How to Start a Recording Label

Whether you want to record your own music or want to become a distributor of other musicians, your first step towards getting your music into public is with starting a recording label. Understanding what you need to make the first steps and working towards complete success will give you something to cheer about in the long run.

Things You'll Need

• recording studio
• recording equipment
• instruments

Instructions

Starting a Studio

1. Find a space that you can work in. You will want to make sure that you find two rooms by each other, one for recording the instruments and the other for the sound engineering. While looking for these rooms, you will want to determine whether they are big enough for what you want to do and whether they can be sound proofed.

2. Set up the wall space. After you find your rooms, you will want to place foam and sound proof fabric around the room in which the instruments will be recorded at. If you are going to set up vocals, you will want to get a vocal box to make sure that the noise is deadened before you record.

3. Invest in equipment for the instruments. Whether you need microphones, amps, pre-amps, a guitar or other studio equipment, make sure that you start with finding the best for the studio. If you are recording a voice, for instance, you will want to get a compressor, pre-amp and microphone.

4. Invest in sound engineering equipment. For the second room, you will want to get a mix board, digital input areas and software that can help you to mix and master the instruments. For software, you can look into specific types, such as Mac options, Pro Tools, Vegas, Adobe Audition or Fruity Loops. This will be dependent on what type of recording you will be doing and what will work best for each section.

Setting up Paperwork

1. After you are familiar with the equipment, you can start to move into the paperwork. Make sure that you have a recording label name as well as a business plan written out, even if you are only recording for yourself.

2. Get listed. You will want to start by getting listed on the IRS as a business. You will also want to connect with ASCAP, BMI or SeSac for recording rights that will be used with your or other songs.

3. Put together a portfolio. Whether you will only be making your own music or whether you will be recording for others, you want to make sure that your portfolio is seen in the public. Making sure that you put together a few CDs for the front will allow you to be noticed as a recording label.

4. Go digital. If you are beginning your recording label, the best way to advertise is on the Internet. Distributing your music through spaces such as IODA, which will connect you to all of the digital radio networks, is an easy way to get known as a recording label.

5. Market. After you have your affiliations and your foundation, you can begin to become known by other musicians as a recording label. This will be a combination of advertising on the Internet, selling the CDs and continuing to get listed in areas where you can be seen as an entity, allowing you to become a legitimate record label.

Tips & Warnings

• Always know where you are going. As long as you have everything organized and have all of your information in the correct place, it will be easy for you to step forward with your recording label and to become known. This begins with a business plan and continues with finding the information that can help you most and applying it to your label.