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Record Labels - Part 2: " Do You Really want a Record Deal?"
So in my last massive missive, I outlined why the labels aren’t interested in
you. This time, I’ll paint a much rosier picture as to why
you don’t want them and their deals anyway!
As a signed artist, you have several big advantages over an unsigned artist, but
those frequently turn out to be empty promises. Those
traditional advantages often include big publicity machines, large recording
budgets, full-time accountants etc. However, we’ve already
explored just how unlikely it is that you’ll remain on the most-favored list at
any particular label, and where are you left once you drop to the D-list and
no-one at your label returns your calls?
In this respect, being a truly independent artist is vastly superior in almost
every respect. Briefly, an indie:
1- Is
solely responsible for their image / sound / presentation
2- Is
generally better at accounting than the “professionals” at labels
3-
Genuinely cares about their own career, and makes decisions accordingly
4- Has
access to the same recording studios, musicians, facilities etc as the majors,
often at a more favorable rate
To elaborate, we’ll hit each one in the list, so you start to “get” how to think
like an indie. Believe me, once you start thinking this way,
everything starts to look like an advantage! Prepare to
receive your rose-colored glasses!
1. Independent artists are solely responsible for themselves.
This is great news to anyone who doesn’t want to feel packaged or squeezed into
a particular market segment. While not an invitation to be
completely random, eclectic or contradictory, it’s often true that an artist may
have several different musical facets that all deserve representation on an
album, and a label is likely to take issue with the “schizophrenia” associated
with multiple styles. An indie has the flexibility to decide
for themself whether or not to go ahead with a diverse album, edgy / vanilla
look, album presentation etc.
Ask yourself how many times you’ve heard signed artists comment negatively about
the artwork, musical arrangements, packaging, advertising strategy and other
items on their albums, especially their first few records.
There are numerous examples of successful artists (those who weren’t dropped
from their labels) who have taken issue with questions of presentation.
As an indie, you are in control here.
2. Independent artists are better accountants.
Well, not in the real sense of the word. In fact,
indies are probably pretty bad at doing their own taxes. But,
in a perverse way, paying for a project out of your own funds (or at least funds
that you owe to a bank or backer) makes you strangely anal about your accounting
practices. Suddenly, each record you give to a friend or
family member gets a number attached to it (as opposed to the almost universal
practice at labels of ascribing a standard 10% deduction from your royalty due
to breakage of product during shipment, 10-25% packaging deduction).
Record labels also generally give away 5-10% of the total number pressed,
as either promotional items, “bulk discounts” to high priority sales outlets
(Walmart etc), and usually hold back about 35% of the potential royalty in
“reserve” (just in case Walmart decides to return unsold product).
Labels also try their best to make nearly every aspect of an artists
relationship with them recoupable (meaning, monetarily accountable to that
artist as a debt). Studio costs, food during the sessions,
promotional materials (even if they stink), legal fees during contract
negotiations – they’re all tallied up on the artist’s balance sheet and before
the first album is sold, most artists find themselves owing money to the label,
before they can see a dime. (Or if they see a dime, it’s a
loan against future royalties – also recoupable.)
This level of complexity usually baffles the signed artist into submission.
But as an indie, YOU make the decision to give away product – to the
people who you think will actually benefit your career, and not just to the
high-maintenance retailer who expects a certain number of free copies with every
shipment. You decide that pizza (and not Ruth’s Chris) for
the studio musicians is just fine; you advertise your upcoming show by running
color copies at Kinkos and hitting www.myspace.com.
At the end of the day, you’ll have a better idea of what your album cost to
make, market and how much its made, because you’re controlling the expenditures
and auditing the income stream, even if you collect receipts in a shoe-box!
Again, the indie is in control of their own project.
3. Indies
genuinely care about their own careers.
A lot of this is covered in accounting and presentation (numbers 1 and 2), but
it deserves a quick elaboration. Indies
are not required to think about the marketing impact that their CD release will
have on the three other female twenty-something artists on the label’s alt-rock
roster. Consequently, the indie makes decisions that impact
their own career and generally are free to adopt a “take-no-prisoners” approach
to the rest of the world.
Imagine being told that your album, while wonderful, needs to sit on the shelf
during November and December, because it could negatively impact the sales of
the heavy-hitting artist who is signed to the same label as you.
That’s not someone caring about your career and helping you sell your
product during the busiest record sales season of the year; that’s someone
making a decision based on the company’s best interest.
Despite not having a huge market effort, the simple freedom to do with your
record as you see fit gives the indie a huge advantage. Once
more we see indie is in control.
4. Indies can do everything that a major label
can, as far as production.
Gone are the days when RCA owned the distribution label, the publishing, the
recording studio AND made the microphones.
Indies can buy the same studio time as the major labels, use the
same musicians, engineers and equipment and create an equally good (or often
better) product. In fact, because most indies will qualify
for the AFM (American Federation of Musicians) “Limited Pressing” or “Low
Budget” categories, they’ll get their studio musicians for approximately 2/3 of
the price that label productions pay (and consequently apply as recoupable
expenses to their artists). A sideman on an AFM Master date
makes $361.72 for 3 hours. The same musician on an AFM
Limited Pressing date makes $190.65, and on a Low Budget date makes $203.19.
There are technical differences between Master, Limited Pressing and Low
Budget, but generally most indies can satisfy the requirements and save some
initial money.
With a good producer, an indie has access to all the tools that a major label
uses to create the sellable product. In many cases, the
producer works for labels and indies all the time; the services s/he provides
are likely identical regardless of the client. If the indie
has access to the same level of production by doing diligent preparation as the
responsible party, what possible benefit can a label pose during the recording
process? Indie is at least on equal footing.
So in all major respects, the indie has a clear advantage over the signed
artist. The traditional arguments in favor of labels tend to
hold up only under a select set of circumstances that tend to sound something
like a formula for cold fusion – under the right (and not reliably duplicated)
circumstances, it’s possible.
Labels these days tend to be unwieldy behemoths that show up late for whatever
musical party is occurring, and encumber their artists with all sorts of
restrictions on how they can market themselves, sell their product or appear in
relation to their work. Their accounting takes serious math
skills to understand, and once you understand it, it seems that the artist is
being screwed on almost all fronts (breakage, packaging, reserves, free goods,
recoupables).
Despite the daunting price of admission, being an indie actually empowers you to
sit at the controls of your career, call the shots and determine the course your
music and project(s) will take. With the right navigator,
this course can be smooth sailing and you’ll find yourself wondering “Who needs
a label, anyway”?
© 2010 Advantage Music Production