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I attended an industry event with some MDs of record labels and was thinking who would like to set up a record label
and was thinking “who would want to set up a record label?”.

As time went on I began to think that if the label was well positioned as a leader and it developed “niche” artists, it could be quite exciting to start a record label.

Would it be possible for a label to survive in this climate?

A few of these label owners were discussing recent deals — primarily of the 360 or 270 kind.
270 as well as 360 are the number of degrees of circle.

For example 360 meaning they obtain a share of 360 degrees (100%) of the artist income.
It is 75% of the artists income.

The record label does not only share the record sales of an artist but also shares the merchandising, touring, publishing and all potential income streams.

These labels recognize that there is still alot of money to be made for example live music, merchandise and publishing.
Music groups are tailoring their business in nontraditional ways in order to make up for the loss of CD sales caused by online music downloading
and they are restructuring and building their businesses around this.

If you’re considering starting a record label, don’t focus on the potential pitfalls, but keep your eyes on the influence that your label will have on the market and specifically for your niche.

People are gathering in groups via the internet and engaging with one another.
For them, they enjoy meeting to exchange ideas and general conversation.
These groups are best described as “tribes”, and due to the increased connectivity of the planet, they are ever more prevalent. 

The role of the label will be to serve the tribes that have an interest in its output, and to recruit people in to the tribe.

The leaders of the tribe’s musical taste should be the label.

If you want to start a record label be sure to research and find the tribes that will be interested in what you are going to release and then begin to engage with them.

People do not want to feel like they are being told what to do. They want entertainment to share with others.

There are plenty of fans of music and plenty of good musicians playing good music, the role of the label will be to connect the two.

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How To Get To The Music Agents

(step by step)

Starting out from scratch like i did, it wasn’t even on my mind that i could actually get a music agent.

We started out just jamming in a room, then slowly got more serious. At some point, we realized we had enough songs and so we decided to try to get some shows.

Its the next logical step right?

distribute it to the public!

Well, from having that idea to actually implementing it took ages.

First we had to find places to play, then we had to beg/plead/promise/bribe the “gatekeepers” to let us play at their venue.

It was a night mare!

Dragging all our equipment halfway across town, waiting around, and eventually getting to play to no one and not even getting paid – it was a depressing time…..

So how did we get music agents to want to work with us?

In short – we attracted them!

Now I know that sounds a bit “voodoo”, but i mean it in the most practical way – a step by step way…….

Heres how:

After playing many shows to no one, we actually got better at playing!

(For proof of this on a huge scale- checkout Malcolm Gladwells book Outliers, where he proposes that in order to become an expert at anything, you must do it for over 10,000 hours.

The Beatles became experts at their craft by playing in a club in Hamburg.)

Anyway, as we became better at playing, we began to attract a few followers.

The small flock of fans who would come and see us.

After about one and a half years of hard work, we had 20 people on average at our further away shows, and more at the easy to get to shows on weekends.

This was phase one, and because with this in place, we were able to attract the attention of a manager.

We had to work to keep his attention, but with his help and advice, we were able to refine our act and make some key distinctions.

With these distinctions, we were able to attract multiple agents.

So just to refine the process:

1. We got better at what we were offering
2. We attracted a small following
3. Having this following and being better, helped attract
4. the manager and more shows.
5. We had a manager who introduced us to agents after shows.
6. Having a small audience and playing well resulted in agents taking us on a client!

For some acts it takes years of playing and rehearsing before they are ready to work with an agent but there are many rare cases where an act will get a music agent straight away.

There are some things that you need to do first in order for them to want to work with you.

Generally speaking, they don’t take unsolicited requests.

They prefer to discover things or to be introduced.

In our case, the manager was the link to the agents.

We were introduced them via his network of contacts.

thanks to his massive pr efforts they saw us play.

One thing that you can do right now is to do research.

Learn who all the key players in your market are – so that when you are ready to begin to get music agents interested in what you are doing, you can be really focused in who you really want and you will know what kind of acts they work with, and what they look for in an act.

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You need to set yourself apart in some way from the thousands of other bands out there. Here’s a few ideas to help.

• Artwork -Take a look at the other bands in your genre and take note of what they are doing- then try to have an original take on what they are doing. Death metal band Cannibal Corpse started having artwork with ultra gory and shocking covers, the success of it meant that almost every other band in the scene started trying to do it.  By trying to take the artwork in another direction your going to ensure that it’ll stand out from similar bands.
• Use the internet.  Nothing has helped bands more in recent years than the internet.  A lot of what can be done on it can be done well for fairly cheaply. You can promote gigs via social network band profiles, have a band website, post news about upcoming gigs on forums and contact fans, promoters and a lot of other people within the music industry.
• Image. Most bands believe that the music is more important than your looks, sadly its a mixture between the two.   So some bands have a image/ gimmick -Slipknot wear masks to hide their faces, GWAR wear costumes and claim to come from an alien planet, so image can help sell your band to people.
• Letting people know about your gigs. The more people who know you are playing a gig, the more chance their is that more people will come down. Do whatever is necessary to let people know about your band -develop a online newsletter, use your social network, hand out flyers and put up posters around town. If no-ones aware the gig is going on, then no-one is going to come out.

Need print services or colour laser printing for those flyers?

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The small time promoter has to work hard and on a shoestring to get an audience of a few hundred people to fill a venue. Flyers, word-of-mouth and media name checks are some of the tools promoters use to fill small venues or club nights. Building a loyal following from grassroots is no easy task. For an up and coming band a lot of effort can go into attracting enough people to fill even the smallest of venues and those promoting the event need to take every opportunity to establish a relationship with the audience that will continue beyond the end of the performance.

For a small outlay online surveys can be set up to provide the promoter with feedback and the opportunity to maintain an on going relationship with their audience. Using online Survey Software a promoter can now quickly and easily create an online survey.

With an online survey a promoter can find out exactly:-

• who attended;
• what persuaded them;
• what they thought of the event;
• would they expect to attend again;
• would they recommend future events to their friends.

A good way to ensure a good response is to have a supply of business sized cards that are marked clearly with a slogan like “Feedback”, “Your opinion counts”, “Tell us what you thought”. Each card would have a web address pointing either directly to the survey or to a website where a link to the survey can be placed. Cards can be issued at the entrance along with the tickets, or handed out among the audience and if they are made the size of business cards they will be small enough to be stick in a pocket, purse or wallet. A small incentive may improve the response rate, perhaps the chance to win a free guest pass for a future event, a signed CD or T shirt.

Using the results from online surveys the promoter is able to:

• Obtain a profile of the audience
• Gauge the overall success of the event;
• Measure the effectiveness of different promotion;
• Receive feedback on the venue and facilities;
• Receive feedback on the act;
• Promote on a one on one basis;
• Build a targeted database for future events;
• Build a loyal audience;
• Link to merchandise and other promotions.

It takes considering effort to promote an event and only a little extra effort to use online surveys to encourage further contact and reap a number of short and long term benefits that contact will bring.

The following sample survey shows the feedback that could be used for a breaking band. It not only gathers valuable feedback, but continues to promote the band, their CD and gives the opportunity to encourage further contact.

Sample Feedback Survey

To view the summary results of the survey: Sample Survey Results

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We believe we live in a relatively rational world. However in reality we experience lives through our emotions first which we then post-rationalize to help us make sense of it, giving us the perception that we are in control; that we are deciding on what we see, hear, think and feel.

Music has a way and an ability to bypass our rational defenses. You just can’t stop singing and humming a really annoying song in your head while you’re walking around, right? Another example would be think about how different music makes you feel; it’s not that music ‘can’ effect our mood – it ‘does’ effect our mood. Again this is because it connects with us at an emotional level. This together with the physical nature of music – in that it can quite literally connect with the heartbeat of the listener – makes music a quite different channel of communication. The experience of music is very personal.

It is therefore no surprise to hear that:

“Music is the fastest medium for people to form an association (with)”
David Aakers – Building Strong Brands

How does this information help those who are starting an indie music label, or running an independent music label?

Well, these insights are very important to anyone working with brands and music in the music industry because it highlights the potential potency and power of music to communicate at an ‘unstoppable’ emotional level with your prospective audiences. Music is made all the more powerful because it speaks in one voice to each and every one of us and needs no translation.

It is a fact that increasingly our purchasing decisions are based on emotional attributes rather than rational ones and given that the strongest brands have strong emotional bonds with their audiences, it follows that music should be a key ingredient in helping to create and form that bond…and influence those decisions.

From an artists/band’s viewpoint, this means that your music can develop and grow as a brand. It then follows that you can manage your music as a brand – extrapolating relevant brand theory and practice as and when appropriate to help you add value and sustain yourself over time.

Whilst you might think that the above is common practice in the music business I have come across very few artists, music managers, bands or labels (independent labels or otherwise) who adopt this approach. The music business and industry generally does tend to be more executional than strategic.

Understanding brand theory and practice – such as positioning, target audience, brand values and personality, communication – will help you take a more strategic approach to your music business overall but more importantly it will help you create long term value over time.

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It can be very hard work trying to promote your gigs as an unsigned band. No-ones really that interested outside of your circle friends, so you’ve gotta do the best you can to try and get people down to them. Here are some of the ways to get people down to your gigs. (Try these at your own risk.)

• Sticking up posters. A classic. This will get you going around town to get posters up for the event, making sure no wall is left blank. Music shops, colleges, rehearsal studios, newsagents, bars/pubs and other venues are always good places to get the message out there. Check with the owner of the place before putting them up, because they’ll tear them right down off the wall if they want. Putting posters up on the streets may see your council fine the venue if your not careful -and that venue wont be too happy with you. Trust me, this doesn’t go down too well with the people who own the venue.
• Flyering. Producing a load of flyers and standing out in the street may not sound very appealing, but even if it gets a few more people down it’ll be worth it to spread the name. Not everyone is going to want a flyer, so don’t be pushy with them. It can be disheartening, but you’ve gotta promote the gig.
• The Internet. {The power of the Internet has helped smaller bands greatly, advertise your gigs on many different related forums, Myspace, Facebook groups}{The internet has been a godsend to bands, so advertise on different forums, Myspace, Facebook and anywhere else you can think of}Cyberspace has allowed bands to keep in contact with their fans more easily. Forums and social networks are good places to promote your gig. Getting to know some of the people on these forums can also open up new opportunities and get these people themselves interested in helping your band out, and even coming down. Social websites allow bands to create groups and events and invite people down to them. Not everyone is going to come down, but the more people who know about it the more chance there is that they will come down to the gig. Over the internet people can agree to come out but may not show up in the end, so don’t be too disappointed if this happens.
• Promote your gig in the local gig listings. Those free papers with gig listings in them? Somebody reads them, so getting your gig in there is more exposure about it.

Go to these guys to get colour laser printing and print services for your flyers and posters

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