Here Come the Regulars: How to Run a Record Label on a Shoestring Budget
176
Here Come the Regulars: How to Run a Record Label on a Shoestring Budget
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Overview
Ian Anderson started recording music when he was thirteen and launched his own successful label, Afternoon Records, in 2003, when he was just eighteen. Now this wunderkind of the indie music scene has written the ultimate guide for all those aspiring to a career in the record industry.Here Come the Regulars covers territory ranging from a label's image to its budget, focusing on the importance of blogging culture and how to use new media like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and iTunes to the best advantage.
Aside from its essential advice—including a truthful account of the role of attorneys, contracts, and record deals—this accessible guide also contains key practical information ranging from sample legal agreements and press releases to actual figures illustrating how much money to spend on what (promotion, tour expenses, even T-shirts), all specifically geared toward the young upstart with very little in the bank.
As the front man for the indie-pop band One for the Team and the editor of the music blog MFR, Anderson demonstrates how an energetic and persevering small label can thrive in an era of big box stores and homogenized radio stations. Showing how to start with $500 and an office that's the size of your bedroom closet because it is your bedroom closet, Here Come the Regulars will become the dog-eared, underlined bible on your nightstand. C
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781429935531 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date: | 10/13/2009 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 176 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Ian Anderson fronts indie-pop band One for the Team, founded the Minneapolis-based indie label Afternoon Records, and is the editor of music blog MFR. Here Come the Regulars is his first book.
Ian Anderson fronts indie-pop band One for the Team, founded the Minneapolis-based indie label Afternoon Records, and is the editor of music blog MFR. Here Come the Regulars is his first book.
Read an Excerpt
Here Come the Regulars
How to Run a Record Label on a Shoestring Budget
By Ian Anderson
Faber and Faber, Inc.
Copyright © 2009 Ian AndersonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4299-3553-1
CHAPTER 1
Getting Started
Some may say that I have no business writing a book about the music industry, and in a way, they would be correct. I'm too young to claim that I know much (let alone everything there is to know) about the business, because I simply haven't encountered it all just yet. But what I do have is the unique, generally unjaded perspective of a twenty-three-year-old, plus a lot of answers for those of you who are either just beginning to get on your feet in this industry or are getting your own label up and running. In short, I know the basics. I know what it takes to build a strong and healthy foundation underneath a business or a label within this often unforgiving and rarely welcoming industry.
Every record label is looking for their own Nirvana, Pavement, or Death Cab for Cutie. Breaking a band from obscurity to ubiquity and finding the next big thing that will change the world (or at least sell records) is what this business is all about. However, such artists are rare, and you can't wait until you find that next big thing to keep yourself afloat. Your label's survival depends on figuring out how to be successful without needing to actually be that successful. The old major-label model (or old joke, in some circles) is that for every blockbuster pop-sensation album, the label releases ten disasters that completely flop. One winner can pay for the other ten. But you may never find that megascale winner, so you need to learn how to build a label that can survive on scraps and sleepless nights, because that's what you'll have a lot of. The good news is that you can. It's possible to build a label that doesn't need a million-selling album. It's possible to build a label that can overcome your recoupable debt without sinking. It's possible to build a label that is smart, thrifty, and responsible — and that's what you have to be in order to stay productive and rake in some revenue.
I started Afternoon Records with a few close friends when I was eighteen years old. None of us thought it would turn into a career. Instead, we saw it as a good excuse to get together, listen to some records, and eat pizza. From there, it somehow turned into something a lot bigger and touched more people than I would ever have imagined. With a lot of work and a lot of love, it blossomed into the active little indie label it is today.
Beyond that, the meaning of the term independent is evolving as indie labels are becoming almost as big as the majors in terms of cultural influence, fame, and even record sales. More and more often, independent label sales break into the Billboard Top 100 in their first week (with such bands as the Hold Steady, Arcade Fire, or the Shins, for example). The grassroots followings these bands developed over years of touring laid a foundation for sales that competes with the biggest bands and labels out there. So being "indie" doesn't necessarily mean "small potatoes."
Being an independent label means that you exist to release the music you love to the world, whether it be pop-punk (which sells a lot of records), noise (which customarily does not), or hip-hop (which always outsells every other genre out there). What matters to an independent label is the passion behind it. We've all heard the old adage "You are what you eat." As a label, you are what you release. So it's important to put out music that you truly believe in and want to be a part of.
As an indie label, you are visible in your community. You may even become visible regionally or nationally. Fans can find you at shows, onstage, or at the local record store. You can be reached. And that accessibility is what makes independent music exciting.
Independent labels break down that fourth wall. We let people in. To be a success, a label doesn't need to be big in the whole world, it just needs to be big in its own world.
The music industry is an ever changing beast, so pay attention. We're always entering uncharted territory in this industry. Everything that worked yesterday is less successful today, and may even be less useful tomorrow.
We can thank John, Paul, George, and Ringo for this. Back in the 1960s, the Beatles set the bar for success at a dizzying height, and that bar is what the industry has used ever since as a business model. But there aren't Beatle-size stars anymore, and that model of doing business doesn't translate to today.
Today's music fans don't buy music, listen to music, or share music the way our parents and their parents did. Big music companies are struggling to appeal to us while they simultaneously struggle to dictate how we acquire and use music — and neither effort is hitting the mark or producing great results.
This is where independent labels come in. We are both fans and producers. We tend to believe that music should be available to (and possibly made by) everyone. New ways of producing, selling, and sharing music are less scary to us than they are to the big labels. Those very ways that threaten how big labels do business, give us the cracks in the door we need to squeeze into the industry.
Our generation, like those before it, uses music as a way of connecting with one another. On our social networking sites, fans connect with artists and the artists talk back to fans. Communities form around musicians and labels — and that kind of community identity is just one route to success as a label. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The first thing you need to do is find your own label niche. Pinpoint where your label might be most useful. What kind of music drives you? What do you love? In your opinion, what isn't out there right now? What is your vision? Find your niche and build a fan community, and you'll earn the commitment of your artists.
Once you know your market and target demographic, then you've got to stick to it. Don't put out a metal record and market it to country listeners. I know it sounds obvious, but I've seen it happen. Try not to fall in love with a band that isn't right for you.
However, if you do, consider this: You can subdivide your label into minilabels that specialize in different genres. You can break up your services into separate sister companies: labels, publicity arms, booking agents, etc. You can offer all those services to your signed artists, and contract with outside artists on a service-by-service basis.
Here's a little more advice. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Yes, your parents told you that about course work back in school. And guess what? They were right. The same principle resounds throughout most aspects of running a label. Have fun and don't force it. If you have just started a record label, you don't need to manufacture ten thousand CDs, get them on shelves in Target, or make a music video for MTV2. Let things grow organically.
The best we can do as entrepreneurs within this industry is to maintain a certain level of flexibility and foster a willingness to explore the unknown. We must learn to walk blindly into the dark with our hands outstretched in front of us without fear, even embracing the knowledge that at some point we will most likely fall on our faces. That's just what happens in an industry as volatile, fickle, and unforgiving as the one we have chosen. I love music. It is a part of me. It is so integral to my life that I must always be close to it. Hopefully you feel something like this too. It's the only way we can justify being crazy enough to keep pushing. So if we're going to be in this industry, let's figure out how to survive. Together.
CHAPTER 2Your Team of Advisers
One of the mile markers of any college-level music business course is Donald S. Passman's All You Need to Know About the Music Business. Part one of the widely used music manual begins with this sentence: "Let's talk about the professionals you're going to use to maximize your career and net worth." Passman then continues to discuss the importance of a personal manager, an attorney, a business manager, an agency, and groupies.
Unfortunately, this is not the way things work anymore when you're just starting out. At the beginning of the long journey to the middle of this industry, help may never come to you. I know that sucks, but it's the truth.
You must learn how to become your own manager, your own attorney, your own business manager, and your own one-person agency. These things will not be handed to you, they will not be found or accessed easily, and, for the most part, that's really okay.
It's okay because we don't need all this extra baggage to do what we love. The music industry is, in one way, much smaller now than it used to be; fewer corporations at the top own most of the labels. But in another way, the industry is much bigger, because any average music fan–entrepreneur can accomplish just as much as a corporate team — with a little research, platform building, and constant phone calls and e-mailing, that is.
Right now, you don't need a manager. I don't need a manager. We don't need managers. If you ever truly need the help of a manager, you'll know it: you will have double-booked yourself for a flight and a meeting at the same time while simultaneously forgetting to pay your utility bills because you just ran out of time before racing to the airport. You can look forward to that day, but right now, you must learn how to do everything — and all the legwork that comes with that everything — yourself.
You may never have a team of advisers, so you need to learn how to go it alone without that support system. Maybe someday you'll get that, but for now, let's prepare for the worst-case scenario. Hey, we're independent, right?
And now for those groupies. There's an outdated term for you. Indies don't need "groupies"; instead, we rely on fans and supporters. Fan communities are what indie labels are built on, and creating fan communities is what indie labels are also, happily, really good at.
Business Philosophy
Passman also offers a "Business Philosophy," four points to keep in mind as a music business person moves forward in his or her career. His first point is, "You are a business." No argument there, but I do have one with his reasoning. He argues that "you're capable of generating multimillions of dollars per year, and thus must think of yourself as a business."
In fact, you shouldn't think of yourself as a business because you'll make millions a year, because you probably won't. You should think of yourself as a business because not doing so cheats your artists out of professional support. If you think of your label as merely a hobby, your artists become a part of a hobby, not a business. Get it? If I were in a killer band, I would much rather have the benefits of being on the roster of a serious label than being attached to a weekend-afternoon project designed to fill a friend's spare time.
Think about it this way. If you're even considering starting a label, you are already serious about the music you love and want to support. You will have fun running a label, but honor your energy and effort by treating it as a business. Just the term business implies a level of seriousness that sets you apart from those who have a passing interest in music. So go ahead and use it.
What are the basic building blocks of a business? Make product, sell product; make more product, sell more product. See? You're a business the moment you a make a record and sell it for ten dollars at a local record store.
Let's take a look at Passman's second point: "Most artists don't like business." This is a great point, and you can make it work for you when you recruit artists. You've heard it said, "Those who can't do, teach. And those who can't teach, teach gym." It's the same for the world of music — sort of. Artists can create any number of varieties of music but may simply never be able to lock down the business end. On the other hand, some music lovers cannot create music but are wizards behind the helm of a business model. Artists who can't do business hire a label. And people who can't create art start labels in order to work for those who can. And those who cannot do either, teach gym. (For the record, I taught gym to kindergartners when I was a junior in college; it was probably the best semester of my life.)
In short, we exist to help. We are here to support artists and make their lives easier and simpler so that they can focus on what is truly important and what they are truly good at: creating music. No matter whether or not an artist likes business, their time is better spent in the studio recording or in their practice space writing, not worrying about mechanical royalties or digital distribution.
Passman's third point is, "Success hides a multitude of sins." He makes a vague reference to illicit drug use and unwise spending, but there's a bigger lesson here that I would emphasize more strongly. That lesson is, Don't be stupid. Don't stretch yourself beyond your means (either time-wise or financially). Don't rent a fancy office before you have the income to justify its fanciness. Don't say you can do more than you really can. Don't gossip about the business. Keep your head on straight, keep things in perspective, and try to be positive. It'll get you in less trouble and it will be more fun anyway.
Last, Passman makes this point: "Your career is going to have a limited run ... the road is strewn with carcasses of aging rock stars who work for rent money on nostalgia tours. So take the concentrated earnings of a few years and spread them over a forty-five-year period." Well, let's be honest. Getting the rent paid means doing pretty well, in my opinion. That's the one thing you really have to worry about. That, and maybe health insurance.
CHAPTER 3Branding and Beyond
Branding is a business term that simply means knowing who you are and working hard to help people perceive you exactly that way.
First, you have to know yourself well. Make a list of points that describe who you are and what your label is, who your fans are, and who your artists are. Use all the descriptive words you can think of. It might even help to make a list of all the things you aren't.
This list can guide many of your future decisions, from the big ones about which artists to sign, to the little ones about what color your postcards should be. Who you are drives what you say about yourself to others. Know thyself, and don't waver.
Then, start to develop a notion of how you want your public to see your label. What do you want them to think of you? Before we get too far along in this direction, let me make two crucial points. One, you can control this only so far — so don't panic if you feel misunderstood now and then. More on that later. And two, I'm not advising you to pretend to be something you're not. You need not invent some glamorous self. Effective indie branding is much more about knowing your audience and your artists well and then communicating honestly about them and to them. And you can do that.
We do not have the power to control what people say about us. However, we do have the power to control what we tell people. With this knowledge, we have the ability to guide the perceptions people have both of us and of our companies.
Think of it as being the press secretary for the president of the United States: at some point, the White House's news of the day is released, but the news is spun to work in favor of the president. The press secretary doesn't have the power to alter news events but works to cast the president's involvement in the most positive light possible. In the music business you won't really have too much bad news to announce, not nearly as much as the president does at least, but you will have good news that you want people to know, and from that news people will develop a perception of you as a label. So you always want to give people an accurate picture of what you are trying to accomplish as a company.
The truth always wins. No matter what, the reality about what you are doing as a label and as a collective of music lovers will come through in the end. As a label, you really are only as much as what you do and the music you put out, so you must be able to stand by your work. If you are creepy and are out to exploit the artists you work with and take advantage of them, at some point that truth will be unearthed, and people will resent you. You have chosen to be an active participant in the music business in order to support and further the success of the bands you love. If this is true, people will recognize and appreciate your effort and passion.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Here Come the Regulars by Ian Anderson. Copyright © 2009 Ian Anderson. Excerpted by permission of Faber and Faber, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Also by the Author,Copyright,
Dedication,
1. Getting Started,
2. Your Team of Advisers,
3. Branding and Beyond,
4. Finding Artists,
5. Attorneys,
6. Record Deals,
7. Copyright,
8. Mechanical Rights,
9. How to Approach People and Not Feel Slimy,
10. Manufacturing,
11. Distribution,
12. Digital Distribution,
13. How to Open Doors (Without Breaking Them Down),
14. Booking,
15. Marketing Plans,
16. Getting the Word Out,
17. Radio Promotion,
18. The Importance of Blogs to an Independent Record Label,
19. Merchandising Deals,
20. Management,
21. Licensing to Entertainment,
22. Saying No to Friends,
23. Odds and Ends,