Why, oh why, is there seemingly such a lack of labels wanting to sign one-man-and-his-guitar acts of late? Granted, the recent spate of James Blunt-ish garbage has lead to a wary industry feeling, but after being turned down by indie labels for being to "pop/rock" and turned down by larger labels for being to "quirky" i'm fast getting frustrated. I'm forced to stick with my current label who do their best but lack the finacial backing to give artists the much needed leg-up.

Can anyone shed any light on any 'inbetween' labels for me, i'm at the end of m rope!

Thanks for your time.

Tom Hall www.tomhallmusic.co.uk

Well Tom, you are on I-Tunes, you have control over your material, why worry?

Get some PR people running with you and you are technically totally up and running.

The rest is in your hands.

Martin i have to agree with you 100% though i do understand how Tom feels. Many bands/managers/labels need a lot of advice and information on how to get to grips with the post Itunes music industry. Not a lot of wisdom is passed down but you are right. How are you finding it for your projects ?

Hi KZ.

I`m finding it only ok I`m afraid, I still cannot get a gauranteed release date on any track, they seem to pop up out of the blue. Napster download distribution has appeared a full four months after the HMV Digital release.

I have applied for full I-tunes listing for my company as I am a little frustrated by the speed that the distro gets through the red tapes.

I still intend to work with the PR companies, as I said to Tom, but going back to an earlier thread, I do still believe that many of todays A+R, will end up, not being an A+R for the download companies, but a quality control check, as it were.

I don`t think anybody wants an industry where literally anything can be on sale globally, this will make the industry even more financially challenged.

The buying public, does not like everything, but it doesn`t need unfinished works.

If these go on the major download sites, we have a further problem, which could set us all back a few more years.

Good voice, Tom!

But I'm not convinced about the commercial appeal of the singer-songwriter with guitar.

Two guys I've worked with that went on to (slightly) fuller sounds are Perry Rose and Bai Kamara Jr. But they're still struggling.

In your case, you're a better writer than a guitar player. So that's the bit I'd like to hear showcased.


M

Off topic: I downloaded Old Jake from your site. You should add more metadata to your files, including your website address and even a number for bookings! The file I'm looking at lists just the title, artist and genre. What about the composer, an ISRC, website, copyright notice or whatever. Use ID3v1.

M

I am afraid Mart's right. You say you have a label, albeit a small one? Why are they recording "demos" of your material? Surely a label cuts masters for commercial release. Sorry, I'm confused.

Having listened to a couple of tracks - you don't make it easy to find them either - all I can say is those who turned you down were being nice.

Accepting that it may be my personal taste doesn't match your music I think Big End's demo point is irrefutable.

Perhaps the problem isn't with record companies but closer to home - which is good because you can do something about that.