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One of the greatest changes to take place in the music
business over the past 20 years has been the ease with which an individual
artist can start their own independent (indie) record label. You do not need to sign with any official
organization to start a record label.
As long as you own all the lyrics, publishing,
performance and recording rights to your music, the only requirement is to make
your own records or CDs and sell them.
All a record label does is to select the songs to
publish on the CD and arrange to collect royalties when they are used by other
people. Most labels also do the majority of the marketing and distribution for
the CDs as well.
It isn’t even necessary to do
everything yourself. You can hire the services of professional for burning,
marketing, distribution.
However, for your own protection, you should create and register your record label name so you are
recognized as a legitimate business and can sign contracts as a business
entity.
The Big Boys
Ever since the first vinyl
record was pressed, a small number of big record labels have dominated
the industry. The first small record labels were started after World War Two
and have become an important part of the music industry since the 1960s. Even
so, the big boys buy up the indies whenever they get a chance.
In our society, global media
has always been about mass marketing and mass production which means they must
appeal to the masses which unfortunately frequently means appealing to the
lowest common denominator. But big record labels did allow a lot of small local
performers to get world wide exposure. The downside was that they frequently
had to almost sell their soul to the Record Label and in many cases giving up
most of their creative control.
The big record labels still
dominate the mass media. To get things into proper perspective you need to
realize that there is a lot more going on in the music industry than what you
see on MTV, radio one or on the music charts because all of them are dominated
by the big boys.
The Indie Label Advantage
Independence means starting
your own record label and usually, at least in the beginning, publishing
your own original material. So what does independence mean? Spurning the music
industry? No way!
Independence means being your own boss, making all of the creative
and business decisions which also mean that you will be taking all of the
financial risks as well. There also several levels of independence. The
association of Independent Musicians admits record labels as long as they have
less than 50% major record label control.
There is also a group of
indies called DIY which means do-it-yourself. An independent record label for
one artist or a band is often called DIY but it doesn’t mean they actually do
everything for themselves.
However, the Internet, home
recording and cheap CD duplication make DIY easy and attractive for the
following reasons:
- You work for yourself.
- You have total
creative control
- You decide the
recording and release schedules.
- You decide when, where
and if you will license your work.
- You own the label, the
work and the image you’ve created
- You can charge less
than the big boys and still make more money for yourself
- You get to keep all of
the profit if you are successful
You can’t make choices unless
you know what the options really are. If you check out both the pros and the
cons of independence, you usually find that the decision will make itself.
Ty Cohen is the acclaimed
author of over a dozen best-selling music industry “How to” books and courses.
Grab a copy of Ty Cohen’s latest book title by visiting www.MusicBooksByTy.com and to learn
more about starting or turning your existing record label into a world wide,
profit pulling record label visit:
http://www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com/landing_page.htm
Start A Record Label Today!
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how to start your own music record label 
