Picking The Right Business Partner

Starting a record label can be very stressful, and cost a lot of money.  In my experience of trying to start an indie record labels I am learning do’s and don’t of the start-up business.  First and foremost before starting an indie record label figure out if you will do this all by yourself or if you try and find business partners.  I would suggest if you can afford to take the start up cost on your own, you should start the label by yourself.  If not when it comes to choosing a business partner take the suggestion the article 7 Tips on How to Choose a Business Partner, and choose your business partner as if you are choosing a spouse or a day care provider. [About.com] If I could go back in the hands of time I would have done my due diligence and picked business partners that have the same passion, vision and values that I have.  Also, you want to make sure you choose partners that are willing to invest the same amount time and money into your record label. 

There are important issues that you want to make sure you accomplish when starting a record label.  First, you want to make sure you have a good business plan.  Some people like to go straight into the start of business without having the vision or the plan needed to have a successful business.  I will give you some advice if your business partners do not see the importance of getting all the legal work complete before starting run the other way.  In an article on how to start your own record label, the first plan of action is to start with your first year budget, and create a business plan. [SOS] If you choose to start this label on your own this can be very simple because you are the person in charge, and you can have only your input into this business plan and the budget.  But if you are working with business partners this is crucial that you sit down with all of your partners and develop this plan.  In your business plan make sure you establish roles.   From my current experience this seems to be one the biggest issue we are having moving forward.  The problem with not establishing roles is that no one knows exactly who makes decisions, and your employees do not know who to answer to.   Just remember when starting a record label choose your business partners wisely or try and start the label yourself.

 

Money! Money! Money!

Money, Money, Money!!!!

As an up and coming music executive, I am slowly but surely learning that one of the main assets I need is money.  I currently have seven artists, and they are constantly coming up with songs and ideas. This creates a need for beats and cd duplication.  As I move forward, I am finding it more and more difficult to get beats for free, and it is pretty much impossible to get CD’s duplicated for free. 

When it comes to getting your CD’s replicated, you have to first get them mixed properly, and from there you will have to get them mastered.  These are two very important steps that we cannot bypass.  The reason that you have to take these steps is that if you give anyone in the music industry a bad CD well there goes our one shot of opportunity.   Can you imagine running into Diddy, Russell Simmons, Birdman or Dr. Dre, and they cannot hear your songs because it sounds muddy or the bass is so high they cannot understand a word that is coming out of your mouth?  Well, that is what I have realized, and I chose to invest my money and trying to get our music sounding as professional as possible.  Because of course mixing and mastering comes with a pretty hefty cost, but a cost of doing business.   Now once you have your music mixed and mastered, you are still not at the process of getting the CD duplicated.  You still have to get the artwork done for the cover.

Now, in order to get a cover done you need to have a graphic designer. I am lucky and I have two graphic designers that work with me, but the only problem is since they are doing it for free I have to work around their schedule.  Again, how can I complain when I am getting work done for free?  But once you have the artwork you have to then pay either in the duplication process, or before and send the cover off to print, and get some covers printed.  Designing and printing CD covers is just another cost you will have to incur in order to duplicate your music professionally.  But hey you are little bit closer to being done, but wait there is one more important step you have to take, and what is that?  Now don’t forget you have to get an UPC code for your CD.  If you don’t know what an UPC Code is, well it is known as a bar code, which will allow you to get paid, and track how many records you are selling.  You would think an UPC code would be free, well think again you have to pay for this as well.  Now, you can either get this when you pay a company such as disc makers, or you can go directly to the Uniform Code Council and pay for it, but then you have to really know what you are doing.  You find disc makers at, http://www.discmakers.com/.  Now, you see all the processes it takes just to get a cd duplicated, and this does not include all the promotional and recording cost that comes with making a song.  This one of the trails and tribulations of becoming a self-made music executive… MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!!!  But like some artist say, “it cost to be the boss”.

Kellie B.

An Up & Coming Music Executive

http://www.knowthemusicbiz.com/best-practices-for-cd-manufacturing/

http://www.worldmediagroup.com/cd-guide

Why Did I Even Try?

Today I was sitting down just thinking why did I try to get into this music industry?  Well, I was able to answer this question, and it is because I love music.  So how far will my love for music take me?  I always wanted to work for a big time record label when I was young, but I never knew what I wanted to do at this record label.  Now that I am grown I have an understanding of what I want to do. I am currently running an entertainment company, which is comprised of a record label and promotional company. I did not start off running a small entertainment company, it all started with me becoming a manager for a local Las Vegas hip-hop artist.  At this point it seemed that I was just trying to figure out how to get his music complete, and then I started thinking I want to grow, and how can I do this?  Well, a year later I met my business partner who had an artist as well, and at this time I had 2 artists total.  So we than decided to start a record label, but then we thought lets start a promotional company that can do the promotions for our record label, and this is where the journey truly began of the Trials and Tribulations of an up and coming music executive.

Kellie B.