Are you planning ahead? If not, you need to be. Here’s why…

Plan Your Release Dates Carefully

Whether you are in January or in April, make sure that your record label continues to grow!

Here in the UK, if the university market is your target audience, then you need to organise your releases according to their schedule. Most students are studying for around 8 months in a year (as the rest of the time they are partying ! You will need to plan your releases to fit those time lines.

You need to know your target markets timetable to effectively schedule your releases. This will enable you to release in a timely manner while staying flexible to adjust schedules when needed. So, be in-tuned to the patterns and behaviours of your audience.

The best way to make sure that you can get your record label going and keeping it up to date is by planning ahead. In business, this is known as forecasting. You will want to project what you want to achieve with the next month, 3 months, 6 months and year. By doing this, you will know exactly where you stand with other label competition and with your labels finances.

While you are forecasting what you want to do, make sure that you include new projects to develop, old projects to maintain and developments that you want to arise with the business as a whole. These three areas will bring you in more prosperity and opportunity.

Stay tuned! We will be bringing you more tips on how to set up your record label to thrive!

If you somehow found this page by either shear determination or by magic and you want to get more of these types of useful tips on how to get your new record label off the ground correctly, click here to find  more juicy record label business building information.

How have you found your schedule? Is it difficult to plan out? Leave your questions or comments below

I made a 5:24 minute video below (scroll down to the bottom to view), that answers a question I got from Louis. He asks ” where do I take it next (the recorded music) so it can go to the next level..”

What I think he means is that when you’re starting out and you have just finished and polished up your new music, what do you do next?

Well the video below explains what you should do next.

Basically, you need to get your music to a tastemaker so that you can get some feedback and input on what you have produced.

What is a tastemaker? A tastemaker could be one of many influential music industry types. From a well respected A and R, to a DJ.

In this case, I’ll refer to the radio/club DJ as being the person who to target. Why? Because this is the method I used when I was starting out and I have used this approach on may occasions.

DJ’s have their ear to the streets and could let you know if your music is a “hit”, “miss” or a “grower”. They could get to test your music and see what the response is like first hand via radio airplay (if they can choose what gets played) and in the clubs.

I have to apologize if your genre of music doesn’t fit this method. In that case you will want to find someone that has similar influence in your genre.

This is a 25:55 minute video that takes you though a free tool that will allow you to get a bit of code and insert it into your website, myspace page and a couple other social networking websites – and build a mailing list.

Watch the video below, as I give you an overview on how to signup and it’s features (please note the video may take a little while to upload – but it will be worth it)!:

The reason why you will do much worse than use a tool/service like this, is because you can either use it on the web, or at your shows.

What I also like about this tool is that you can import the contact details you collect directly into your account by uploading them from a csv file (or excel spreadsheet).

Click here for the link to the website Scriggleit.com

IMPORTANT NOTE: It has come to my attention to which I have to admit I missed the terms of service, but scriggleit.com isn’t entirely free. It states that in they offer a NON-FREE service as well as free services. The Scriggler fan data collection utility and the Scriggle Kit electronic press kit feature are free only up until the trial period has ended. After which your account will stop until you pay for the subscription, if you wish to continue.

To be quite honest, this is a lesson to always read the small print.

To read the terms of service click here.

Non the less, this is a valuable tool.

If you have any questions or thoughts about this, leave your comments below. Your feedback is always appreciated.