"If you make great music, you should have a fair shot at getting it heard." An interview with LabelRadar Co-Founder Derek Clark
An interview with LabelRadar Co-Founder Derek Clark.
I came across LabelRadar last year after entering a remix contest run by Change The Beat. I had a look around the platform after submitting my entry and saw that it was possible to submit demos to major labels such as Monstercat, Armada Music, Black Hole Recordings, and more. The demo submission process was very transparent; once your demo was listened to, you would receive a notification, and if the label was interested or not, you would receive a notification letting you know the outcome.
A very brief overview of the platform: Credits are the platform’s currency; you need 5 credits to submit a demo to a label. Free (or Lite) users get 5 credits (if none are available on your account), with the option of purchasing additional credits. Pro users are topped up to 100 submission credits per month. If a label doesn’t listen to your track within 60 days, your credits are automatically returned to your account. Pro is $14.99 if billed monthly, and $143.88 per year if done annually. Contests are held regularly and are free to enter; credits are not required.
I found LabelRadar to be a beacon of hope, a sign of life in an otherwise void-like experience of releasing music on the internet. I was lucky enough to get to speak to one of the co-founders, Derek Clark. In the interview below, we discuss what LabelRadar is, the inspiration behind LabelRadar, how partnering with major labels came about, how artists can get the most out of using LabelRadar, and more.
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Eimear O Sullivan, Musicngear: For our readers who might not be familiar with LabelRadar, could you give us an overview of what it is?
LabelRadar is, at its core, a platform that helps artists get their music in front of record labels, while also making it much easier for labels to discover new talent and manage their workflows. We've since expanded into things like artist collaborator matching, and we've also become a leading platform for remix contests hosted by our label partners.
Before LabelRadar, demos were primarily still sent through email. As an artist, you first had to figure out which labels were still active, worked in your genre, and were open to new talent, then somehow find the right way to contact them. After all of that, you could send your track over and still have no idea whether anyone had ever reviewed it. At the same time, larger labels were getting flooded with demos and didn't have a great way to work through everything coming in.
We built LabelRadar to make that whole process better for both sides. Artists get a clearer path to verified labels that are actively looking for demos, along with real-time updates on their submissions. If a label isn't currently active, it drops out of the main discovery flow on LabelRadar, but artists can still follow it and be notified when they start accepting demos again. On the other side, labels get a much more efficient way to listen, respond, manage their submissions, and uncover some great music they might otherwise have missed. You can view the full list of labels on the platform here.
At the heart of it, the mission has always been pretty simple: if you make great music, you should have a fair shot at getting it heard.
Musicngear: How did the idea for setting up LabelRadar come about?
The idea really came from experiencing the same problem from a few different sides of the industry.
As artists way back in the day, Ed and I both knew how frustrating it was to send demos out and have no idea whether anyone had even listened. Then, from working with labels, we saw the other side too. Larger labels could be flooded with more demos than they could realistically get through, especially when everything was coming in through email with different links, downloads, attachments and very little structure. Reviewing demos could become a huge time sink before you'd even found something relevant.
When I was running a smaller label, I had almost the opposite problem: finding enough great unreleased music to actually sign.
That contrast really stuck with us. A track might not be right for a popular label, but could be perfect for one of thousands of smaller labels out there. There just wasn't a very good system for connecting the two.
That's a big part of what LabelRadar changed. Instead of digging through an unstructured inbox, labels can review submissions in one place, quickly hear the most relevant part of a track, filter what they're looking for, and respond much more efficiently. Artists, in turn, get more visibility into what's actually happening with their submission rather than just sending an email into the void.
We talked about the problem for a few years, then started putting the team together. Juan and Sebastian came on as co-founders, and we brought in Ariel as our lead developer to help turn the idea into something real. From there, it became pretty obvious that we had an opportunity to build a much better system for both artists and labels. That became LabelRadar.
Musicngear: LabelRadar works with some massive labels such as Armada Music, Black Hole Recordings, and Monstercat, to name a few. Could you tell us a bit about how you went about getting labels like this on board?
A lot of it has really come down to nearly a decade of obsessively listening to our users, constantly improving the product, trying to strike the right balance between what artists need and what labels need, and being relentless about never giving up.
Monstercat was actually our launch partner back in 2017, which was a huge early vote of confidence for us. From there, a lot of the growth was organic. If you build something that genuinely makes a label's job easier, people talk, and word of mouth has played a massive role in bringing more labels onto the platform over the years.
We've also been really fortunate that joining The Beatport Group through the acquisition in 2022 helped us expand our reach even further. Being part of Beatport, and now the wider Beatport Greenroom suite of label services, has opened up even more relationships and opportunities for us.
But I'd say the foundation of it is still the same as it was at the beginning: listen closely, keep improving the product, and make sure you're actually solving a real problem for both sides of the marketplace.
Musicngear: What would you recommend for artists to get the most out of LabelRadar? (and maybe if there are some areas that might be underutilized by artists on the platform that would be of benefit to them, of course highlight that here)
I'd say the biggest thing is to really maximize everything the platform offers.
Use your free monthly credits strategically. For example, try a One to Many submission each month so your track can enter the General Submissions pool and potentially reach labels from around the world that you might never have thought to approach yourself.
I'd also recommend checking the reviews on label profiles. Those are based on feedback from artists who have actually interacted with those labels, so they can be really useful when you're deciding who you might want to work with.
Beyond that, connect with other artists. You're not in this alone, and sometimes the relationships you build along the way can be just as valuable as the immediate outcome of a submission.
And don't take rejection too personally. Every "no" is really a "not yet" or "not the right fit." If the biggest labels aren't resonating with your music, explore small and mid-sized labels too. Labels of every size have their own advantages and disadvantages, and sometimes the right smaller label can be a much better home for a release.
I'd also encourage artists to take part in remix contests. Even if you don't win, they're a great way to sharpen your skills, challenge yourself creatively, meet people, and potentially open doors you didn't expect.
Most importantly, have fun with the process and keep going. Don't ever give up.
Musicngear: Did setting up LabelRadar and working with a lot of labels give you more of an insight into what labels look for in an artist?
Absolutely, but probably not in the way people might expect.
One of the biggest things I've learned is just how incredibly diverse labels are. People run labels for all sorts of reasons, across every kind of genre and culture, and at completely different stages of life, with different team sizes, budgets, release schedules, and levels of investment behind each release.
Because of that, there really isn't one universal checklist for what every label is looking for in an artist. Some care heavily about the music itself, some put more weight on branding or audience data, some are looking for artists they can develop over time, and others are simply looking for the right track for the right moment.
If anything, working with so many labels has reinforced for me that there really is a label for almost everyone. If you haven't found the right fit yet, that doesn't necessarily mean your music isn't good enough. It may just mean you haven't found the right home for it yet, so keep looking.
Musicngear: I was listening to an interview you and Ed Brew did on the Music Biz and Sounds Podcast, I really liked where Ed said that the incentive of LabelRadar is primarily focused on the desire to discover new artistic talent, as opposed to other platforms where the outcomes are more financially motivated - could you talk a little bit more about that?
At LabelRadar, we're really focused on making meaningful connections happen.
That can look very different depending on the artist. It might be entering a remix contest and winning, starting a new relationship with a label, or finding another artist to collaborate with. A lot of the outcomes are very personal and human, which I think is an important part of what makes the platform different.
We're also deliberately agnostic about what happens after that connection. We don't have a distribution integration that an artist or label is pushed toward, for example. If an artist gets signed through LabelRadar, the label can distribute the release however they'd like. Our job is to help create the opportunity and make that connection happen.
It's also important to us that artists can use LabelRadar for free if they can't afford the paid version. We give artists free submission credits each month, and we always recommend being strategic with them. For example, artists can use a One to Many submission to place a track into the General Submissions pool, where it can be discovered by labels across the platform. It's less targeted than submitting directly to a specific label, but it can be a great way to widen the net.
Ultimately, the incentive is centered around discovery and opportunity. We want to help talented people find the right people, and then give them the freedom to decide where that connection goes next.
Musicngear: Are there any new features or upcoming projects you would like to mention?
I can't say too much just yet, but being part of The Beatport Group has opened up a lot of exciting opportunities and new pathways for LabelRadar beyond the many product improvements and features we already have planned. There's a lot more we'd love to do, and we're excited about where things are heading. :)
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
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