About 'Hypnotic Dirge Records'

BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND HDR'S VISIONS

'Hypnotic Dirge Records' is a record label based in Swift Current, SK, Canada ran by Skog (Ancient Tundra) which specializes in releasing Depressive Black Metal, Dark Ambient, Funeral Doom, Neo-classical Music, and Experimental music. Our official opening day was October 20th, 2008.

It is important to note that this label is a serious entity and will not be ran as an amateur my-space based "black-metal label". (hense the reason for an official site) A lot of these labels are constantly releasing shitty uninspired music and producing bad-quality CDr's simply for the sake of making "collectables" and over-saturating the underground market.  At Hypnotic Dirge Records, we will also be releasing some CD-r 's from time to time, but they will not be DIY - hand-made CD-r's and will instead be professionally-manafactured and guaranteed to be of excellent printing and playing quality and the music to be strong, inspired and expressive.  We will also be releasing Pro-CD's, Digipacks, and merchandise items such as shirts, hoodies, etc. as well as posters, flyers and various other things whenever possible. However, It all comes down to funding unfortunately, and our artistic visions can sometimes not be brought to realization due to the costs from the manafacturers. However HDR is here for the long run and will carry on releasing quality albums by quality bands and projects.

Perhaps the most important distinction separating this lable from the majority of Black Metal themed record lables is that we will not be involved in releasing political or religious-themed albums(this applies to any sort of religion whether it be Pro-religion or Anti-religion), and no religious or politically themed bands or projects will be a part of this lable's roster. 

The subject matter of the projects on Hypnotic Dirge Records varies from project to project but mostly things are on a more personal, or philosophical level as opposed to preaching a certain viewpoint about the world.

 This however does not apply to the albums which we sell through our distribution in which we offer a wide variety of different sub-genres of Black Metal, Ambient, Funeral Doom, Folk, Classical , Heavy Metal, and Experimental Music

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ARTIST ROYALTY AGREEMENTS

All royalty agreements with the artist will be the same for every artist. These are the basic royalty guidelines:

If you do not agree with these, don't bother requesting to be a part of the label. It's not cheap running an underground label, and if your more interested in hundreds of free albums, and making a bunch of money from your music than you do not share the same visions as I, as I constantly lose money from doing this, and have learned to be fine with that. I keep going for my love of the music, not because of selfish monetary reasons.

I - 10% of the copies printed are yours and will be shipped to you as soon as we receive them from the production company.
II - 25% of all profits are yours, and will be sent to everyone in 3 month intervals. (Profits meaning, for example if an album costs $600 to get manafactured and distributed, that is not profit. Any money made after covering the cost of production is considered profit and 25% of that will be sent to the artist.)

DISTRIBUTION

As a record label aiming to promote all of our artists, we strive to build a strong worldwide distribution for our releases so it is available in all regions of the world. At Hypnotic Dirge Records, we sell our albums worldwide anyway, but to gain exposure to our name, as well as the artists on our roster, we regularily trade, and sell wholesale to labels all around the world. In return, we receive some fantastic releases from other like-minded lables which we sell in our distribution section. We aim to keep expanding our Distribution section with quality releases by serious artists for our customers to have a wide variety of choices when placing an order while at the same time continuing to spread the word about the artists on our roster!

As a rule, we will not buy wholesale from other labels - we simply can't afford to do so. Please don't send an email requesting this, as it will be a waste of your time. The only time I will buy wholesale, is when I specifically request YOU for wholesale prices, and this happens only in very rare cases. Also, if you are a new trading partner, and you do not seem 100% trustworthy, or genuine, I may ask you to send your end of the trade first. This is only done to prevent rip-offs. This will only apply to the first time we trade. After a partnership is built and a trustworthy relationship begins, I won't ask this.

PROMOTION

When it comes to promoting our official releases, and the artists on our roster, we take an active role in making sure that people are aware of our activities. We will do a variety of things including the most basic and in my opinion most important aspect of promotion which is to send Promo CD's of our official releases to various webzines and magazines for reviews. There are a few reviewers which we regularily send our promos, including some highly-regarded reviewers such as Heathen Harvest, Hierophant Nox Zine, Meridian 9 Magazine, Asgard Root Magazine, Blastbeat Magazine, Nocturnal Cult and many more. Asides from reviews, we also work together with the artists if they wish in finding interviews, radio play on Internet radio sites, and anything else which they may want. To coincide with every album's release on HDR, I create a short promotional video and publish it on youtube under our URL www.youtube.com/user/hypnoticdirgerecords , as well as promotional flyers which are both posted online on various websites, and forums but also printed in magazines, and often printed in physical copies and posted on bulletin boards around the world.

We also send news updates regarding new releases, new distribution albums, new artists, and other general information periodically to a mailing-list that includes past customers, and partners. We will not make your email address available to any 3rd party websites, or record labels, and your email address will be hidden in all newsletters from others. However, if you want to be removed from our mailing list, just email us and we will honor your request.

If you are not on our mailing list, and wish to join. Just send us an e-mail and we will add you.

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