Indie Labels - what exactly do they do?

T

Tucci

New member
So what are the advantages to being with an indie label as opposed to marketing your music by yourself?

And how many indie labels actually have artists on their roster that are making their living at making music?

Where do indie labels get most of their sales from? Do they sell mostly from their websites now? How do they stay afloat?

And, how do I get on an indie label/

Tucci
www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, Harmony, & Humor
 
Tucci,
If you and I started a record company tonight, we would be an indie label. Frankly (and obviously), some do better than others. Lumping all those groups together is somewhat misleading. You still need to do your homework and sort them out before signing. Some indie labels have ties with major labels that will take care of distribution. It all costs money. The trick is finding a producer with deep pockets to fund this stuff.


bd
 
ok

So basically anyone who sells their own cds are for all practical purposes acting as an indie label with only one artist?
I believe I understand. Thanks for the reply.

What's the best way to go about making initial contact with indie labels? Just visit their website, find out if they accept demos, and then send them? We've done that a couple times so far. No response yet....course I imagine a lot of labels have fairly big stacks to sort through. Any labels you reccomend that would be interested in a ska/jazz/folk-pop-rock band with trombone and vocal harmonies?

Tucci
www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, Harmony, & Humor
 
Reason to go to an Indie Label instead of doing it by yourself:

Time.

If you have the time to market your product, you can do EXACTLY what an "proper" Indie label will do. Most "local" indie lables will be able to get your music into the "mom and pop" music/cd stores and possibly get you some local radio play, but don't expect any royalties from this promotional air play. :) Some indie lables will also get you into the bigger chains. Some bigger chains have a seperate Indie section.

Some Indie labels will even pay for a proper studio recording of your music and really get behind you, if you have music that they think is marketable.

Spend some time and educate yourself. Type in "Indie CD Sales" or "Indie Label", etc from your favorite search engine. Also, and THIS is the best place to start in my opinion, go down and talk to IN PERSON your local Guitar Center, Brook Mays, type store and talk to the guy in the "Pro Audio" department. He should be able to turn you on to the local indie studios.

Also consider this, if you are in a band, why on earth are YOU doing all of this? Hire a manager or promoter, give them a decent chunk of any shows, cd sales, he/she brings in and let THEM do all of this work for you. You should be out doing live shows as often as possible, creating a buzz before the cd gets released.

Research, research, research!! :)
 
homeuser said:
Reason to go to an Indie Label instead of doing it by yourself:

Time.

Also consider this, if you are in a band, why on earth are YOU doing all of this? Hire a manager or promoter, give them a decent chunk of any shows, cd sales, he/she brings in and let THEM do all of this work for you. You should be out doing live shows as often as possible, creating a buzz before the cd gets released.

Research, research, research!! :)
Click to expand...

Yep - Time, time, time.
But if you can do a little bit of that Buzz stuff yourself it would help you in the long run. I think its a good idea to have done a little bit of everything in the business if you can, so that you make a firm idea of who your act is and how various relationships and deals work. That puts you in a better bargaining position and lets you 'captain your own ship' a bit better as you go along, instead of having to depend on others too much.

Also, it seems that finding a good agent promoter etc - requires a good deal of research. You want to make sure these people are a good fit. They have to be in the same genre/feel as your act. If you are, say, world beat, yoiu don't want an indie rock guy promoting you. He may not know the gigs where you will find your audience.

LN
 
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