Okay, here it is guys...

1. Put your 4 best tunes on a CDR
2. Make a list of all the labels you want to be signed to, with their email address
3. Email the label contact (A&R person) and politely and simply ask if you can send them a demo. They will of course say yes, and now they'll remember you and be expecting your demo.
4. send CDR to them in a simple case. write your producing name, your phone number, and your email address on the cdr. also put that info on the case as well. you can put a tracklisting on there, but not putting it on might add to your mistique a bit.
5. DO NOT put anything else on the cd, on the case, or in the package. if you do art for your cd they might actually toss it away. They're looking for one thing... quality music and that's it. If you put anything else on there it could actually hurt your chances. Very few people seem to understand this concept but trust me--as someone who has made it and is at the top of my industry right now as I'm writing this.

Some Comments:
This is exactly what we did (except we put 8 or 9 tunes on our demo... but they were all good!). It obviously worked for us. We did this because this is what we were told to do by people we knew that had made it in the industry and did the same thing. You can read the our album review here in DJ Mag - http://www.shilohmusic.ca/images/djmag-article.jpg - which confims that is exactly what we did (and we're album of the month to confirm that we did something right).

Now, the most important thigs is this... your music needs to have the chops! You may think your music is amazing. You may have a ton of people who tell you and think it's amazing. The reality is this... 999/1000 people's music sucks, and out of those 999, probably 700 of them think that it's amazing. The bottom line is that you'll find out when you send that demo out if you're actually good or not. Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Either way, be open for the truth. Not everyone can be the next dance music prodigy, but hopefully it's you.

Well... that summed up my demo article (http://tastyfresh.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=139&Itemid=34) nicely.

lol!  So it did hahahah

ah.... nice and straight to the point, just the way I like it, of course I already knew what it took, just got to get a good demo together but kinda already have some considering me.

so how do you find the different labels? I need a label 101 class... I'm so lost when it comes to dance industry knowledge

Most labels specialize in one very specific genre right?

one way to see what kind of music the labels sign, go to beatport or something and search by label, then spend hours listening lol.  there's a lot of labels.

The easiest way to find labels to pitch your demo is by looking at what you play.  Contact those labels about sending demos.  Make sure you review the label's calaogue though...Know for sure that your style fits their standards.  Example....At BTU REcordings,  Fitzpatrick and I do mostly Tech Trance,  so we would have no interest in Darkstep Jungle.

only thing is many people don't pay any attention to the label of the music they play.  and even still, if you buy online or use p2p, most don't look at the label, they look at the artist.   and most mp3's don't come tagged with the labels name in it.

TRue...I must be the exception to the rule.  When I'm on Beatport,  I tend to look more towards labels I like to find tracks.  Like if I see Anjunabeats,  Afterglow, FiveAM,  Proton,  Yes Mate,  Oxygen,  Six:Thirty,  etc.  I'm more likely to buy.

I can typically remember the label better than the artist.  The great thign about Beatport,  though,  is they track your purchases.  You can always go back into your account and see what you've purchased.

labels are easier to remember b/c they have a sound of their own and there are so many artists. So unless it's a superstar... I buy by label or genre.

read, consice read, my brutha!

very,very important.  #5 is exactly the OPPOSITE of what they tell you to do if you're a rock band.

* as far as having the chops: post demos on dance music sites..and not just this one!  if you can impress the socks off of strangers who could care less about your music then you REALLY have the chops.  (and it's not easy, i can tell you. i pretty much got an "eh, whatever" about the faith of a child single from trance.nu  i think i only posted the best mix,too...)

well up till now, by label wasn't so difficult, but with digital labels getting "popular" its getting quite rediculous in number.  so if you are going to say label you should say "superstar" label too ;-)

i think beatport has about 2000 new releases a week or something like that... crazy, i can't currently back that number up, jason from proton was telling me that.  i'm gonna go ask him again.

um... yeah... superstar labels... um... yeah... you mean there are ones that aren't superstars? :P

yeah, finding the labels is a thing unto itself. basically, i asked friends who we should send our demo too. we got about a half dozen label names, people saying "you should deffo send this to such and such." one of the labels mentioned happened to be baroque.  ;)  then, i had about 15 other labels that were big labels that i just wanted to send to. honestly, most of them probably weren't quite working our genre but i didn't care.

basically, with the internet, you can find any label you want. just start digging around. submitting your demo digitally through email (2 or 3 links to tracks) you can send to as many labels as you want and cost isn't really a worry. not sending to a label because you're not sure they're doing your type of stuff would be a mistake. i mean, if it's an obvious genre hop then it's obvious but otherwise it doesn't matter. you never know what other projects they are doing or what could happen. i mean, baroque started a whole new label because of signing our stuff. in fact, the demo and getting signed process took us in an entirely new direction and was the major factor in finding our initial niche that got us very known very quick.

I'm workiong on a couple of tracks right now. Considering labels, I also think of the local context. I know I'm lucky to live in Amsterdam where a lot of things are giong on in the nujazz-brokenbeats scene.
I know the people from the recordsshops and venues. Last years they were getting more and more in the picture of the global scene. Like StraightnoChaser were mentioning / promoting their stuff.

So if I would be ready to go out I will contact them also. For me the social thing of a movement is also an important thing that makes a movement stronger, more true and alive. Ofcourse the digital thing is great for global exposure. But in the end . . sharing the music is the true heart of the nujazz-brokenbeats scene.

peace, GL

Colins comments are fair, but if you are having to much trouble trying to get signed then I'd just release the music yourself on CDR or MP3. Man, talk about 999% of music being sh*t, 999% of record labels have ego inflation and I know from being in this game a while that some people have pride and won't admit that demos are sometimes BETTER than releases on their labels because their motivation behind their releases has not been to release quality music but to groom their DJ friends and producers

Paul.

The trick is knowing when the labels are just full of themselves and when you are ;)

When it comes to considering wether tracks are cutting edge, or the latest hottest sound..   I say who cares!!   Good music stands the test of time.  I still like Crystal Methods first album much more than their newer ones, it does not sound dated, it just sounds good.   Now when it comes to procuction value (i.e. audio engineering technology), sometimes newer is better, but only to a certain extent.
I wore that CM tape out a long time ago, but I re-downloaded recently and it still blows my socks off!!  I find today that there are millions of generic copies of the latest greatest sound, but the creative originality gets a bit dilluted.   Maybe thats because people want to stick with whats familiar to audiences and have a safe sell.
But music just gets boring that way, the TWO big label conglomerates think this way, they stick to a safe "it works" formula and therefore we have horrible generic boy/girl-band pop.

The people who are buying the music silly. :)

right, I guess "cutting edge" is not a good description, of course people/listeners are into "cutting edge" music.  I guess what I was getting at is that "new" and "current" does not always mean better.  I fall into this myself when picking up tracks for DJing, not truly going with music that I really really like, but that I "sorta" like and is the latest sound.  A lot of the dance/club genres being produced for the DJ market sounds cool, but not ground breakingly creative or inspired.
i.e. original and moving in a new creative direction as apposed to mimiking the sounds and feel of the latest dance sound.  Something to keep in mind when trying to stand out in that A & R reps mile high pile of CDR's??

well... it also still goes back to:

The trick is knowing when the labels are just full of themselves and when you are ;)

and the fact that...

Good music doesn't always sell... even if it is always going to be considered good music ;)

With Discogs (http://discogs.com) it's not really an issue.  Just search for the tracks you like and look up the labels their on.

Anyone know if Myspace will introduce a function to buy music direct from artists?

that will make things interesting!

there already is one. I forgot the name. It's actually a 3rd party vendor that is working with them. You can sell music on your myspace page AND use the same system on a separate site as well.

Is there any restrictions? for example i heard that to sell tracks on itunes you need to be a label with something like 28 releases. Any cost involved? 

This is the vendor: http://snocap.com/

Thanks 8)

That's interesting.

why would you want to sign your music??

do you want it for money and fame?

do you just want to be heard en receive some pats on the back?

do you want to share your faith?

these are questions you need to ask yourself when searching for a label. many labels out there are in it for the money (otherwise you wouldn't start a bussiness like that) and care less about you until you start selling. there are some labels out there only looking for quality stuff caring less about sales (yet they need to sell enough to exist). there are quite some labels you really do not want to be a part of. and the right label for you might not be the right label for anyone else.

interesting to read all the response here. thank you colin (and dave)! let's build!