mark4man said:
OK...
Here's our story:
Four, 50 something Jazz Rock hotshots (two of which come out of retirement), form a studio band; & record, master, produce & release a 9 song CD. The songwriting, musicianship, vocals, etc. are all top-flite original. The album graphics look professional; & the folded insert booklet is laid out very nicely. We devise a cool sounding record company name w/ a cool looking cartoon logo, which is also printed professionally onto the CD surface. We replicate 1000 copies...they sound & look great.
So then...we begin to solicit radio stations around the good ol' USA. We send out professionally worded e-mail inquiries to 400 (so far) radio stations that fit our genre (Jazz Rock.) Of those, about 15% respond favorably; & we send them CD's, along w/ a state-of-the-art One-Sheet.
To date...we have sold 1 CD...which means the radio stations are not spinning our tracks. We send out follow-ups; & get no response. We've also solicited about 40 magazines & e-zines, along w/ follow-ups...& no one wants to give us a review. We have joined SonicBids & availed ourselves of their resources...spent a bunch of money...& have had no doors open. We have our own (web) site, a myspace site; & an indie911 site.
So my question is:
If we now abandon the indie world...& approach the major record companies...either individually or through networks like Taxi, etc...& happen to get picked up by a label...what do they do for their artists?
How do they seemingly accomplish having the upper hand w/ radio stations...are they able to twist the arms of DJs for airplay, or more realistically get instant consideration on airplay requests due to their status as biggies?
How about brick-& mortar sales as pushed by the majors...how does that work?
And of course the 'bottom line' question is...how much does a band or artist forfeit when they sign w/ a major? One of the reasons we wanted to push the indie approach was due to the fact that you hear rumors of majors getting 90% of all sales proceeds.
Not sure where we should turn at this point. We have a great product, but it seems like either nobody cares, or that there really are invisible road blocks to success.
Anybody have any thoughts on this? [No tears or regrets, here...I'm not bitchin; & so far it's at least been fun. I'm just wondering where to turn next, that's all.]
Thanks,
mw4man
Project One
Brick & Mortar companies buy their music through a series of catalogs of course, but they stock the ones that sell, and don't stock or stock less of the ones that don't sell that well. If your more well known, you would have a better chance of being stocked by like Best Buy, because they know they will make money off of you.
You forfeit a lot when signing with a major label, however they usually treat you somewhat right (compared with having nothing and having something that is). they put you in the studio, they make your music marketable, and they release it. They make the money, they get paid back & you get money once you recoup costs.
However, to shop successfully to a label, your going to need more than just 1 CD sale to show.
What I do for my artists, is I pay for lodging, food, everyday spending money, pay for recording time, engineer's, producers, manufacturing, marketing/advertisements, and all the other little costs that comes along with a release. Of course, since I would be spending the money to get them heard , I only see fair that I get the money back (recoup) and some. Also, the artists need to understand that selling 3 million copies, even with them having to recoup, and at a low rate, they still would bank in a nice chunk of change.
you see.... it's either you do it on your own with your 1% of their budget backing you. Or you get signed to a major & have millions of dollars backing you. They are investing in the artist, therefore they make sure the artist is on the same level. Therefore the artist needs to follow their rules to get rich, or there's the door....
The Commercial audio just happens to be XXXX's latest song. And THAT was perfectly legal.
