What You Need To Know About Starting Your Own Music Label

Fairly common advice for anyone asking how best to get their foot in the door of the music industry. Their stories of belief, timing, perseverance and grinding something out of nothing have inspired and driven me for over a decade. And so rather inevitably, in , aged 25, I launched my own independent label, mostly because at the time nobody else would sign my music. Over the brief two years of being active we released 30 projects from nine artists.

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Many tools which deliver and market content on a global scale exist well within the reach of an artist on their own. Many artists have distribution deals of varying shapes and sizes, or direct-to-consumer platforms, readily available and are more than versed in self-promotion. With that in mind, consider this: Be honest with yourself.

Every single genre and subgenre requires a bespoke approach. It might be Spotify playlists or a YouTube channel or anything.

This is where a distributor comes in. They can put your track in a playlist and see very quickly the skip-rate and so on. A good distributor will also save you a lot of time. Then I found a distributor and it was just a case of going to them and processing it once. I can get stuff online in four days.

There are some great distribution services out there that will get your music on to every streaming service going Tunecore being the most obvious choice , but a good distributor will know just from listening to your record which journalists to speak to, which stockists to approach, which playlist curators to contact and so on.

Once again, this is another time for open and frank discussions. The key is also not to get too despondent either. If you ever hit a blockage, you need to change tactics, find where your audience is and get there.

Basically, you need to work with your artists. This, according to Magic, needs to happen in two ways. Firstly, you need to manage their expectations.

You both need to agree on what your obligations are and what your expectations are too. How much social media coverage are you both going to put in, what press will you do, how will the money be divided and what is it being spent on. One of the less glamorous sides of running a label is the legwork. Do you expect to make lots of money from it? Sure, there is the kudos of being on an established label with lots of power behind it, but really, every artist is a sort of label in their own way right now.

There are still some people out there who just want to listen to music and not DJ or produce, believe it or not. It seems the ideal way to found your label is to have it as an extension or addition to something else. You need to ask yourself what else you can provide.

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What are you adding? Tom Lea adds that the role of the record label is somewhat diminished. If you simply need some legal protection and benefits for your own musical career, a self-owned record label can be a great way to go. Second, what is the purpose of your company? I mean, what do you really want to get out of this venture? Is it just for fun?

Are you looking for a way to break into the music industry and you believe this to be it? Are you seeking fame, fortune, and riches? Be honest with yourself here because it would be a shame to work hard and commit funds to something only to realize later you were doing it for the wrong reasons. Finally, what will separate your label from the hundreds of thousands of others out there?

Will you stick to a certain city or geographic location? Perhaps you want to be known for promoting the best new acts in a certain genre? Make sure to choose something you can remain passionate about throughout the hard times and the long hours, as there are sure to be plenty of both. Differentiation is key when it comes to ruling with any business, especially in the crowded music landscape. How much money you need before you begin is up to you.