Aspiring musicians face significant challenges in getting a record deal due to intense competition and over-saturation in the industry. Some artists, however, choose to self produce and release their music independently.
A recent survey from Pirate showed that 53% of the artists asked would prefer to self release than sign with a traditional label. However, you don’t have the network or potential financial support that a traditional label could offer you.
The music business really does operate as any other business would in other industries. It brings together legal, economic, and promotional operations and is therefore full of professionals who specialize in these fields, despite working in music. Given this, you should seek to form alliances with professionals in the music industry early on. Getting your music heard by them is crucial, and involves preparing high-quality music and presenting it effectively.
In this article, we’ll break down the different types of labels that exist and how you can increase your chances of getting signed to one.
1. Understanding How Labels Work
The first step in signing a deal is becoming familiar with the universe of the ‘label’ and how it works. The last thing you want is to find yourself in a contract that limits you creatively and as well as legally, just because the idea of being signed is appealing. Avoiding this requires doing research about record companies and the types of contracts they offer. Here’s a quick breakdown so you understand the basics before making any decisions.
Major Labels vs Indie Labels
Major Labels
When one talks about “major record labels”, they are referring to the “Big 3”: Warner Music Group (WMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME), and Universal Music Group (UMG). They are known as the majors because they represent 70% of recorded music revenue, and are the parent companies of many smaller labels. Independent labels make up the remaining 30%.
Beneath the three majors are numerous subsidiary labels. For example, Island Records and Def Jam Recordings are owned by Universal, Columbia Records is owned by Sony, and Atlantic Records is owned by Warner. Most of the labels you might recognize by name are owned by one of the Big 3.
Major labels are international, hugely funded, and run their own distribution and publishing. This means that all music business operations are taken care of by one group, which is not the case for indie labels. This also means they are very powerful players in the industry and have important relationships with almost all companies that have a musical component to them (streaming services, social medias, TV networks, etc).
Independent Labels
Independent labels make up the rest of the market. They are smaller-run businesses that have much closer relationships with their artists given their size, and they work with other companies to cover distribution and publishing as opposed to having departments for it themselves. What indie labels lack in power and leverage, they make up for in relationships and individual support. Regarding responsibilities towards their artists and what you can expect from being signed to one, they fulfill all the same duties a bigger label would.
2. What a Label Can Do For You
Record labels exist to provide financial support to bands and artists, and they seek to lift all business burdens from an artist’s plate. They can offer several types of resources, depending on their financial situation and the scale of the organization. A major label will offer a different level of assistance than an independent record label, for example. Here are a few of the many ways label support their artists.
Financing and Legal Action
Most labels will:
- Pay for studio sessions, sound engineers, instrumentalists, and any other additional collaborators, covering creation costs
- Pay for and organize things related to your image, like music videos or photoshoots
- Protect you from legal issues and find new ways for you to make money
- Take care of distributing your music and act as music publishers
The legal aspect is not to be overlooked. By this, we are referring to your rights as an artist, such as intellectual property and copyright, which is essential to have in order and often very tedious to take care of alone. This involves registering your songs with royalty collection agencies and negotiating rates with anyone you worked with. A label’s legal team will have the uncomfortable legal conversations for you, which is a big time saver.
Music Promotion and Project Development
Your record label should help you with all of the promotion necessary for your music. Again, the possibilities differ by music label and artist, but can include any or all of the following:
- Having a marketing team to lead your promotional strategy
- Having writers for all written content about you (bio, project descriptions, public statements)
- Booking promotional events (talk shows, interviews)
- Guide you in developing your image and sound
Whether you’re about to release music or have just done so, labels will brainstorm how to get your name and face out there as much as possible so more people hear your music and know who you are. This is a very intricate process, so having multiple minds on the task is a big deal for small artists looking to break through the industry and can noticed.
Organizing Tours
Booking agents and tour managers work under labels to ensure that artists will have regular performance opportunities, whether locally or internationally. With a label, the following will be taken care of:
- Booking venues for shows
- Figuring out tour dates, transportation, housing, and other costs
- Show design and build
- Your rider (document given to venues that outlines what you need to perform)
Always remember: though there are varying degrees of flexibility, you should have the last word when it comes to how you are represented. It is great to have help, but you should be aware of everything that is going on that is associated with your name and likeness. You are the heart of the whole operation!
3. Which Type of Deal Makes Sense For You?
Many artists believe that landing a record deal with a major label is the ultimate goal and marker of success. Not every label is suited to your needs, however.
Big labels may sign new artists very often in the hopes of finding the next big thing, while others keep their roster small to devote more time to each project. Which is better? It all depends on what stage you are at in your music career and the kind of resources you are looking for.
The biggest difference betweens major labels and indie labels are 1) financial support, 2) individual support, and 3) creative control.
Financial Support
Financial support can come in many forms, such as covering studio costs, photo/video shoot costs, and more. Another would be advances. When a label is wealthy and wants to invest in an artist, they often give the artist an advance upon signing with them. This is a sum of money (usually quite a substantial one) that the artist can use to bring their next project to fruition. However, labels also expect to get this advance back when the project starts making money. This is called recoupment. Whatever you’re given, you must gradually pay back until everything as been recouped. This usually happens through royalties, where the label will take a percentage of the royalties you earn off of your music, and then reduce their percentage when they’ve been paid back.
Very few indie labels have the funds to pay hefty advances, if at all. Though this may sound like a turn off, many artists signed to big labels find themselves having to pay back a huge advance they never wanted, off of music that they didn’t necessarily want to release, which is all around incredibly discouraging. This is largely due to the next point, which is individual support.
Individual Support
Major labels are huge organizations that have significantly more employees and artists than indie labels, which means that having a personal relationship with everyone who oversees your needs is very unlikely.
Indie labels with smaller teams and artist rosters often work very closely with their artists, allowing them to talk freely and openly about what they need. It also allows artists to check in directly with the people doing the work, as opposed to bigger labels who hand off tasks to anyone who has the time to contribute.
Because of the disconnect between label and artist within the majors, it’s way easier for them to drop an artist out of nowhere if they feel like they are not/will not be profitable and are not meeting expectations. The relationship is quite simply more transactional than with an indie label.
Creative Control
Major labelshave a lot of power in the industry, and therefore have a lot of power in their contracts as well. Because of the abundance of resources they provide for artists, they expect a lot back. This often comes with a lack of creative control for artists, as they have to stick to the expectations of the label. This often means that the label chooses when to release, which songs make it on the album, what the visual identity is going to be, who will be a featured artist, and how much stake the artist has in their own royalties.
For this reason, indie labels are known to be much more artist-friendly. Artists signed to indie labels may have access to less resources, butwill be able to make executive decisions regarding their projects that most majors and their subsidiaries would never allow for. This is a very important factor to keep in mind when deciding what type of label you want to work with.
4. How to Get Signed to a Record Label
Research and get in touch
There is no standard procedure to follow to get a recording contract with a music label, but a good starting point is to dig into music you enjoy and do research on the artist. Under any project on Spotify following the list of songs, you’ll find the date of the release and the name of the publishing company/label used to distribute it. Look up the label and see who else they represent. Do you make similar music to the artists on their roster?
There are over 300 record labels who are ready to listen to new music and new artists on Groover, which is also a great starting point. After uploading their music to our platform, the French electronic music duo Myoon signed a record deal with Inside Records, the label of the famous music trendmakers Electro Posé.
| Check out: 10 Tips to get in touch with A&R
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Are you looking to get signed by a record label? ⬇️
What to Send
Let’s take a look at what you’d need to send to a label that has piqued your interest.
Demos
It goes without saying that you must take the time to craft the best quality recordings possible before you release music or send your demos to anyone. As a refresher, demos are unreleased songs that are complete but can still be changed if need be. In addition to sending links to released music, demos are a great way to show what you’re working and how your sound is evolving
Links and Contact Info
However you reach out, make sure to include links to ALL your streaming platform artist pages, your email, and your phone number. Throw in the link to your website as well, if you have one (you should!).
Accolades
Recent accomplishments/accolades should be listed on your website, but if you don’t have one, briefly mention them. These could be: press write-ups, playlist placements, a certain number of streams, awards, etc.
Follow up
Though the best case scenario is getting immediate interest to sign you, this is rare and usually takes time. So, once you’ve established a rapport with your label contact, send them new tracks often so they can keep an eye on your development as an artist. They may eventually offer to sign or support you.
Don’t be in a hurry, and be smart. Don’t be discouraged by rejection. If someone is not up for the challenge, even after some time, it might just be a poor fit. Music is subjective, and just because you don’t resonate with one person doesn’t mean others will feel the same.
| Check out : How to send a demo to a record label
5. Understanding Contracts
If you’ve gotten an offer, make sure you read the fine print. You do not want to get stuck in a legally binding contract you do not fully understand.
There are many different types of recording contracts, but the most common contract with a major will cover everything related to the costs of recording, publishing, and distributing your music. Additionally, they will manage everything related to marketing and promotion. It will therefore allow you to call on specialists, whose mission will be to make your music accessible, whether physically (via independent record stores, department stores, etc.), or digitally (get your music on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube Music, etc.).
Contracts will also outline how long you are signed to the label, how many projects you must release during that time, who owns the music, and what the label’s percentage of your revenue is (the percentage of your sales/streams taken by the label). The label’s share of your earnings varies depending on who you sign with, how popular your music is, and the way you negotiate the contract. In contracts with majors, an artist earns between 10 and 15%of their total royalties. You will be able to take home more income once you’ve recouped your advance. With indie labels, these numbers are far more flexible.
With majors, the good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money on your music upfront: from recording to distribution, the whole process is taken care of. The downside is that you will receive a small amount compared to the total likely profits, and that you will likely not own your recordings (also called “masters”). Indie labels will offer less resources, but more support and creative control in your decision-making. Pros and cons!
| Check out this article on the ICON Collective Blog: Being an independent artist vs signing to a record label
6. Which Contract Should You Choose as an Independent Artist?
If you need a little support in all areas of your development, a standard artist contract should work for you. Make sure not to sign a deal that binds you to a label for too long, however. If you blow up and no longer need as many services, you don’t want to feel limited by what you signed before your success.
If you have self-produced music and have managed the artistic and commercial aspects of your project yourself, you should aim for a contract that only deals with distribution as opposed to covering recording as well. It will allow you to put your music out and promote it without your ownership being compromised.
If you’ve build a solid following and have generated a significant amount of streams on your own and want further exposure, consider licensing your music to a label so they control where it’s used and market it more. This allows you to maintain ownership while reaping the benefits of a label’s funding and network. They will, naturally, be taking a percentage of your earnings in return.
Examples of Independent Record Labels
Want to find out how to get a record deal with independent labels on Groover? Check out the list of indie labels below ⬇️
Cracki Records
Cracki Records is driven by heart and aims to offer a wide range of eclectic, quality music. Therefore, they consider themselves a laboratory but also a springboard.
Styles of music : electropop, indie pop, indie rock, new-disco, pop soul, psychedelic pop, synthpop, synthwave.
Artists signed to Cracki Records : Agar Agar, Saint DX, Alma Elste, GENTS, Lucien & The Kimono Orchestra, Mangabey, Yen Yen, Antonin Appaix and many others
Ba Da Bing Records
Ba Da Bing is a Brooklyn label that has gone on to release almost 200 albums (Sharon Van Etten, Beirut, Julie Byrne, Lady Lamb, Talk Talk reissues) spawn a sister label (Grapefruit), encompass management (Neutral Milk Hotel, Shearwater, The Breeders), tour booking and management, freelance product management (The Leaf Label, Planet Mu), and marketing/promotional consultation.
Styles of music: ambient, experimental rock, indie folk, lofi bedroom, neoclassical, noise, psychedelic rock, experimental, indie, lo-fi, melancholic, underground, weird…
They’d like to receive music similar to artists like: Cate Le Bon, Cassandra Jenkins, Voivod, Sarah Mary Chadwick, Roy Montgomery, Talk Talk, Jackson C. Frank, Radiohead, Brian Eno, Alice Coltrane, The Velvet Underground, Fred Neil, Throbbing Gristle, Swans, Tall Dwarfs, Ichiko Aoba, The Dead C, Six Organs Of Admittance, Talulah Gosh, Life Without Buildings.
SONO Music Group
SONO is a team of professionals who support artists by working on projects they love together like a family. They provide services worldwide, promoting music and encouraging open-mindedness. Their mission is to bring together artists, creatives, and music lovers worldwide, making the world more vibrant than before.
Styles of music: pop, hip-hop, rap
👉 Find the complete list of record labels available on Groover here 👀
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