Friday, August 21, 2009

Why You Need a Record Label


The mind of musicians and music professionals today reflect a passionate anti-industry mentality. This “damn the man” mindset has rightfully been established after decades of major label extortion, the industries unwillingness to adapt to piracy, absurd lawsuits, power labels controlling the airwaves, and the perceived industry racketeering of musicians. The spill over has infecting musicians minds into thinking record labels are a joke and bands need to take careers into their own hands. “Record labels are dinosaurs” you hear time and time again, but is this really true? Labels represent getting screwed, lawyers equate to money takers, managers reflect worthless leeches, agents represent robbers, and any music professional looking to elevate an artist’s career is indeed “the man”. Don’t get me wrong, some of these are true, but one negative trend needs to be put to bed – musicians DO need a record label and here are 3 reasons why.

  1. Making an album is different than selling an album – Sure recording studios are expensive and recent technology advances make recording an album on your own relatively free, but this also generates a negative trickle down effect. The accessible recording equipment allows for more musicians to put out albums, meaning more albums in the marketplace, equating to more competition, and ultimately meaning higher difficulties in successfully marketing an album. In 2008 Nielsen SoundScan estimated there was 105,000 new albums released. Despite the overwhelming number of releases, only 6,000 of those were able to sell 1,000 albums or more. That is 4% ladies and gentlemen so you can’t hide behind the numbers. In most cases 1000 album sales could NOT provide a 5 piece band a comfortable living. I can already hear the opposing argument, “but if I sign with a label we will receive only a percentage of the sales, therefore our cut is even smaller.” Good argument, but simple not true. Why? As a band you control your own fate, you control the terms of the contract, and the greater level of success you build on your own, the more negotiation ammunition you have with a label in order to establish favorable/fair terms. Labels ultimately specialize in marketing, you don’t. There is a tremendous gap between making an album and selling an album, and marketing fills that void.
  2. Representing yourself rarely works – (Q) What is one of the first things musicians demand? (A) More gigs. (Q) How do musicians want to acquire more gigs? (A) A booking agent. There’s always a progression in a musician's career. For the typical musician, bands start locally and feel comfortable booking their own gigs- focusing on local bars, clubs, or lounges. Then the bug hits – “man we’ve got to grow”, and to do this you need a booking agent. Booking your own shows on a local level is fine, but when the need for expansion hits, regional clubs will rarely let you in the door if you’re booking yourself. My past included being a booking agent and a talent buyer for a music venue. As a buyer, when a band called wanting to play, I automatically pigeonholed them as a local talent that would not draw the audience for a regional show. As unfortunate as it may be, when bands represent themselves as a booking agent it reflects a minor league level in their career even though they are selling themselves as being in the majors. As an agent, I got past the gatekeepers with ease because bands with booking agents mirror professionalism. This same model applies for musicians who put an album out on their own. Releasing an album has many complicated levels such as: generating distribution, endorsement deals, touring, and marketing (which was talked about earlier). Distributors will rarely deal with bands directly, companies won’t secure sponsorship packages with groups, and developing successful widespread marketing strategies can’t be accomplished if you represent yourself. I understand that many bands can accomplish these things over the internet; but internet promotion isn’t the end all be all when releasing an album. At some point, musicians must surface from the computer screen to make worthwhile face to face contacts, and when that time comes if you don’t have representation your first impression will be amateur at best. I believe Bruce Iglauer said it best in a recent Billboard interview: “In this tough new music business, many smart artists continue to realize that their best opportunities won’t come from working on their own.”
  3. Musicians are creative and businessmen are assholes - a musician's career is essentially a privately owned business. To run a successful business you can’t operate on fragile friendship feelings, rather you need to have a controlling iron grip on everything. Musicians grow a fan base by being larger than life figures, polite to their fans, and by networking. These principles clash with the qualities needed to be a successful business owner. Businessmen have to make the hard decision, they need to be the soldier on the front line taking the bullets, and they need to be the person who doesn’t care about individual feelings or giving away free music. Sure these parties clash, but musicians need a business partner, and a businessman needs musicians. The second bands attempt to fill this role in difficult business situations; they run the risk of alienating fans and jeopardizing their careers. Labels provide the resources to handle the hard situation, along with having a burning passion to sell as much as possible. Regardless of your stance, this is constantly the primary objective rather you're an artist or businessman - sell records.
Posted by at 1:44 PM
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6 comments:

  1. Hey,

    Good post. Maybe I should have been more clear in our post about being your own artist manager. An artists is not going to attract the attention of any industry person unless they start building an audience themselves (unless you find a believer in the early days who's willing to work hard for pretty much nothing at the start or has super sweet connections-odds are low).

    I totally value the partnerships that can be made as an artist starts to grow in popularity. A great manager can really take advantage of that momentum and grow it.

    Additionally.. if an artist takes on the role of an artist manager in the early days, they'll understand more about the business and will know if a manager/label is actually doing what they're supposed to. They'll also have more leverage in making any type of a deal if they've built a good fan-base/foundation on their own.

    Cheers man!

    Hoover
    http://NewRockstarPhilosophy.com
    ReplyDelete
  2. While I don't disagree with your premise (such as making an album is different than marketing an album), in this day and age - thinking that all you have to do is get a record deal and you're career is made - misguided to say the least.

    First, most record companies won't even look at you anymore unless you've already got a platform - so you better learn how to build one.

    Second, once you've got a record label - you will be working twice as hard on your business - or the record label will DROP you.

    So, bottom line, better learn how to do this stuff DIY, not wait for some A&R guy to save you.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Hoover & Debra:

    Thank you for the comments, and the continued support for the Music Globalization site. As I completely agree with you both on your comments, apparently there are a view points I need to clarify.

    By no means do I suggest that musicians need to glaze over the business aspect of their career. It is essential for artists to take their career to a certain level (1) to gain an education of the "music business", (2) to creatively set their career path in order to sufficiently look for the correct business personnel match, (3) set their fan base as opposed to being molded to a particular market, and (4) to generate ammunition (ie: control) when the time of business contracts do enter the picture. A record label, much less A&R employees, are NOT the end all be all answer. Music industry success is not obtained overnight. The typical "one hit wonder" or "cinderella story" entails 10+ years of work. This is done by the combined work of artists & a business team. It is clearly a two prong process.

    Once again, thank you for your comments. Keep reading, I'll keep writing! www.frascognamusic.com
    ReplyDelete
  4. As an artist myself, i overstand this blog. Most being that came to be an artist has no knowledge of the industry and wonder why they get caught up in their vital situations. I've a lot over the years for my mistakes and others in the industry. kNOWLEDGE is the key

    follow me
    @knerodahgreat
    http://knerovision.blogspot.com
    facebook.com/kneroedwards
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  5. The author rises some valid points, but he misenterprets or misrepresents the facts, and the final outcome:
    vis:
    There's literally thousands of new acts to comete against, since there are hundreds of outlets to get on to, and they're almost free, thus your competition is huge, and you're lost in a sea of annonymity.
    True on first glance, but most of those acts suck really, really bad. It's like admitting anybody who can walk into the olympic 100 meter qualifying runs. (I will freely admit that for the present, it has lowered the public's already low expectations, and free, pirated music is consumed and disgorged like the proverbial old housewife nibbling at candies and putting them back in the box. But the best bands will find their audience if they do their work, and have a bit of good fortune. This is how it ALWAYS was. It was never easy.
    TWO: Record companies can market you better;
    False, or rather, they are not likely to, because they're so greedy and tepid. You will be ever-more responsible for your own operation. Record companies are merely banks without any regulation, They're loan sharks.

    Three: Record companies will represent you. Yeah, if you're U2, AFTER selling a few million copies...until then, they pull no weight whatever for you. Their motto is, has always been, "what have you done for us lately?"
    Four:
    Record labels provide business resources to help you manage your career. Bull**t.
    I know. Record labels make it entireley necessary that you have your own , entirely indipendent business management and accounting, to make sure you get paid, and don't get saddled with extra expenses not even covered in their grossly exploitive contracts. And There's bad faith whenever a record company tries to even insinuate that they're gonna' manage you. They are almost your competitor, and never youyr partner. Loanshark, remember?
    In the 1970s, they got millions from successful and irresponsible artists, by providing record-company -owned houses, cars, and perks, like girls, drugs, booze, whatever-all written off as business expenses. They paid artists salaries and some royalties, then kicked them out on their butts when the gravy train was over.
    On top of that, artists who were a little wiser often had indipendent management which colluded with record labels, and ripped the musicians off anyway. Then, there were just the artists who simply overpaid their managere, and lost the farm, without the record company's collusion...point being, with the labels in the game, only the heavies, and the very energetic and multitalented shrewd musicians (and damn prolific-prolific enough to write several hit albums) ever got to first base. Tom Petty had to make MILLIONS for his record companies before he saw much money at all. What spirit and dedication it must have taken. And he was a lucky one.
    David Byrne and Brian Eno both agreed , a few years ago, that now (then) is a better time than ever for artists...record companies are almost irrelevant, unless you're at the universe-domination phase. Then, you call the shots, anyway.
    I agree we artists have a sea of mediocrity to swim through on the 'net. But record companies are useless dionsaurs. Thank God.
    ReplyDelete
  6. In the long run, if you look at the real numbers, the most successful artists with the largest fan-bases are always at least represented by an indie label, and once a band or artist really starts to take off, the major club venues will NOT work directly with a band without a proper booking agency. Yes, you can still find some success as an DYI artist/band. But if you want a healthy, serious, real and long-term career you NEED to work with OTHERS, and not everyone is out to cheat you.

    The fools-gold of all this great new technology and connectivity makes too many think that they can just do it all themselves- WRONG, this is folly and foolish!

    The creating of a REAL career in music is always going to eventually require the professional expertise (and insider-industry contacts) of others. That is how the BUSINESS world works. However, bands and artists really do need to learn, at least at a basic level, of how the business works.
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