You might have noticed over the years that I don’t appear on many record labels. I prefer the strategy these days of working with labels where there are well established professional relationships in place. It just makes everything so much easier.

Whilst getting my archive of Facebook posts uploaded to this site – and my goodness, there are a lot of them – I came across one of those reasons why I don’t usually bother engaging in label shopping.

Back in 2017, I sent two demos to a record label that I respected a lot. Demos had been specifically requested demos, so I uploaded the two premasters onto Soundcloud and sent the email.

A few days later, I got a reply. Usually, replies are either on the lines of “yes, we really like these” or “sorry, we’re not feeling these”. And that’s fine. At least you know where you stand. Not this reply. It started with…

“Dear Danny. Thank you for submitting these demos to us at ■■■■■■■■■■ Records. Please see the following list of YouTube videos…”

At which point I was presented with a rather charming list of videos which showed things like how to add more depth into a sound recording, a video with D Ramirez from Toolroom Records doing some mixing and mastering, and even a video of Danny J Lewis programming drums.

Now, I don’t have a problem with someone criticising my work. Given what I do, it comes with the territory. I know full well that I’m not the strongest on the technical side, but to simply provide a list of videos in such a way is, to be perfectly honest, downright bloody rude. There was nothing else in the email, other than the name of the label boss.

I wasn’t impressed…