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

On quite a few occasions I get asked about how to get logos and artwork done for a record label.

Where I have been lucky enough to have found several good designers to do art jobs for me in the past, I know it could be difficult to get the right person to do the job quickly and professionally.

So, I made a video for you that gives you a quick overview of how to use 99Designs.com, a freelance website where you get to post a contest/job to get your logo or artwork design done for you.

Further below, I have listed the 5 step process that will help you get your artwork done.

1. Sign up for an account at 99Designs.com

2. When you have decided what you want designed, write a brief describing what the job/contest is and choose how mush you want to pay for the design. To have a successful contest, make your contest as appealing as possible to attract the best designers.

3. Over your specified time period, you should have received several designs submitted from designers all around the world.

4. During this time you can rate the submissions and provide detailed feedback. Stay involve in your contest, give praises where praises are due – and also remember to keep it detailed.

5. At the end of the contest period, you choose the design you like pay the contest winner (or the designer) and you get the design transfered over to you.

Go and check out 99Designs.com and view the other contests that are posted.

Please leave your comments, thoughts or questions below. It will be much appreciated.

How do I raise money for my record label? That is one of the most asked questions I get asked from someone starting out.

Well, below I have done a 11.55 minute video for you that will give you 5 ideas on where to start.

I cover bank loans, savings, P and D deals, larger label subsidiary, and tapping into arts councils.

I also tell you the pros and cons of each of the different methods.

DISCLAIMER: The content in the video is by no means to be taken as legal or accounting advice. You are old enough (or you should be) to seek the advice from a professional and make business decisions yourself.

I’m going to write a quick post about the formation of record companies and protecting your label.

You may not be at this stage as yet, but, this information will be relevant to you in the future.

This is part of the reply I gave to one email I received regarding what is the simplest way to incorporate a label…

“..There are few ways to do this. If you just want to register your  company name you can go down to the appropriate office in your local county. Counties vary in their procedures as well as to how much they charge.

“Check in your local phone book under the listing for your local government offices. Often a business certificate is issued through  the county clerk’s office. Also, get an application for a business license, follow the instructions, fill in and pay the fee..”.

The above answer applies to the US. Similar for the UK, Canada and Australia, however, the rules differ slightly. And it is also the  more time consuming way to go about getting it done.

Use the resources below. They will have all the useful info you’ll  need. Plus, they can also incorperate your company up for you.

USA - Incorp.com
UK - UK-plc.net
Canada - Bdc-canada.com
Australia - Incorporator.com.au

Disclaimer: Please bare in mind, that you should also consult your accountant and lawyer regarding this matter.

If you would like to find out how to register you record label in a step by step way and more, click here to learn more.

This post is important when you are starting a record label. Reason is, you want to start off with as much of the *boring* stuff in place as possible. Non-the-less, you will need to have the following from the start as it will protect you and your record label.

So, lets get to it…

Are you ready to get noticed?  You don’t want to start without joining the right associations.  Making sure that you are connected on a world wide basis with your record label will provide you with more options for protecting your music and getting your music out there.

Look into the associations that will protect you as an artist and your record label.  For example, if you are in the US, you will want to have a membership with ASCAP or BMI, in the UK MCPS-PRS Alliance, Canada SOCAN or Australia with APRA-AMCOS.  These will give you performance and mechanical rights.

The above associations will protect the publishing and mechanical rights for you or your artist. It will also pay you royalties when someone purchases your music whether physical or download, online or offline and when you perform your *registered* songs live on stage.

Generally, ASCAP, BMI, MCPS-PRS, SOCAN and APRA-AMCOS are very helpful when you are looking for information. They will give you advice and contact details for all the associations that you need for when you register as a member.

If your budget is big enough or you can find the resources to make  promo videos, you will also want to join your country’s video licensing association. These types of associations organize the licensing and broadcasting of your promo videos on a worldwide basis when they are aired on the TV. This means that if a TV channel (terrestrial, cable or satellite) plays your video (say MTV), you will get a royalty fee for every time it is aired.

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Ask your legal representative to point you in the right direction for the relevant associations that you need to join*.

Join a good digital distribution company. Digital distribution companies work just like normal CD and record distributor companies, except they distribute online. You will need to have the relevant ISRC codes in place when registering your music with these distributors. The ISRC codes are obtained when you register your individual music tracks with your mechanical rights associations. The good thing about these online distributors is that they can get you world wide distribution for your songs.

You can also look into other country specific areas that work as associations to help and protect record labels.  These will allow you to get out there, stay protected and have a back up when you need it.

Stay tuned!  We will be bringing you more information on how to make your record business thrive!

To learn about how to start your record label and get it up and running, click here to get it step by step. Or post your comments below, please…

Here’s part 2 of Setting Up Your Company Structure:

This post will follow up from the last email, helping you to lay the foundations for your record labels success.

Recruiting Help

Once you start to run as a record company, you will realize that there is a lot of work to be done. It will continue as time goes by. Even if you could, you don’t have to do this alone.  Making sure that you set up an internal structure that works for you will allow you to have more man (or woman) power to help you or your company move in the direction that you want to proceed in.

There are many one person record labels that will choose to do everything alone when they are starting out.  However, if you are interested in having a working environment that helps you to meet full capacity, then you will need to approach the situation a little differently.

A good working environment that combines with a correct business structure should start with putting in place the legalities of working with others. Things such as payroll and partnerships should be defined through legal help or by setting agreements, contracts and working standards with others.  Make sure you seek advice from your legal representative and accountant before you reach to this point.

Once you have done this, you can recruit help or staff for your business.

Finding other musicians or like minded individuals who want to be a part of the deal or who are interested in becoming a part of your record label can help to take some of the burden off of your shoulders.  Dividing up tasks such as  admin, driver, coffee maker to engineering, mastering, pre-mixing and or recording, etc, will provide you with much needed help, so that you can concentrate on the parts of the business that you are good at, like making sure all the parts of your business is running like it is supposed to .  Going solo will mean having to wear many hats and could become very demanding.

Plan out exactly how you want your record company to be run and tell whoever works along side you to follow the company plans and goals. This will enable a professional working environment and will allow you to drive your label in the direction towards success.

If you missed part 1 of Setting Up Your Record Label Structure, you can catch up by going here.

Until the next time, stay tuned!

Before you start selling your music or any of your labels merchandise, you have to realize that you are not only a musician, but also a company. I would say that making the music is 20% and the business side is 80%. Knowing exactly how to set yourself up as a company and having a company structure will allow you to get the most out of your record label.

Use the steps below as a guideline to help you get on your way:

• Have you registered as a business yet? The first step that you must take to building your company structure is registering with the government or relevant business registration organizations. When doing this, you will have different options for the type of business you will be running depending on what your budget is like and what you long term goals are. This will be defined by whether you have partners working with you or whether you want to pay taxes with a specific set-up. You can always use a consultant to assist you with this part or can find information on your government’s main website or business names registrations website for help and advice when trying to decide what route you want to take.

• Where is your development plan? This will get you to the next step of laying the foundations of your company. Your development plan will include business plans, maintenance plans, marketing plans and financial plans. All these will be needed to be a part of the company setup. When you set up the structure and take the time and steps to put those plans in place from the beginning, you will have a clearer view of where you are heading. You will also want to find ways to make sure that your music stays within copyright and music licensing laws before you start to sell. You will either want to get help from the relevant music organizations or advice from a lawyer in order to get the help that you need, so you don’t fall outside of the law.

With these basic steps, it will be easier for your company structure to take off running and to reach it’s full capacity.

Stay tuned! We will be bringing you more business tips that every recording label has to know!

In the mean time, if you’d like to get the full picture and startup and run your own record label, check out “Start Your Own Record Label – The Ultimate Assist For The “New Ere’ Indie Label