The way record pools work

The way record pools work

The pools win by getting music from labels and artists, which attracts djs as members. Accordingly, djs win by eliminating the need to purchase music for their nightclubs. But how do labels and artists win? What`s in it for them? What is in the deal for labels and artists are: ‘quick exposure directly to music listeners’ and ‘quick exposure directly to music buyers’. How does the process really work? Let us examine a step-by-step approach. First, you need to have a very strong single (or singles) if you desire to release more than one single release. Keep in mind that regardless of your genre, if your music falls within a ‘commercial’ aspect, i.e., Pop, Rock, Dance, Urban, Country, or any hybrid or sub genre thereof, your preference, first and foremost, should be either ‘a hot dance single’ or ‘a very strong tear-and-heart-wrenching ballad’. Anything in between will simply not suffice because club goers are in clubs primarily for dancing. Secondly, take your selected single or singles and enhance it or them to some degree that will make the song(s) slightly different from your radio version. Ways to do that include extending the song(s) from the radio versions' 3-4 minutes in length to 5-6 minutes in length for the nightclub versions', since people prefer longer versions in clubs; adding or modifying sound effects; dropping out or fading certain instruments, or incorporating new instruments not heard in the radio version, and simply be more creative.

Then place your club version on vinyl, as most nightclub djs still prefer vinyl (wax), although there are now a number of djs that will also accept your enhanced version on CD records. To cover all bases, consider placing your club versions on both vinyl and CD, if it is affordable to do so. And now it is about time to contact record pools to learn if they have member djs who play your genre of music in their nightclubs and, if so, the number of such djs they have. This number from each pool will allow you to determine the number of pieces you will need for the pool(s).

Once you have the number of pieces for the pool(s), and after the pool receives them, it will usually take 1-2 weeks before your music begins getting club play. Then, the response is almost instantaneous. It is wise for commercial purpose, prior to sending out to pools, ensure that you have your offline retail distribution covered so that you can get sales as a result of the club play.

There was a time that, when an independent artist was fortunate enough to get airplay outside of his local or regional area a couple of thousand miles away, equally unfortunate was that there was not a thing he could do about it, in terms of sales. He could only weep at his potential sales losses. But now with appearance of special retail companies dealing with those pools you are not likely to have that sort of problem. The point of making sure that your music is set up with these particular organizations is that, when club goers hear a ‘hot’ record that they like, naturally, they enjoy it. And, while these distributors do not take hundreds of your CD at a time (which is a great thing for you, as it does not tie up your product and make it difficult to get back, as with traditional distributors), these particular distributors make your music available through a national retail database so that stores can place orders instantly for their customers. They operate much like online music sales sites do, again, with accepting only a few copies at any given time, but they are the offline versions, reaching music retailers while giving you the best of both online and offline sales worlds.

Now, you have already seen the wide distribution area of the record pool. And, again, there are quite a number of additional record pools that, in general, serve as specialty pools to particular genres, or serve virtually all commercially viable music releases, regardless of genre.