starting a label

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ruebarb

ruebarb

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What's a good resource for starting your own label? As I have given up on coming close to a big deal, I'm curious as to all the financial/social/physical aspects to trying to start your own label. I sure it requires more than just throwing a label name on a CD, but that's not something normally covered under tutorials.
 
Hook-ups! I don't have any either. You do what ya have to.
 
You need to read KASHIF'S book
"Everything you need to know abou the MUSIC BUSINESS" it's very insiteful, cover your basis: stores in which to retail your stuff on consignment or whatever, bookings for shows, understand your points, mechanicals.

I dont know your position in everything but if you absolutely know NOTHING you should go to your local MUSIC STORE, "SAM ASH" more than likely has this stuff, oh then there is
" THE COMPLETE music industry" it just came out, this details the specifics in shopping/promoting your own materials, like EXACTLY to the T what you are suppose to do
GOOD LUCK, it's easy after you've done it
I DID, oh! and make sure you find a good distributor
 
read read read read and read some more... go to the bookstore and load up on books about the record business.. even if you spend 100 bucks what you learn will be far more valuable.. dont buy any books written by lawyers or anyone with "phd" after their name..these books tend to be boring and too straight forward.. they tell you how the record business *should* work and not how it *does* work.. you should pick up at least one good technical book though (something more like a guide than a book) that goes into all the details..also avoid the "start your own record label overnight" books..

i recomend "confessions of a record producer" by moses avalon.. its a good book and interesting to read..

- eddie -
 
I have recently been researching the idea of starting a label. I have to agree with Eddie N, a good starting point is to read as much as you can. The first three books I have gone through are:
"Releasing an Independent Record" by Gary Hustwit
"In the Right Direction" by Samuel Gilleylen
These 2 give a general roadmap approach on how to establish a business and what contacts to make.

"All You Need To Know About The Music Business" by Donald S. Pressman
This book is written more for a musician seeking a record deal. I find it useful by reversing the knowledge and looking at what type of business decisions are available to a label when bringing on musicians.

I have not looked at any of the material in the above posts. I think my next move will be to check those out.

Good Luck
 
I'm going to attempt to start my own publishing company AND record label in the next month or so, when my cd is finished.
I'm also going to enlist the help of a lawyer-friend of mine to scope out all of the factors involved in the process.
This could get costly, but what the heck.
I'm sure that it ain't easy, otherwise everybody would be doing it.
I'll post my findings as soon as the facts come in.
Like I said, it could be a month or so, but at least you'll hear of some firsthand experiences.

______________________ Buck ________________
 
Buck - I agree it ain't easy. Something that struck me with this thread is that ruebarb's question was equivalent to the kind of newbie question we get here regularly, you know, "I want to set up a recording facility at home. Can anybody give me some advice about how to go about it?" Everybody generally rolls their eyes at this point, because we know something about home recording, but nobody's rolling any eyes with ruebarb's question, because few or none of us know a thing about setting up a label. It's business, not art and technology.
 
Ruebarb,

Kashif's book is great. Donald Passman's "All You Need to Know About the Music Business" and are also great books on the subject. This book, however, was the best book at putting it all together in a simple user-friendly way.

How to make & sell your own recording : the complete guide to independent recording by Diane Sward Rapaport

This book is written specifically from the standpoint of someone who wants to do the independent thing.

One warning though Rue. The business of music is all about marketing. Marketing of music does and should not begin the day the records come from the presses. I recommend that when you finish the record, you take at least a couple months to strategize avenues to sell, market, promote the music. You may be dissappointed to find that you will have to take the music to the audience. They will not beat down your door for it.

The point: if you want this recording to do well commercially, the marketing (i.e. finding ways to sell records and expose your audience to your music) is JUST as important as the recording process. How you SEEM to have gone about it is to spend all of your time focussing on the recording side (which is fine) and ignoring the business side.
From my personal experience, if you are going to do the independent label thing, you have to do EVERYTHING that a regular label does is getting audiences ready to receive the music. But with limited money, time and people to help you, you will have to stretch these tasks out in time. What the majors can do in 1 month (and 50 people) you can only do 1/50th of that. And if you are also the artist your time is even more limited, because you will have to dedicate some time to perfecting the music for live performances. It's not impossible, if you're into it, just be aware and set your expectations accordingly. Don't let anyone tell you that it can't be done. Keep swingin'

Rev E
 
Thanks for the many words of encouragement, guys. I have read Don Passman's book and I need to start looking at the others. This whole business of marketing is kind of a pain - It's the music in stores, radio, while playing live, all trying to happen at once that kills me the most. It's not why I got into music, but no one else is going to do it, so....

The hardest part for me (here in Mpls, MN) is that a once vibrant music scene is kind of in the toilet. There's popular bar bands, but no innovative groups like Soul Asylum, Replacements, or Husker Du floating around anymore, and people really don't care as much about live music anymore.

Maybe I need my skin airbrushed and breast implants. Oh wait, I'm a guy. Never mind. In that case, I need 4 other good looking guys who can kind of sing and dance.

Ah well, my jealously is transparent. I'll post some mp3's as soon as my ADAT gets back from the shop. Thanks. - RB
 
I know this thread is a little older, but I was thinking about this the other day while some friends were talking about starting a label, but what I was thinking is this-- wouldn't it be easier to hire an independent promoter or promotion company, one that has the experience in getting airplay, etc for your music? I likened this to the point of view (and the resulting arguments) that the artist should concentrate on the aspects of songwriting and performance, and let someone else handle the recording and production end of things. Granted, I like to record and write/perform, but aren't there some areas that you need to relinquish control and let someone else help you?
Later that day I spoke to a rep from a promo company. I asked her: what would the benefit be to hire YOU, when I could start my own label?. Her reply basically came down to this: we have more contacts and experience than the average local label, therefore we can produce better results for you the artist.
Her company promotes smaller independent labels, and they occasionally take on unsigned musicians and bands as well. I would imagine that their rates, therefore, are not outrageously high. In fact, it may be worth the investment in order to hire someone's experience and contacts.
I was thinking this would be more beneficial than trying to do everything yourself. Personally, I am a LONG ways away from selling my music, if ever. It is something that I am not interested in at this point. But, for those of you that have considered the DIY route for your marketing, you may want to check it out as a supplement to your own work.
This is going on way too long, but I thought I would throw this link at you too: http://www.indiecentre.com/

Really cool article by Steve Albini on deals, etc, as well as copyright and trademark info.
 
Nate,

Thanks for the link. There is some very helpful info on that page. One thing that I'd like to add to your comment. An independent promoter will generally only promote your record, which is only one piece of the puzzle. Ideally a label should have a marketing/promotions function AND a retail function. An independent promoter will only perform part of the promotion function (promoting to radio). There will still be pieces missing from the marketing function like marketing/promotion to retail, getting the product distributed to retail outlets, promotional exposure for the artist in other venues outside of radio. Plus, don't forget that an independent promoter can cost thousands of $$$'s a year (~$1000/month and up).

While there are companies that can handle parts of these functions, I haven't run across one that does them all and still allows you to be "independent". It seems to me that such companies are already "labels". So, my bottom line comment is that as an independent label there will be companies that it would make sense to "outsource" some label functions to (e.g. maybe radio promotion, distribution, mastering, art design). However, many people starting a label may not have enough money to afford an independent promoter, who doesn't even cover all of the necessary functions of "selling" the record (read: promoters don't actually get the records in stores, which is where labels actually make money, secondly record sales may be made without using radio so radio promotion may be a wasted expense). In some ways, splitting profits from record sales too many ways may defeat the whole reason why many people start an independent label: to have a greater percentage of record sale profits.

I'm not saying that an independent should not hire independent promoters or managers. What I AM saying is that an independent artist/label should use its BEST efforts to sell their record(s) successfully by themselves BEFORE hiring professionals. IMHO, the expense of professional promoters and marketers should only be used once an artist/label has gained some measure of success on their own. The Internet offers a great opportunity to promote and even sell records for independents, but don't count out the tried and true methods like performing live.

Rev E

[This message has been edited by Rev E (edited 04-10-2000).]
 
Nice points Rev! It seems to me that it would remove a large burden of responsibility from the shoulders of musicians if they went the route of outsourcing. The impression that I got from my conversation with the person interested in starting a label was that they were going to work their product nationwide, in a more traditional route (ie, not involving the internet or things along those lines).
That, to me, seems to be an almost suicidal amount of work, especially considering that the guy has nothing released yet. Further, the musician would need to cut time from the art of making music and recording it (as well as doing things like paying the rent, making sure the car is running etc etc)
I receive a lot of releases at my job, and I rarely come across artists promoting themselves-- they usually have someone else do that for them. The few artists that do follow up on their releases tend to come across as not being terribly well prepared (conversations like: "so you playing my album, dude? It rocks!") That's kind of why my feelings tend towards the idea of outside promotion. In other words, the albums that are getting airplay and charting on CMJ are the ones that are being pushed by an outside agency. Scary thing is, we're just a small college station, so I can imagine the hell it must be when someone tries to get themselves known with stations that are many many times more powerful (both in broadcast power and in sales power) than this.
Yeah, I should qualify that this probably applies more to radio than actual sales. But I feel that airplay can be a big factor when trying to expand into a different market or geographical area.

I started a rant about how jaded I was, but deleted it-- think I'll save it for the Cave.
 
This came to my attention over at 3D Audio. It supports some of the ideas in this thread, and is encouraging as well:

"When the big recording contract comes through . . . that's when you'll really be strapped for cash, unless you manage to hang
onto your merchandising rights and you then sell a lot of t-shirts and hats, etc.

And then you can make your own record, license it to a series of regional distributors, hire your own promo man (have him work for a piece of the publishing id possible, so he has incentive and you know he's a believer seeing $$$$), get an indie
booking agent, go move some swag, and keep a substantially larger chunk of the gross. I could show you the figures . . . you'd
make more $$$ for yourself selling 10,000 units this way than selling over 2,000,000 with a typical major label deal (swag not
even included), but I suppose this is a different conversation . . ."

This piece was written by a John Wheeler, who knows more about this than me. Which is not difficult, admittedly. :) Notice how he separates the distribution and promotion functions and the booking functions also? Notice he talks about a 'series' of distributors? Other people do the legwork, but you coordinate.

Here's a link to John's website, by the way - what a load of nice gear. Engineer looks a bit young and inexperienced, but maybe it's just the assistant. :)
http://members.tripod.com/~Pullpud/Studio.html

[This message has been edited by dobro (edited 04-11-2000).]
 
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