Hi All.
I'm hoping to start a discussion on here about the pros & cons of owning your own label.
My music is not at the point yet where I am worried about releasing stuff...
But my question is more about the day & age.
Since most EDM tracks now-a-days are sold digitally on sites like beatport & audiojelly...
Is it better to create your own label and then sell your tracks yourself?
I realize there are thousands of labels out there... and plenty of people that do this...
What is the biggest benefit for doing this yourself?
I also realize that if your music is good enough for Armada or Rising Music, you get the distribution and the press push for the tracks more so than you would on your own label.
My feeling is that if you have your own label you get 100% of the cash for your tracks..
More money is always a good thing... But so is more press & marketing...
What are your thoughts on this?
Radical idea…
…do both
Owning a label often is just a fancy word for making your stuff available for purchase.
You need to think about in terms of marketing value, it’s unlikely that you are going to make money from sales, so how releasing your stuff thru online stores/labels is better than for example blogs…etc and at what point it actually adds to your profile…
If you cant cut it, then start your own. Even tho distro is digital, promotion is huge. You need cash to do that.
or you could just pay £10 or what ever it is and create an account on audio jelly as a unsigned artist, sell your tracks via that, do your own promotion and maybe get signed by one of the bigger labels 
I suppose it could do no harm - just to get your tunes out there
Remember that a big label usually has a big database of artists that they’ll promo your track out too, that in turn gets your track played around the world and more customers to hear it and thus look out for it and buy it.
Also there are the customers who ‘follow’ a record labels release and may listen to your track just purely because it’s on that label, where as if it wasn’t on that label, they may never have heard it.
There are defo a lot of pro’s to being released on a big label, doubled with the fact that you can be taken really seriously in the industry if you’ve been signed to a major.
Of course though, there is no harm releasing on your own label or as Jon says with Audiojelly, there are other websites that let you sell your music too, i think iTunes also does this service.
what i learned in the Industry is that u need to choose what u want to do . usually choosing to run a Label and at the same time be a Promoter and Producer, DJ, Agent ETC. would be a win win . but in reality the Industry doesn’t work that way .
trying to run a Label is like having a profession that will take you a full time to make your label successful and probably Producing music will became your secondary objective .I was planning to open a label but the way i started to see how it runs, it made me feel almost impossible due that you have to spend hours taking care of contracts , artists , Bookings, Promotions ETC.+ i have a real Job 
many people have the misconception that they will became Famous by just Producing Music and waiting to see if someone recognize the talent. nowadays you have to be everything and if it takes you to run a label . then there u go , u got a full time Job
I don’t think it’s as easy as sending Beatport an email with your track saying ‘Here is my first release on LOL@ME Records, the hottest new digital only record label’.
I read somewhere that you had to provide loads of evidence to Beatport to show that you are a legit label - 3 previous releases elsewhere before they will consider your tracks? Can’t remember where I read this or if it still applies.
Running a label would seriously eat into production time. Do you want to run a business or make music - pick one. If the stuff you produce is any good labels will be interested. I don’t want to spend my time setting up websites and spamming social networks ‘come and listen to the new release on LOL@ME records’ etc etc. I’d far rather concentrate on making music and let other people worry about the promotion.
[quote]slender (13/07/2010)[hr]I suppose it could do no harm - just to get your tunes out there[/quote]
if all you wanted to do is get your tracks out there and you’re not to bothered about earning cash from your work then just upload your tracks to sendspace or something of that nature and post the links on every dj/production forum. if they are any good you’ll probably get more dj’s putting them into a set than you would if you signed to a small label, if your giving it away for free then you will almost always guarantee more downloads than charging for your tracks.
If you’re good enough and you’re not some deluded ****wit, surely your tracks will get picked up. There’s plenty of absolute ****e being signed and hyped, you just have to be better. If you’re not, then perhaps try something else.
[quote]scott (14/07/2010)[hr]If you’re good enough and you’re not some deluded ****wit, surely your tracks will get picked up. There’s plenty of absolute ****e being signed and hyped, you just have to be better. If you’re not, then perhaps try something else.[/quote]
its not as simple as that in reality though, there are many great producers that slip under the net for years because they lack either self confidence or the know how to promote their music while other less talented know exactly how to get their material signed.
No, it really is that simple. You don’t make excuses. If you’re objective about it and you’d pay cashmoney for your track, then target it at the labels it most suits.
[quote]scott (14/07/2010)[hr]No, it really is that simple. You don’t make excuses. If you’re objective about it and you’d pay cashmoney for your track, then target it at the labels it most suits.[/quote]
+1
[quote]scott (14/07/2010)[hr]No, it really is that simple. You don’t make excuses. If you’re objective about it and you’d pay cashmoneyfor your track, then target it at the labels it most suits.[/quote]
i kinda agree with you in a sense as i would do exactly what you are saying but for those people that don’t have self worth they simply get over looked, no label (or at leadt not many) are gonna come knocking on your door, so with out self confidence and self promotion you aint getting ****.
Yeah, OK. Lack of self confidence could be an issue to some, but you should already know what a good/working track sounds like, if you don’t then why the **** bother.
[quote]scott (14/07/2010)[hr]Yeah, OK. Lack of self confidencecould bean issue to some, but you should already know whata good/working track sounds like, if you don’t then why the **** bother.[/quote]
sure, if you didn’t know what a good track sounded like theres a good chance you wouldn’t be able to create one your self, totally agree with that. but that doesn’t mean that just because you’re good you get signed and when you’re not you don’t i’ll never agree that its that simple.
maybe its just something we can agree to feel differently about
A couple really good responses here.
The whole reason I asked the question was not related to self-confidence.
Self-Confidence comes with experience. The more experience you have the more you get.
I think the best answer of the thread was to do both.
Obviously the most important thing to all of this is to have great music.
If you get to the point that you are making great music.... First thing to do would be to get tracks out on some major labels. Get DJs playing your stuff and a group of followers.
After this point it is easy enough to setup a solid marketing platform & process to make sure that your music & promo stuff is all over the place. Being a Marketer, Promoter & Programmer the past few years.... I am more than confident I can do this.
Once you have a solid base setup... To me it makes sense to start your own label. This way when you produce some of your best stuff.... You make all the money from it and you own everything 100%.
Although I can see how some would say that doing all of these tasks becomes another fulltime job. I feel as though if you are serious about making it in this industry you have to have the ability to do many things to make sh*t happen.
Be who you are and be that well..
I have my own digital label what I do release some of my tracks on but I only release my tracks when I have had offers from 2/3 labels to to sign them (that way I know I know other people are liking them and I havent talked myself into thinking it is a good track)
Saying that though I think out of my 10 tracks I have done I have only decided to keep one for my label as decided that I didn’t want to flood it with to many of my tracks plus I wanted to get myself on a few more labels what does help getting my name out there what in turn will only help my label in the long run. 
I also sign tracks from other producers and give them back normaly a higher % of royalties than other labels as I think that people should be getting paid more for there work!
[quote]boneidol (15/07/2010)[hr]I have my own digital label what I do release some of my tracks on butI only release my trackswhen I have had offers from2/3 labels to to sign them (that way I know I know other people are liking them and I havent talked myself into thinking it is a good track)
Saying that though I think out of my 10 tracks I have done I have only decided to keep one for my label as decided that I didn’t want to flood it with to many of my tracks plus I wanted to get myself on a few more labels what does help getting my name out there what in turn will only help my label in the long run.
I also sign tracks from other producers and give them back normaly a higher % of royalties than other labels as I think that people should be getting paid more for there work![/quote]
I totally agree with you dude !! releasing my Music in different Labels helped me to get contacts in the EDM Industry . definitely there is so much **** being released but i sincerely care less if my track becomes top 10 of beatport. as Long as i get Gigs and meet Contacts to travel around the Globe .
but that doesnt mean that i want to make **** Music Either
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