Jump to content

What exactly does an indie label do?


Noise...

Recommended Posts

  • Members

What an indie label does for you is as diverse as the number of labels. Some will only front you the Cds, and some will do nearly what a major does. Depends on the label and 1) how deeply in debt you want to get with them, and 2) how much profitability they think you can be to them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I was in a band on an indie label. Here is what they did:

 

1. Paid to press our record and lay out and print the packaging and gave us 500+ copies (actually can't remember exactly now... maybe it was 700?) of it to do whatever we wanted with (ie: to sell on tour).

2. Get the record into distribution and record stores

3. Send the record to magazines for review

4. They offered to pay for recording, but our band recorded ourselves. They offered to pay for equipment to use for recording and paid for the mastering of the record.

5. By simple association to the label name, it became easier to get shows and get on tours with other bigger name bands.

6. Paid for promotional things like posters and promo photos.

7. Pay us royalties for sales on iTunes.

8. Didn't demand or expect anything out of us, which was rad. There was no contract to sign... that is probably rare no matter what the label, but this was a very friendly agreement.

 

However, it depends on the label. Some would do none of this, some would do more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I was in a band on an indie label. Here is what they did:


1. Paid to press our record and lay out and print the packaging and gave us 500+ copies (actually can't remember exactly now... maybe it was 700?) of it to do whatever we wanted with (ie: to sell on tour).

2. Get the record into distribution and record stores

3. Send the record to magazines for review

4. They offered to pay for recording, but our band recorded ourselves. They offered to pay for equipment to use for recording and paid for the mastering of the record.

5. By simple association to the label name, it became easier to get shows and get on tours with other bigger name bands.

6. Paid for promotional things like posters and promo photos.

7. Pay us royalties for sales on iTunes.

8. Didn't demand or expect anything out of us, which was rad. There was no contract to sign... that is probably rare no matter what the label, but this was a very friendly agreement.


However, it depends on the label. Some would do none of this, some would do more.

 

 

Which label was this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Booya Tribe covered most of the bases there with some great advice.

 

What you want to do is examine the style of music that you play. If you're not sure exactly who or what you sound like or what genre you fall into, ask other people for their honest opinion. Some bands spend years mislabelling themselves, when a proper genre realization can lead to more appropriate gigs and more appropriate labels that have your best interests in mind.

 

To me, a good indie label should do everything that takes away from you doing what you do best: making music. They should promo, help fund the album (some labels fund it exclusively; others have a joint deal with artists and split the profits), have some tour funds available, etc. The perfect example is not always the easiest to find, but well worth researching to find out which one suits your particular needs the best.

 

You also need to know what you're after. For example, if you fund your own music and desire the creative control that it offers, you should look for a deal like that. Most indie labels give creative control to the artist; others--and this is the exception, not the rule--basically function as "mini majors", in that they start to have executive producers or executive decisions that involves "tweaking of the art". So if you're worried about not having full creative control, running your own label may be the best--and then seek out a distributor.

 

Seeing as that alot of the majors (and even prominent indie labels) are having trouble these days selling records due to the proliferation of MP3's and artist DIY (MySpace, online sales, messageboards, etc), i'd say that you're best off taking out a loan to start your own label and doing it yourself. Labels (even some indie labels) have essentially acted as banks for loans--however, if you take out the loan yourself and run your own label, you get to write off a whole bunch of things. Computer, ink, internet, some gas fees, pressing fees for records, promo, equipment, maintenance (strings, amp tubes, cords)....heck, you even get to write off some things like music magazines and purchases by other bands. The reason for that--and SOCAN/ BMI encourages this--is because you need to keep up on the competition and what's going on.

 

There's lists of campus radio stations online, plus there's MySpace (GREAT networking tool), messageboards with likeminded taste in music, promo-ing at cool zines or blogs. It's pretty easy--all you have to do is ask them. :)

 

So yeah, long message, but IMHO, the way that the music industry is going these days, there's no reason why you can't do it yourself. Some indie labels are folding, the music stores and distributors don't carry near what they used to, so there's really not a whole heckuva lot that any label can do for artists these days that great online networking can't achieve. Ultimately, you have to analyze what you need out of a label and ask if you can't do it yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Booya Tribe covered most of the bases there with some great advice.


What you want to do is examine the style of music that you play. If you're not sure exactly who or what you sound like or what genre you fall into, ask other people for their honest opinion. Some bands spend years mislabelling themselves, when a proper genre realization can lead to more appropriate gigs and more appropriate labels that have your best interests in mind.


To me, a good indie label should do everything that takes away from you doing what you do best: making music. They should promo, help fund the album (some labels fund it exclusively; others have a joint deal with artists and split the profits), have some tour funds available, etc. The perfect example is not always the easiest to find, but well worth researching to find out which one suits your particular needs the best.


You also need to know what you're after. For example, if you fund your own music and desire the creative control that it offers, you should look for a deal like that. Most indie labels give creative control to the artist; others--and this is the exception, not the rule--basically function as "mini majors", in that they start to have executive producers or executive decisions that involves "tweaking of the art". So if you're worried about not having full creative control, running your own label may be the best--and then seek out a distributor.


Seeing as that alot of the majors (and even prominent indie labels) are having trouble these days selling records due to the proliferation of MP3's and artist DIY (MySpace, online sales, messageboards, etc), i'd say that you're best off taking out a loan to start your own label and doing it yourself. Labels (even some indie labels) have essentially acted as banks for loans--however, if you take out the loan yourself and run your own label, you get to write off a whole bunch of things. Computer, ink, internet, some gas fees, pressing fees for records, promo, equipment, maintenance (strings, amp tubes, cords)....heck, you even get to write off some things like music magazines and purchases by other bands. The reason for that--and SOCAN/ BMI encourages this--is because you need to keep up on the competition and what's going on.


There's lists of campus radio stations online, plus there's MySpace (GREAT networking tool), messageboards with likeminded taste in music, promo-ing at cool zines or blogs. It's pretty easy--all you have to do is ask them.
:)

So yeah, long message, but IMHO, the way that the music industry is going these days, there's no reason why you can't do it yourself. Some indie labels are folding, the music stores and distributors don't carry near what they used to, so there's really not a whole heckuva lot that any label can do for artists these days that great online networking can't achieve. Ultimately, you have to analyze what you need out of a label and ask if you can't do it yourself.

 

How do you deal with booking successful tours if your not on a label? Is it even possible to get on a tour with a signed band as an opener? For a while now I have realized that a label isn't really doing anything except loaning us money, except that they can offer tour support.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

How do you deal with booking successful tours if your not on a label? Is it even possible to get on a tour with a signed band as an opener? For a while now I have realized that a label isn't really doing anything except loaning us money, except that they can offer tour support.

 

Booking tours is a bit of a stumper sometimes. I've seen tons of great bands play through here to five to 10 people, and that's definetely a bummer for them (I always try to buy merch!). My analysis is that they did their own tours much too soon out in the middle of nowhere.

 

My advice is to go right to the bands, themselves. You may want to contact the most successful touring bands in the genre that you play in, but you may get alot of non-responses which may discourage you. So here's a better scenario--pick bands that are up and coming in your genre that you believe in as the next bands to crack it big, that you genuinely like. Because the thing is, if you're touring with them, you're going to hear the music night after night, and even great music can get tiring that way sometimes; let alone bad music. :) And you'll have the added benefit of believing in those bands as they make their way up, and you'll both succeed and grow together.

 

A great rapport with bands--not club bookers--will get you further in the end. I mean, yeah, it's great to be nice to the bookers, but they often will book bands because they draw well, not necessarily because they like the music. It's usually because "they heard band _____ does well" sort of thing--not all the time...some club bookers try to work only with bands that they actually like, but in my experience, most club bookers won't have a clue who alot of bands actually are. The misconception is that it's the club bookers that you're talking to, but really, if you do it right by networking with bands, they'll insist that you're on the bill. But the other bands will want to play with you because they like your music, and best of all, because you're easy to deal with; you want to deal with them for the same reasons, as well.

 

Hope that helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

In my experience, you start out with tours involving smaller bands in the genre that you are involved with - basically just other people like you who are into the same stuff. You contact bands that you like, even if they are not huge, and you tell them you are touring and ask if they set up shows in their towns. This is easy because you will naturally get along with those people and it is fun to hang out if you don't have a huge attitude about yourself.

 

After you have toured like that, if your band is fun to watch, then people want to come back and see you and they will tell their friends. It grows naturally that way. Also, for us what happened was that a few luccky circumstances happened and we got invited to play on some other bigger shows that were happening around where we were headed anyway. This lead to some people hearing about us and getting more shows around in different regions of the country.

 

For us, we got on the label because we toured a few times, each a little more successfully, and the guy from the label caught wind of us. We had played with a few bands from the label on various shows. People were talking about us in his town and he came to our show and said, "hey, do you want to do a record?" And that was it. After that, we got some larger shows and tours and stuff, but really it was just a natural growth, not a "big break."

 

However, this was in an undergound punk splinter genre with a good community of people into the music. It may be different in other styles. I have seen other bands in styles that have more "attitude" associated with it (for example 70's style punk) have a harder time, because everyone thinks they are cooler than everyone else, and there is not the same level of support among those groups because of the egos involved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

I have seen other bands in styles that have more "attitude" associated with it (for example 70's style punk) have a harder time, because everyone thinks they are cooler than everyone else, and there is not the same level of support among those groups because of the egos involved.

 

 

Oh, you must be talking about the current indie rock scene.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Oh, you must be talking about the current indie rock scene.

 

 

Well, I was talking about the 70's style "garage punk" scene because I have known people involved in that music, but it isn't the only one like that. Really though, there are always nice people in any scene, even in the "bigger" bands, so it can be a matter of getting past the snobs and crazies and finding the nice people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

Well, I was talking about the 70's style "garage punk" scene because I have known people involved in that music, but it isn't the only one like that. Really though, there are always nice people in any scene, even in the "bigger" bands, so it can be a matter of getting past the snobs and crazies and finding the nice people.

 

 

Oh yeah, no kidding....that garage punk thing really was exclusive. I loved the style (big Crypt, Gearhead, Junk, Estrus records fan), but half the people that liked those bands were just total snobs. It's not the 70's garage punk...for me, it was the 60's garage punk. You know, everything mono, had to sound like it took one or two takes to record, atrocious mix jobs, etc. Some of those bands (ie: Mummies) were great, but I got the impression that half of those scene fans liked that stuff because it sounded like it was recorded on a lo-fi ghettoblaster. I thought it was all rock n' roll....but those guys really hated heavy metal, and you'd run into problems there because Junk and Gearhead and Bomp and Estrus would sign 60's type bands and then the Motorhead/ AC/DC type bands. The support for those labels was never really truly there, because people were too busy wondering what "was" or "wasn't" their style. Some of those guys were the absolute worst scenester types; no better or worse than the metalheads who they despised. That's my take on it, anyways--scenesters get so wrapped up in their own solace in their scene that they forget that they become exactly like the people that they're patterning themselves against.

 

It reminds me one time of this one guy, we called him "Pennywise Bob"....loved Pennywise, but hated metal. If Pennywise were any closer to metal, they'd pretty much be 80's thrash! Scenes are like religions--they all claim to be right, but they all claim to be right by claiming that the other religions are inferior. That's why I try to be tolerant of other types of music and scenes, because none's wrong--there's room for all of them. I just wish that everyone else had the same philosophy....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...