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Putting out your
own music record: Resources page
sponsored in part by Inferno Labs web design:
http://www.infernolabs.com
(pro websites
for artists, labels and other businesses)
.: Check
out the article below by Wendy Day, founder of
Rap Coalition &
Rap Cointelpro.
She has the real 411 on making it in the business, so visit
her sites (big ups to Wendy for her contribution to the
site)
How to Put
Out Your Own Record
By Wendy Day from Rap Coalition
For four of the
seven years of Rap Coalition's existence, we have assisted
artists in putting out their own records and negotiated
distribution deals. In that time we've seen many artists
come, we've seen even more artists go. We've watched artists
sell 60,000 units in a few months (at $5 a record--do the
math), and we've seen artists piss away $50,000 in a month
to no avail. One of our goals is to share insights,
successes, and failures for those who are inclined to put
out their own record. The street entrepreneurs. This article
is for you...stay strong, stay focused, and keep up the good
hard work. Success is yours, go get it.
Although it started as an alternative for artists who
couldn't get a deal, there are two main reasons why someone
puts out their own record: 1) to own their own destiny and
control their art form by owning their own label, or 2) to
get picked up by a larger label or distributor by proving
that your music is marketable. You either want to be a Def
Jam or distributed by a Def Jam. Regardless of the reasons,
controlling your own project and proving to the world that
your music is marketable, while making money, is very
attractive. There are many successful examples of
self-released artists and labels who have come before: Too
Short, AWOL, No Limit, Cash Money Records, Inner Soul, Esham,
Slip-N-Slide, E-40, Luke Records, Revolutionary Records, 3-6
Mafia, Big Boy, Trinity Garden Cartel, Deff Trapp, Rubber
Room, CWAL, and many, many others. Some have
self-destructed, some have been shut down by the Feds, some
have been swallowed up by larger labels, some have robbed
their artists and employees--the very people who created
their success, and a few have gone on to succeed remarkably.
There is a lot of money and prestige in owning your own shit
in this industry, provided you have the financing and staff
to do it correctly. It isn't rocket science so provided you
have the proper tools and determination, you can make it
happen for yourself. That's our focus: doing it correctly,
meaning profitably.
The basis of any successful project is the music. The music
must be banging and must have appeal outside your inner
circle. That means you don't just play it for your boys, you
plat it for people you don't know who are most likely to be
honest with you about whether or not it's on point. When
Creator's Way was putting out Do Or Die's first single in
Chicago, Po' Pimp, they gathered together all the local mix
show DJs, club DJs, and some of the local retailers and
played a few songs for them. They unanimously picked Po'
Pimp as their favorite song, so CWAL had reconfirmed exactly
which single to press up (and the DJs felt like they played
a part in choosing the single). Why spend tens of thousands
of dollars on pressing if you aren't certain you'll have the
support of the local DJs and stores?
Once you decide on the first single and press up your
record, you market it within a small geographic area that
you can affordably control. Unless you are backed by
millions of dollars and a flawless major distributor, you
don't want to start nationally because you can't be
everywhere in the country at once. The larger labels have
staffs and budgets to accommodate a national release, but
since you don't, start with just your city or town and no
more than two or three others nearby. Make certain you've
done the research in all of the areas you choose where the
record will sell. Choose areas where the artists can travel
cheaply and easily, since they may need to travel often into
those areas to support the record. For example, it would not
be a wise decision to choose New York, Houston, and the Bay
Area for simultaneous release because the airfare alone
would kill you financially every time your artist needed to
travel to support the record at radio or retail or with a
show. Once the record hits, however, it will spread
naturally and you can't control this. When Twista released
his first single, Emotions, even though we tried to contain
it to Chicago, Milwaukee, and St Louis (all within a few
hours driving distance from Chicago where he lived) the
record spread naturally to Louisiana, Atlanta, and
Cleveland. By the time that happened, we had enough income
from record sales to send Twista into those markets. Cash
Money Records focused on Louisiana and Texas for all of
their releases until they decided they wanted major
distribution and then they expanded slowly throughout the
South and up into the Mid-West. At this point they had
enough money from their record sales to be taken seriously
by a regional distributor. The success they experienced with
this expansion gave me enough ammunition to get them a $30
million distribution deal with a major, allowing them
complete ownership of their masters and their company.
Master P focused on Oakland and the surrounding areas prior
to signing to his distribution deal, even though he was
getting sales in his hometown of New Orleans. He was not
distracted by that and kept his focus on his target area
(everything beyond the Bay Area and Northern California was
gravy).
Timing is a key element for the project. Once you choose a
release date, everything works backwards from that date. All
aspects of the project's set-up is worked simultaneously so
that everything happens at once on that all important
release date. In other words, if a local newspaper writes
about your artist or publishes a review of the record, it's
important that it comes out at the same time the record is
released. It does no good to have an article published four
months before the record drops. No one will remember it. The
street team needs to blitz the streets before the project
drops to build anticipation for its release but in a timely
fashion. How many times have you gone to a store to buy a
record you've been hearing about for months only to find out
it's not out yet? Remember the first Snoop Doggy Dogg
record? We all waited a year for it to drop, but couldn't
wait to run to the store to buy it the day it came out. Make
certain when choosing your release date that it's a
realistic time frame to accomplish the art work, the
printing, the pressing, the street blitz, and local press.
Don't worry about national press, you'll need that later.
Why would you want someone in Oakland to read about a record
that can only be bought in Houston? As you grow, the
national press will come. It won't help you to have a
write-up in the Source in October when your project is
local, because when you go back to them in May with a
national story to tell, they've already written about your
artist and won't do it again. So go for what you need, when
it does you the most good.
Don't focus on getting a distributor right away. You'll get
a better deal once you can prove your record is selling. You
can put your product in stores on consignment, meaning you
give it to them and when it sells they pay you. Once your
product has a demand and they start to sell units regularly,
it will be easier to get paid. If your record becomes a hit
and sells quickly, it will be very easy to get paid in
advance, and you'll have the distributors coming to you to
do a deal. Remember this is a business. As long as someone
thinks they can make money from you, they will. If they know
they can, the terms will be more favorable for you. The less
risk involved for a store or distributor, the better the
deal is for you. Once the distributors start making offers,
the best way to find out if a distributor is right for you
is to look at the type of music they distribute to see if
it's similar. Then ask the other labels they distribute for
their experiences regarding the distributor and if they get
paid on time. Local retail stores who buy from that
distributor can give you great insight as well.
It is important to create a plan and stick to it. Focus and
determination are the only things that are going to get you
through the chaos of putting out your own record. Many
offers will come, most of which are from people who can't do
much more for you than you can do for yourself. It's
important to weigh everyone's reputation, check on their
accomplishments and successes to be certain they are
legitimate and true, and be patient and wait for the
opportunity that will bring you exactly what you want. You
will not get what you deserve, you will get what you
negotiate. The music business is not fair, and seems that
one who holds out for what one really wants, usually gets
it! Do the research and study the industry so you can figure
out what it is exactly that you want. The best part is that
you control your own destiny.
Article
Copyright ©1999 from Rap Coalition, used courtesy of Wendy
Day
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