About

We are File Under: Music. We’re from Vancouver, BC. We’re Karen, Lisa, and Steve. We’re a music label.

FAQ

Label Stuff

Can I send you my demo/music?

Yes, BUT let’s get some things out of the way first. If the following terms worry you please do not send us your music - “world wide licensing”, “recoup”, “responding to emails within 24 hours”, “deadlines”, “accounting”, “active on social media”, “reach”, and “trying”.

Why?

Because there are many ways to release music, with many different goals in mind, and being on board with the above terms is something we’ve discovered are key to making sure that our goals and your goals align. When they don’t, nobody is happy and the songs don’t get a chance to live up to their potential, and that’s the worst. The key is to really know what you want, and having good music is really just step one to getting there.

Ok, sounds good. How can I send you my music?

Please send submissions to “info [at] fileundermusic.com” . Preferably a streaming link. NO ATTACHED MP3s. Also please send along what your goals are, and really think about it. We promise to listen to everything, but we may not necessarily respond.

What kind of music are you looking for?

We’ve got two streams of thought right now. Singles for our “One Song at a Time” video singles series - in which case if you’ve got a complete song, or a solid demo that’s a good start! We’re not terribly concerned about restricting things to genre.

If you’ve got a full album, we’re being REALLY picky about those, but feel free to send it along. Keep in mind that if we found a record we wanted to put out tomorrow, it takes at least 6 months to put the pieces together to get it released.

If you like my demos will you pay for me to record my record?

No. We prefer to license complete recordings. That way we know what we’re getting into, plus we can focus on the promotional aspect of things. But we’re big forward planners, so a demo might make for a good hello!

Do you only work with Canadian acts?

Nope! The world is our oyster!

Store

Why do you only have the options for full album downloads? Why are there only 2 digital formats?

Because setting up a new webstore is hard. We’re working on expanding our offerings in the future, but for now please see our Bandcamp for individual songs, or different album formats.

Why is shipping so expensive?

Because the decrease in letter-mail since the proliferation of online communication has devastated the operating revenue of postal services and the shortfall has often been made up by the increase in international shipping rates. We’ve got CD dialed in close to as low as possible (sans tracking), and while vinyl shipping rates suck, ordering multiple records at the same time reduces your overall unit cost. This seems to be especially true for Canadian shipments. Binge with us for savings!

But it’s soooo expensive!

Luckily our records are distributed worldwide! Outside Music covers Canada, while MVD covers the rest of the world! Check in with your local record store about a special order and let them know those are our distributors and they can probably hook you up!

Why should I bother to buy anything? The biz just rips off artists anyway.

This is an exaggeration of a half truth that has perpetuated throughout the mythos of the music business. Whenever you hear someone say, “I never made any money off of record sales,” this is 90% of the time because their album sales did not recoup the expenses of the record promotion, so … well duh… But what they often leave out is that part of the promotional costs usually include an advance cash payment to the artist, not to mention that the promotional expenses that enable them to reach an audience so they can then make money off of tours, merchandise, etc. The other 10% of the time, they probably got ripped off, because that is something that has definitely happened.

Exact deals vary, but we put all revenue on a project towards recoup (i.e. we make $2, $2 goes towards recoup, we don’t pocket some and leave the recoup to the artist.)

There is no better way to support music you like then to buy it. This is real money an artist can use, a very strong metric that can help them book a tour, or get a high profile media placement, and it doesn’t add up a thousandth of a penny at a time like streams.

Second to that, you must emphatically tell as many people as you can how awesome it is, and encourage them to buy / listen to the music too, because it’s only at the volume of hundreds of thousands that streaming starts to work for the artist. The “like” button is useless for this. Click that “share/retweet” button instead to show your real “like”!

The way I’ve always looked at it is that for new developing artists, streams won’t ever add up to a tank of gas that’ll get them out on tour.

So you don’t like streaming?

Nah, we get it. A lot of things need to ultimately change so that it doesn’t add up to a dystopian nightmare where the major labels with their millions of songs are A-OK with thousandths of a penny while the indies are squeezed out with their catalog of tens of dozens of songs, but we’re not gonna be old man shakes fist at clouds about it. So follow our Spotify account here! And ooo boy we love Youtube!

My download link didn’t work, what can I do?

Probably our bad. Please forward your receipt onto “info [at] fileundermusic.com” and we can help you out!

My order hasn’t arrived, what can I do?

Orders within Canada usually arrive within a week, but have been known to take up to 2. Orders to the US are usually in the 1-2 week range, but have been known to take up to 4. International orders typically arrive in 2-4 weeks, but have been known to take up to 6. When you cross the above ETA thresholds, please send an email to “info [at] fileundermusic.com” and we’ll see what we can do!