Labels vs Self-Releasing: Which Is The Best Route For Your Music?
Labels vs Self-Releasing: Which Is The Best Route For Your Music? · Source: Bob Malkowski/Gearnews
We look into music publishing and the benefits of working with labels vs self-releasing to learn the best way to get your music out there.
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Whether you work alone or with a marketing team, getting your music to reach your desired audience is hard work. However, if you have an understanding of the inner workings of music publishing, marketing and distribution, this can be much easier to navigate.
Labels vs Self-Releasing
Luckily, you don’t have to study the entire industry just to release your record successfully. Major labels work differently compared to small independent labels, and specific music genres often have prescribed ways of reaching their respective audiences. So with the right information, you can plot a unique course for your music releases.
Labels vs Self-Releasing: Prerelease Considerations
Before you sign up for that DistroKid package or start sending demos to a local label, it’s important to make sure your expectations are realistically rooted. When it’s done correctly by either you or your label, marketing your music is like gardening, an activity that requires constant attention. You can’t expect growth if you only market your music on release days.
If you already have a global audience with thousands of fans frothing for your next release, you’ve been doing things the right way. However, if you are still growing your fanbase day by day, this requires taking an active role in the process. If you end up signing to a label, they will have a schedule to get the most from your releases, tour dates, and merchandising.
While there isn’t one set way to do this, finding a purposeful way to regularly engage with your fans will help you create a story around the music you want to share with them, as well as the shows you’re playing. Depending on the type of artist you are and style of music you create, this could be on platforms such as SoundCloud, YouTube, or Patreon.
Labels vs Self-Releasing: The Benefits of Labels
Although it doesn’t work in quite the same way as it used to, the marketing and logistical engine of a label can still appear to pluck an artist from relative obscurity and give them a global platform. Apart from the freedom of budgets for visual content and music videos, labels open doors with their networks, connecting new artists with bookings agencies, major festivals and other prominent artists for collaboration.
You’re no longer working on your own with your high-school friend doing your social media, which can be refreshing. Instead, you will have a team helping you timeline your projects, staying on schedule with your creative tasks, rehearsals, and hopefully preventing you from being late for a meeting ever again.
Being signed to a label immediately puts you in the same WhatsApp group as established artists, which does wonders for the public perception of you as a brand. There are no guarantees, but with reputable backing, your chances of success and further opportunities coming a-knocking are greatly increased.
Labels vs Self-Releasing: Label Cons
The first word to get your head around when dealing with a label is compromise. It may not be so apparent initially when you are signed, but a label’s agenda is profit driven, which means the most successful artists on the roster always come first. Most labels don’t sign artists unless they have some kind of buzz around them, and this will greatly affect the terms they offer in any agreement.
Because they existed in the business before you, there will always be an underlying air of authority thrust upon you in any dealings with your label. More often than not, this includes a sausage factory philosophy where the approach that worked for one artist is immediately assumed to work for another.
The bigger the label you work with, the more comprehensive they will be about recouping any advances from every revenue stream associated with your brand. Also, this more “hands-on” style means that the label may own your masters to ensure that they have the legal means to monetize them in every way possible.
Labels vs Self-Releasing: The Joys of DIY
Releasing your own music is harder, but because you don’t have to share as many pieces of the pie, any success is far more rewarding both financially and otherwise. Creative control means you have the freedom to change up your sound from one record to the next without consulting a committee that only cares about the revenue side of things.
As you scale up your operation, you’ll have more data to access to base your decisions upon. This can be empowering, because instead of changing your music to align with a label, you can focus on catering for your fans and add value by always keeping them guessing and yearning for more.
With the array of engagement platforms available, you can find out which countries your music is being celebrated the most to plan tour dates or simply keep an eye on which colour t-shirt isn’t selling as well as you’d hoped. Although you might not have the best producers and engineers, having the freedom of your own creative choices often results in music with more shelf-life, which is better for your career.
Labels vs Self-Releasing: The Drawbacks Of Independence
The first thing you’ll notice about creating and releasing music without a label is the time and money it takes to see any amount of tangible success. The high level of risk, unforeseen costs, and the unpredictable ROI are apparent in every aspect of the business from music streaming to touring.
Without the backing of a label, you’re often starting from scratch without any connections in the music industry. This means that every inch of momentum has to be self-generated, without any springboards onto prominent Spotify playlists or major festivals. The biggest myth about releasing your own music successfully is that you’ll have endless hours to create.
The truth is that music creation and performance are only aspects of being a successful artist. The real grind is building your brand to a state where you can actually start filling venues or generating some decent income from streaming. For this reason, many artists seek to get signed early in their careers, so the label can assist with that initial growth spurt.
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