Ah, the joys of starting your own business. And make no mistake about it…starting your own record label IS a business…and a very complex one at that. If you get things off on the wrong foot, you could doom yourself to failure before you even get things off the ground. So, in this article, I’m going to alert you to a few things that you might want to know before attempting to take this beast on.
Target market. I can’t stress this enough. You MUST have a target market. What am I talking about? I’m talking about WHO you’re going to put a label together for. The days of the “all kinds of music” labels died a long time ago. Today, everything is specialized because there is just too much money involved. So who are you targeting? Hip hop, rap, country, R&B, rock, what? If you don’t know the answer to this question, sit down until you DO know the answer. Then come back to this article and keep reading.
Marketing. After you figured out who your target market is, how are you going to reach them? In order to answer that, you have to know who they are. For example, rappers don’t hang out in the same places as country western folks. If anything, you probably won’t find them anywhere near each other. Best way to find your market and where they hang out is to look up forums on the Internet that cater to each specific interest.
Your offer. What is your label going to offer these people? I mean after all, why should they sign with you instead of one of your competitors? And don’t think that recording acts are so desperate so sign that they’ll sign with just about anybody. They want to know that they’re going to be taken care of. Most artists don’t want to be locked into long contracts. If you want to get a jump on your competition, you’ll keep this in mind.
Of course I haven’t even touched on expenses, legal issues and all that other stuff. Yes, starting a record label is work and needs to be carefully thought out. Fortunately, in my signature, you’ll find a review of a great resource that will show you everything you need to know about starting your own record label.
Starting Your Own Record Label
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