Nick Sadler - The Label Machine: How to Start, Run and Grow Your Own Independent Music Label

THE LABEL

MACHINE

How to start, run and grow

your own independent music label

NICK SADLER

First published by Velocity Press in 2021

velocitypress.uk

thelabelmachine.com

Copyright Nick Sadler, 2021

Typesetting

Paul Baillie-Lane

pblpublishing.co.uk

Nick Sadler has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher

ISBN: 9781913231101

Part Two: Music Copyright

Part Three: The Process

Part Four: Becoming Established

Dedicated to my son, Jago

Preface

Congratulations on deciding to read this book. No matter what stage you are at in your music career, simply reading this book will enable you to become more successful in all the music industrys essential business elements.

What do I mean by business elements? These elements allow you to make money from your music, such as distribution, marketing and music promotion, fan growth, management, and managing multiple royalty streams.

In recent years, Ive seen a growth of music gurus, music success masterminds, and online music courses that teach different ways to do each of the elements. And some of them are great. And some of them even say you dont need a record label anymore. And they are right.

We are living in a world where you dont need a record label in the traditional sense. You dont need to sign to a record label. You can do it yourself. However, if you want to build a successful music career, you need to make sure you have your music business elements in order.

These business elements fall under the services and responsibilities of one particular entity in the music industry: the record label. Both traditional and modern-day record labels are structured to provide these business elements.

So why reinvent the wheel when there is already a framework that ensures all your important business elements work together in harmony, giving your music the best possible chance of success?

So whether you are looking to launch an independent record label or launch your own musical career professionally, this book is for you. By looking at the business of music through the lens of a record label, you can learn how to use a record label blueprint to build and grow your professional music career.

Introduction

Why am I writing this book? Two reasons.

Firstly, I have found no comprehensive resource relevant for the last ten years of the music industry that puts everything you need into one place for artists wanting to set up and run their own record label. That covers every detail and gives practical information on how to do it all. No roadmap, so to speak.

Secondly, Ive set up and managed many record labels, and I love helping artists and music entrepreneurs do the same. However, I was limited by my time and wanted a way to help the many instead of the few.

Now a bit of history. When I started Never Say Die Records with Tommy Dash (aka SKisM), we didnt know how to run a label. I had a little experience with music publishing through getting a few of my tracks in video games, and Tommy had experience building his career as a breaks DJ and producer.

As we knew so little about starting and running a record label, I researched a lot. I bought and read all the popular music business books on Amazon, read endless blogs on the music industry, filed hundreds of internet bookmarks, and wrote massive lists on what we needed to do.

We met with other record label heads to ask them for advice. The very first label manager to help us was Asad Raja, who ran Funkatech Records. We also met Tim Binns from New State Music, a great help in the early days. And Chris Goss of Hospital Records, who is still a constant source of inspiration.

As we slowly built the label and learned what we were doing, I compiled all this information into operating manuals, or what we called bibles. We named these bibles after biblical texts. The Koran was for merchandise, The Torah for social media. Well, you get the picture.

These bibles became the template for Never Say Die Records, Disciple Recordings, Get Hype Records and No Tomorrow Recordings. And five years later, and over a million record sales, I have a pretty good grip on how to run a record label.

We also started an artist management company, which I still run to this day, a PR company, a publishing company, and even had our own merchandise printing machines. Some of these ventures worked, and some didnt, and we certainly learnt a lot!

As well as DJing and releasing music as Mobscene with my writing partners Bruce Gainsford, Ive been fortunate to work with some incredibly talented artists, such as The Freestylers, Flux Pavilion, The Prototypes, Foreign Beggars, Three Laws, Memtrix, and Skrillex, who namechecked our label when he won his Grammys, which was a proud moment for me.

While many of my past experiences have been in running electronic record labels, more recently through The Label Machine platform, I have been working with label owners from all genres of music. I have seen that the fundamentals for successfully releasing records dont really change between genres.

If you are beginning your journey and think this seems too much, dont worry, I was there once too. By simply making small steps every day, you can achieve what you want from your music career. Just reading this book will give you a HUGE advantage and a step in the right direction.

It doesnt matter where in the world you decide to run your music label either. You can run a label from a laptop in your bedroom, studio, shared office, or anywhere with a good internet connection.

So good luck, and lets begin this journey!

How To Use This Book

When I wrote this book, I didnt want it to be generalist or just theory-based. I wanted to make it full of detailed practical steps to show you exactly how to set everything up. And by that, I mean what software to use, what websites to visit, what words to write in emails for PR.

So while I have included a vast amount of detailed information, I also realise its a pain to manually copy website addresses or copy the text over from a book. You want to point and click, copy and paste. Work fast and efficiently!

This inspired me to take all the practical information of this book, which is essentially everything in Part Three and Part Four of the book, and create a website platform that has all this information available to use easily. The platforms website address is thelabelmachine.com, and it has allowed me to work with hundreds of artists and music entrepreneurs to build and grow their own record labels.

As you read this book, you will find references to downloadable resources and checklists for the book sections. When these are available, you can download them for free by visiting the Book Resources tab on The Label Machine website.

Buying this book also gives you a months free access to The Label Machines online platform. Simply email a copy of your book receipt to book@thelabelmachine.com, and I will send you membership details. This also includes receipts for buying the book secondhand on Amazon.

If you are relatively new to the music industry, or have been out of the game for a while, then I suggest reading the entire book from start to finish and then going back over Part Three when you are ready to take action. If you already understand how the industry and music copyright works, skim read Part One and Part Two and then jump into Part Three and Part Four.