Theres on average,33 trance releases a DAY....

MDD

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Interesting to know the split per label.

Id hope there would be some hidden gems in there, but I'm worried it's the same copycat sounds we've come to hear now.

I suppose it's good we have choice, but I'd rather take quality of quantity.
 

Hensmon

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Would be interested to see how that compares with the early 00's
 

Magdelayna

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Would be interested to see how that compares with the early 00's

There would be no comparison,there was some sort of quality control back then as labels risked spending money on vinyl and cd releases.

I think thats the major issue here...tiny labels can releases 100s of tracks a year with no loss,and theyll make a bit of money...and thats where quality control goes out of the window.

It would be interesting to see if these releases go up year by year...
 

Archon

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Well, there are mastering/promo costs, can't say it's completely risk-free.
 

Recharge

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I've actually been fooled by some songs in beatport. Preview seemed pretty good/ok, you know some more underground trance sounds from some unknown producers, nothing too special, but song were pretty bad outside the preview.

Adding to that statistic I found a producer that releases on a few smaller (related) labels, between 20-40 songs per week.

Its actually 2 producers but they have the same first name and release on almost identical labels, even some of the same ones which makes me believe its the same guy:

VYACHESLAV SANKOV / VYACHESLAV SKETCH​

Most of the songs are meh, but there are some pretty good ones, so like you said quantity over quality. But there are some hidden gems among his mln realeases unless he copies someone else's work. I've been meaning to ask about him , if anyone had heard him. He is from Russia, to be fair while the east European producers tend to go a bit overboard with the edm-y music, there are some pretty underrated ones.
 

Propeller

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Jul 20, 2020
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A lot of it is rubbish but there is still plenty of good stuff if you dig for it. A lot of the good ones can go unnoticed if you just listen to the major podcasts and don't put the effort in yourself to dig.
The main problem with the scene is that the major DJs only tend to play music from their own label and ignore the other promos they're sent, as Enlusion said in his interview.

I actually think that the music is as good as ever, there is a huge amount of variety.
 

Peenuts

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Jun 28, 2020
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The process of music production (or in fact, any artistic endeavour) has been made simpler and more accessible to the masses, so expectedly more music is being made. Personally i don't think this is neither a good or bad thing in itself.

The most important thing is that the big labels uphold their quality control, to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. As long as the biggest labels are selecting the best tracks every month out of all the music that is being made, then that is no problem for me. Whether 1000 or 10000 tracks get released per month is beyond the point, as most people, most of the time, listen to music that is made by the biggest 10 or so labels in the scene.

Personally speaking, i listen to maybe around 30 trance releases per month. What some minor / obscure label with unknown artists is releasing does not really concern me, as i won't have the time / interest to listen to them anyway. What i'm trying to say is that my music consumption habits remain the same, regardless of the number of releases.

So in a nutshell - yes, there is a lot of crap music out there, but it doesn't matter to me as long as the most popular labels keep selecting the best music available to them.
 

Daysleeper

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Why doesnt AI help us with the quality control here haha?

Just program it to detect these 4 fundamental trance/Edm cliches.

Steroids/overcompressed/loud/zero dynamics = rejected!
generic/using same sounds/structure as everyone else = rejected
cheese overload = rejected
zero authenticity = rejected

I doubt there would be more quality if there were less generic shit though? I mean lets say that a large portion of these generic tunes didnt get released. Would still be the same tunes we get now from the blackhole/fsoe/armada with sublabels monopoly?

I would be more happy if producers were a little more self-concious about their production, Just cause you completed a half-decent tune doesnt mean its ready for a release. Stop pretending a release is more worth than an actual quality piece of music.

Dont think: CAN I RELEASE THIS?

Think : Is this good enough? Would I like to listen to this?

I think this got imprinted in bedroom-producers brains in the vinyl/cd to digital switch around....YES 06/07( the downfall era)

Labels should really adopt the same rules as this forum as a last resort. Limit releaes per month/year. It doesnt matter if the producers are in a "flow". The tune will get released anyway if its good enough.

One would also speculate if vinyl had to the mainformat again when getting a release. Would there be better quality control or not?

I dont think any labels should respect or promote generic trance! Labels should be all about the art of trance. They should promote good music, but for the last decade or more its been the exact opposite.Good tunes with a personal sound has struggled to get signed and instead the generic droop has taken their place. Promote your got damn generic steroid strancer yoursel I would say. In my mind it should be forbidden to release generic shit, but I mean if you are a bedroom producer theres a million ways these days to get your tune out there anyways. My point is it shouldbt be promoted by labels on faullty grounds. They force bad music to the masses really! Those generic trancers is the ones that should stay on soundcloud/spotify/bandcamp and not proceed to the labels and promoted by the "big guys". Theres really weird politics surrounding the trance "scene", its all upside down.

Wasnt it better when we had a plethora of labels doing their "thing" and the big guys helped those labels? I mean I cant get away from that. These days its the exact opposite for god sake.


EDIT: If I were A&R at puretrance I would approve maybe 25% of their catalog :p
 
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Magdelayna

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I would be more happy if producers were a little more self-concious about their production, Just cause you completed a half-decent tune doesnt mean its ready for a release. Stop pretending a release is more worth than an actual quality piece of music.
I can hardly make an original track anymore as im too self-concious haha. And not for releases reason either - just satisying my own mind.
 
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Manofearth

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As a sucker for numbers, I looked at the other genres over the same 30 day period. Not sure how you got to 33 per day, were you looking at releases or tracks?

Trance - 2800 tracks (across 1200 releases)
Drum & Bass -3000 tracks (across 1000 releases)
Psy-Trance - 1500 tracks (600 releases)
Techno (Peak time) - 7200 tracks (2400 releases)
Techno (Deep) - 1600 tracks (600 releases)
House - 10,800 tracks (3000 releases)
Drum & Bass - 3000 tracks (900 Releases)
Dubstep - 1000 tracks (500 releases)
Deep House - 7700 tracks (2200 releases)
Breakbeat - 1600 tracks (600 releases)

Trance small in comparison to Techno and House. 7700 tracks in 30 days for Deep House alone. Even the more modest numbers for Dubstep is seeing 1000 tracks per month, which is probably relative to its size tbf. So the over saturation is a problem for all the genres and not just Trance.
 

Magdelayna

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As a sucker for numbers, I looked at the other genres over the same 30 day period. Not sure how you got to 33 per day, were you looking at releases or tracks?

Trance - 2800 tracks (across 1200 releases)
Drum & Bass -3000 tracks (across 1000 releases)
Psy-Trance - 1500 tracks (600 releases)
Techno (Peak time) - 7200 tracks (2400 releases)
Techno (Deep) - 1600 tracks (600 releases)
House - 10,800 tracks (3000 releases)
Drum & Bass - 3000 tracks (900 Releases)
Dubstep - 1000 tracks (500 releases)
Deep House - 7700 tracks (2200 releases)
Breakbeat - 1600 tracks (600 releases)

Trance small in comparison to Techno and House. 7700 tracks in 30 days for Deep House alone. Even the more modest numbers for Dubstep is seeing 1000 tracks per month, which is probably relative to its size tbf. So the over saturation is a problem for all the genres and not just Trance.

Im talking about Trance though,as its a Trance forum lol. And over a 1000 releases a month is around 33 a day on average?
 

TwinSilo

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House - 10,800 tracks (3000 releases)

Holy shit 360 tracks a day! And this is just beatport. Its an A&R nightmare. If 1% of those tracks were top quality it means we would be blessed with 3 a day, meaning a lot of great music just in one sub-genre by the end of the year. I like house music but I probably find 25-40 a year I like, with a lot of searching. So what's happening?
 
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Hensmon

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If labels adhered to more quality control they might just go under? Or be left waiting months for something worthy to release. I think they are so poor that they just release as much as they can and hope to scrape small gains of each release. Maybe thats too cynical.

Not really the labels fault that no one wants to spend money on music anymore and that all the producers forgot how to make decent tracks. Difficult to know if they are shaping things/making things worse with this low bar to entry or if they are just dealing with the problem the best they can.
 
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dmgtz96

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Holy shit 360 tracks a day! And this is just beatport. Its an A&R nightmare. If 1% of those tracks were top quality it means we would be blessed with 3 a day, meaning a lot of great music just in one sub-genre by the end of the year. I like house music but I probably find 25-40 a year I like, with a lot of searching. So what's happening?
Pretty sure lots of those are straight-up garbage. I would say a lot are also re-releases, or multiple releases of the same songs.
This is why if you want quality music you're better off browsing in Selected, TheSoundYouNeed, Majestic Casual, and other similar Youtube channels that consistently upload good songs. Not everything is going to be great, but you are more likely to find quality there versus clicking on thousands of Beatport songs.

If labels adhered to more quality control they might just go under? Or be left waiting months for something worthy to release. I think they are so poor that they just release as much as they can and hope to scrape small gains of each release. Maybe thats too cynical.

Not really the labels fault that no one wants to spend money on music anymore and that all the producers forgot how to make decent tracks. Difficult to know if they are shaping things/making things worse with this low bar to entry or if they are just dealing with the problem the best they can.
We would need cash $ numbers to figure out what's happening with all these labels. I don't know how much it costs to set up a digital label and distribute music on Beatport. I don't know how large mastering expenses are (if any - I would bet many of these labels spend 0 on mastering). I don't know if producers get paid upfront when they "sign" a track with some label. If they do get paid upfront, I don't know how much they would get paid. I don't know what kind of fees Beatport charges before any music sales are made.
There are lots of unknowns, so we can only go by Occam's razor.

My guess is that a lot of these tracks are not mastered professionally, so the producers are doing whatever they can. In fact, I would assume that most producers aren't even thinking about mastering other than equalizing a few things here and there. Sure, maybe some producers will master their own track, but it would likely be a negligible amount.

I would also assume that Beatport is charging labels negligible fees to distribute music on their platform. If Beatport's fees were large, we would not see this many releases. I would also assume it doesn't matter if you are releasing a single track, an EP, or a full-blown album. In each case, Beatport charges negligible fees.

I think most electronic producers don't get paid upfront any amount to sign their tracks. Sure, the artist are likely promised a % of the profits due to sales, but that does not matter when you're just releasing a track. In other words, the artists are handing in their work for free to the label so the label can distribute it on Beatport. I would not be surprised if some labels even charged the artist in a "pay for exposure" style.

My conclusion is that tight QC wouldn't make these labels go under. It's not like they have people on their pay roll, or they are making a lot of money to begin with. Your cynical comment sounds the most accurate, but I don't think it's because the labels are "poor." I would say it's more from the labels just being cheap, and the label owners treating music like a side-hustle to gain some quick, effortless cash.
 
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