Your thoughts??

Thats true to a certain extent, but dj's playing the tracks in clubs before their release is one of the most important promotional aspects of a release.

If people have heard the tracks already before the release then they already have a connection with it.

A good example of this is Megatron, I have been getting email's every day asking when this is being released & that is purely down to a few people playing it over the past few months.

I personally think the bigger DJ's need to get a copy of the tracks before everyone else with perhaps a few additional promo people as well (first come first served in the same way as Carbon are doing).  But, with some tracks at the moment it can be months before it comes out and that needs to be reduced down to be a maximum of 2 months if possible.  

Although I am guessing some of the longer gaps until general release may be getting it signed, pressed, problems behind the scenes etc.  If people can work to reduce this it would help

You're right mate, often delays in the release of a track are not because the labels are just sitting on the tracks its usually a fault with the pressing plant.

 

Now digital downloads have become easy to access/distribute, why not just put the track up to purchase in line with when its being played out? Then clubbers could get the track straight after they've heard it in the club or on a DJ Mix ....

Personally i think the reason tracks are held back now (no excuse, because of the digital format), is to give club DJs an edge over the bedroom DJ with exclusive tracks.  I don't think this is helping things at all imo.

yeh good point. their aint much different in standard of mixing between them nowadays.

Acid baselines

Haha I can't believe people are moaning that certain DJs get promo copies in advance.

that is very true mate as i have just found out

I havent listend to much Hard House for quite a while, other then old mixes I have downloaded.
what is the last Hard House tune that EVERYONE coveted, for a LONG time. The one I last remember from when I bought a lot of stuff was Beaver Express. We all waited TIME for that. And well worth the wait it was to  Proper fun track. Good memories.
I suppose.....the last "Classic" so to speak? Does anything stand out like that anymore?

Well, you may laugh, but the Hard House scene is dieing and imo this has always been a problem.

I remember back when i used to buy Hardcore 1990-1996 .. when i went to a club, the DJ would be playing the tracks i'd bought that day. (when everything was vinyl) ... Instead of a group of 'few' DJs having the lastest tracks , everyone had access straight away.

The HardHouse scene has got it ALL wrong imo ... Fuck it, i'll get flamed for saying it ... but thats my view.

And every other genre as well it seems then as it's the way things are. Just as well you don't buy D&B then as you'd probably kill yourself waiting for some releases haha

Promo's were around back then the same as now and the main djs would be playing dubs or the test pressings upfront.

I think a lot of people today just want stuff like yesterday, makes it all a bit disposable.

 

I think theres a point here
I remember going out years and years ago, when you heard a new tune if you looked hard enough (Reflex Records, Flip Records, Juno, etc etc) you'd find an early copy of it more often then not.
When that culture fizzled out it definitely was the beginning of the end for me. Chasing those rare first presses up was the most fun for me. After that it became a routine of arse licking to get hold of the CDR instead.......deffo not worth doing.

think there were levels of it actually. There were a select few with test pressings then the promos came out which the smaller names would of got which a few went to the distributers which you could of got as mentioned. I think with the cd/ digital age labels dont have to really wait round to get the test pressings done, they can launch out with them virtually straight away.

As far as I can remember you have always had to wait round for a while for certain tracks to come out. If a track is good enough i really dont see why a select few having it a while before you would put you off buying it. However I could understand if it had been leaked to every man & his dog who happened to be caining it all the time

 

i must admit I do miss the times when you could rumage through a record shop for a few hours and come out with a few rare gems/test presses. It was the best part for me for a good while and I used to really look forward to making the trip to the shop every month lol

 

Probably was different levels of it Tim. But As a kid buying a tune you heard the weekend before and have hunted for and that no one else had  it didnt seem that way lol.

I remember finding a white label of Ingo - Party Time in Juno months before Tidy released it. I played it at Sunnies North the next weekend...Happy days

Not joking here....does anyone remember when HMV was a decent place to buy records?
The Milton Keynes and Leeds ones were ace

Yep i remember when they had a half decent selection haha. long time ago

The promo's, test pressing were there, you just had to look for them or be a regular at certain shops as has been said. I just think people have lost the buzz to spend days travelling around to various shops since the internet but, some of that has been taken away with as well.

I know most shops as we did would have under the counter stuff that would either be ready bagged for certain djs or particular regulars without hitting the shelves. You'd have promo's or test pressings direct from the labels, maybe no other shop had or the inhouse label or possibly a few pre-order copies that were up for grabs. After that you'd get the regular whitelabels up to a month in advance. That has always been the case. The DJs had their dubs cut, mailouts from the labels or bags sitting at shops or would go and visit the distros. That's typical of all music shops, House, D&B etc, always been a hierachy to accessability.

Thing is, there wasn't a lot of contact with labels like now for the average buyer to know what was signed and awaiting release. That was probably a good thing.

Just to put things into context regarding delays as I think some aren't aware of the process of pressing for vinyl.

Say you signed a track on day 1 and then sent it out immediately for press. For the master cut and TPs to be delivered you're looking at around 2/3 weeks back to base. If you clear that as go straight away then it can take a further 1/2 weeks. So, that's an average of 4/5 weeks turnaround time and that's if everything runs tight. Then the pre-orders would be done of say a month to the stores. It's now over 2 months since that track was first signed.

Bearing in mind of release schedules etc it's easy to see that it isn't going to be 2 months from signing to on the shelves.

yeah I remember those days, I even bagged a feirce technik there once lol

Yeah i do, the one in newcastle was mint afew year back, utter shite now tho.