...starting an independent label - I think...?

I have been like a bee in a jar for about 15 years now. I am surrounded by talented artists, groups, recording engineers and more and we are all floundering. I think it is because there is a lack of a focal point to channel these energies in a productive direction.

I have recently become acquainted with a kindred spirit who has the same vast pool of songwriters, musicians, recording professionals, studio and more at his disposal. We are very similar in that we want to get all this music we have around us OUT THERE to the rest of the world. We have no delusions of riches. We don't want to be poor either. Our 'mission' is:

To get all these songs, the artists and groups we have around us recorded, noticed and to get their music out to the music consuming public in a way that benefits the artist and us, as facillitators of all that.

The way we see ourselves doing this is by becoming a central resource for these artists and groups to get their product produced, distributed and sold the right way. We also love the model of the Brill Building and the Hit Factory - where we leverage a pool of songwriters and artists to create music. We don't simply want to be brokers - we want to produce, nurture and develop music through our resources. We are both musicians (bass players, primarily, but we also have diverse skills in other aspects of music production - arranging, composition, and so on).

Ok... that is a lot to chew on - but my partner and I are eager to take the next steps on the road to becoming whatever it is I just described here.

Can you offer me any advise or direction in what I am talking about and how to possibly proceed without spinning my wheels or making huge miscalculations in these all-to-important early stages?

Many thanks!
--tz

wow,

there's a quesiton and a half....

I'll get the not so positive things out of the way first... then we can concentrate on the great aspects of the idea.

First thing is that Record companies on an indie level, invariably run at a loss due to minimal budget for promotion, distribution, high end production etc....

Second of all, good music is not always what makes a venture like this successful. Turn on any modern day, z100 type radio station and you'll hear what I mean. There are boring grooves, with terrible lyrics being sung through an auto tuner. Having said that, I have to admit to what I'm doing this week mainly, and that's working on two trax for G-Unit and one for Shakira. So although there is poor music that's making money and selling records out there, I'm not about to denounce that part of the industry and not have anything to do with it. I really enjoy being in the studio and working on stuff like that and getting paid good money for it. And also trying to do my best to make it as musical as possible.

Quite how you get to that stage with your own label is beyond me really. I think it's a great thing for you to undertake this venture, and I'm sure you're going to help deserving artists and musicians more than they can help themselves.

I think the most important thing nomatter what the style of music is (and I don't really know if you guys are shooting for one particular thing, or a multitude of genres) is concept.

The strongest albums I hear all have concepts. A common thread linking all the music together and giving the listener/buyer something a real package. From the artwork, the production, the song writing, arranging, playing, it all has to have a concept. Pre Production is a huge part of that, and I would allocate as much time as you can to it. If the musicians are good enough the sessions won't take long at all. But have each and every album you make well mapped out as far in advance as you possibly can.

You also might want to consider the teeny bopper pop market as an avenue of production if you can pick up some of those artists. Those are the cats right now who can make the difference for a small label with a couple of huge hits. Your songwriting team has to be primo for that stuff.

Also, a good lawyer is the absolute first thing you need to get sorted out. You want to look at sample contracts, get your publishing companies together, producer memos, all of that stuff. And start figuring out a concept for how you're going to split all that stuff up when you have mulitple writers on songs and more than one producer on a track or a record. You want to have your business plan as solid as you can when you start approaching people. You want to able to say to a writer/producer "this is what we're offering, are you interested?" rather than being in the postion of getting hustled from the word go by negotiating more than you have to.

Do you have a graphic designer/artist for the label? very important. You can start a visual as well as sonic identity with your label by have a theme or style run through your artists artwork on album covers.


In the long run distribution will be one of your main keys. That's once you've got a roster of artists of course and have a product to sell. You say you have access to studios etc.... what kind of level are the facilities at? if you're recording vocals you're going to need some primo gear to get your productions sounding up to standard with what's going on the radio.

Let me know where you're at with the gear thing and I'd be happy to recommend some stuff if you don't have it.

I hope there are some things in there that are useful, if I missed anything, or if you think I"m way off base on some stuff hit me back.

Easy,

Janek

I am hitting you back, but not because I think you are off in any of what you said, because you have pretty much confirmed a number of my suspicions about this venture.

To be quite honest, I am not entirely sure that "starting a label" is really what we are trying to do, although when I start jotting down the steps and processes we need to take to do what we are talking about, it sure sounds like a label.

I think maybe we are more describing the creation of a songwriting coop with he and I at the helm and a stable of musicians and recording facilities at our disposal - is that a label? Not sure... could just be a songwriting and producing factory - but that sounds like a label... I don't know... :rolleyes:

Our passion is music. We are both keenly aware of the 'tret' that is getting sold as music these days and my partner is actually already in full-swing generating 'beats' and 'cuts' that can be used for that very purpose. He even has a roster of artists who leverage such material to lay their 'rhymes' over - and as much as I am not into that genre, I can see how it is the bread-and-butter of this sort of thing - especially here in St. Louis, home of Chingy and Nelly and so on...

That being said, a number of these 'rappers' and hip-hop artists have expressed a desire to extend themselves beyond the 'beats' and 'cuts' level and move to a more 'respectable' form of musical support for their 'rhymes' - namely, a more 'Motown/Jazz - even old-school rock' sounding bank of material to use. Even they are getting tired of the ultra-mechanical, low-end music that is the norm for many of the 'hip-hop' songs these days. THAT end of the production line will still be the cut-and-paste song creation process that permiates the hip-hop world of today. Taking musical clip-art and laying rhymes and vocal choruses over the top. Lots on the production end, not so much on the musician end. Reach into our bag of beats, melodies, sounds, etc. - cut together a bed of coolness - lay in vox and color - push it out.

My partner and I both have a deep appreciation of jazz, rock, motown, soul, gospel, and RnB - the 'real thing', not the hip-hop-ized version of it. We both have songs we have written in our personal catalogs that we want to take to the next level by pairing our songs with the right artitsts and getting them recorded. My partner has a really impressive catalog of motown and soul songs from 'back in the day' that are currently only on lo-fi 4-track tapes that could easily be on the radio today if they were redone with the technology and musicians we have at our disposal. I am not exaggerating in the slightest when I tell you that these songs are really good and should be heard!

Along with his pre-existing catalog of songs are a number of half-starts and soon to be finished parts and pieces between the two of us - so again, as we start completing these pieces, we will want to put together bands to get them recorded. That is ultimately what we want to get rolling - I don't think it is the current industry model - but we both want to try to create our own version of the Brill Building/Hitsville thing here in St. L. Maybe try to up the standard of music by focusing more on quality material - good songwriting, good arrangements, great instrumentation and musicianship, and less on what the market seems to want. Delusional, maybe...

We also have a growing catalog of 'outtakes, cuts, beats' whatever you want to call them, that are what get used these days as foundation tracks for hip-hop songs. These 'beats' reflect our musical taste and sensibilities (old-school rock, pop, jazz, RnB, soul, gospel, experimental) and so on... They are NOT the standard casio-sounding "beats" - they have substance and flavor because they are all from songs we began composing in the traditional sense, but lost steam or direction. So as parts, they are great, as songs, they never found their legs - but as parts they are very viable in the well-established cut-and-paste model... So we could still fill the need for cut-and-paste song production material with a higher standard of musical clip-art.

Long-winded, as usual - but in short, what we are trying to do is get our musical vision out there using the musicians, songwriting, recording, performing, promoting, and publishing resources we have at our disposal. I guess we are talking about a more organic growth model - instead of jumping in the deep end right away, we plan to start with what we can do ourselves - baby-steps and see if we can successfully take our musical vision and get it turned into a publically consumable musical reality.

Post those beats, cuts, songs, demos etc on a dedicated myspace page and target your audience of artists and listeners when you add "friends". See what the feedback from the public is, and that should give you a good idea of what is working and what isn't.

Easy,

Janek

Great suggestion.

Thanks!
--tz

Smash-ing threads, smash!

That is the exact sort of stuff I need to learn more about. Thanks for taking the time to clue me in to them!

--tz