HOW TO START A RECORD LABEL Do you have a passion for music? Are you an independent artist intending to add some credibility to the product of your effort? Are you a music-lover who has what it takes to contribute to the success of artists you considered your favorites? Or a producer who wants to push further to take the credibility of releasing the records of artists that you have produced? If you fall into any of these categories, setting up your record label is a great deal you should consider. It’s no news that the internet has turned the world around and the music business has revolutionized globally. In this modern age, the internet plays a major role in making record label set up easier, unlike the past few decades that it was a great deal. In this article, I’ll discuss the key tasks to create a record label successfully. Below are a few things to consider to get a new record label up and running quickly and efficiently. PLAN YOUR BUSINESS To start any business, a formal business plan is an essential key to success. It will serve as a road map and a description of how the goals of the business will be achieved. Necessary information to help you make a good business plan can be obtained through extensive research into the operations of established record labels. To the best of my knowledge, this will include startup and ongoing costs, your target market, how to charge your customers, the type of music you will specialize in, how you will record the music, how your music will be manufacture into physical or digital products, advertising and marketing plans, sales outlets, distribution strategies and many more. CHOOSE THE MUSIC There are millions of artists singing different genres of music and obviously, the majority of them are still looking forward to joining a record label which makes your label a target of thousands of them. Choosing the music you’re going to sell is one aspect you must put effort to get right, take your time to make the right decision in order not to end up wasting your money. Take into consideration what will be acceptable by your target audience, deliberate on whether to sell physical items or it’s going to be online downloads. Consult with experts, survey the market well because producing physical materials cost a lot, and unable to sell after production might be a step to losing your business. Do not have the mindset that you can help everyone, you must be business-oriented and be prepared to identify and to work with only artists that can produce what will be acceptable by your target market. CREATE A BRAND IDENTITY After determining the genre of music to sell, the next step is to create a brand identity for your record label. It’s a vital aspect of your startup because it will be your shop window. Suggest a list of names and test with family and friends. Consider the availability of the name and ensure it can blend well when included in your record label website. Secure your chosen name by doing the registration. ESTABLISH YOUR BRAND IDENTITY Apart from your record label name, brand identity is your brand visible elements such as logo, color, design, and others that identify and distinguish you in the minds of your audience. The more professional your brand appears to the public the more your chance of gaining people’s hearts. Many get this wrong by doing this themselves, it is not a bad idea if you can but a touch of professionalism will make a huge difference. You do not need to stress yourself over this as you can hire a professional either online or offline that can interpret your ideas. Fiverr and Upwork are a perfect place to hire professional online. CREATE A WEBSITE FOR YOUR RECORD LABEL Your website is your online shop, it serves as an information store where your customers can access all they need to know about you, your record label, your releases, videos, and a new signing. Also, creating social media channels to complement your website won’t be a bad idea. Both website and social media channels can serve as a linkage to your business. TRACKING This is the product you are taking to the market, when you are ready to release your first product, ensure it sound professional. Compare your product with that of your competitors, listing to it with your team, friends, family, and others that you think are good in criticizing several times with different speakers and ensure mixing and arrangement are perfect. Register your track with Nielsen’s Sound Scan service. This service can help you with the tracking of sales and as well broadcasts of your music for rating and charting purposes. PROMOTION The internet has huge benefits to offer when it comes to promotion, use the internet to your advantage. Facebook, Soundcloud, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter are perfect tools for your promotion. If time or experience will not permit you to use it to the fullest, hire experts. Be active online and ensure your page is a lovely place to visit. Color, content, and updates should be what people want to see. CONTRACTS For your record label to be profitable, you must know your contract most especially when you are releasing music made by other artists. Contact an entertainment lawyer to assist in your contract drafting if you cannot do it yourself. The most important thing is that contracts between your artists, studio, publisher, producer, and others involve in your production are fair and binding, clearly documented, and legally signed by parties involved. If anything goes wrong, your contract will be your backup. LIVE PERFORMANCE A KEY TO BUILDING A FAN BASE Playing out is a great way to sell your physical products (CDs) and an avenue to increase your fan base. Through this, you can as well make extra profit by selling
How to Get Signed To a Major Record Label Are you a musician who is wondering about how to get signed to a major label? You may have already planned to send a demo of your work to a record label. Well, every artist wants to get recognized and signed by major labels. But do it with a logical goal in mind and honesty. Once you land on a major record label, there would be lots of enormous opportunities coming your way. The music industry is a business hub of skills. And it would help if you form alliances with professionals in the industry. It can also help you a lot in the long run of your musical journey. Read on to explore basic ways on how to get signed to a major label: 7 Tips on How to get signed to a Major Label Look out for lots of things if you want to grab a big deal for yourself. Here we jotted down some superb tips that you can follow for getting signed by a major record label: 1. Make the best Demo If you’re thinking about pitching a demo to a record label, make it perfect. As the music industry is getting competitive, it’s getting difficult to stand out. So it would help if you create outstanding songs that are professionally recorded and mastered. Making splendid music should be your priority if you want to succeed in this industry. Before you are ready to send a song to a record label, have feedback on it. Getting feedback from people whose opinion matters to you will help you get better. If you people are pointing out the same mistake in your song, work harder. Mastering is the crucial part; once you get rid of all the glitches in your song, master it. It can make an enormous difference as it makes your mixed sound polished. You can hire an audio engineer to master your song, and when everything is ready, you can send it to labels. 2. You need to make Hits When music labels invest money in an artist, they need hit songs. It’s as simple as they need that return of investment on the artist they signed. So you must write hundreds of songs because long gone are the days when you write a song and put it out. Now your job is all about the music, so you have to practice, experiment, and rewrite to make a better song. And if you’ve got all the killer songs, then you’re ready to get signed to a major label. Writing hit songs is what you need because otherwise, those significant labels won’t sign you. 3. Spend time on the Research You can’t just wake up and decide this is the major I want to sign to. It’s better to prepare yourself thoroughly and do all the research before taking any step. The best way is you search for music blogs and record labels and read all the guidelines for submission. Artists often ignore the guidelines and got rejected by the labels right away. Major labels don’t have the time to look into something that is not up to their mark. You can sort all the names of the labels you’re interested in and their contact information on a sheet. When you do all the primary research, you know which label might be interested in your style and what they want. 4. Work on your Online Appearance We reside in a digital world, and it’s a basic necessity for promoting your work. When a major label is interested in your music, chances are they are going to look at your online appearance. You must have accounts on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Engagement on your social media matters. The record labels will only invest in you if you offer some valuable work. You can hire a manager for yourself who can handle all your accounts. Make sure that all your digital media handles have your contact information and are linked. 5. Your Official Music Website Having a professional website is crucial if you want to stand out to major labels, and we can’t stress this enough. You can set up your website with all the information about your music. After creating a professional website, work on the branding. Make sure that your website has all the information about your albums and tours. A website will help you connect with your fans and give labels the image of how professional you are. 6. Think like a Label Think smartly, and that means you have to think like a label. It can help you a lot when you pitch your work to labels. You should know what they want and how they work. Record labels are a business, and they need to generate revenue to cover their operating costs. They usually generate revenues by selling music, merchandise, and hosting events. Understand all these things if you want to stand out. Music labels would only want to sign those musicians who can make them money. You have brilliant chances if you make good music and have a fabulous social media presence. 7. Send your Music There are many things that you’ll learn while going through all the processes we discussed earlier. You can’t take any risks, so make sure you work on every little detail that may help you get signed. When you are done with all the major work, know that you’re to submit your work. Always start on a small scale, choose two to three labels from your list and send your Demo. Don’t forget to follow up with all the labels, and don’t be upset if you don’t hear from any label. You can always try with a new track. Just keep pitching your music. The Bottom Line! It’s not that hard to get signed by a label if you work on everything properly. You need splendid music, presentation, some professional alliance, and a
For emerging music producers who are all set to go away from promotion and self-relief, there’s a perfect “next step”. Sending your albums to record labels with the expectations of getting a release isn’t that much simple. Just keep reading to know how to appropriately send demos to record labels and make your track stand out from the crowd. When you’re dealing with record labels, having great music isn’t enough. You must know how to properly tone the labels. In this article, I’ll share some of the insights on how to send a demo to a record label, and increase chances of getting a positive response. Keep it Sweet and short Just remember, even minor labels are overwhelmed with demos, and several labels do listen to all they get. So, making their work simpler will only benefit your case. Your demo set should comprise of: A short demo You should only go with two to three of your best tracks. Whatsoever lengthier won’t get attended to. Your demo must be openly categorized with your name and the email address. Don’t write your number in that. Short bio You should have this straight to the point. There is no need to write like “My parents have identified from birth that I would be a musician…” Follow up It can take some time for a label to in fact get around to playing your demo, but a kindly, intermittent email will support your demo stand out from the box. Don’t call unless you have been stated differently by the label,. It set folks on the spot and won’t earn you any friends. Just stick to email. And above all, don’t give overstated guilty feeling to the A&R staff because they haven’t so far listened. Privatize tracks and make them special to the labels Somewhat that everybody wants to be is different. Labels really like it. Making a track special to a label will provide you with a better chance of getting contracted. Also, make sure that you don’t post an open link and also that link which has over 100 plays on it as it’s somewhat everybody sees openly. At top upload your track many times and show it to the labels separately. This is the key. Also don’t refer it to marketers before you already released it or it’s already owed to be released. If your song is on YouTube or anyplace before it’s released you’re not getting hired. Labels are harsh but unbiased. Everybody needs something original not used. Make sure to preserve your social media proficient Somewhat that you could not identify but you should is that the record label will assess and check your social media profiles to make sure you’re not some invasive dick or that you post inapt images that may harm the labels image in the coming time. To make sure you’re clean, delete all incongruous tweets that make you look like you’re immature, invasive or whatever that you would not suppose an artist you search to post. Remember you’re not contracted yet so you don’t actually have any independence to express your judgment. It’s important to show up but don’t do it in a manner which will hurt your chances of getting contracted. With the help of these important points, you can shine your demos to be considered at Record Labels. Here you can find huge list of record labels. Contact us if you have some questions, we would be happy to help you.
