Problem with your physical? Questions or concerns? Looking to make a submission? You can contact us by email contact@cordfuck.com, DMing us on any of our socials, or DMing one of our organizers in our Discord. Please read below before making a submission and contact us once you do!
- You
Hey! You're like a label or whatever right? I'd like to make a submission!
- Cord-chan
Yup! You're in the right place. Let me preface this by saying this is not a legal document. If we don't want to release your music, we won't. That being said, if your release meets the following requirements, it will probably be fine.
- We do not accept:
- Bigoted content. If you own a slur and you're using it in a non-hateful way, that's fine,
- Genres outside of the underground electronic umbrella. Although this isn't just a breakcore label, we still only accept underground electronic music like dubstep, nerdcore techno, hardstyle, and all sorts of things like that,
- Files rendered with excessively bad file formats. Namely MP3. Best to use FLAC or WAV (we here at CordFuck are FLAC enjoyers),
- Content that's already released. We won't rerelease your music, unless it's different in some way (like a remaster), or you want a physical rerelease.
- You
Wait, that's it?
- Cord-chan
Yep! Other than that, we just need a cover, the audio files and then it's just a question of whether we like it or not. The more we like it, the more promotion and stuff like that we'll give it.
- You
You mean I can't just submit an album I made in 5 seconds??!
- Cord-chan
No. There's enough gabber kick over repeated anime sample for 10 hours in this world. At least use a hardstyle kick or something.
- You
So, how will you distribute my release?
- Cord-chan
We don't believe in charging for digital files, so all of our releases are up for download on our site at high quality, for free! We'll also distribute it to YouTube for ease of listening. If need be, we can use a censored cover on YouTube.
We'll also make a Discogs entry for you!
- Cord-chan
One that actually complies with Discogs's rules and won't get you put on CIP.
- Cord-chan
The audio files will be peak normalized to -3dBFS using the highest peak in the whole release. Meaning the tallest peak in your entire release will be brought to -3dBFS, applying the same amount of volume modification on all tracks, e.g. +3db to every track if the tallest peak in the entire album is -6dBFS. So make sure your relative loudness between tracks is correct. We'll also embed metadata in the files.
- You
So you do CDs and stuff right?? Can you do one for my release?
- Cord-chan
Maybe. We'll only do physicals for really good albums. But it isn't just physicals, we can do any sort of merch. Posters, shirts, whatever you can think of. We'll try and make it happen. But CDs and cassettes are what we specialize in, and our process for those are clearly documented. So keep on reading.
Our physicals are made on order, so they come at no cost to you. They are DIY and might not be as professional as big duplicators can do, but that being said, we've been told our physicals don't feel DIY at all. They are made with quality materials and equipment, and precision, and love.
- Cord-chan
Of course, this is all a lot of work for us, so we take a cut of about 30% from the profits, specific numbers down below. You must be able to accept your cut by Paypal.
- You
What?? It's my music! I thought you were a cool label!!
- Cord-chan
30% may seem like a lot, but would you rather spend a thousand dollars on equipment and supplies just to spend a week learning how to make CDs, and weeks more perfecting your craft. Or would you rather lose out on not even half of the profits and do absolutely nothing but design the physical.
- Cord-chan
Speaking of design, we give you full control over the look of your physical release using the templates below. Lots of people fill them out wrong so make sure to read carefully.
- To fill out the templates properly, you must:
- extend your image all the way to the bleed line, and keep text and important stuff in the text legibility line. Both machines and humans aren't perfect, so these lines are to make sure we don't cut off any important elements in your design, or leave a bad looking white border on your design,
- save, don't export. Exporting (at least in Photoshop) will erase PPI information from the file. In most programs, you can just save as a PNG instead of exporting as a PNG (and do make sure it's a PNG for maximum quality),
- put some effort into making your cover j-card friendly. Stretching or cropping your cover art just plain doesn't look nice. For a cassette j-card, you can try bringing your foreground elements closer to the middle, allowing you to chop off the sides,
- put your art on top of the template and leave the template layer visible. You're keeping both layers visible when exporting. We use the outer black lines as guides for cutting, so make sure not to obscure those either.
Let us know if you need clarification or design help! You can also just give us the PSDs of your design so we can correct any problems ourselves.
- Cord-chan
We sell CDs at $10 plus shipping and give you $5.25 per sale. CD art is paper label.
- Cord-chan
We sell Cassettes at $12 plus shipping and give you $6.25 per sale.
We buy cassette blanks in bulk, meaning they are all the same length and are all clear. We usually buy 64-minute length cassettes (that's 32 per side), but if you need a longer time, just ask! We might have longer cassettes at the time. But if you need a shorter cassette, you're out of luck. You will just have to deal with a long silence trailing the end of your release. If that doesn't work for you, you're probably better off with CD-Rs.
You should also think about if the lengths of your songs are cassette friendly. If you have one 45-minute track, and one 6-minute track, although that does add up to under 64 minutes, you can't fit a 45-minute track into a 32-minute side. If your release in total is also under 32-minutes we will just dub the entire release on both sides of the cassette.
- No noise reduction,
- dubbed using a Nakamichi BX-300,
- bias tuned for accuracy to digital master.
- Cord-chan
Well... I think that's it! That's all you need to know to make a submission to CordFuck.
- You
Gosh golly, I sure am informed. I'll be sure to contact a CordFuck organizer today!
- You
I have some questions!
- Cord-chan
Shoot!
- You
Will you distribute my release to Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms?
- Cord-chan
No. We only handle distribution on our website and YouTube.
- You
Can I distribute my release to Bandcamp or streaming platforms like Spotify and release with CordFuck at the same time?
- Cord-chan
Yes! But, please don't put it out before we release it! We would need to coordinate when we release it, and when it goes live on streaming platforms.
- You
Can I rerelease something I've already released?
- Cord-chan
No. Unless it's a physical rerelease, or it's different in some way to the original, like a remaster.
- You
What's the difference between the CF and CFR catalogs?
- Cord-chan
The CFR catalog is for shorter or lower quality releases. While the CF catalog being for big albums and EPs we really like!
- You
How do I join your roster?
- Cord-chan
We don't publicly accept requests to join our permanent roster. We'll reach out to you if we are interested. Try submitting an album first.
- You
I don't want to be paid for merch sales. Can you just keep the royalties?
- Cord-chan
Sure! We definitely can! And thank you.
