Please help me untie this knot please. I’ve been producing and gigging for over 15 years under the moniker dtr / DTR. Nothing serious. Small time local gigs and posting tracks on forums and my soundcloud. Most I’ve taken offline 'cause the old stuff doesn’t reflect what I’m doing now.
Now I have the opportunity to get official EP releases on a label, and get serious about gigging. This is a development I’m much invested in. I already have a career as a media artist (using my real name) and the prospect of growing an electronic music career too is becoming tangible. Just to say I have experience managing an artist’s life.
My issue is that I’ve noticed since long that there are several other musicians releasing under the DTR moniker (found on Beatport, Spotify etc). Some old and no where near what I do, some recent and quite close to my genre.
My intuition is it’s not a good idea to start releasing using that name, given the overlap with others. What do you think? Are there limits to when it 'd be ok or not? Or should one not use a taken name, no matter how distant it is from what one’s doing?
I’m nowhere near as experienced as you are, so my thoughts on this are not based on empirical data or industry experience, but I am also in a situation where gigging and maybe releasing could be a valid option in the future, so I was also thinking about what artist name to go for.
I went for something that I couldn’t find on the big platforms such as SoundCloud. I also tried to avoid being too close to business names. Can’t even put a finger on it as to why this gave me anxiety, but I just feel way better knowing that (at least for the time being) it’s somehow unique.
I guess this isn’t helping much in your case because there’s no real rationale but that’s how I went for it.
Good luck with your musical projects!
Cheers
Manolo
Also hopefully soon to be known as
Sonic Custody
You never know what they will do to defend it. I have a friend who sends out cease and desists to using her band’s name every time it pops up. You might say it’s a dick move, but it’s brand ownership. They’ve had this name over 10 years, there’s some publishing, trademark, and copyright around it.
You could run into a similar issue from these other DTRs. I think it’s wise to find something you can protect - if for no other reason to not have to defend yourself or change all your marketing later.
I got with an entertainment lawyer and setup a trademark around one of my bands’ names. Wasn’t too hard, and got some great advice.
That all confirms my intuitions about it. Guess I can t avoid continuing the frustrating exercise of coming up with names that i both want to carry and are not taken… I m already damn picky about shoes and clothing. A new artist name is complete torture!
dtr was so easy… Just short for my first name, Dieter…
d2r
DRDTR
Detour - almost homonym to the english word
Dieter VanD
vandtr
Just throwing stuff out there, seems like there are possibilities. I’d say, stick to your original and fight for it, or come up with something new. In this era of the world wide web, it’s almost impossible to be the only X or the only Y, etc.
I don t like using my full name because it s remniscent of Armin van Buuren and i don t want such associations… (i m a Belgian based in The Netherlands, BTW).
