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New Label

 
 
kanaris
15:22 / 03.09.07
So, a buddy and I are starting up a new record label - mainly focusing on Hip-Hop, but perhaps reaching out into related fields (Drum and Bass, Dubstep, prefuse 73 type stuff). Since we are just newlings, we would greatly appreciate any input/help and I was wondering if any of the many talented artists/graphic designers/musicians would be interested in getting involved. The design element would mainly be album art / website design etc. but any help (as said before) would be great. We're also looking to sign people soon, so if you've got skills, get in touch. We'd also love for people to just be willing to give creative criticisms....if you're interested...please just reply here or PM me.

p.s. has anyone had any experience of this kind of thing? any advice?
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
23:12 / 03.09.07
Are you starting a new label as non-musicians, or starting a new label with the intent of publishing/distributing your own music as well as other people's?
 
 
kanaris
07:47 / 04.09.07
well...it's going to be a lot of our stuff, as me and my buddy will probably be handling the majority of the production work, but we're also interested in people who have their own stuff. does that help?
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
08:16 / 04.09.07
I'm afraid my graphic design skills are nil, but in a broad-general-advice sort of way, and knowing some folks that started and ran (and still run, but in a much more subdued way these days) their own indie label in Montreal... it's a lot of work.

There are a lot of interesting established distribution methods out there, such as netlabels, that would let you focus on your music instead of splitting your time and attention between the creative work of music-making and the often-grinding work of running a record label.

If you're determined, fantastic! Go for it! But given that you're still in the thinking-about-it stages, without any graphic designers or artists, this might be a good time to talk to some people that run successful independent labels and see what they did/do -- you might find that most of them have had to sacrifice their own music to do the label, as the label, if done right, just takes so danged much time.
 
 
kanaris
08:35 / 04.09.07
Cheers for that Matt. Just to clarify our position: we've already got a number of artists that we're interested in signing, and are beginning to have talks with a lot of them. We're mainly (at least in the first year) going to do most of our releases online (i.e. through itunes or emusic), thus eliminating a lot of extra costs. My buddy has been in the "scene" for about 5 years now, and thus has more connections/knows more people than we'd ever use. We're hopefully going to be quite low-key in the first year, and then once we've got some hype built up we're probably going to go looking for outside investment. At the same time, we still are new to this, and any advice is good advice!
 
  
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