Every week, members of the Dark Label Music community ship work, sign artists and close deals. These are their stories, shared in their own words.Members of the community ship work, sign artists and close deals, in their own words.
The gig: Producing and mixing an original jazz big band song with standard big band instrumentation. The agreement: $3000 20% Credit to the big 3, no not K Dot, Cole, and Drake, I mean BDG, Father Ferrucci, and James Big appreciation for the dudes I’ve bonded with on the way: JHenny, Nicky Dubbs, PhillieD, Méo, JaCoby, Special K, and of course 🧃 and everyone else I forgot to mention while this baby is vying for my attention.
May '24Nice work @Matt! Way to hang in there and keep at it. Congrats.
May '24Get it man!!
May '24Yeesss my guy 🔥
May '24congrats dude! good to see the effort paying off. keep it going
May '24congrats Matt!!!
May '24Awesome to hear you got this over the line @Matt congrats!
May '24LeSueur for the win! Let’s gooo! 🙌🏼🥳
May '24Huge congratulations mate!!! THat's massive
May '24Congrats Matt!!!
May '24Congratulations 🎉
May '24🔥Congrats Brother, thats awesome!! Best producer for this style, for sure! Well done!🥳
May '24Congrats G!!!
May '24👏🙌🫶
May '24DUDE!!! We've knew this would happen eventually. Way to keep going LeSueur.
Hey guys, I wanted to share my first win. My out reach process has ben a bit slow since I joined 2 months ago, but last week I closed my first client using the Dark Label method. It was with someone who is used to working with lease beats and I wasn’t sure if a full production would work for him but I went for it thanks to the advice of @Nick and @Kensaye , and he loved the idea. I was also able to update my fee, since most of my work comes from SoundBetter and people are mostly pr... See more
Apr '24Awesome to hear Adolfo! Putting the first one up on the board is a good feeling.
Apr 'u did it my dude! Proud of you!
Apr '24So good man!!! Stoked to hear it's comin together for ya!
Apr '24I knew you’d be able to tweak your business model. Glad to hear it’s already working!
This past week on a trip to London I was able to coordinate 3 artists to record with a returning client, and smash through a 1-on-1 session with a new sync collab the following day, set for BMG ! The client project had so many moving parts and was a big organisational challenge, but I caught some good opportunities for learning & growth along the way. Exhausting but rewarding. Thanks to God always🙏🏼
Apr '24congrats! 👏 🙌
Apr '24Nice! I remember you talking about this. Glad it went well!
Hey everyone! I've been pretty quite lately, really grinding away on hitting my metrics and building things up. I just wanted to take some time and share this: When joining this incredible community, I wasn't sure how to go out and get my own work. I wasn't confident in my ability to approach artists who I thought would be good to work with and almost relied on the work coming to me.. I wasn't in control and I especially wasn't confident in my ability to put myself out there, all while my whole m... See more
Apr '24Good stuff Harley!! I can definitely relate to the previous feeling of apathy and DL completely reversing that! Keep pushing man.
Apr '24YO THAT's SICK!Fellow Aussie! I'm based in Brisbane. Congrats man! Super inspiring and so exciting.
Apr '24@Pete Loving the grind for sure!
Apr '24@Will Thanks man!
After a long time of planning, playing, and trying many different approaches to finding my voice through video content, I have finally put something together that I am proud of and happy to go out into the world... Please let me know what you all think, and lets hope it resonates with potential clients too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3J_f23gk9c 8:34
Apr '24Holy moly. Alright. Time to pack it up I guess. I quit 😂No this is absolutely top notch Phil, the story telling, the visuals, the chapters, the message. Just wow… way to set the bar man! 🙌🏼
Apr '24Q&A on how ya made it coming soon... 😂
May '24Absolutely loved this!
May '24@Kensaye Thanks!
May '24Amazing Philip. How long did it take you to make this? You're 1000% going somewhere with content like this. Had me hooked the whole way. And you're absolutely right, the common denominator is also the most important of recording/producing—you. Your skill, your ears, your imagination/creativity/vision, etc. Great work.
Sep '24 (edited)@Matthew Sorry just saw this mate! This took me like over a week, but now I've kinda figured out my process for the new video, it takes me around 20 hours I'd say. 5 hours title/thumbnail. 6 hours scripting. 1 hours filming. 8 hours editing. Hoping to start outsourcing editing in the next 6 months.
Sep '24@Aaron Thanks man! Means a lot :)
Sep '24This was frieken cool! Great job man!!
Sep '24@Michael cheers bro
Sep '24Woah! That’s the kind of cinematic/documentary storytelling hardly anyone is doing in the music industry, maybe except for Venus Theory, but it’s still different. It fits perfectly with YouTube as well. You’ve set a new benchmark for all of us, hats off 👏
Sep '24@Rob thanks mate!
Apr '24this is so fun, I love the fresh approach of it being more of a moody documentary film. you held my attention in a different way that felt refreshing. great work.
Apr '24@Riley amazing, thanks man. I’m such a huge consumer of YouTube, a lot of the content can be very similar, so I’m hoping that there is space for something like this in the niche.
Apr '24Omg this is so genius philip!! Love the approach !! 🙌😎😎😎😎
Apr '24@Peter Thanks mate!
Apr '24@Kamil Cheers mate, really appreciate that. Heavily influenced by channels like Venus Theory. Some of my biggest influences are Gawx Art, Audiohaze, Casey Neistat, Ethan Chlebowski, love what they all do.
Apr '24@Daniel Yes! I'm down
Apr '24@Joes Yes mate! That's awesome. Really glad that it comes across as different from the outset, that was really what I was trying to do.
Apr '24@Jason Hahahaha cheers man, appreciate you
May '24I’m so impressed. Loved it. Standard bearer. Top marks.
May '24@Matt Thanks mate
May '24@Chad Cheers man
Thrilled to share my first big win with you guys! Started reaching out 3 weeks ago, nailed 5 sales calls in the second week and 1 in the third. Managed to close two deals, and the other 4 verbally agreed but they are just waiting on their next pay cycle to make their deposits. Prior to joining Dark Label I’ve never done outreach using social media and I’ve never done official sales calls. All my previous gigs came from local networking and people reaching out because of my rep in the the Philly mu... See more
Apr '24This is awesome Melvin!!
Apr '24👏 👏 Congrats Melvin
Apr '24beast mode
Apr '24Thanks guys!
Apr '24Nice job Melvin!
Just confirmed my first Full Rate Client (ever) at the end of last week. They were a referral from a friend who said "they didn't have much money" so went into a warm casual call not expecting much - so much so that I did zero research on them before jumping on the call. But it very quickly moved to a sales call - I gave them a ballpark price range of $700 - $1500 not knowing if they wanted accoustic piano ballad or full production. Fast forward to after talking through the proposal and we're doing... See more
Apr '24amazing Will congrats brother!!
Apr '24Congrats Will!
Apr '24that's incredible will. congratulations and well done
Apr '24Amazing, nice job Will!
Apr '24Really well done Will! 👏
Apr '24Amazing man, congratulations!
Apr '24Nice job Will!
Apr '24Nice job Will!
Apr '24Love to see it working out for you man, well done 👊🏾
recap: got a long term client for 1 song a month at $1100/song recently, starting work in july. client wants 150+ songs, this is one of their lifelong goals. i've realized because of the volume of work + new revenue coming in, i'll be going to part time at my day job (which i am very stoked about lol) for 2 reasons. need the time in order to complete the songs have the income to give me that flexibility just reducing my day job hours and being able to dedicate them to my own business is a big deal ... See more
Apr '24@Riley thanks dude. been a long time coming
Apr '24Congrats, and extremely well done!!
Apr '24congratulations ❤️
Apr '24Huge step forward, congrats Isaiah!
Apr '24Congrats man that's brilliant!
Apr '24Incredible man. Great job! Definitely a huge win
Apr '24Amazing! And a really healthy fee too, good job man.
Apr '24Congratulations Isaiah, huge win.
Apr '24Right on Isaiah! Great milestone. Told ya it's... "When" not "If". Nice one.
Hopefully this is encouraging for everyone because it was for me. I had 4 clients sign deals recently that were previously in the deferred pile for the past 9 months. They were clients that said the normal excuses “I need to get my finances in place first”, “Sounds awesome but I am not ready yet”.... Proposals were sent 9 months ago but now they have signed. These were clients that I figured would probably never come back around. I checked in with them just a couple times over those 9 months. Not... See more
Mar '24Awesome, encouraging to hear!
Mar '24Nice reminder. We have a few of those coming in too from last fall. Thanks for sharing Nick!
Mar '24Can relate to that haha. I have a similar story joining Dark Label, but I came back in 3 months after the first call with Dan 😂Thanks for sharing tho ✌️Definitely happens quite often with artists as well!
Mar '24lets gooo!
Mar '24So good man. Really appreciate you sharing! stoked for you!
Mar '24Love to see it! Can definitely relate. I had a client sign recently, he said no almost a year ago but we stayed in touch. Some of my favourite music I’ve ever worked on too - well worth the effort!
Mar '24I can also relate, a lot of my clients come back after months!
Hey guys hope everyone's having a solid week! I've been hella quiet on here thus far but still soaking in information from livestream replays and posts in the background. Thought now is as good a time as any to announce going full time with production:) Currently working with 6 paying artists, 4 of which are wishing to move ahead with EPs/albums. As well as practicing DL protocol, I have been experimenting with different types of content and have found a format that works particularly well for m... See more
Apr '24This is a HUGE win, man!!! Congratulations on that!
Mar '24@Daniel thanks for all your help Dan! 🥂
Mar '24Love this style of content. Thinking of trying this myself!
Mar '24@Nick lemme know how it goes dude!
Mar '24This is sick! Congrats Arthur.
Mar '24@Will thank you man! 🙏
Mar '24Hey Arthur, amazing work! I'm currently going hard on content and it's inspiring to see what can come of it. Just curious, when people messaged you, did they mention any specific reels or anything specific about your content that stood out to them?
Apr '24thank you man, love your content! Not really that I can recall, normally along the lines of 'your insta/tiktok sounds great/love the space you have' or something then the rest of the convo will just be organic getting to know stuff before hopping on a casual call. The space comment happens alot actually, it's led me to realise that it is possibly quite important to fuss over lighting/aesthetic - your studio looks wicked already though!
Mar '24Congrats man, that's huge!! I'm definitely gonna experiment with some content in a similar format. That track sounded🔥 too lol
Apr '24@Matt thank you man means a lot! Let me know how it goes
Mar '24That's sick Arthur! Using a vocal from splice to make a quick beat really makes the result more artist friendly I feel like. Love the pace of it and your comments through out the video!
Apr '24@Antoine Yeah for sure that was my thinking! I feel like beat making vids lack the crucial element of demonstrating how vocals can be framed, from what I gather content should be about connecting the dots for artists/potential clients as much as possible. Thanks for the kind words man:)
Apr '24@Chad borrow away man! Let me know how it goes too! Glad you enjoyed it bro appreciate that:)
Mar '24Love your content man, no surprise people started flocking to you. Great work mate!
Apr '24@Kensaye Thank you so much man! <
Mar '24Cool, thanks for sharing that info about your content.
Apr '24@Chad you're very welcome!
Mar '24Dope! Congrats man. I like the idea of working with splice vocals for content. I may try that.
Apr '24@Jack Yup just a quick and easy way to get something out there! Good luck:)
Apr '24@Joes thank you man really appreciate that!
Apr '24Hey Arthur, awesome content and congrats on the full time! So you're not live recording it because it really looks like it. Do you just re-record the tracks in the same session?
Apr '24@Alex Thank you man! Yeah so making the things from scratch often takes about 3 hours and it sucks to go through all my camera footage/worry about it dying half way through so instead I just cheat by hiding all the channels on cubase and duplicating them one by one to 'record the parts' in again haha. I'll write out a quick script first though so I have some clarity and the project doesn't turn into a mess!
Apr '24@Arthur ok makes sense! Thanks man 🤟🏻I’ll give it a shot
Apr '24@Aaron thank you man! And cheers for the love on the vids!
Apr '24thanks for sharing this arthur! it’s really encouraging to see you having such success with content. working on getting my stuff better so glad to see it pays off once you do. your stuff is really great
Apr '24@Kevin thanks so much bro I appreciate it!
Apr '24@Kamil you got it man!
Apr '24@Denys thank you dude! 🥂
Apr '24@Peter
Apr '24Nice work Arthur!
Mar '24Love it Arthur. Nice work my friend and the content is super fun to watch. Thanks for sharing!
Landed an new deal with an occasional client that committed to a full EP after doing a few sessions on one song! Third big project of the year for me!
Mar '24congrats Axel, that's awesome man
Hey guys! It's been awhile since I've connected with anyone. Just want to give some huge updates and what's been going on. Around the turn of the year, I was songwriting/producing remotely with a friend in the CCM field (inspired from some of the advice here at Dark Label) and we ended up pitching a song to a pretty big songwriter/producer/publisher in Nashville. We didn't land the song but he loved the song and, more importantly for me, the production. We got connected and he was looking for pro... See more
Mar '24👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Mar '24Awesome! Thanks for the update and congrats 🥳 That's gotta feel good!
Mar '24Super cool to hear. Sounds like an awesome opportunity and glad you got such a confidence boost from it. I've never been on a songwriting retreat but they sound so fun!
This is my biggest win to date. This month is the highest earning month I’ve ever had, by over 2x 🤯. Once I learned the basics here in dark label I applied them immediately and have been at it for a few days short of a year. Crazy what can change in a year….
Mar '24Big congrats bro!!
Mar '24Great to hear Jesse! Super inspiring to see how your work ethic pays dividends.
Mar '24Nice man! Congratulations 🎉 🔥🔥👏👏
Mar '24Congrats! Thanks for sharing your success! Inspiring to hear.
Mar '24So great to hear! Congrats dude.
Mar '24Right on Jesse!
Apr '24congrats Jesse!! that's amazing dude
Mar '24@Jack thanks man
Mar '24Nice man! Definitely inspiring to hear that. Congrats!
Mar '24@Jeremy thank you man!
What’s up guys! I haven’t been active as much as I’d like recently but wanted to share some wins! Signed 2 singles 2 EPs 3 more proof sessions with cool artist coming soon. An artist I’m producing is receiving interested from some pretty big A&Rs Implementing DK’s approach everyday in my music production as well as my video production business and it’s been amazing!
Mar '24@Kensaye thank you Kensaye!
Mar '24good work Jeremy, happy to hear it !
Mar '24@Bradley thank You Bradley!
Mar '24@Daniel thank you Dan!
Mar '24Nice work man! Stoked to hear it's goin well!
Mar '24Nice job Jeremy - thanks for sharing!
Mar '24@James thank you James!
Mar 'p! nice work
It's been almost a year of Dark Label now, but the fruits of the labor are starting to show. This is the first of four track from my first client to signed on with me, much more to come, but definitely a milestone! It's been a huge learning experience on the business side for me, pretty much starting from 0, and some real re-wiring of my mindset on the production side of thing, so big thanks to @Daniel @Aaron @James and to everyone else here that has help out along the ... See more
Mar '24Killer song man! 🔥
Mar '24@Adam thanks mate
Mar '24@Kamil thanks Mate
Mar '24@Christian thanks mate! Yeah I dig the next one, it’s cool to get into a project that’s more than one song, things just get better and better the more we get to know each other and the more I get into the right workflow for the artist
Mar '24Hell yeah. Congratulations man! Looking forward to keeping up with the rest of your work as well.
Mar '24@Peter cheers!
Mar '24love it !! congrats
Mar '24@Immanuel thanks bro!
Mar '24Congrats man!! Super inspiring and the track is amazing!
Mar '24@Kensaye yes!
Mar '24Banger @Philip I can relate to everything you said there !!
Mar '24@Jesse cheers bro!
Mar '24@Riley thanks mate!
Mar '24@Daniel The Caloric Deficit Blues haha (also relate)
Mar '24@Joes yeah just saw that, super dope!
Mar '24Congrats man! 🤟🌊
Mar '24@Christian ha!
Mar '24"trying to keep her calories down" - A lyric I can relate to 😂
Mar '24Exciting!
Mar '24Congratulations Phil! So inspiring to see this. Excited to hear the other three tracks 😁
Hey Team, I finally closed a $3000 project using the SSF model. It's with a Spoken Word artist and the project will include 10 beats from my catalog as well as some artist development. This is the first project I've closed on in almost 11 months. Thanks Dan and Nick for working with me and giving me guidance. Big thanks to Matt LeSeur and James for the mock calls. Cheers.
Mar '24@Chad Thanks man
Mar '24The rut is over. Pumped for ya Hanz!
Mar '24@Jason 💯💯💯
Mar '24Yessss!! That’s what I want to hear!!
Mar 'u smashed it! I apppreciate the transparency and showing the struggle as well. Fantastic win! keep grinding my guy
Mar '24@Kensaye 💯
Mar '24Congrats!
Mar '24@Daniel Finally!
Mar '24Awesome! I'm sure the next one is just round the corner—that's how it works right? 😁
Mar '24@Christian Gotta make it happen
Mar '24That's awesome. Congrats!
Mar '24@Melvin Thanks G
Mar '24Amazing! Congrats Hanz!
Mar '24@Nick go time
Mar '24Congrats! Amazing push through to success. Thanks for sharing
Mar '24@Stephen thank you
Mar '24@Chad 🙏🏿
Mar '24Yes mate! May this be the road to many more! 🙌
Mar '24@Philip TY 🙏🏿
Mar '24@Joes it’s is. It’s proof that I can do it. Now I’m going through the DMs and calls to find out exactly what I did that led to this close
Mar '24@Vanessa thank you 🙏🏿
Mar '24Proud and happy for you homie
Mar '24@Matt thanks G
Apr '24Hell ya man! So dope. Really stoked for you!
Apr '24@James thanks G
Apr '24congrats Hanz!!
Apr '24@Kevin appreciate it
SUPER excited to finally be posting in the wins section hahah! I just signed my first full rate production client after finally getting consistent with outreach and he's interested in working on an EP if all goes well for this first single 🙌 Keep pushing y'all it's not a matter of 'if' but 'when'!
Mar '24So dope man! Congrats!
Mar '24Congrats!
Mar '24Stoked to hear this Sebastian! Congrats!
Mar '24There he is. Nice one Sebastian!
Mar '24Nice! Inspiring to hear and 100% deserved 🙌🙌
Mar '24Congrats on hitting this awesome milestone! Very inspiring to see as I recently joined and share the same goal!
Mar '24Ayeee nice work man!
Mar '24🔥
Apr '24Amazing! You're right, it's not a matter of 'if' but 'when'! if you put in the work and do the right things 🙌
Apr '24Congrats!! Awesome!
Apr '24congrats Seb!!
Mar '24Congrats dude!!
Mar '24Yessss! Congrats man, inspiring to hear!
Mar '24LETS GO SEB
Mar '! great job man. First of many I'm sure!
Big shout out to @Nick for sharing his story and experience here at Dark Label. There are some gems in here... 21:31
Feb '24let’s gooo!!! @Nick
Feb '24awesome! ithaca alum!
Feb '24Nick's story is incredible, learned a lot 👏
Feb '24👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Sharing this win to offer some encouragement for anyone struggling with content. Dan mentioned it in his last live stream but I had my first serious enquiry directly from an IG reel last week which looks like it'll lead to at least one paid single production. I've also had another couple of wins lately from the short form content - a reachout via my Typeform and a couple of comment replies leading to casual convos/leads. Still early days but it's very encouraging to know this stuff really does lead to more work. Very grateful to be here!!
Feb '24Super encouraging to hear! Curious what kind of content led people to reach out...what was the reel that led to the enquiry?
Feb '24The content looks great Pete, awesome work!
Feb 'ttps://www.instagram.com/reel/C2A-T-2r7/?igsh=ZGp1eW50aTJocGx4This was the reel in that led to the most serious enquiry.
Feb '24it's a 2 part because of the time limit on IG reels vs tiktok
Feb '24Love it! Congratulations and thanks for sharing, Pete!
Feb '24@Denys Thanks Denys :)
Feb '24@Joes Awesome Joes. I found making this kind of content I focused a lot on aesthetic at first and this helped motivate me to get over the hump of making it. Now I'm trying to focus on bringing more value in the content. Really appreciate your (and everyone's) feedback!!
After all of my Instagram messages, phone calls, proof sessions over several months since joining Dark Label, a song I produced has been released! A singer I discovered by watching the Voice has a released a Pop x Drum and Bass song that I am excited to share. Much appreciation to @Daniel + his team and our community here for supporting me in this journey and process. https://www.instagram.com/p/C24TQPqxWf9/?igsh=MTMyd28ydjFhODB1eQ==
Feb '24Your 2024 is looking as good as your music sounds mane. These Ws are a good look on you
Feb '24Right on!
Feb '24congrats man ! Wondering @Daniel if there's any teaching / content you've done on supporting a client upon release day and beyond?
Feb '24Nice work man!!!
Feb 'es my bro! 👏
Feb '24Congrats Stephen! Thats huge 🎉
Feb '24Congratulations Stephen, big win.