With or without you - Do you NEED a record label?

Well, this was not a question until 2000’s. Record companies always were the key holders of the entrance in the showbiz. You needed someone to manufacture ship your records to the stores, you had to get yourself in media – TV or radio, because there was no other option of being heard by someone. What’s most important – you could not make a proper product without a record company. Recording process was far more complex and involved technologies, which cost several hundred thousand dollars, sometimes more. You couldn’t create anything material without the company.

Well, now the digital revolution changed everything. And it provided more than just the ability to have more songs on mp3 players. You don’t need a studio, producer, mixer and other staff to create a musical product now because there are dozens of sound programs which you can buy (or steal) for a couple hundred dollars, buy an intermediate soundcard and headphones for another couple and you’re all set. You may even record most of the instruments with just one midi keyboard. Well, of course a track recorded in a professional studio will always dominate in quality over the homemade one (doesn’t matter how good you are), but no one expects high-quality songs from a beginning artist. This is a golden rule. The labels don’t worry much about the quality of sound, the most important thing is to show them what are you made of and what do you have boiling in your head.

Even a bigger leap was made in promotion tools and politics. Here also, there are almost no more obstacles to get you music published and heard. Anyone can get their music distributed digitally.  It’s possible to get your music to ITunes, Amazon and other digital retailers. It’s possible to send out your material to music magazines, since every self-respecting one now has a website (many of them are even internet-based). You can send your “CV” to almost every music festival, every community or competition. What’s most important – when you make a deal with a record company (especially with if you sign with a major), you give up control of your recordings and give out a really huge part of your income. Very often from both record and non-record areas also. In fact – artist royalties with a major label are 13-20% in USA and a bit more in Europe. Well in case of do-it-yourself digital distribution, you receive about 70% of each song or album sold. Needles to say, difference is huge. There again, you also have the freedom of building your own image and promoting yourself as you want.

And the digital promotion ways are everything but complicated - you can start being friendly with a top radio DJ and personally sending him your latest track to play on his gig, or emailing up a well-known music blogger to offer her a cut from the proceeds of your latest music package. Some manage to make an ITunes top 10 sale that way, and that’s loads of money for a beginner.

Real paradise eh? But this all makes sense when you are a well-promoted artist/band already. And this is quite tricky, because commercially, if you sell 10 albums each month digitally at 10$ each and receive 70 bucks at the end of the month, maybe it would be better to sign to a tiny indie label, who’ll manage to sell 100 albums per month and to receive 150$ at least. It all depends on the success rate you have, promotion so to say.

And here’s the main catch – when you’re up to yourself, you can never, never match the power of a well balanced indie label on the digital market. Some distributors try to convince you in the opposite, now that’s just bullshit. Sure, someone sings with a major, they put his video next to Coldplay’s new hit single on YouTube, shoot a 200k$ video, book O2 Arena and make all the leading magazines review their artist. And how are you going to catch up, by making a free download of your 6 track album on your Facebook page?

 So the labels still lead the game. Though the digital market increases every moment, showbiz is a mistress who smiles only at the ones who have loads of contacts, power and influence. And in this field, the labels have all the horses yet.

And do not let anyone fool you - there's nothing especially revolutionary in the model of self releasing your record. You're not throwing away the label - you're really just starting a record label yourself.

So, from my point of view, signing with a label is still a best start. You may not need all the services that label provides – for example, you may have an already recorded album and a video, but you’ll need the promotion and contacts that the labels infrastructure allows. This is Essential for a good start. And when you reach the height where you have the fan-base and popularity to do on your own, it’s a good time to revalue your needs and demands and make a choice which suits you best.