About 'Hypnotic Dirge Records'
***LAST UPDATE - JAN. 2011
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND HDR'S VISIONS
'Hypnotic Dirge Records' is an underground black metal record label that was created in the city of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada in the fall of 2008. Although we identifty ourselves as a black metal label, we do not constrict ourselves to the confinements of one specific genre, especially considering how shallow and narrow-minded the idea of black metal has become. We aim to release quality music by quality artists in a variety of music genres possessing thoughtful, emotional, creative and hypnotic sounds.
We officially opened on October 20th, 2008, and soon thereafter released our first two official releases 'Winds of Sorrow - Through Twilight..., and 'Ancient Tundra - Requiems of a World Lost'. Initially, Hypnotic Dirge Records released mostly CD-r releases in an effort to spread the word about our label and the bands on our roster while being limited to our relatively small budget. However, all of these CD-r releases were professional in terms of printing and playing quality, and we occasionally released some special editions such as a 2CDr re-release of Neige et Noirceur's L'Abime des Jours, l'ecume des nuits, as well as a CDr/DVDr Symbiosis/Ancient Tundra split in a Super Jewel Box packaging.
However, starting in Mid 2010, we decided to take the next step releasing the vast majority of our future releases on Pro CD in editions of 500. The first example was the emmense Exiled From Light - There is no beauty left here... double-CD released in July 2010. After that release, the label moved to its current location three hours north of Swift Current to a city called Saskatoon (located in Saskatchewan, Canada) To finish off the year 2010, Hypnotic Dirge Records released two long-awaited albums by a couple of up and coming, yet vastly different projects from France - netra, and The Foetal Mind both on Pro-CD in December. Looking ahead towards 2011, we plan to release at least 5 new releases during the year of 2011 on Pro-CD, and we are also aiming to release 3 new t-shirt designs as well as three different bands in the HDR roster. If you are interested in reading more about Hypnotic Dirge Records, check out these interviews: HDR INTERVIEW W/ HIEROPHANT-NOX WEBZINE HDR INTERVIEW W/ HEATHEN HARVEST WEBZINE |  |
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ARTIST ROYALTY AGREEMENTS
All royalty agreements with the artist will be the same for every artist on the label. These are the basic royalty guidelines:
I - When we release a new album or t-shirt from your project, you are entitled to 10% of everything we print. Typically, we are printing CD's in editions of 500 copies, so that means that you will get 50 copies of your album shipped to you. These artist copies will be shipped to you as soon as we receive them from the printing plant.
II - 25% of all profits that we make through sales of your album are yours to keep, and will be sent to you every three months. However, don't get too excited about this idea as in all honesty (and judging from past experiences), I am most likely to lose money from an album rather than make profit. So far I have only profited on 2 of the HDR releases throughout my first 15 releases... And the most I've ever profited from a CD is $90.00. If you do the math, you'll realize that 25% of $90 is a whopping $22.50
At the end of the day, if your making this kind of music you should not be expecting to make money.
Similarily, if I(HDR) is releasing this kind of music, I should not be expecting to make any money. And I don't.
If your looking to get rich from your music, click here for some tips.
If you do not agree with the agreements above, 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.
DISTRIBUTION
Hypnotic Dirge Records offers worldwide shipping at very fair prices. In 2010, it does not make much of a difference whether you live in Mexico (relatively close) or Australia (pretty much as far from Canada as possible), international shipping costs are pretty much the same, and all orders should arrive within 1-2 weeks!
However, as a record label aiming to promote all of our artists as much as possible, we strive to build a strong worldwide distribution for our releases so it is available locally in as many regions of the world as possible. We offer worldwide shipping on all orders anyway, but in order to build our distribution section with quality CD's from quality artists and labels we try to do as much trading as possible with labels from around the world. This is something that will only continue to increase as we move towards being printing CD's in higher quantities therefore giving ourselves more copies of an album to be able to distribute around the world to various webshops, and traditional shops. Currently most of our official titles are available in many labels within North America, Europe, Russia, and Japan. We are still looking for distribution in Japan, and South America, and are always looking to add to our list of distributors and trading partners regardless of location.
  | Asides from this traditional method of trading between labels, there is no denying that CD sales are slowing down in all genres of music including metal as more and more people are choosing to download music as opposed to buying physical CD's. As this is becoming more and more evident, we have decided to partner up with Metalhit.com who handles the digital distribution for all of Hypnotic Dirge Records' metal-based releases. Metalhit.com provides an opportunity for those that prefer to download music to pay $4.99 for a full album and therefore still support the musicians and labels, and in return receiving high-quality files complete with album artwork. Metalhit.com is essentially a digital vendor that then places our albums for sales on iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, Amazon, etc. We receive 70% of the sales made on our albums through Metalhit.com, and this money goes right back towards new releases, and merchandise. Starting in October 2011, select Hypnotic Dirge Records titles will also be distributed by Sony/RED Distribution in North America. Sony/RED will attempt to distribute select HDR releases to the largest independent mailorders in North America, as well as mainstream distributes such as Amazon, and Best Buy
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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 maintain a variety of different websites (some more diligently than others) with our latest news, and information include the main Website, Myspace, Facebook, Youtube, and an official Blog. We also have a regular digital newsletter which we send out to those who sign up as well as existing customers (check 'CONTACT' section for more information on how to sign up)
Asides from these basic ways to keep people informed on our latest news, we also promote by sending out reviews to a variety of trusted magazines,webzines, and blogspots. We will also submit selected tracks to a handful of online and offline radio stations from around the world to add HDR tracks onto their playlists.
In terms of additional promotion for album releases, we will obviously create promotional flyers for all of our official releases and spread them around the web, and in most cases also print physical copies and post them wherever possible. An official promotional video is also created for our releases which we post on our official youtube channel, and reverbnation (as well as our video section on this website) which we then aim to spread around on a variety of different social networking sites, and forums.
If you wish to help Hypnotic Dirge Records with promotion, click on the PROMOTE HDR link.
DEMO SUBMISSION
At the moment, we are not actively seeking out new bands and projects for the label because of a full release schedule, and a lack of the necessary funds to release additional material. However, we are still accepting demos, and if we 'really' like what we hear, we will find a way to add a new release to our release schedule and welcome you to the lineup.
For those interested in joining Hypnotic Dirge Records, you must first send an email to our main email address (check CONTACT section) Please do not send demo submissions through myspace mail, or leave a post on our facebook. These messages will be ignored and deleted.
When sending an email about your project, please include all relevent information including a history of your band/project, information about your upcoming release, and what you are asking us to release. Also, you 'must' send a link to download a demo in a ZIP folder through a filesharing website (megaupload, mediafire, etc.). You can also include a link to your website/myspace if you wish but the zip folder with your demo tracks is needed.
Due to a lack of time as well as a high volume of demos received, responses to demo submissions are no longer guaranteed. However, I will listen to every demo I receive, so it is still worth your time to send a demo. If I enjoy the music, you will get an email reply back, either to state that I enjoyed the demo but I am unfortunately unable sign your band or project or to request additional information if working together is a possibility. At this point, I may ask you to send a physical copy of the demo in the mail, or the files online may be good enough for the time being depending on the situation. Never be hesitant to send a demo due to a perceived unlikelihood of being signed. I would not want to miss out on a phenomenal band or project simply because the musicians were not confident about the likelihood of a deal.
Furthermore, please be aware of where we stand as a label before sending a demo. I am not interested in bedroom depressive black metal clones, nor am I interested in cliche satanic bullshit. I am pursuing unique acts that can contribute something new and interesting in a scene long ago overpopulated by many clones. As of the time of writing (October 2010), Hypnotic Dirge Records will pay very careful attention to each release so that each HDR album from here onwards can stand the test of time, and still be known in 5-10 years time.
Generally, we will judge a band/project on the merits of their music alone. We really do not care what your personal religious or political ideas are, but if you portray these views through your music, we might not be interested in releasing your material simply because we are trying to keep the overall themes of HDR in tact. For example, I could care less if you are a fundamental christian, but if you use your music to preach about the rapture, you should look for a different record label. I also do not care if you are overly patriotic, and proud of your country or heritage, but if you use your music to speak about how you are part of a superior country or race, I'm sure you can find a record label more suited to your theme.
Remember that you a searching for a record label to represent your music, so I would recommend you do some research on Hypnotic Dirge Records before you request a partnership with us to decide if we are the right fit for your music.
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