Tips For Starting Your Own Record Label

The music industry has undergone some transformation over the last couple of decades. Our digital landscape has been instrumental in altering the shape of how we consume tunes, how artists make music, and how the business operates. One of the positive effects is encouraging a DIY approach to all areas of the industry.

This means that there is a propensity for musicians to have direct access to audiences. They can release their music via streaming platforms such as YouTube and Spotify rather than rely upon the costly physical media that has dominated the industry This also presents openings for entrepreneurs who want to start their own indie labels. 

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Why You Don’t Need A Record Label To Be Successful

We live in a time where musicians have everything they need to be successful all in fingers reach, yet many artists still don’t understand exactly why artists are steering away from labels more and more. With these few topics, artists are able to understand why you don’t need a record label to be successful in today’s music industry.

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Top 5 Things Record Labels Look For

So you’re a bit of a bad ass, huh? You’ve got the sound that’s waiting to be discovered and are ready for the big leagues. Just because you’ve got the sound doesn’t mean you’ve got the deal these days. Now you’re thinking to yourself, what do record labels look for when signing an artist?
Here are the top five things record labels look for in an artist before giving them a deal.

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Music Mailing Lists: Yes Or No?

I used to get e-mails from Paper + Plastick Records about free downloads once a week or once a month (to be honest, I don’t remember which). While it felt a little overwhelming at times, I also found myself being informed about new bands and releases I really cared about. Bands like Flatfoot 56 and The Braces who I’d followed for years were putting out new releases and I was getting mp3s and updates pretty regularly on their new stuff. Facebook worked for this as well, but I didn’t get free music out of it!

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Avoid Failure Simply By Speaking To Your Audience

What elements might you say make up the perfect record label?

If you could have a label which did everything right, both internally and externally, what would it look like? How would it perform? What composite parts would form the basis?

I think to nail down such a tall order, you have to consider at least three key points of view. In order of importance they are…

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Label Printing – For Old Vinyl

The Cambridge Dictionary defines the noun “label” as “a piece of paper or other material which gives you information about the object it is attached to”. That’s exactly what modern colour label printing is all about. The technology involved in digital label printing is amazingly complex yet deceptively simple to use. The latest digital colour label printers from suppliers such as QuickLabel Systems, for example can produce labels at a rate of over 7000 per hour, can synchronize with the production line and gives manufacturers total control over all their label printing needs.

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Why Is It So Hard to Give a Record Label My Money?

I updated the original article I posted on October 19th.

Maybe I am missing something, maybe I don’t understand why territory restrictions still need to exist. I guess thinking of the world as the territory is wrong.

Maybe my feeling that fans will buy music if you make music available the moment they want it, at a fair price on whatever device they use is just wrong. But right now trying to buy music actually can drive a fan to steal music.

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How to Sell Out Properly

So you’ve got it in your head that you must be signed to be happy. As you know, I am very much against labels as they are 95% of the time a terrible financial decision. However, you don’t care. Cool, let’s work with that.

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ODDS ARE… (A response to What are the odds of succeeding without a record label?)

Odds are if an artist has to calculate their potential for success based on statistics – regardless of veracity – they are doomed from the start. Really. Think about it – the only formula known thus far to work with any predictability is BEING an act REMARKABLE enough (thanks, Bruce, a favorite word the past year or so), to spread by word of mouth. A formula NEVER out of date.

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