Over the last five years, the internet has brought about some of the biggest changes in the history of recorded music. Worldwide distribution at the press of a button, instant communication with fans, a world of music at your fingertips. So does that mean the record label is dead? Why not self-release your tracks and stop these middlemen taking a share of your cash? Let's take a look at the pro's and cons...First, we'll just take a step back for a moment and consider what the landscape was like just a few years back; to get a release, you'd need to get your track signed to a label. That label (or their distributor) would stump up a thousand or two in order to press up vinyl, cover mastering and marketing costs (back in the days when sending the track to the big name DJs meant hundreds in postage and giving away all that precious stock), payments for mechanical royalties and all the rest of it. It was tough for an individual to get involved.
Now of course, it's very different. Put your tune on Soundcloud and the world can hear it; put it on MegaRapidUpload and they can download it; get yourself a paypal account and sign up with Bandcamp, Topspin, or Reverbnation and you can sell your music - just like a 'real' label! Only, this time, you don't pay 50% to the label, and if you're with the likes of Bandcamp, you don't even pay a distributor - just the retailers cut of around 15% (and a smaller cut to paypal).
That sums up several of the 'pro' arguments right there - the potential to earn very much more money for the same amount of sales. But there are more. You also get complete creative control; not just over the music, so you can release whatever you like without someone worrying whether it's enough of a 'hit', but also the artwork and design. You can write your own press-release, to make sure the music is presented as you wish. You don't have to fit in around release schedules, or wait for distributors. For the control freaks, it's a dream come true!
Sounds great, doesn't it. The irony is, however, that the same circumstances that have enabled this revolution - (the internet and new digital technology) have also made it very difficult. Now that everyone can get their stuff out there on a global scale, everyone is doing just that. The amount of small new labels and independent artists out there is multiplying rapidly; so for an artist it's hard to get your voice heard, while fans struggle to find music they like among the deluge.And this is where we remember some of the ancillary benefits of record labels. They have spent months or years building up a profile and pushing out tunes to fans - they already have a fanbase, and your release will be picked up by these guys straight away. And let's not forget the flipside of control freakery; it's a lot of work! It takes time to arrange artwork, mastering, release dates, and get out doing promo for your release. Some people would be better off just handling the music, and letting others with experience take care of some of this.
PR is another big issue. You need it more than ever now, since there's so much competition, and it covers more ground than previously. These days you need to keep your social networks up to date and engaged, you need to be hitting up the blogs, forums, DJs, internet radio crews and more. And that's just on top of the old stuff - it's just as important to get your tracks to FM radio, magazine reviewers etc as ever. Many labels will have built up these contacts and networks already - and starting from scratch, to find the relevant people, get their details and (most importantly) get them to actually listen to you; it's a daunting task. This author can tell you, from bitter experience, that to start from zero and build a mailing list of reviewers, dozens of forums, hundreds of blogs, and hundreds more DJs - it's an awesome amount of work. And a lot of artistic types will find that it's piteously dull work, too.
It's perfectly possible to pay a PR company to do the work for you, however. You'll need to invest a few hundred up front, which a label might otherwise do, but this may free your time to get on with more important things.
Something else you need to be very careful about - more than normal in fact - is quality control. By skipping out a label, and their A&R process, you can release anything you like. But this also means you can be suckered into releasing something that's not really up to standard, just for the convenience. And that won't help your profile one bit. So if you've been sending your tracks out to labels with no luck, perhaps consider that they could use a touch more work before release. And if you haven't, then remember to get plenty of feedback from friends and DJs first, to be sure you're really putting a quality product into the world. In this age of plenty, it's only the seriously good that stands out!So, to recap - and once again, this is a subject that could merit a whole book, but we're trying to be concise here - self-releasing your beats offers a very direct way into the industry, and not only that, it enables you to make more money with less sales. On the other hand, it would be more money for a lot more work. Are you ready? Then put on your entrepeneur's hat and let's go...
