Why to release your music on a label?

This days releasing your music on a label is not an obvious choice.

Today you can promote yourself in many other ways… Sell your music on bandcamp. publish it for free on soundcloud, youtube, put is on dropbox and post the link on facebook…  or even start your own digital label, there is a lot  …

I would start with the goal, what is your goal? In case your goal is: 1. Become rich or become famous, get booked to play as a superstar dj’s on a big festival…. labels are not your best choice… especially if you are in the underground sub genre…

So why than? Well I gathered here a few reasons:

1. Reach people that like the same genre. – Labels have their audience, each label has it’s own taste, style, artists , concepts and philosophy… This is a great news for you as a beginner artist, in case your music matches those aspects and a label owner suggests to you to release your music… You are on the right track to all the people that already like this specific label, and in case they liked part of the previous releases of this label, since you was chosen by the taste of the same label owner…. There is a really high chance they will like your music too!

2. Be a part of the community – Except of having an audience labels are a community of musicians , dj’s, radio stations and other labels… By entering one label you are exposed to all of those people , which will result in …

3. Enjoy label benefits – Design, Mastering Engineer, Promotion and Feedback loop… Usually labels , even the small ones , will master your stuff, and work with a designer

4.  Quality stamp – I am a believer in my music, I think I bring something fresh and unique in my style, but having my stuff released on a label feels to me like a quality stamp, once somebody else is willing to invest his time and money in your music, than it means that at least another person thinks your music  will be liked by more people…

5. Live your dream , become what you admire – Out of all reasons I think this one is the strongest to me , since the day I have started listening to music, I was that kid that always read all the info on the CD’s and cassettes, I was reading label details , about all the people involved in the production etc… and my dream was to see my name standing among the names of my favorite artist, or even just being written near the label logo which previously I’ve seen with my favorite artist name.

With each new track/label I am dealing with , I try to think which of those “buckets” detailed earlier are filled by the label, and this way I decide to go or not to go this path, and as you can see from activity on  my beatport page , labels are usually my choice.

 

Why to release your music on a label?

This days releasing your music on a label is not an obvious choice.

Today you can promote yourself in many other ways…

• Sell your music on bandcamp
• Publish it for free on soundcloud/youtube/upload it to dropbox and post the link on Facebook…
• Or even start your own digital label, there is a lot of tutorials and automation that will help you to do it today if not for free than for around 10$.

To answer this question I would start with the goal, what is your goal?

In case your goal is:

• To become rich
• Become famous.
• Get booked to play as a superstar dj’s on a big festival…

Than labels are not your best choice… especially if you are producing in the underground sub genre…

So why than?

Well I gathered here a few reasons/goals:

1. Reach people that like the same genre

Labels have their audience, each label has it’s own taste, style, artists , concepts and philosophy… Those are a great news for you as a beginner artist, in case your music matches those aspects and a label owner suggests to you to release your music… You are on the right track to be exposed to all the people that already like this specific label, and in case they liked part of the previous releases of this label, and now you was chosen by the taste of the same label owner…. There is a really high chance they will like your music too!

2. Be a part of the community 

Except of having an audience labels are a community of musicians , dj’s, radio stations and other friend labels… By entering one label you are exposed to all of those people , which will result in many other interesting suggestions …

3. Enjoy label benefits

Labels work with designers, mastering engineers, they do promotions and usually provide a feedback loop… Usually labels , even the small ones , will master your stuff, work with a designer, perform some PR and provide you with a feedback from other artists, dj’s and radio stations, this alone a really good reason to start with a label.

4. Quality stamp

I am a believer in my music, I think I bring something fresh and unique in my style, but having my stuff released on a label feels to me like a quality stamp, once somebody else is willing to invest his time and money in your music, it means that at least one another person thinks your music will be liked by more people… and this is something.

5. Live your dream , become what you admire

Out of all reasons I think this one is the strongest for me , since the day I have started listening to music, I was that kid that always read all the info on the CD’s and cassettes. I was reading label details, reading the names of all the people involved in the production etc… My dream was to see my name standing among the names of my favorite artist, or even just being written near the label logo which previously I’ve seen near my favorite artist name. For me releasing on certain labels or certain artists is a dream that came true.

So my strategy is, with each new track/label I am dealing with , I try to think which of those “buckets” detailed earlier are filled by the label, and this way I decide to go or not to go this path, and as you can see from activity on my beatport page , labels are usually my choice.