I'm not realy a fan by doing all the network over internet, and what about just make a cd with beats and end them to some record companies, i think they will pay more attention to listning to an actual cd mixed togheter than seperated tracks on the internet.
You would think that...i did too. but basically what i learned is is that the submittal system (as far as major labels are concerned) is just as grimey as any other part of the music business and an artist trying to send a cd straight to a label is like trying to feed a shark by throwing a goldfish in the ocean.
for example, a&r's are usually in charge of getting beats...so the hierarchy goes like this...
producer has hot beats. he hires a manager. the manager keeps an eye on who needs beats etc and submits to a&r's...who (correct me if i'm wrong) only someone in his position has access to.
then, it's the a&r's job to get placements with the projects from his label. the only slight drawback is that the a&r might know a wack producer from high school or something and he might have promised to get placement for him yada yada and all this bullshit. the way you circumvent that is exactly what thedreampolice said...network...that way you or your manager can drop names...as long as there is substance behind the name drop, it's priceless...(you can't necessarily be like "yea i know spliff star" if you accidentally stepped on his jordans once at a club).
as far as indie labels are concerned (from my personal experience which is sort of limited so take it with a grain of salt): a lot of them are actually moving towards digital submission. one example that was already used was babygrande...in fact they don't even accept cd's...since they get swamped with them can't keep track of them. Ubiquity records is the other one i mentioned. i hit up the vp asking about demo policy...he said you can either send a cd or just e-mail me your tracks through yousendit...so i e-mailed them and he got back to me in like a day or two. haha...i got turned down...BUT i don't really have an "Ubiquitous" sound anyway...
anyway yea...this is basically what i learned from a couple people that i've been blessed to connect with. from my experience though, if you e-mail an indie label, they almost always get back to you...so i would start with that.