HOW MUSICIANS BENEFIT FROM RELEASING THEIR MUSIC AT LABEL CANTROLL?

What does residency on Label Cantroll (earlier “Cuntroll”) entail? Usually this topic is discussed in private correspondence. Today, we will tell you about it publicly.

Part 1. Work

As you know, Label Cantroll distributes music exclusively for free. We do not release stuff on analog sound storage media and we do not do mastering or mixing. We even do not organize concerts anymore.
Publishing a release on Label Cantroll means joining a community of like-minded people, getting an audience, some publications, recommendations and marketing services. We bring people together and help musicians find their listeners. Today’s digital culture is short-lived but all the music we have published in 12 years is still available via valid links.
Some tracks from our albums become popular on social networks and partner music websites. Having your music released at our label means long-term cooperation. Additionally, sometimes we release news about our artists, publish our recommendations in media outlets and suggest various gigs to our musicians.

Visual design is an important thing, too. We create a video thumbnail, a description in two languages, a landing page (see example), fine links and an archive, where every comma is in its own place, for every album. Everything will be beautifully packed to the smallest detail.

Part 2. Benefits

At present, our own platforms and partner sites give us various promotion instruments. Here is the list of just a few of things we do:
– add your tracks to the Shazam music recognition base;
– promote music for different contexts (compilations, offline platforms, special projects). For example, in 2021 we invited residents to the service of short videos “Clips VKontakte” – the social network officially supported us, so each video had 50-60 thousand views. Link.
– publish music on main streaming services (Google Play, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, Spotify, Yandex Music);
– publish your album on around 15 public-groups on VK  (in total 110,000 subscribers);
– promote one or several tracks from your album for radio and online broadcasting at up to 15 stations. This, of course, highly depends on the music itself, because there are things popular with radios but still, we often receive refusals. We send out packages with our main tracks two-three times a year after which we publish lists of stations that picked our music;
– make releases on our platforms, including previews on Soundcloud, description on VK, description in English on Facebook
– publications in thematic groups E:\music on social networks (in total 100 000 subscribers);
– publish music on niche music services (Pandora, Sber Zvuk, Napster, BOOM, Claro, МТС Music, KKBox, NetEase, ect);
– create a special YouTube thumbnail;
– add data to the catalog Last.FM and Discogs;
– twice a year we make an email newsletter with a news selection of releases. There are 2 300 contacts in the database. Example: 1 and 2.
– promote tracks in tracks selection on VK (see examples 1 and 2);
– Promote the track to the official editorial playlists of the platforms. Repeatedly received support from YouTube Music, Yandex Music and BOOM. The tracks were also played in the official playlists of Vkontakte Music. Examples: 1 , 2 and 3.

Part 3. Money

Businesses, any user or foreign company – everyone can use Cantroll music for free in their videos on a general basis. Already now Cantroll resident tracks can be heard in the “background” in podcasts, YouTube-bloggers, private and entertainment videos, various vlogs and reviews, as well as in commercials of European brands (e.g. Renault, OGC Nice, Discovery Channel, CHI Haircare, GQ Germany).
For commercial collaborations we offer exclusive conditions. First of all, this means obtaining the necessary part of the multi-track (for example, just the melody or the minus track), the possibility of monetizing the video on YouTube (permission for Content ID) and a letter of guarantee. Such cases are agreed upon by three parties: the label, the customer and the author. The author receives 50% of the profit and signs a special agreement. There are few commercial collaborations at the moment.

The second way to monetize: receiving royalties from streaming services. The more your album is listened to by users with premium accounts, the bigger the payment. In the contract (version of March 2021) they approved the rule: the amount received is divided with the author in the 50/50 proportion (from the amount exceeding $10).

Part 4. Demo policy

We publish one or two releases per month. To get on the label as a resident, you need to do a few things.
The release to be sent must have at least three tracks. We don’t accept singles, only EPs or LPs. In addition to the music, you need a cover art (square, RGB palette, in jpg format) with a resolution of at least 2500×2500 pixels per side. And most importantly, the album to be sent must be new and unpublished on the internet.

In your email, write a little about yourself: who you are, where you’re from, what you play and with whom, and briefly about your musical and other achievements, interesting facts, or just about life. Add links to your social media pages. Archive the album and cover art (.rar or .zip) and upload it to any file-sharing site.

Part 5. Instead of a conclusion.

Why is it better for an artist to release through a label than through an aggregator (such as TuneCore or Distrokid)?
– Advertising. Aggregators don’t promote songs. We have our own and partner media resources.
– The aggregator will release whatever you provide. The label is ready to help improve the quality of the music material – professional advice is never superfluous.
– In some cases, making a cover for an album.
– Our residents can ask the label for legal advice. The aggregator will simply remove your album at the request of “third parties”.
– The “long game”. After release, we try to continue to publish news about residents (announcements of events, new records, tracks in playlists and selections).
– We find like-minded people. If you want to try collaboration with someone else – we’ll prompt, introduce. Some residents unite and record joint tracks: for example “Air, Lake Shore, Forest” by Paradeigma + Samsara Inc. + feellove (ex- Imagine That). Or “Only On This Planet” by Ogi Feel the Beat + Paradeigma + A Bit Advanced Music.