Michael W
Director of Tour Marketing for Eyeball Records---Songwriter/Guitarist/Sequence Programmer for Blast Rocks Midtown!
how to start an indie record label?
Answers (3)
Ray M
Energy expert, educator, award winning sculptor
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I just listened to an NPR story on the founding of the VJ record label.
It sounds like the Nike commercial, "Just do it".
Of course it is much more complicated than that.
I am sure there is someone in the industry out there who would mentor you.
From the NPR story it sounded like a matter of signing artists, funding the recordings and "pressings" and getting them out there to be sold.
Although with Myspace, etc. it must be getting harder to be a true new label.
Brian M
at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
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Hi Michael,
I love the fact that we say "record label" when there are no records any more.
OK, so I f someone was to find a new term or a new way to describe the music business in 2007, you could build an positioning statement around it and a strong marketing plan. Put your thinking hat on ......
Good luck,
Brian MacLeod
Brad M
Business Development Professional
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Starting an indie record label is no different than starting any other business.
Figure out what your market is, what your budget is, how you will your target audience, if you are going to actually pay for recording and touring or are you just showcasing smaller artists that have already invested in their own infrastructure that you can build on.
Are you looking for radio play? Distribution of physical CD’s? The internet long tail song by song market? Using your label as step towards big label deals and a percentage of that market, acquisition if you make an artist profitable (and yourself in the process)?
Just figure out what you want and what you can do and set milestones on what the next step is based on achieving those milestones.
Check out: http://houseofsparks.com/ he is both his own label and works with others. Might be a good rescource.
Best of luck.
