Tl;dr version:
Sampler compilations’ style is dancefloor-worthy dark electro & electro industrial and nothing else.
We do not release our compilations on Spotify or Bandcamp. We release them as:
- free mp3 & flac download on this website
- physical CD (CD-R, details here) that we sell
- we put songs on Youtube (no monetisation)
We also add your song to our Spotify playlist, but only if you published it there yourself. If your song is not on Spotify, we try to select another of your songs. If you are not on Spotify at all, you won’t be added to our Spotify playlist.
Thus, all streaming revenue goes to you as we just create a public playlist using standard personal account. The only difference is that this playlist will get listeners as we display link to it in our store.
Being on our Sampler compilation can’t hurt you finnancially, because we are not releasing music on platforms that generate your income. We do not claim any copyright – by sending us song you agree it will be published as per above and nothing more.
We won’t pay you for the song or send physical copies of CD because to do so we would have to heavily subsidize this release.
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About us and how we work – introduction
If you want to see previous Sampler releases, they are here: Sampler 10, Sampler 09, Sampler 08, – links to all remaining ones are at the very bottom of this page.
Halotan Records is gothic, dark electro and industrial recording label. We have good experience releasing compilations, as we have released 12 of them so far: Halotan Sounds 1 & 2 and Halotan Records Samplers 1 to 10.
We have extensive experience in graphic design for print and audio mastering for music release purposes – both we routinely perform in-house.
We also created our own unique CD manufacturing system, that makes it possible to release very short runs of physical CDs without risking much money. The system has been tried and improved on our over 50 own releases to date. Not (touch wood) a single quality – related return has been made so far.
We also have our own unique way of sharing music we release. The system makes it easy to spread the music on social media and also to get followers for your band’s profiles.
The latter is done using individual song pages containing links to your social profiles. This way by sharing your own song you give yourself opportunity to get valuable fans – on top of reaching potential fans with your music.
We do sell CDs, but sales and money are not our objective. There has never been money in this scene, a couple of top bands get paid, everyone else gets not.
Whatever money we make on CDs we put back in paid advertising of the music we have in store. Our objective is to promote good music in genres we like.
We do this for fun and to be a part of community. Halotan Records is a hobby, not business. Please keep this in mind as this will make our interactions easier.
What Halotan Records Sampler compilations are
In a nutshell Samplers are goth, dark electro, industrial compilations.
They cover wide range of dark independent or goth music. You will find on the genres like dark electro, industrial, aggrotech, gothic rock and many goth-related hybrid types of music.
The compilations are distributed as full free download and physical CD that can be bought. Our aim is to reach as many fans as possible and we are quite successful at it.
We search for suitable bands ourselves. We also allow public submissions as well, so anybody can apply.
Sampler compilations – history
Halotan Sounds 1 was our very first compilation released in 2010. It was followed by a couple of Samplers that were meant to showcase bands we released at the time.
Quickly it became apparent, that we are able to release much more music than our artists alone were able to produce.
Thus, Samplers became open to everybody. The “Sampler” name should be understood as sampler or showcase of the current state of the scene.
As the personal taste of people running Halotan Records is mainly dark electro, ebm, harsh etc., the Samplers evolved from mixed gothic to almost exclusively harsh electronic style.
As Halotan Records is waking up from a coma, Sampler 11 is our most likely first release, hopefully in 2023.
Why do we bother with physical CDs
Nobody but some crazy oldschool fans uses physical media nowadays. So why bother?
Brutally honest answer: for the photos. Images of the physical release are much more interesting than just front cover. And way more shareable.
Anyone can create a bandcamp profile and throw their stuff in there. By making physical copy we celebrate the music we release.
The release becomes tangible and real. It becomes a visual event as well as musical one, it stands out in the crowd.
Physical CD is associated with valued records of old times when manufacturing cost prevented crap from being officially released.
As a byproduct we have something that these few crazy ones want and are willing to buy, against all odds. We love you guys, even though you are mad.
Also, even though physical media are properly dead now, people still think in “record” terms. Front, back, booklet, artwork on the CD. These are familiar things, even thought they are not used anymore.
Why current releases are of certain length, contain certain number of tracks? Why not 10 minutes or 10 hours?
Our compilations can have 16 songs tops. They are easier to digest and faster to release. They allow to focus on the artists on them.
This is all CD legacy.
License
By sending us your song you agree to adhere to the following:
You grant us non-exclusive permission to distribute your song for free or fee across digital and physical media. No legal liability can arise from any form of interaction with us. Halotan Records is a hobby and we do not need problems.
We don’t publish on Bandcamp or streaming services
The compilation will not appear on Bancamp or streaming services like Spotify. It will be published exclusively on our website as free mp3/FLAC download and as a physical CD-R that will be available for sale.
As our player and song pages contain links to your Facebook, Bandcamp and Spotify profiles, fans can easily support you directly there.
This means there is no conflict of interest with your own or your label’s activities in the above areas. We don’t even have a Bandcamp or Spotify account.
We are working completely outside of the corporate-owned ecosystem.
Free mp3 and FLAC download
Please be advised that we always give full free mp3 and FLAC download of the whole compilation.
We do not sell downloads. We believe the money that can be made is not worth losing fans, links from blogs, websites etc.
From our experience free download makes no difference to physical CD sales. They are always low 🙂
Also, your Bandcamp link is provided in our player. Everybody who wants to support you and pay for your music has an easy way to do so. We actively encourage this.
Rules – read if you want to be on our compilations
How to take part in the compilation?
Please send us some links to a place where we can listen to your music without downloading. The email is halotan.records@gmail.com
Soundcloud, bandcamp or youtube links are perfect. If we like your music, we will get back to you asking to send a song. We usually let you to pick the song by yourself.
You can send us your links anytime. Samplers come out regularly, so if approved we’ll include you in next available edition.
How to send your song?
Once approved you need to send us our music. This is how:
The easy way:
Send it in whatever format you have handy.
Preferred way:
Ideally, your sumbmission email should contain:
- Download link to unmastered song in wav format (any bitrate, any sampling frequency you work in)
- Short band biography 3-4 sentences, will be printed on booklet
- Band photo or logo – will be printed on booklet
- Facebook fanpage link if you have one – crucial for our sharing system
- Bandcamp link if you have one – will appear in player
- Spotify link if you have one – will appear in player
Of course we understand you may not be able to send all this. Send whatever you can and we’ll work out the rest for you.
The email to send your song to is halotan.records@gmail.com. Use wetransfer.com or any other file sharing system.
The bad news – what we do not do
- we will not pay you for your song.
- we will not send you free copies of compilation.
Why? Because we do not make money on all this.
We manufacture only those CDs that are actually sold + one piece for photos. This is why we are able to create physical releases at all.
If we were manufacturing large runs at pressing plant we would go broke years ago.
The good news – what we do to get your music heard
- your music will reach a lot of people interested in your genre
- you do not have to pay to participate. Asking to pay to participate unfortunately becomes more and more commonplace practice. We do not do this, while offering you more than paid compilations usually do.
- you are taking part in compilation that is both physical CD and digital. This makes it stand out from digital-only crowd.
- whatever money (if any, do you know anyone buying CDs nowadays?) we make on physical CD sales will go back to the bands in form of promotion. We will buy ads and pay for other promo activities, budget permitting.
- your music will be easy to share, and each shared song gives you chance to get heard of. We do not relay on youtube to share music, we have our own system. All traffic it generates gives you chance to get Facebook fans and other bands chance to get their music heard. All the gain goes to the band, not to youtube etc.
Above: Physical release of Sampler 06.
Our song sharing system
We do not use corporate-owned tools and services like Bandcamp, Spotify etc.
We use our own music sharing system. It can not only spread your music on Facebook, but also get you new fans for facebook page, sales on Bandcamp and listeners on Spotify.
Each song on compilation has your band’s facebook fan page attached to it (if you have one of course). When the song is shared i can be listened to in a player on facebook. If link is clicked instead of “play” button, the user sees individual song page with Facebook social plugin. It lets them like your band on the spot! Yes, you can not only get your song liked, but also get new fans that are yours for life!
Youtube, beat this 😉 But all this really work like youtube, only better because it is tailored for bands and music. Everything in this system encourages liking your song, your band’s fanpage and spreading the word. We even have Twitter song sharing facility.
How to share your song
All this is explained in greater detail on the images below, everything starts with player in our shop.
The easiest way to share is just to click like button next to the song. But you can’t do this as your band’s fanpage, so we show the way that works for both users and pages.
See example shop page with player here.
Example single song page here.
If the users choose to listen on Facebook, they will see a personalised graphics showing your band’s photo or logo – as per ones you can see below (from Sampler 07). This is why it is so important to send us a photo and logo of your band – it is one of the places it will be used.
Direct links to your band’s Facebook fanpage, Bandcamp & Spotify profiles
Every song has associated band’s Facebook fanpage, Bandcamp & Spotify profile. Links are displayed next to song artist and title as icons.
This way if user likes your music they can connect with you right away by going to your page and liking it or buying your music from Bancamp. This gives you another opportunity to connect with new fans.
Information for cover models
Our compilations have always had an alternative model on its cover. The visual part of our scene is important and we want to take this opportunity to showcase some good photos. Also, we are perfectly aware that good cover photo can help to get fans to reach for the compilation.
In fact, we are looking not only for cover photos. We need photos to use throughout the CD – on cover, booklet and inlay. Please see our latest Sampler compilation – there are photos of the CD so you can get the idea on how it works.
We prefer photos showing cyber/goth/fetish style. A couple of photos from a single session work best for us as in such case the CD almost designs itself and looks consistent.
We do not pay for the photos.
If you read the rest of information in this article, you will see that we are non-profit and that we work for music, scene and fun. This means we hardly make any money.
Thus, we are looking for models with similar approach to the scene, who would like to participate in a non-profit release.
We always credit the model and photographer on the CD and in our store’s release description.
Our compilations reach a lot of people in the scene, so this is a very good opportunity to get your work seen.
If you would like to participate, please email links to your galleries to halotan.records@gmail.com
Final thoughts
As you can see we do a lot to get your stuff heard and your band more popular. There is no risk of your Bancamp or Spotify revenues being cannibalised, as we simply do not publish there.
All we do is free, for the sheer enjoyment of being part of your success and for the music we love.
We hope this guide helped you to understand how our compilations work. Should you have any questions, suggestions or any other matter you would like to discuss with us, please go to contact section and talk to us.
We are approachable, down-to-earth and on your side.