Planewalker .:.:. Waveform Wizardry

With a recent post explaining how to get signed to a record label, you might wonder why you’d ever want to start one of your own if you could get someone else to do all that dirty work for you. Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to start your own record label, but simply never knew how. Since I am in the process of starting my own, I can offer what advice I may to the hopeful newcomer.

First off, as my friend Luke Mandala of Activated Recordings says, “Don’t quit your day job!” Starting a record label is just as hard as starting any other profitable business, no more, no less. In the beginning, you will most likely be losing money until you get the hang of it, which could take one to two years. It’s hard work, and not all of it is purely creative. Strangely enough, it’s the commitment to making sure the mundane, repetitive tasks are properly taken care of that will ensure your success. You can have the best music in the world but if you don’t keep up with your release schedule and publicity tasks, you will not make a profit. Above all else, running a record label requires precise coordination and timing. Everything happens in phases and you are looking at as much as a six month period between the music being finished and properly released to the public. If you miss certain windows, the release will probably flop.

What exactly does a record label do? A record label’s primary job is to promote its artists and release their music. It does this through publicizing the artists and making sure that their music is properly distributed so that when enough of a buzz has been created, people will easily be able to find the artist’s music and buy it. A record label serves the artists that it represents.

Back in the day, record labels also used to front the costs of recording, which was a major expense of putting out a release. But because of home recording studios and the migration to digital online media for delivery of content, recording and duplication costs take up a much smaller portion of the label’s expenses. Now, the majority of the money is spent on publicity and internet marketing.

So make no mistake, if you want to start a record label and make a profit from selling music, you will either have to pay someone to do publicity for your artists, or otherwise learn how to do it yourself. You will also have to commit to releasing music on a regular basis. In the electronic music world, for example, Beatport sells about 70% of all the music that is sold to DJs in the world. They will not accept you as a label unless you can commit to at least one release per month, and on top of that, your tracks have to make a minimum in gross receipts per quarter or you will be booted from Beatport and your entire back catalog will be removed. No joke!

So, here is the order of operations for starting to get your label together:

1. Get at least 3 well-known artists to sign up and commit to a release schedule.

Although some labels are purely the pet projects of already well-known artists, you will not be able to sell enough music at the beginning unless you are releasing the music of artists that are already well-publicized. This is perhaps the hardest part, because it will probably require an initial investment of several hundred if not thousands of dollars to acquire the rights or at least a temporary exclusive license to tracks that will sell.

2. Make a website for your label.

It doesn’t have to be mind-blowing flash animation, but should look reasonably professional. You should have names and bios of all your artists, your release schedule, and contact information. This will really help you get distribution. You may also wish to have guidelines for submitting demos detailed if you wish to accept demos from new talent. For an example, take a look at my label’s website:

http://astralforce.net

3. Make a release schedule.

If you want to make an impact, you want to aim for 2 releases per month, which means one release every two weeks. Most releases should be an EP of 4 tracks or more, or a full-length LP with 8-10 tracks. Some releases can be singles. Release dates should be set at least 4 months after you have the completed, mastered product with album art in your hands. This means that your artists will need to provide you with finished music 5-6 months before you release it, that way you have the time to put all the appropriate publicity materials together to send out press kits for review and publication. Most magazines and other periodicals that review music finalize their publications 2-4 months before they are actually printed. This means that they must receive your publicity materials 2-4 months before they can print it.

4. Make a press kit for every release.

The press kit is still the standard by which labels, artists and other music-related entities share and receive information. Just sending music is not enough – you have to give writers enough material to actually make a story out of your release. To do this, you need to send extras along with the music, like photos, a bio, other press clippings, and your contact information. Most importantly you need a CD WITH A LABELED SPINE. A sleeve is not acceptable because the music needs to be shelved in order to be organized and found. It is utterly impossible to find a CD among hundreds of others if they are all in sleeves!

The jewel case is still the best kind of packaging to use because it is much more durable than a DigiPak. Although many consumers no longer buy CDs, they are still used in the publicity world and you will need to print a short run of at least CD 50 copies of each to get enough press kit out for release. Making press kits is beyone the scope of this article, however, so you may want to refer to other sources for this very, very critical and multidimensional step.

5. Make a database or spreadsheet of publications that you want to review the release.

You can use Google Documents to do this. It’s important to be organized and have the address, phone number, and contact person at each publication. Without this information, you cannot organize a mailing of press kits.

6. Call the publications you are sending the kits to, ask permission to send a press kit, and get a name at each publication to send it to. Write it on the envelope and send it!

If you send a press kit to a company without writing a name on the envelope, the receptionist will not know where to take it once it arrives. It may never even get opened! Think about it – there are dozens and dozens of people with offices at the headquarters of these publications. A mysterious package addressed to the company with no more specifics will probably never get to who might actually check it out.

You need to do this at the appropriate time for each publication, so be sure when you call to ask the receptionist how how far in advance they need to receive a press kit before it might be written about. Make sure to send it just a little bit before that date. You want to be sure that you aren’t getting publicity before the release goes live, but rather that all the publications are writing about you at the exact same time. That way you will have the best chance in reaching enough critical mass to create a serious buzz.

7. If your artist performs, send the press kit to promoters.

Like the step before, you will need to spend some time researching and creating a database of promoters appropriate to the music. You also want to call them or email them and ask them for submission guidelines. Do this 4-6 months before the release date, looking for shows in and around the release date. If you can convince one of the promoters to do a release party, all the better!

8. Befriend some bloggers and send them your press kit too.

Blogs are becoming increasingly relevant in the world of music. If you can get someone to blog about your release before it happens, you will sell more music. You will probably need an electronic version of your press kit to do this, commonly referred to as an EPK, ideally in PDF format. For blogs it is okay to have them write about you before the release, because unlike the print world, the blog world’s information will stay up on the Internet to be searched and indexed indefinitely.

9. Send the press kit to appropriate Internet and FM radio stations.

Like the step before, you will need to spend some time researching and creating a database of radio stations appropriate to your music. You also want to call them or email them and ask them for submission guidelines. This step also takes time, but can be done somewhat closer to the release date.

10. Create a distribution plan and release the music!

This last step still happens about 2 months before the actual release date. At minimum you will need to send the music and album artwork to a digital distributor like TuneCore, CDBaby or Beatport, or perhaps you will decide to work with a consolidated distribution partner like INGrooves. Tell them your release date. If you plan to do a physical release as well, you will need a physical distributor, which is somewhat more difficult to get.

If you timed everything right, you will come upon your release date and the music will go live on the Internet and possibly arrive in stores a couple of weeks before the magazines hit the shelves. Once people start reading, they’ll start buying. If the music got good reviews and enough publicity and is high enough quality, you just might make a profit!

Filed under: Business Tips - Music Tips
by planewalker