What would I need to start a record label?

[Tricky-Loops]

If you're skilled in video production and you were in a respective school (and given you're good in screenplay writing, too), you could found a video production company, for example...

That would be more than enough work, for the next years, if not decades...

Have you been in the video production industry? If not then you have no right to say how easy it would be to get a job for the next decade or not.

Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds.


Sometimes it takes more than just knowing your setup but knowing your contacts. I have also never really pursued a job in the video industry as much as I wanted a job in the music industry.

Building up a record label isn't easier, either. There are already hundreds of independent record labels out there.

If there wouldn't be so many labels, I'd have founded one myself, which is my biggest dream, but there are SO many of it which is why I gave up (at least until now, maybe times for record labels are getting better some time).

I understand! however not all labels can offer the services that will benefit an artist in gaining the utmost exposure!


Some of them seem more bent on promoting via a specific method such as soundcloud promotion or spamming.

Sometimes a label has to go beyond that and provide much better resources for its target audience. I won't go into detail how, but I think there are better options.

Of course there are (better options) but they all cost much money. Imagine you'd only publish my song in 50 online shops (there are some more or less inexpensive services which exactly do this!) - does it help me anything? Nope. Because nobody knows my songs, so nobody will buy it!

So you'd have to spend a lot of money for announcements and other marketing stuff...

[V0RT3X]

If you're skilled in video production and you were in a respective school (and given you're good in screenplay writing, too), you could found a video production company, for example...

That would be more than enough work, for the next years, if not decades...

Have you been in the video production industry? If not then you have no right to say how easy it would be to get a job for the next decade or not.

Trust me, it's not as easy as it sounds.


Sometimes it takes more than just knowing your setup but knowing your contacts. I have also never really pursued a job in the video industry as much as I wanted a job in the music industry.

Building up a record label isn't easier, either. There are already hundreds of independent record labels out there.

If there wouldn't be so many labels, I'd have founded one myself, which is my biggest dream, but there are SO many of it which is why I gave up (at least until now, maybe times for record labels are getting better some time).

I understand! however not all labels can offer the services that will benefit an artist in gaining the utmost exposure!


Some of them seem more bent on promoting via a specific method such as soundcloud promotion or spamming.

Sometimes a label has to go beyond that and provide much better resources for its target audience. I won't go into detail how, but I think there are better options.

Of course there are (better options) but they all cost much money. Imagine you'd only publish my song in 50 online shops (there are some more or less inexpensive services which exactly do this!) - does it help me anything? Nope. Because nobody knows my songs, so nobody will buy it!

So you'd have to spend a lot of money for announcements and other marketing stuff...

Or just roll my own... without spending too much more money

[Tricky-Loops]

Imagine you'd only publish my song in 50 online shops (there are some more or less inexpensive services which exactly do this!) - does it help me anything? Nope. Because nobody knows my songs, so nobody will buy it!

So you'd have to spend a lot of money for announcements and other marketing stuff...

Or just roll my own... without spending too much more money

Your own online shop? Well, if nobody knows it, nobody will buy something. There have been other online-shops who haven't been seen again after some months...

So even in this case you'd have to pay for announcements to make your online-shop public...

For example, 5 years ago every farmer here had a big delivery van with the imprint "Ebay-Shop A. B." Most of them had to quit after some months/years because they didn't make any significant money.

[V0RT3X]

Imagine you'd only publish my song in 50 online shops (there are some more or less inexpensive services which exactly do this!) - does it help me anything? Nope. Because nobody knows my songs, so nobody will buy it!

So you'd have to spend a lot of money for announcements and other marketing stuff...

Or just roll my own... without spending too much more money

Your own online shop? Well, if nobody knows it, nobody will buy something. There have been other online-shops who haven't been seen again after some months...

So even in this case you'd have to pay for announcements to make your online-shop public...

For example, 5 years ago every farmer here had a big delivery van with the imprint "Ebay-Shop A. B." Most of them had to quit after some months/years because they didn't make any significant money.

No id do your typical aggressive youtube/facebook/soundcloud/twitter marketing that everyone else is doing and a little bit more. You want me to tell you all my ideas for free?? no dice!

[Tricky-Loops]

Imagine you'd only publish my song in 50 online shops (there are some more or less inexpensive services which exactly do this!) - does it help me anything? Nope. Because nobody knows my songs, so nobody will buy it!

So you'd have to spend a lot of money for announcements and other marketing stuff...

Or just roll my own... without spending too much more money

Your own online shop? Well, if nobody knows it, nobody will buy something. There have been other online-shops who haven't been seen again after some months...

So even in this case you'd have to pay for announcements to make your online-shop public...

For example, 5 years ago every farmer here had a big delivery van with the imprint "Ebay-Shop A. B." Most of them had to quit after some months/years because they didn't make any significant money.

No id do your typical aggressive youtube/facebook/soundcloud/twitter marketing that everyone else is doing and a little bit more. You want me to tell you all my ideas for free?? no dice!

If you won't tell people what you're offering, they won't participate...

There were several new one-man-show record labels from KVR people over the last years. But I haven't seen any successful one...

[V0RT3X]

Imagine you'd only publish my song in 50 online shops (there are some more or less inexpensive services which exactly do this!) - does it help me anything? Nope. Because nobody knows my songs, so nobody will buy it!

So you'd have to spend a lot of money for announcements and other marketing stuff...

Or just roll my own... without spending too much more money

Your own online shop? Well, if nobody knows it, nobody will buy something. There have been other online-shops who haven't been seen again after some months...

So even in this case you'd have to pay for announcements to make your online-shop public...

For example, 5 years ago every farmer here had a big delivery van with the imprint "Ebay-Shop A. B." Most of them had to quit after some months/years because they didn't make any significant money.

No id do your typical aggressive youtube/facebook/soundcloud/twitter marketing that everyone else is doing and a little bit more. You want me to tell you all my ideas for free?? no dice!

If you won't tell people what you're offering, they won't participate...

There were several new one-man-show record labels from KVR people over the last years. But I haven't seen any successful one...

Well maybe you just need to be less of a pessimist. KVR is not the end all of publicity! Also I am not offering my services right now because I know I need quite a bit more to do.

[Tricky-Loops]

Well maybe you just need to be less of a pessimist. KVR is not the end all of publicity! Also I am not offering my services right now because I know I need quite a bit more to do.

I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist. I've seen many businesses going down the drain, and not only one-man-shows, even whole agencies and magazines!

[ATS]

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it."

Chinese Proverb

[dayjob]

music

a website

a paypal account

some idea of how to market things in this free for all feeding frenzy

srsly.. it's not easy.. it's a lot of work for little reward. if it's something you are driven to do then go for it.. let the music be the reward. i run a small low key label that releases sporadically in a genre that isn't popular. i started in 2004. put out some physical releases.. put some vinyl out a couple years ago too. lot's of digital releases

the 1st release was pirated in no time. the pile of CDs i have in the basement get given away here or there at shows or added to vinyl orders as freebies. i got in on IODA on the ground floor so it was free to join.. they take their cut of course but the music wouldn't be in the digital river so widely w/o IODA. IODA is now something else.. i forget the name.. i check in once in a while. i've gotten a couple checks over the years for download sales but a pittance of what i've spent. that's not the point.. i didn't do it to try and make some money.. hoped the releases would do OK and at least get close to breaking even and it would be nice to pay an artist some day.. but long story short.. nothing has broken even financially.. but i'm stoked about all the music i've put out there and that at least it's good enough to pirate i'm still doing it so that says something..

anyway.. i don't have any advice.. i tried for years to get physical distribution and we had some small tours here or there and periods of lot's of activity and even some advertising in magazines and on line.. but it didn't matter. seems you have to know someone or something.. go figure

i have a friend who knows people who used to run a label.. he actually released my first album which sold out and was reasonably well received. he ended up getting out of the label game when things went digital because he wasn't into the way things were going and wanted to do other stuff.. a few years ago he started a cassette label and got international distribution in no time at all. cassettes being trendy of course allowed for him to make things limited and customized one off packages etc.. plus he knows people.

it's very easy to start a label.. hard to do anything with it.. you need lot's of energy and lot's of time to deal with and you need to find a way of being a persistent promoter w/o being annoying and pushy. you need to be savy.

and of course you need a regular stream of good music to release. w/o consistency it become difficult to keep people's attention. these days there is so much competition for attention it's just hard to lasso someone into your world for a few minutes to listen to something.

the market is a tricky thing.

good luck w/your venture whatever you decide to do.

i would say.. just have realistic expectations. and try to find artists who play out a lot and it is helpful if they are natural self promoters

[experimental.crow]

you'll need follow-through ,
and perseverance ...

[dayjob]

you'll need follow-through ,
and perseverance ...

and you'll have to give at least one blow job

[BertKoor]

Seriously I want to know. I am seriously considering this, and if you say an education then please tell me so I can pursue this.

No formal training is required. Any idiot can start a label, but only a few will succeed. A dutch girl named Stacey Rookhuizen started her own record label (and succeeded) when she was only 18. But then as a child she already rented out the pool in her parents backyard to children in the neighbourhood, so I think having an entrepeneur's mindset is required. And she already worked at Sony/BMG, so she knew the trade from the inside already. That must have helped.

[tehlord]

The website, fancy graphics and artwork etc are all mandatory and not really anything extra than a thousand other labels are doing.

You need to get an account with an aggregater like Labelworx as outlets like Beatport etc won't even answer your emails.

You also need music of the utmost quality, none of which will want to sign with a new, unproven label.

You will also make no money. Don't underestimate this statement, you will, make, no, money. If a single release does well, it'll sell maybe 100 copies, of which you'll see about 20c per sale.

If you want to start a label it's really not hard at all, but don't be under any illusions that you'll sell any music or make any money. You just won't.

[Spiritos]

I think starting a record label requires a determined mind and long breath.
It's a depth investment. Like many wrote here it's all about marketing. In the beginning you'll be spending lots of energy (and money probably too) to get exposure through your artists.

Knowing people can speed up things but in the end it's all about airtime and gigs.
It seems like you have enough knowhow and experience so given that you might want to put some thoughts in your financial/marketing planning.

Things like crowdfunding is something that's being applied here in Amsterdam a lot. Again, it's about knowing a lot of people but also about knowing people that know a lot of people

Regardless how tough the competition may be, as long as you're determined and it for the joy and not for quick money I'm positive you'll find your way soon enough.

Also.. one can always get lucky booking an artist that produces that one special record but I think the greatest benefit will come from doing what you really want to do. That's positive energy and in my experience that will always find it's way!

[Wildfunk]

No id do your typical aggressive youtube/facebook/soundcloud/twitter marketing that everyone else is doing

That's not marketing, that's spam.

You want me to tell you all my ideas for free?? no dice!

That's funny. Everybody should share his ideas with you but you don't