Advantages of indie labels, and selling music yourself ???

Hi all

Im a songwriter, and producer and when I started writing with a singer last year, it was all geared towards selling our songs to other artists, films, etc...

We have now decided to put an album together to sell, which Im also going to do on my own with my solo material as well, whilst still sending material out to be published etc...

What are the advantages of indie labels as apposed to selling material yourself?

CDbaby looks like a good company and at the moment the most realistic option to sell our stuff.

Ive thought of sending material to record labels, but how do you know which ones you can trust,

and which ones just take a cut for doing absolutely nothing.

Any advice on the advantages of both would be great.

Cheers

ps

im based in London - UK

It all depends on the deal. Some indies do a lot more than just market your record. And some do a lot less. If you get an offer from a label, there are only 2 rational ways to respond:

1. Run away and hide as fast as possible while you still have some money in your wallet.

2. Hire a good manager and a good attorney (I guess they're called solicitors over there), and let them empty your wallet before the label gets hold of it.

The simplest and best way to market, assuming you have a market buzz that is creating demand for your CDs, is to put it on tunecore.com or CDBaby - But they won't go out knocking on doors trying to get you radio play or get your CD into retail stores. They just sell CDs for you & take a cut.

Is there any good UK equivilants to CDbaby?

With me being based in the UK, the delivery charge would be more through CDbaby, and does seem a bit pointless using CDbaby for UK and Europe???

Not that im in huge demand in any country