Okay, so I decided to post a few questions here, because A) I generally respect the opinions of most of the ORG regulars and thought this would be discussion material, and B) because I've always had the dream of starting my own record label. (But is my dream even viable in today's music industry climate?)

In today's music industry, what function does an independent record label have? In other words, what does the label do for it's artists? What incentive does an artist have for signing with an independent label as opposed to simply releasing their music on their own?

Also, how does an independent record label make money?

Assuming that an entrepreneur has a deep love for music, but also wants to make money, would starting a record label be a viable venture in 2007? Or should he just give up the dream and take up real estate?

Thanks and please discuss!!

You have some good questions and I wish I could give you some answers. You would have a major fight as an independent label getting your artists names out there and getting them some radio airplay. Radio stations and major record labels these days remind me of the "good old boy network". They promote only what they want to and keep everyone else out.

Whatever you choose to do though, I wish you all the luck in the world.

You probably wouldn't be making a lot of money, but if that's your dream then I say go for it
[Edited 9/6/07 2:45am]

berniejobs said:

Why wouldn't it be? the so-called major companies aren't doing well because they got big and attempted to control absolutely everything that was released into the mainstream. Without competition and alternatives companies are always start churning out substandard products that less and less people are willing to spend money on.



To release music that is nothing like the music that you hear on the radio or an the video networks. If you're not intending to put out that couldn't be called "alternative" or "underground", there's no point. People who like pop music do not seek for their records through alternative means, and also demand the production values only big companies can finance for the most part.



Absolutely everything else than the actual creative work. Promotion, licensing, copyrights, pressing of the records (and test pressings for that matter too), some legalities (there will be far less of those than with corporate majors though), quality control (seeing that the records are mastered properly, that the packaging materials are durable and look professional enough), some resale through the label's own website, and yet again - promotion. Pay for everything once the recording has been handed over to you, basically.

You'll also probably need to throw together live events where a number of your own performers will be performing together with some other acts.



So that they wouldn't have to spend time on all the extra garbage that interferes with their work, even getting some promotional CD-Rs pressed can take ridiculous amounts of time without an established network of connections and having developed a routine for such a thing. A label will gether several artists who will sell on the back of each other and promote each other through genre and label associations. Also the artist has really no other financial risks that maybe having had paid for the studio time / other production costs himself. The label may also have contacts with people who are able to provide sleeker artwork for the records.



Via record sales. Not just your own, most "independent" records also have web distributions these days that also sell the records released by other companies. At times, this is the only form of income you'll be likely to get to enjoy.



I don't see the two halves of this sentence correlating with each other that well. You can make a living if you now what you are doing - however, there's an approximated time span of ten years for every new record company until they will start having a viable network of contacts and a regular set of customers. That's according to somekind of a "scientific" study as well.



If it's just a dream, then I condone you indeed give it up. If you have some idea how to do it and what kind of artists you'd want to work with then it's still worth considering.

Real estate people only get laid with boring people.

The funny thing is that alot of "indie" labels are owned by majors. MOTOWN is considered an Indie lable at this point and is really run that way. You would have to check and see what the indie label actually does and is it owned by a major at somepoint. Some indie labels are just distributors, like KOCH records. Mainly people have their own labels and they sign deals with KOCH and then KOCH gets their stuff into stores, and the artists tend to get a bigger cut of the sales of their disc, but at the same time there is no advance and you do your own marketing. To me it depends on how dedictated u are to it, If its a band situation then playing shows is going to be where its at, build a following, work a website,getting mailing lists at shows and build a loyal following and then that can pay for some things, like getting a cd pressed.