There are attractive reasons for the independent approach, such as maintaining artistic control and retaining copyright to your recordings and songs. Then there are the new incentives, such as the ability to distribute and sell online. However, what they often forget are some of the major issues involved with starting an independent record label that are worth considering carefully early on, often leading them to make serious mistakes that cannot be recovered. Unfortunately, these errors seem quite common in the cases of independent labels, a brief description of which is given below.
1. Undercapitalization
Probably the biggest mistake ever made when planning to start an independent label; it is often the most destructive. With little cash in reserve and long-term needs, tags often bust!
2. Poor planning
Every aspect of how a label operates must be planned out in detail with a grand plan that looks ahead at least two to three years. Lacking this, most independent labels find that they are reacting to events instead of making things happen when and how they want, eventually getting themselves into a mess too complicated to get out of.
3. Poor budget
The budget is the financial roadmap for the success of any independent label; for, for all its artistic qualities, music is ultimately a business, and in the absence of a proper budget, the business falls apart.
4. Weak Marketing
The music business is much more about marketing than it is about music, and unless marketing increases as record labels advance, record labels will never succeed. Unfortunately, by the time most independent record labels realize this, it is often too late.
5. Improper Distribution of Music
The marketing and sale of music begins and ends with the label. However, most labels expect their distributor to do it for them, not realizing that their expertise is in selling the music to retailers, not marketing or promotion, resulting in poor product promotion and distribution. finished.
6. Insufficient exploitation of music
Most independent record labels lack the vision to exploit their catalog and copyrights to the full, often leaving their money on the table, ultimately resulting in capital problems.
7. Lack of websites
All record labels must have a web presence. The web has been around for over a decade, and not having a good site is negligence. But what most record labels do is that instead of filling the site with useful information, they give more importance to glare and looks, without being creative and marketing themselves to the generation of people who know how to use computers so well. .
Unfortunately, it’s not really about the music anymore, it never was. The music business has much more to do with marketing than music: music is art, not business. They call it the music business because it’s a business. It’s important to have a realistic appreciation of how difficult it is to succeed in this industry, but it’s not impossible. What you have to do is be innovative, find the opportunities and make the most of them.
Remember that luck only happens when opportunity meets preparation.