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Amatuers setting up a record label?

Hey guys.

I'd absolutely love to set up a record label. Nothing big or fancy. I'm talking small here. Say running off 500 copies of my own stuff to start off with. I've been doing some research of vinyl cutting factories. You could run that amount off for not too much. And by not much I mean I'm obsessed with music to the point where I'll spend money I don't have on it with virually no chance of a return for it! The actual cost per vinyl is something like a US dollar (if not less) each. It's the initial moulds that cost a bunch.

What would people think of doing such a thing? How would you promote yourselves?

And sorry for veering off 'Production Studio' topic but sure doesn't everyone here eventually want to get signed?

Thats the best way to do it.

get an initial batch pressed up, then approach your local indie record stores and get them to sell on a Sale or return basis, also approach places like juno and chemical who will do this if its any good.

You then mail some out (free) to certain djs who may play it and plug it like mad wherever possible. If it gets to the right people, its any good and with a bit of luck, you may get it played, signed or get offers of remix work.

just make sure the tracks are decent enough to sell to maximise any return. Rough rule of thumb is if you wouldnt play it out, then its shite and is unlikely to sell.

Plenty of cheap pressing plants about- try to get a recommndation from someone rather than going just on price.

And for mastering and cutting your glass master, take it to porkys on shaftesbury avenue,London W1.

COnsider also approaching a distribution company, for a P+D (pressing and distribution) deal, will save you heaps, but they have to be good tracks for them to take you on!

i think that's bad idea for amateur producer to set up a record label,just try to relase your stuff on some other labels,and when you see your music is good enough,try to set up your label after few years,but i think you need bunch of money for beginning

If you are interested in talking with me or another rep from DSE, email me. ([email protected]) I'm not interested in creating competition for myself but I may have a position for you. (note thats a slight may and itll have to be discussed a lot)

Cheers,
Zac

quote:

Originally posted by IDarkISwordI If you are interested in talking with me or another rep from DSE, email me. ([email protected]) I'm not interested in creating competition for myself but I may have a position for you. (note thats a slight may and itll have to be discussed a lot) Cheers, Zac

Sounds wicked. I'd love to work with you but I personally don't feel I'm good enough for the public to hear my stuff yet. I'm thinking down the line in a few years when I've more production skills and years behind me.

Cheers Dec

quote:

Originally posted by Freak Thats the best way to do it. get an initial batch pressed up, then approach your local indie record stores and get them to sell on a Sale or return basis, also approach places like juno and chemical who will do this if its any good. You then mail some out (free) to certain djs who may play it and plug it like mad wherever possible. If it gets to the right people, its any good and with a bit of luck, you may get it played, signed or get offers of remix work. just make sure the tracks are decent enough to sell to maximise any return. Rough rule of thumb is if you wouldnt play it out, then its shite and is unlikely to sell. Plenty of cheap pressing plants about- try to get a recommndation from someone rather than going just on price. And for mastering and cutting your glass master, take it to porkys on shaftesbury avenue,London W1. COnsider also approaching a distribution company, for a P+D (pressing and distribution) deal, will save you heaps, but they have to be good tracks for them to take you on!

Thanks for the info Freak. Some great stuff there. Once I feel my stuff is goos enough to be heard publicly I really feel it's something I want to do. I'm not in this to make big bucks, I just want people to dance to my music. I agree too on the fact of playing it out. When I finish a track, I think to myself "Would I walk off the floor or would I move to this? And would I buy this record or would I reckon it's junk?"

quote:

Originally posted by krivi i think that's bad idea for amateur producer to set up a record label,just try to relase your stuff on some other labels,and when you see your music is good enough,try to set up your label after few years,but i think you need bunch of money for beginning

What I mean initially is nothing more than pressing your tune and promoting it yourself. Not really a record label but with the intention of eventually becoming a real label. It's not going to be for a few years yet though.

Dec

well i had been shooting around the idea of starting a label for the past 6 years or so. not just an electronic music genre label but a full on label. the reason being is theres alot of cash to be made in many genres and itd be great to give people that are deserving an oppurtunity to "make it big" the intial costs are going to be ridiclous somethign along the lines of your looking at spending atleast 5k just getting everything arranged. now ive since doing alot of reasearched figured the easiest way to see how good you are at marketing and so on is to do what im starting to do. offering producers a label deal for digital downloads and then if they get a decent turn around on their digital downloads and you feel thier music is good enough you start offering vinyl pressings deals and cd release deals. so bassically what you would do is offer like something along the lines of 80% of the profit from digital downloads goto the artist and 20% to the company to maintain their shit for download.

the key is that you are creating a market you are gathering consumers which is what its all about. you want to create hype for it you want people to want the tracks. you start approaching some djs that have massive internet radioshows and get them to play soime tracks under your label. now youve got people listening and looking for the track. so now what youve done is youve given yourself money to start pressing and distrubuting the vinyl and cds. plus you have people seeking the track. i would honestly say about 70% of all efforts should go into the promotion and marketing targets of the tracks. now the best way to start a label is start looking for local decent bands, note i said bands not producers as really your more likely to have success with some pussy band that is somewhat like every other trendy rock band you hear on the radio. just make sure theres something differnt and good about them and youll be fine, now signh them market them and then you ahve more funding to really get your electronic genres to take off. cd production is 1/10th of what vinyl production costs are. hell you can buy a cd duplicator for 2grand and not even have to pay for someone else to do it for you.

all in all theres alot of work that goes into doing a successfull label, you ahve to create contacts work out contracts with the artists, and production people, and if you dont want to do all the distrubution on your own then youll ahve to work out a deal witha distrubution company. however i belive that distrubution companys are the way to go once you have the income and publicty to do it. ie the fundings to where it has become cheaper to pay someone to do it then you have it done yourself.

heres my company's site www.lucid-records.tk its nothing near what id like it to be but its not officially been launched yet but itll give you an idea of a approach that could quite possible be the best way to start a record label. as its going with embracing digital medium instead of just trying to stop it all together. i just checked the site and it appears the dot.tk is currently having dns problems so check back the site whenever. honeslty tho i think the way i mentioned would be the best way to go about starting a label. i mean i love to produce but its merely my hobby maybe someday ill be good enough to even where i could think about letting people hear it without being embarrased but untill then i just want to implant myself in music at all levals. and wel this level seems to be wher ei should start personally atleast. i consider myself to be rather good at marketing and creating mass appeal. so yeah hope this has some answers or just some things to think about in it. sorry about the enormous paragraphs and shotty ass grammer and spelling.

quote:

Originally posted by ZxZDeViLZxZ well i had been shooting around the idea of starting a label for the past 6 years or so. not just an electronic music genre label but a full on label. the reason being is theres alot of cash to be made in many genres and itd be great to give people that are deserving an oppurtunity to "make it big" the intial costs are going to be ridiclous somethign along the lines of your looking at spending atleast 5k just getting everything arranged. now ive since doing alot of reasearched figured the easiest way to see how good you are at marketing and so on is to do what im starting to do. offering producers a label deal for digital downloads and then if they get a decent turn around on their digital downloads and you feel thier music is good enough you start offering vinyl pressings deals and cd release deals. so bassically what you would do is offer like something along the lines of 80% of the profit from digital downloads goto the artist and 20% to the company to maintain their shit for download. the key is that you are creating a market you are gathering consumers which is what its all about. you want to create hype for it you want people to want the tracks. you start approaching some djs that have massive internet radioshows and get them to play soime tracks under your label. now youve got people listening and looking for the track. so now what youve done is youve given yourself money to start pressing and distrubuting the vinyl and cds. plus you have people seeking the track. i would honestly say about 70% of all efforts should go into the promotion and marketing targets of the tracks. now the best way to start a label is start looking for local decent bands, note i said bands not producers as really your more likely to have success with some pussy band that is somewhat like every other trendy rock band you hear on the radio. just make sure theres something differnt and good about them and youll be fine, now signh them market them and then you ahve more funding to really get your electronic genres to take off. cd production is 1/10th of what vinyl production costs are. hell you can buy a cd duplicator for 2grand and not even have to pay for someone else to do it for you. all in all theres alot of work that goes into doing a successfull label, you ahve to create contacts work out contracts with the artists, and production people, and if you dont want to do all the distrubution on your own then youll ahve to work out a deal witha distrubution company. however i belive that distrubution companys are the way to go once you have the income and publicty to do it. ie the fundings to where it has become cheaper to pay someone to do it then you have it done yourself. heres my company's site www.lucid-records.tk its nothing near what id like it to be but its not officially been launched yet but itll give you an idea of a approach that could quite possible be the best way to start a record label. as its going with embracing digital medium instead of just trying to stop it all together. i just checked the site and it appears the dot.tk is currently having dns problems so check back the site whenever. honeslty tho i think the way i mentioned would be the best way to go about starting a label. i mean i love to produce but its merely my hobby maybe someday ill be good enough to even where i could think about letting people hear it without being embarrased but untill then i just want to implant myself in music at all levals. and wel this level seems to be wher ei should start personally atleast. i consider myself to be rather good at marketing and creating mass appeal. so yeah hope this has some answers or just some things to think about in it. sorry about the enormous paragraphs and shotty ass grammer and spelling.

This is some seriously good information. I'll be rereading this a few times over the next while. Checked your site out. Very nice indeed. I like your philosophy. When I feel confident enough in my music it'll be winging its way to you. Site bookmarked.

Good luck. You sound like you've your head screwed on right.

One last question, in terms of remixes of other major artists, how do you go about licensing these? Presumably through the artist themself or would it be up to the original label. Probable cost a ton. I'd say my original stuff would be better release material in that respect.

Dec

dont quote me but unless im mistaken the best way to get a remix released is by giving it to the artists. now about getting a liscense to publish it is all varied on what kind of contract the artists has with the label. if the label owns the right to the track then youd have to arrange it with the label, now if the artists owns the track and their contract is open enough that they could liscense it to you for you to remix and split the profits to where they are getting the majority of the royalties then thats my guess how it works. now what artists will do is they might commission you to doa remix if they feel it would help to accompany the release.

quote:

Originally posted by ZxZDeViLZxZ dont quote me but unless im mistaken the best way to get a remix released is by giving it to the artists. now about getting a liscense to publish it is all varied on what kind of contract the artists has with the label. if the label owns the right to the track then youd have to arrange it with the label, now if the artists owns the track and their contract is open enough that they could liscense it to you for you to remix and split the profits to where they are getting the majority of the royalties then thats my guess how it works. now what artists will do is they might commission you to doa remix if they feel it would help to accompany the release.

Interesting. You'd need to have a decent name so to get a remix gig. Hmm, I'll work on it! Prob stick with my own stuff for the time being. Probably won't be quitting the day job.

ZxZDeViLZxZ, you probably shouldn't give out such great detail of your business model. No worries about me as my company long ago established our business model but lots of people on the internet tend to be somewhat... shady, who would steal your ideas. While what you are saying is good for promotion of your company (nice website design btw), its bad for business. Such detailed infor about your company in this post may come into conflict with the contract between you and your signed artists. Often times, contracts have a section in them telling artists not to disclose the pay ratio of the business. This is to protect the company to from ideology theft as well as to protect the company from sometimes shadier practices where they think 30% to the artists might cull the number of artists they sign (no worries there for your company though). As I said before, I'm not going to create competition for my company but I don't want you to get burned in the future either. In summary, keep the details of your company to a minimum. Shed only the least specific imformation (no numbers). Good luck.

Cheers,
Zac

P.S. Since xenos_declan said he wasn't really interested, if you are ZxZDeViLZxZ, I might have that same position open for you.

quote:

Originally posted by IDarkISwordI P.S. Since xenos_declan said he wasn't really interested, if you are ZxZDeViLZxZ, I might have that same position open for you.

It's not that I'm not interested. I'm just not good enough...yet. Would love to though if I had the skills.

Dec

Im a very itnerested, and have been waiting for an opportunity like this for some time, i will need to talk to some people.. as there are always other offers, no offense, ill email u the samples when i get a chance...


thanks a lot.

Allied Nations

quote:

Originally posted by IDarkISwordI If you are interested in talking with me or another rep from DSE, email me. ([email protected]) I'm not interested in creating competition for myself but I may have a position for you. (note thats a slight may and itll have to be discussed a lot) Cheers, Zac

I think I misread your post. I thought you meant you were looking for artists. Which I'm not good enough for yet. Is the position this or is it promotion etc?

Dec

well see as far as it goes for my company is really all im trying to do is get people into something that is normally hard to get into but i do see your point. mostly the post was to give good promotion for my company to maybe give some ideas to people intrested in doing the same. but i know alot of people talk about it but never get around to doing it as i was one of those people till recently when i finally gatherd all the information i needed to acomplish it. but yeah i defaintly see your point. btw i pm'ed you im intrested as to what kind of position this is. hell im allways intrested in ways to make money, yes that was a jewish comment i know but hey more money in my isa more happy i am.


edit:
ahh i just reread what you posted yeah i get what your saying about the numbers but asfar as numbers go i wouldnt disclouse any ones that would relate to vinyl or cd sales only ones reguarding digital sales as i strongly belive taht giving a artist 80% of their digital download sales is probly completely unheard of and by doing this would spark intrest into it and possible result in artists approaching me about getting under my label rather then me trying to approach an artist.

ZxZDeVilZxZ,

I don't want to sound mean. It's my intention to be helpful. It's really hard to take that site seriously when I see I'm emailing a Gmal account, and the label can't do the simplest thing of obtaining a real domain name. The design is ok, a bit late 90's looking with all the puffed out looking gloss. You need a stronger brand image. You need something people will remember when they walk away.

Also, it would be wise to not take on every genre. It's kind of like the old saying "Jack of all trades, master of none". You need to be very familiar with what you're pushing and be 100% into it, and no less. Saying "some pussy band" isn't going to bolster any support from a pussy band hahaha. Try to push something that you're acutely passionate about. Being a giant multigenre conglomerate isn't a very smart thing to do right away, or even when you're seasoned into it a while. It takes big bucks to push every genre, and expertise in so many areas. You'll run the risk of spreading yourself too thin if you're not careful.

I've seen similar business models with sites like http://magnitune.com

Your drive seems golden. I like the hell out of that. It's just the world is filled with "yes men" waiting for you to fall on your face without giving you a warning. I'm a no bullshit kind of guy, and when I see a problem I'll tell you.

-Aaron

well where to start as to respond usefull information but mostly alot that i allready am aware of. im not the person tahts going to just be all non blunt because of a buiness if i think a bands a pussy band then thats what i shall call them. might be offensive indeed but the point is i want it to be a more friendly orinted not uptight shit. i know taking on many genres is a heafty task and i am indeed passionate about all genres of music but thats why you have partners to help take care of it. as for the gmail address well its just easier to not spend money on something that hasnt turned money. the key to starting something is having low cost initial start ie: free domain and free hosting. if it turns a profit then ill change it. ive known people who started out trying to go all out and ended up falling flat on their face becuase they couldnt pay the bills 3months after they opened. but hell whats one failed buiness attempt when theres many more to come. if at first it doesnt work regroup think again and try again. its real simple im just trying to do something i like and make money off of it. hell if i only make 20bux a month off of it fine by me the point is i invested nothing into something thats making 20times what i invested. i totally agree from a buiness stand point how it looks but well id rather be liked and do medicore then be hated and do really good.

really im totally agreeing with you im just saying that id rather not invest a few hundred bucks into something that might fail. kinda why people dont invest in internet sites after the "dot com" bust. so if it works thats great then itll be totally differnt. but yeah your right heaven forbid you have to email a company that an email address that isnt @whateverthefuckthecompanynameis.com i mean you just cant trust it now can you becuase you never know. haha yeah the layout is kinda cheezey i need to change the colors and shit it was kinda a lets see what kind of response i ge ton the idea thing and i got huge response with great stuff and just need to change the layout so its not so cheezey.

thanks for the comments tho atleast you were honest which is a big plus.

well i updated the layout some so tell me how it looks now Lucid-Records

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