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 Post subject: Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 1:45 pm 
Euphoria wrote: phoenixdown wrote: ryan fisher wrote: if a major wants to sign a 3-piece band with drums, distorted bass and screamed vocals that plays 1 minute songs, then i'll sign to a major Death from Above 1979?  That's a two piece band. They're amazing, I love them. Oh right... Max Weinberg had me confused. 
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Joined: 23 Aug 2004 | Posts: 2041 | Location: Seattle
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Post subject: Posted: Sun May 29, 2005 2:39 pm
thesinisterpenguin wrote: sign with granpaturtle.
 don't do that  _________________ welcome to the no pants club boone |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2004 | Posts: 8693 |
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Post subject: Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 5:21 pm
I'd rather release everything online before dealing with professional record labels, major or otherwise. _________________ Coprophiliacs make sh*tty lovers. Flickr Transvaal IV - Myspace : Virb Deep Thoughts About Shallow Subjects |
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Joined: 02 Sep 2003 | Posts: 2455 | Location: Grapevine, TX
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Post subject: Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 11:35 pm
MoreOfTheSame wrote: I'd rather release everything online before dealing with professional record labels, major or otherwise. But how do you go about promoting your music at the level of a major record label? You can slab your first album on the internet, on your own website... but who would even care to visit your site and download it? |
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Joined: 05 Apr 2005 | Posts: 472 | Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 12:13 am
you would think with the internet being so closely tied to music now you could do your own promotion. enter yourself in the launch contests and whatever else. as for budgeting an album i bet it can be financed like a car note. ..its just a loan right? but indie or major you probably need a good lawyer. someone who can read between the lines of a contract and go "wait a minute, you're not getting their souls for free" _________________ "Religions have started on lesser revelations" - investor on MarketWatch.com |
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Joined: 01 Jul 2003 | Posts: 4403 | Location: Dallas
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 5:14 am
chasd00 wrote: you would think with the internet being so closely tied to music now you could do your own promotion. enter yourself in the launch contests and whatever else. as for budgeting an album i bet it can be financed like a car note. ..its just a loan right?
Exactly. I'm not aiming to be a rock star and have the #1 video on TRL, and I do all of my promotion through things like MySpace and message boards. The MySpace profile allows people to listen without having to download anything and provides a nice sampling as well, so it works really well as a method of introduction. And as I've done entire EPs without a budget (the advantages of doing music entirely on computer), there isn't really any financial strain to release something. The bottom line is that I have complete control over every aspect of the band. All writing, recording, promotion, and distribution is entirely my responsibility. I can basically do whatever I want whenever I want without any regard whatsoever to other parties. That's a kind of freedom you can't get while being on a label. _________________ Coprophiliacs make sh*tty lovers. Flickr Transvaal IV - Myspace : Virb Deep Thoughts About Shallow Subjects |
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Joined: 02 Sep 2003 | Posts: 2455 | Location: Grapevine, TX
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 6:39 am
MoreOfTheSame wrote: Exactly. I'm not aiming to be a rock star and have the #1 video on TRL, and I do all of my promotion through things like MySpace and message boards. The MySpace profile allows people to listen without having to download anything and provides a nice sampling as well, so it works really well as a method of introduction. And as I've done entire EPs without a budget (the advantages of doing music entirely on computer), there isn't really any financial strain to release something. The bottom line is that I have complete control over every aspect of the band. All writing, recording, promotion, and distribution is entirely my responsibility. I can basically do whatever I want whenever I want without any regard whatsoever to other parties. That's a kind of freedom you can't get while being on a label. Not Exactly. It depends on what your goals and aspirations are for you and your music. It's whether your music is just a hobby or more. Yeah, it's easy to tell a band (that are serious about their music careers), "music is not about the money, it's not about being big". But when you have to have money to pay for the food you eat everyday, to pay for your rent, to pay for the clothes you wear, for your transportation, and etc... Not so easy anymore is it? Making it big and making money from your music allows you to spend more time on your music, instead of spending your time on your other job, or figuring out how to put food on the table for you, or maybe even your family. What about your education and future? What about your family's wellbeing? Wow... not so simple anymore. All this stuff about "freedom" in your music is somewhat a load of crackers. You can always make the song you want and listen to it yourself... or let the close ones to you listen to it. But we're talking about selling your music here. That's why you sign with a record label in the first place. They have the experience. They have the connections. They have resources and capital to do all the promoting and distributing and selling, so you can focus on your music. |
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Joined: 05 Apr 2005 | Posts: 472 | Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:03 am
chasd00 wrote: you would think with the internet being so closely tied to music now you could do your own promotion. enter yourself in the launch contests and whatever else. as for budgeting an album i bet it can be financed like a car note. ..its just a loan right?
What do you mean... "It's just a loan right?" Do you know what position you put your band in when you finance it through debt? (That's if you get approved for a loan for your tiny band) |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:26 am
The problem with "making it big" is that you don't make money that way unless you sell an absurd amount of records. When you are small you can sell like 10,000 records and make just as much money as someone on a major who sells 750,000. Unless you are planning to be a multiplatnum artist, you'll make more money AND have more control on an Indie. |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:37 am
conundrum66 wrote: The problem with "making it big" is that you don't make money that way unless you sell an absurd amount of records. When you are small you can sell like 10,000 records and make just as much money as someone on a major who sells 750,000. Unless you are planning to be a multiplatnum artist, you'll make more money AND have more control on an Indie. Not really. Now your record label is not the one paying up for the expenses... You are. So the money you make from these 10,000 records end up being money you spend on recovering your expenses you originally put into production, promotions, and distribution. Not only that, but making it "big" also provides for many other revenue-making possibilities. More people at concerts, more people buying merch, more publicity (especially for your next album), etc... More money selling 10,000 as an Indie vs. a gold-album artist? Hrmph... where did you get this math from? |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:48 am
brian_nguyen wrote: conundrum66 wrote: The problem with "making it big" is that you don't make money that way unless you sell an absurd amount of records. When you are small you can sell like 10,000 records and make just as much money as someone on a major who sells 750,000. Unless you are planning to be a multiplatnum artist, you'll make more money AND have more control on an Indie. Not really. Now your record label is not the one paying up for the expenses... You are. So the money you make from these 10,000 records end up being money you spend on recovering your expenses you originally put into production, promotions, and distribution. Not only that, but making it "big" also provides for many other revenue-making possibilities. More people at concerts, more people buying merch, etc... More money selling 10,000 as an Indie vs. a gold-album artist? Hrmph... where did you get this math from? No, you pay for your expensives either way. On a major label they give you "advances" which are money which you are to use to record your record. They base this advance on how many records they "think" you will sell. So if you don't sell let's say 500,000 records, then that means YOU have to pay THEM back. People have the wrong impression of the record industry. CEO's aren't stupid. The extended reach of a major label is directly proportional to the amount of records you have to sell to break even. It's a percentage game, not a shear volume. |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:53 am
brian_nguyen wrote: chasd00 wrote: you would think with the internet being so closely tied to music now you could do your own promotion. enter yourself in the launch contests and whatever else. as for budgeting an album i bet it can be financed like a car note. ..its just a loan right?
What do you mean... "It's just a loan right?" Do you know what position you put your band in when you finance it through debt? (That's if you get approved for a loan for your tiny band) don't get me wrong, a loan is a big deal and can turn into a serious nightmare if things GoWrong(tm). what i ment was it's no more complex then getting a loan as in you're basically borrowing a large amount of money up front to pay for something with the requirment that you're going to pay it back. _________________ "Religions have started on lesser revelations" - investor on MarketWatch.com |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 7:56 am
conundrum66 wrote: brian_nguyen wrote: conundrum66 wrote: The problem with "making it big" is that you don't make money that way unless you sell an absurd amount of records. When you are small you can sell like 10,000 records and make just as much money as someone on a major who sells 750,000. Unless you are planning to be a multiplatnum artist, you'll make more money AND have more control on an Indie. Not really. Now your record label is not the one paying up for the expenses... You are. So the money you make from these 10,000 records end up being money you spend on recovering your expenses you originally put into production, promotions, and distribution. Not only that, but making it "big" also provides for many other revenue-making possibilities. More people at concerts, more people buying merch, etc... More money selling 10,000 as an Indie vs. a gold-album artist? Hrmph... where did you get this math from? No, you pay for your expensives either way. On a major label they give you "advances" which are money which you are to use to record your record. They base this advance on how many records they "think" you will sell. So if you don't sell let's say 500,000 records, then that means YOU have to pay THEM back. People have the wrong impression of the record industry. CEO's aren't stupid. The extended reach of a major label is directly proportional to the amount of records you have to sell to break even. It's a percentage game, not a shear volume. Yeah sure... but you're arguing against economies of scale here... It gets cheaper per unit, if you sell more. Not only that, but these large multinationals have more experience on promotions and distribution, and probably better at raising money for a project than the vast majority of indie bands. This is the reason why major record labels are picky and choosy at who they sign and where they allocate their resources... They already have been in this business for a long time... Chances are... if you are signed by a major record label... all their expertise and experience points to your band having great potential to sell. It's a percentage game... But the labels? Probably a heck of a lot more efficient than most indie bands. (Indie labels on the other hand... you can argue that some of them might be more efficient... but hrmph... some of the successful indie labels are being gobbled up by you know who... the big 5) ---- This is not to mention the other things you get with selling a lot of records. |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 8:17 am
Well, I can't really say anymore because you have an incorrect assumption. This is just not the way it works. Sorry. For one thing, big labels are not picky and choosy about who they sign. It's just that you don't see 95% of the people they sign in the record stores. They sign a huge number of people and just use the unsuccesful ones as a tax write off. Secondly, Indie labels are much MORE efficient that major labels. An Indy label can record a record for $5,000 where a major would spend at least $250,000. |
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Post subject: Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 8:29 am
conundrum66 wrote: Well, I can't really say anymore because you have an incorrect assumption. This is just not the way it works. Sorry. For one thing, big labels are not picky and choosy about who they sign. It's just that you don't see 95% of the people they sign in the record stores. They sign a huge number of people and just use the unsuccesful ones as a tax write off. Secondly, Indie labels are much MORE efficient that major labels. An Indy label can record a record for $5,000 where a major would spend at least $250,000. I may have several incorrect assumptions, but I pretty sure they put more resources into bands they believe will make it and less so in bands they don't. I highly doubt a major label would spend $250,000 on a band they do not believe will recoup that back in sales. Differentiation. (This is not to mention the fact that the large labels are usually a conglomerate of a bajillion different labels that are different in size and targeting different markets). Also, and Indy label might be able to record a record for $5000, but chances are, they won't have the same revenue as a major label. Remember... This is a percentage game. But like I said... It differs from band to band and artist to artist. Contracts from major labels are not the same for every band. There are way too many variables to just put a simple stock answer to the question of, "Should a writer or writer/recording artist sign with a major label, indie label, or go stay independent of both?" Not every band who signs with a major label will be treated the same way. Not every indie band who sells 10,000 record will be profitable. Not every indie label is efficient. This is not black and white as some people are making it seem like (that artists will be treated like crap with a major label, treated like king with an indie label, and better off just going out on your own). |
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Laughing City Forum Index -> General -> Sign with indie or major?
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