all up to whoever is involved. :)

Sell is such an ugly word.

if you want i could help you set up accounts on the sites since i know how they work

Cool, we'll have to discuss that through PMs/IMs or something.

Ok guys/gals, are we in agreement on the general rules here?
If so, I'll make the official thread and outline the rules for the first album.

What are the general rules? Just everything we talked about? List it together so that we can see it all in one post.
And then we can decide.

Edit: Or have you already made a thread for this?

bump, because i can and because we need to discuss this :)

Ok, one last cast for opinion:

• Members release original music as compilation album, EP & LP length releases as planned. These releases are coordinated between ESTABLISHED members before hand, in an album planning stage that allows members to get a general idea for a theme and to establish participants & submission numbers.
• Albums can be compilation albums, solo albums, remix albums & collaboration albums. EP and LP releases can be negotiated in the same way, and serve the needs of the artists. Single releases are not allowed. (I.E. You can't just release individual songs. They need to be part of an LP at least)
• Generally loose deadlines should be implemented for planned releases involving multiple people.
• If an individual wishes to release a solo album/EP/LP, it can be submitted and released at any time and will be showcased, but the artist must be a contributing member and the submitting party WILL meet that criteria. Spammy noobs will simply waste their time and be rejected.
• Any member can submit album art for albums that are comprised of multiple artists, but it may be a good idea have visual artists who are willing to help, offer their services for those who request them. All interested parties should PM Freebase Dali so that a list can be made of available album artwork folks.
• Mastering will not be intrusive in any musical way. For the reason of meshing well with the rest of the songs on the album, general characteristics (such as lowering ridiculously loud bass, etc) and song order are the only thing in that realm that may be affected, subject to the artists' approval and review.
• Releases will be presented as compressed archives, akin to the members comp, with an accurate track-list and no volume meta-data included in the files (as it shouldn't be necessary after general mastering), and available to our members to download and comment on in the subsequent album release thread.
• ALL ALBUMS/SONGS FOR ALBUMS WILL BE SUBMITTED TO FREEBASE DALI FOR ORGANIZATION AND RELEASING.

If you guys have anything to add or subtract to/from the above, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to start drafting both the discussion and release threads tonight.

I like the general idea of this.
I don't think people should be able to release solo albums.
I feel like that makes it very personal.

This should be something everyone is a part of.
I think if people want to release a solo album, they can do it on their own time.
If they're a contributing member and people really want to hear what they have to offer, they can put a link in their signature and that's that.

This is my opinion, though.
How do you feel about that?

Am I misunderstanding what you meant?

Actually I think it would be good to allow people to release their own personal albums at times. I don't want this to be a mandatory compilation album deal. I want to legitimize original music releases on MB so that people have a place to come together and release their music or get together with other members and do it that way if they wish.
Of course, compilation albums or LPs/EPs would one of the main focuses and would be the focus of voting for themed releases, which would help artists who only have a couple songs and would like to include them in a fitting release.
Again, I think the main direction this will take will be dictated by how things go at first.
Getting it organized is the challenge, but I'm sure things will smooth out once we get to feel out the progression of all this.

I understand what you mean.
But I don't think it's to anyone's benefit, nor do I think it's any fun to the site as a whole if someone just releases their own little album.
I hate to be so difficult, I just think it's silly to let people release albums here that only they've contributed to.
It's not a "Look What I Did" sort of deal, I thought. I figured it'd be more like a, "Let's see what we can get together" sort of album, mixing everyone's tastes and styles together as one.

maybe we could release solo albums but there must be some sort of collaboration with another member (like if i did a collaboration with +81 or OceansAndSilence), or remixes or covers related to another member

I just want to reiterate that this is not a permanent members' music compilation idea either. While we are certainly free to collaborate with each other and have contests and compilations, we should also be free to release solo music at the same time.
If any member of this site does not want to hear an entire album from one person, then they will not be forced to.
Also, I don't think that just because we can release solo albums that everyone is going to do that and ignore all the other events. If that were the case, everyone would have been releasing solo albums for years at this point... most people benefit more from being a part of something and and collaborating as it helps creativity and output, and they realize this. I don't think we'll have to worry about people not participating in our projects.

I like this idea.
I guess in my opinion, it's as long as it's something that more than one member contributed to, it's something I'd like to hear.
I mean, of course there are some albums I'd love to listen to, it's just the fact that I don't want it to be solely solo albums.
Or that people are just there to advertise.

The community should be the focus but I see nothing wrong with solo works. It's still music from within the community and limiting people just restricts the possibilities. I thought we agreed anyway that access to this privilege won't be given to everyone (i.e. n00bz) so I think the spam would be pretty minimal.

Exactly. All submissions are coming to me to be "packaged", if you will, and included in the catalog for download. It's not like any spam is going to make its way through.

I think things will be a little more clear when I make the project thread, which will contain clear-cut rules we've all (the majority of us) agreed upon.
There will be a time-limited poll in the thread to vote on projects and that will be the main focus, but I don't want to restrict our long standing members from being able to release solo LPs and such because I'm pretty sure there are plenty of us who WOULD like to hear them.

maybe some of the compilations could have a "theme"...

for example maybe "make a song about another member" or something like that

idk

i almost forgot you should make a last.fm label page

The MB Records Release Catalog has been revamped!
Next I will be creating the project discussion thread, and then when that's done, this thread will be no more.