Terms & Conditions

We have Recently updated our Terms and Conditions. Please read and accept the terms and conditions in order to access the site

Terms and conditions of use 1. Introduction 1.1 These terms and conditions shall govern your use of our website. 1.2 By using our website, you accept these terms and conditions in full; accordingly, if you disagree with these terms and conditions or any part of these terms and conditions, you must not use our website. 1.3 If you register with our website, submit any material to our website or use any of our website services, we will ask you to expressly agree to these terms and conditions. 1.4 You must be at least 18 years of age to use our website; and by using our website or agreeing to these terms and conditions, you warrant and represent to us that you are at least 18 years of age. 1.5 Our website uses cookies; by using our website or agreeing to these terms and conditions, you consent to our use of cookies. 2. Credit 2.1 This document was created using a template from SEQ Legal (http://www.seqlegal.com). 3. Copyright notice 3.1 Copyright (c) 2014 S.U.Corporation Ltd. T/A Strictly Underground. 3.2 Subject to the express provisions of these terms and conditions: (a) we, together with our licensors, own and control all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website; and (b) all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in our website and the material on our website are reserved. 4. Licence to use website 4.1 You may: (a) view pages from our website in a web browser; (b) download pages from our website for caching in a web browser; (c) print pages from our website; (d) stream audio and video files from our website; and (e) use our website, services by means of a web browser, subject to the other provisions of these terms and conditions. 4.2 Except as expressly permitted by Section 4.1 or the other provisions of these terms and conditions, you must not download any material from our website or save any such material to your computer. 4.3 You may only use our website for your own personal use, and you must not use our website for any other purposes. 4.4 Except as expressly permitted by these terms and conditions, you must not edit or otherwise modify any material on our website. 4.5 Unless expressly granted By Strictly Underground and subject only to the use of any provided share connections links provided on the web site and/or by direct written consent, you must not: (a) republish material from our website (including republication on another website); (b) sell, rent or sub-license material from our website; (c) show any material from our website in public; (d) exploit material from our website for a commercial purpose; or (e) redistribute material from our website. 4.6 Notwithstanding Section 4.5, you may redistribute using our provided share links directly and without interference between such links to the destination we provide. Any attempt to redistribute using a means to circumvent such links shall be a breach of copy write and these terms. 4.7 We reserve the right to restrict access to areas of our website, or indeed our whole website, at our discretion; you must not circumvent or bypass, or attempt to circumvent or bypass, any access restriction measures on our website. 5. Acceptable use 5.1 You must not: (a) use our website in any way or take any action that causes, or may cause, damage to the website or impairment of the performance, availability or accessibility of the website; (b) use our website in any way that is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity; (c) use our website to copy, store, host, transmit, send, use, publish or distribute any material which consists of (or is linked to) any spyware, computer virus, Trojan horse, worm, keystroke logger, rootkit or other malicious computer software; (d) conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities (including without limitation scraping, data mining, data extraction and data harvesting) on or in relation to our website without our express written consent; (e) access or otherwise interact with our website using any robot, spider or other automated means; (f) violate the directives set out in the robots.txt file for our website; or (g) use data collected from our website for any direct marketing activity (including without limitation email marketing, SMS marketing, telemarketing and direct mailing).] 5.2 You must not use data collected from our website to contact individuals, companies or other persons or entities. 5.3 You must ensure that all the information you supply to us through our website, or in relation to our website, is true, accurate, current, complete and non-misleading. 6. Registration and accounts 6.1 To be eligible for an individual account on our website under this Section 6, you must be at least 18 years of age. 6.2 You may register for an account with our website by completing and submitting the account subscribe form on our website, and clicking on the verification link in the email that the website will send to you. 6.3 You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account. 6.4 You must not use any other person's account to access the website. 7. User IDs and passwords 7.1 If you register for an account with our website, we may provide you with / you will be asked to choose a user ID and password. 7.2 Your user ID must not be liable to mislead and must comply with the content rules set out in Section 10; you must not use your account or user ID for or in connection with the impersonation of any person. 7.3 You must keep your password confidential. 7.4 You must notify us in writing immediately if you become aware of any disclosure of your password. 7.5 You are responsible for any activity on our website arising out of any failure to keep your password confidential, and may be held liable for any losses arising out of such a failure. 8. Cancellation and suspension of account 8.1 We may: (a) suspend your account; (b) cancel your account; and/or (c) edit your account details, at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation. 8.2 You may cancel your account on our website. 9. Your content: licence 9.1 In these terms and conditions, "your content" means all works and materials (including without limitation text, graphics, images, audio material, video material, audio-visual material, scripts, software and files) that you submit to us or our website for storage or publication on, processing by, or transmission via, our website. 9.2 You grant to us a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce, store, adapt, publish, translate and distribute your content in any existing or future media / reproduce, store and publish your content on and in relation to this website and any successor website / reproduce, store and, with your specific consent, publish your content on and in relation to this website. 9.3 You grant to us the right to sub-license the rights licensed under Section 9.2. 9.4 You grant to us the right to bring an action for infringement of the rights licensed under Section 9.2. 9.5 You hereby waive all your moral rights in your content to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law; and you warrant and represent that all other moral rights in your content have been waived to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. 9.6 You may edit your content to the extent permitted using the editing functionality made available on our website. 9.7 Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach any provision of these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may delete, unpublish or edit any or all of your content. 10. Your content: rules 10.1 You warrant and represent that your content will comply with these terms and conditions. 10.2 Your content must not be illegal or unlawful, must not infringe any person's legal rights, and must not be capable of giving rise to legal action against any person (in each case in any jurisdiction and under any applicable law). 10.3 Your content, and the use of your content by us in accordance with these terms and conditions, must not: (a) be libellous or maliciously false; (b) be obscene or indecent; (c) infringe any copyright, moral right, database right, trade mark right, design right, right in passing off, or other intellectual property right; (d) infringe any right of confidence, right of privacy or right under data protection legislation; (e) constitute negligent advice or contain any negligent statement; (f) constitute an incitement to commit a crime, instructions for the commission of a crime or the promotion of criminal activity; (g) be in contempt of any court, or in breach of any court order; (h) be in breach of racial or religious hatred or discrimination legislation; (i) be anti-social; (j) be in breach of official secrets legislation; (k) be in breach of any contractual obligation owed to any person; (l) depict violence; (m) be pornographic, lewd, suggestive or sexually explicit; (n) be untrue, false, inaccurate or misleading; (o) consist of or contain any instructions, advice or other information which may be acted upon and could, if acted upon, cause illness, injury or death, or any other loss or damage; (p) constitute spam; (q) be offensive, deceptive, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, harassing, anti-social, menacing, hateful, discriminatory or inflammatory; or (r) cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any person or persons. 11. Limited warranties 11.1 We do not warrant or represent: (a) the completeness or accuracy of the information published on our website; (b) that the material on the website is up to date; or (c) that the website or any service on the website will remain available. 11.2 We reserve the right to discontinue or alter any or all of our website services, and to stop publishing our website, at any time in our sole discretion without notice or explanation; and save to the extent expressly provided otherwise in these terms and conditions, you will not be entitled to any compensation or other payment upon the discontinuance or alteration of any website services, or if we stop publishing the website. 11.3 To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law and subject to Section 12.1, we exclude all representations and warranties relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions, our website and the use of our website. 12. Limitations and exclusions of liability 12.1 Nothing in these terms and conditions will: (a) limit or exclude any liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence; (b) limit or exclude any liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (c) limit any liabilities in any way that is not permitted under applicable law; or (d) exclude any liabilities that may not be excluded under applicable law. 12.2 The limitations and exclusions of liability set out in this Section 12 and elsewhere in these terms and conditions: (a) are subject to Section 12.1; and (b) govern all liabilities arising under these terms and conditions or relating to the subject matter of these terms and conditions, including liabilities arising in contract, in tort (including negligence) and for breach of statutory duty. 12.3 To the extent that our website and the information and services on our website are provided free of charge, we will not be liable for any loss or damage of any nature. 12.4 We will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising out of any event or events beyond our reasonable control. 12.5 We will not be liable to you in respect of any business losses, including (without limitation) loss of or damage to profits, income, revenue, use, production, anticipated savings, business, contracts, commercial opportunities or goodwill. 12.6 We will not be liable to you in respect of any loss or corruption of any data, database or software. 12.7 We will not be liable to you in respect of any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage. 12.8 You accept that we have an interest in limiting the personal liability of our officers and employees and, having regard to that interest, you acknowledge that we are a limited liability entity; you agree that you will not bring any claim personally against our officers or employees in respect of any losses you suffer in connection with the website or these terms and conditions (this will not, of course, limit or exclude the liability of the limited liability entity itself for the acts and omissions of our officers and employees). 13. Breaches of these terms and conditions 13.1 Without prejudice to our other rights under these terms and conditions, if you breach these terms and conditions in any way, or if we reasonably suspect that you have breached these terms and conditions in any way, we may: (a) send you one or more formal warnings; (b) temporarily suspend your access to our website; (c) permanently prohibit you from accessing our website; (d) block computers using your IP address from accessing our website; (e) contact any or all your internet service providers and request that they block your access to our website; (f) commence legal action against you, whether for breach of contract or otherwise; and/or (g) suspend or delete your account on our website. 13.2 Where we suspend or prohibit or block your access to our website or a part of our website, you must not take any action to circumvent such suspension or prohibition or blocking (including without limitation creating and/or using a different account). 14. Variation 14.1 We may revise these terms and conditions from time to time. 14.2 [The revised terms and conditions shall apply to the use of our website from the date of publication of the revised terms and conditions on the website, and you hereby waive any right you may otherwise have to be notified of, or to consent to, revisions of these terms and conditions 15. Assignment 15.1 You hereby agree that we may assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with our rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions. 15.2 You may not without our prior written consent assign, transfer, sub-contract or otherwise deal with any of your rights and/or obligations under these terms and conditions. 16. Severability 16.1 If a provision of these terms and conditions is determined by any court or other competent authority to be unlawful and/or unenforceable, the other provisions will continue in effect. 16.2 If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision of these terms and conditions would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect. 17. Third party rights 17.1 These terms and conditions are for our benefit and your benefit, and these terms and conditions are not intended to benefit or be enforceable by any third party. 17.2 The exercise of the parties' rights under these terms and conditions is not subject to the consent of any third party. 18. Entire agreement 18.1 Subject to Section 12.1, these terms and conditions, shall constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our website and shall supersede all previous agreements between you and us in relation to your use of our website. 19. Law and jurisdiction 19.1 These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. 19.2 Any disputes relating to these terms and conditions shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England. 20. Statutory and regulatory disclosures 21.1 This website is owned and operated by S.U.Corporation Ltd. T/A Strictly Underground 21.2 We are registered in England and Wales under registration number [number], and our registered office is at [address].] 21.3 Our principal place of business is at [address]. 21.4 You can contact us by writing to the business address given above, by using our website contact form, by social media.

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Privacy Policy

We have Recently updated our Privacy Policy. Please read and accept the Privacy Policy in order to access the site

Business privacy policy

This website is owned and operated by Mark Ryder being the director of S.U.Corporation Ltd. T/A Strictly Underground This privacy policy sets out how Strictly Underground uses and protects any information that you give strictly underground when you use this website. Strictly Underground is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement. Strictly Underground may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 23 May 2018. What we collect We may collect the following information: name and job title contact information including email address demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers What we do with the information we gather We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons: Internal record keeping. We may use the information to improve our products and services. We may periodically send promotional emailsabout new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided. From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customise the website according to your interests. We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure,we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. How we use cookies A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. Links to other websites Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question. Controlling your personal information You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal information in the following ways: whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes if you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time by writing to or emailing us at support@markryder.com We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen. You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to [address]. If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

Current Version: 1

Last Updated Date: 2nd June 2018

Strictly Underground Records

Strictly Underground Records

Its never been easy being an artist but in today’s world it now both easy and almost totally impossible.

20+ years making music and I look back on what I have done and I understand why others don’t believe its all my work as I have spent all my life covering it all up so well, I could make music like Mac Donald’s makes hamburgers, i’m a music junkie, I live for music in ways I can’t explain but while my music making is my way of breathing its also for me become almost impossible to breath anymore in this new world where music has no value or support.

In the past I could knock up a tune and take it straight to the mastering room (where my mate did the cutting) and get the dub plate cut for cash and within 1 week would have fresh pressed vinyl manufactured by the pressing plant (10 mins up the road from my house) and it would be shipped to my distributor (20 miles up the road) to sell around the world.

This was a great way to just make music and put it out and once I knew the right few people in my chain to retail then I was sorted! it was easy and almost all my time went into making music. I would live in my studio every day only doing only music things that helped my music and the scene I love so much. (uk underground music scene)

For me this was a simple route with no clutter and no distractions all artwork I drew myself all artists were actually me under different names it was a 1 man factory with a global outlet ‘Strictly Underground Records’, I had a handful of friends  (under ten) over my whole life of running Strictly underground they came and went and all stayed friends most of them helping in the studio on various music we made together some were mc’s some were other passionate producers and all got paid for their help which I could structure based on what money was coming in from my record sales.

It was all my music so I had total control of how I could spend the money, which allowed me to build my own little bubble of an underground music scene.

My team of friends was a really tight team of friends all who loved the scene and the vibe like me but maybe only had one great skill and wanted to use that with me on my massive mission.

People used to moan back then on how hard it was to get up the ladder in music and how you needed a deal with an advance to get anywhere and to some extent that was true especially if you were so unique or looking at the main stream industry ,then you needed a lot of promotion for people to get into you and buy into your music vibe.

I built strictly underground up just from the music and the parts that were musically driven (pirate radio/ raves) it was a real scene and it was independent from the world of the music business and the pop culture of music. 

I created my own vibe and life style via my label, parties, and radio and music it was driven by the passion of the UK underground and making money was something that just grew and grew over time and allowed me to grow also with what I was doing (better studio, bigger parties, more pirates radio stations always about the music and the raving ..

My little bubble just got bigger and bigger but to me it was still a totally ‘non music biz’ bubble and everyone in it was passionate about the scene and the vibe we created.

NOW all Those things have all been reset.

The Internet and the MP3 has made getting music to the world very easy and with programs that make the music for you just clicking the randomiser button makes you an instant reording artist. 

 It’s very easy to make music and get it spread around the world. So being an artist has never been any easier than it is now and that’s a good thing for people who want to express them selves through music making, but the downside is that now music seems so disposable and worthless. 

 This new way has many drawbacks and now with so much music it’s not easy to make any impact as everything sound and looks the same and nothing really sticks out.

I never made music to be and ‘Artist’ my music was a specific expression and it evolved around a scene which I help to expand and create because my passion to enjoy the music was as important as the music I made which also came from the scene i loved.

I had a bubble that was the UK Underground Dance Music scene but I don’t see any scene’s growing in the real world or any serious cultural niche’s anymore there are some but its not like before, its all just music and its very disposable to people, its good that more people like more music but no one seems to be passionate about any music now. 

So how do I create a following and captivate an audience to get them into what I’m doing and how can I be different and standout as more than just a 5min track that’s just like every other 5 min track out there?

I have had to start again right from the beginning almost re-running my life all over again from the first day I made my first ever record and got knocked back by every single distributor and could not get my music plaid on any radio stations or get anyone to promote it.

I’m back at this point like a start up having to find all the new points of contact in this new computer programmed world of music and finding those computer people who can help me on my specific music mission… This i have found is almost impossible.

I have been Trying to regroup a new network like the one I used to have in the old model of music but this time its not about music lovers its more about programming and computers and money.

My music is now part of a bigger set of tools that are expected with the music in today’s world, I need to program for iTunes LP and that needs videos pictures all sorts of in direct music things. I found that I never needed to create this stuff my bubble in the old days but now, in this new digital virtual world of music I need to create a scene for my music with all these different tools.

My new world distributor is Apple inc.  and that contact alone took 5 years to get locked down, they are like the secret service when it comes to communications (at least I could call my old distributor and tell him my plans and see how it would or if fit with his network), yeah I know i’m an ant in the scheme of Apple but that’s the problem and what makes being an artist now almost impossible beyond just releasing stuff blindly. 

As small as I am I still have to jump though the same hoops as the major record companies  (like I did in the past) but the challenges now are not as easy as finding the mastering room and pressing plant  

Its now all about finding the right programmers and designers and all things computers and very tons of other non-music but also very specialised technically challenging and mind bending things that a normal artist would never know (me included) .

These people in the know are extremely hard to find and also very very expensive to use (if they have the time to even deal with you) 

Making my underground music compete in this new worlds is now almost impossible unless you have bags of money. In the past my record could sit next to the major releases because they we both records (vinyl or cd) and both had gone to the retailer who decided what to rack up.

As much as my music was an underground style it could still site with the most commercial release that week if the retailer liked the product and knew it had a market that wanted it.

Now you need serious money just to get to the product stage (its no longer a record it’s a specialized file format)
Yes I know anyone can upload an mp3 release and it’s for sale but what’s the point in being the billionth release that week if no one knows? and single MP3? that’s not my format I want to sell a ‘trip’ an ‘adventure’ a ‘scene’ and ‘escape’ i’m making albums not 5min tracks

 

Failchicken3

 

ITLP the format that’s could release me or ruin me in my plans to stand up again

You need now more than ever all the computer geeks to make your product rich in content and special, even deserving to be shown and seen and I’m not afraid to make, grow and improve.

I have spent the last 5 years doing just that on this new set of six albums that are a massive journey incorporating all the new media parts, but its been so hard and costly and the music is just one part in this new media format

I have to play this game like its going to me a massively popular major release just so I can stand out from the crowd.
That might not sound like a bad thing but remember these programmer designers and stuff are really expensive and that’s if you can even find a good one.

 I’m all for competition but when the door (to iTunes lp) is so small and almost always closed its not really a fair game trying to get in and the entrance fee is so ridiculously steep

As much as I’m potentially accessible around the world i’m also now locked out from having the chance to compete side by side with the big companies like I could before. I’m frustrated by ITLP (iTunes LP) because its the format I want to use but its so expensive to get anything done on this format!
I feel locked out and the challenges are daily for me on all levels of this new media world because i’m doing almost everything myself and the only thing i’m building up is a nice fat dept mountain in this process.

I have found people who can offer some help here and there and those I currently have are the bomb for what they do for me and while also realising I don’t have a money tree in my garden im just getting by so far..

This is so much like when I first started Strictly Underground, it was always driven by passion and determination to succeed and the debts to pay were just as high for an unemployed youth back then
But now 20years on with a family to feed and still my mission to complete I wish I could say it was easier or even the same but its now almost impossible as the challenges now are enormous and even if you had money you might not find the right people to fit with Apples strict and secretive rules of acceptance for your product.

Its not easy anymore to be a serious indpendent artist unless you have all these things in place and it all costs a ton of cash, Yes I can still do underground but if there is no underground scene how can I plug in?

Now like in the old days I have to start again and try and create a scene but without spending thousands and losing my house and sanity

I suppose what frustrates me the most is not the challenge because I believe in what i’m doing. It’s really the fact that most of the challenges have nothing to do with the music but more about the programming and Apple geekness.
My music and plan was done ages ago but i’m still trying to get it ported to this very expensive and frustrating media so it will work right and this is not the same as smelling the vinyl I made and selling it to the shops or making posters for a little rave and handing out flyers to clubbers, as you could feel the excitement and passion in doing all those things.

Now its just computer code and huge bills to pay all held together by my 18-hour days I spend in front of the computer for the last how many years?..where did the music and enjoyment go?.

 (To those who are now thinking ‘that’s life shut up and get on with it’ I would agree with you I don’t blog to always make points I sometimes blog because i’m so frustrated and need to reference my own thoughts later on and right now i’m trapped and just thinking out what’s been happening and what’s changed.I know there will be loads of other artist who also need to get their music out but find its behind a list of computer things that have to be done first.)

And dont get me started about release date and all the pirating on my music thats another whole worrie on if i can keep going..

X