Martha Maeda - How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Independent Record Label

How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful

Independent Record Label

By Martha Maeda

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all the artists, producers, and technicians who enrich our lives with wonderful music, year after year.

INTRODUCTION

A record label is an entity that produces and markets music. A label can be a single person working from a home office with a laptop, or it can be a corporation with a large advertising budget and a full-time staff of producers, talent agents, sound engineers, graphic artists, marketing professionals, and distributors. You may want to start a record label to produce and sell your own music or because you feel that you have a talent for recognizing good musicians and helping them to develop their careers. Perhaps you have years of experience in the entertainment industry and are ready to strike out on your own. Managing your own label will give you artistic freedom and the power to make important decisions without having to answer to a committee of corporate executives. You may want to apply your knowledge of marketing and promotion to selling an exciting and rewarding product. Or you may simply have a passion for a particular genre of music and confidence that you can succeed.

Whatever your motivation, this book will help you with every aspect of setting up and running an independent record label. Learn how to set up your record label as a legal entity, how to prepare a business plan, how to keep accounts and prepare taxes, and how to protect your intellectual property. Read about the history of the music industry, current trends, and the anticipated directions the industry will take in the near future. Review helpful suggestions for discovering and working with talented musicians and artists, and producing and recording music. Craft legal contracts that protect the best interests of your label and your artists. Learn how to record and market music and the roles of producers, engineers, and artists. Explore multiple opportunities for publicizing and promoting your music, including social media and viral marketing. Learn how to work with distributors, music stores, and media outlets to make your products widely available. The more you know about the music business, the greater your chances of success.