How to Open Your Own Record Label

Video Transcript

"To open your own record label, you'll need a couple of different things. Number one, you need a bank full of cash. It's not inexpensive to start a record label. You need a lot of things; a lot of pieces of puzzle to come together into one company. You're going to need artists, so either you're going to have to go out and find those artists yourself or you'll in art guys, scouts who can go out and search out local groups and acts and talk to them about the possibility of recording them. You'll need a studio. Once you have your artists, you'll need to - a place to be able to record them professionally. Now, depending on what type of artists you're planning to work with, probably odds are you're not going to be able to record them out of your second bedroom in your little apartment, so you're going to need an office space, a studio. So, once you have your studio, you're going to need someone to run that studio. You'll need your engineers, your sound engineers. Now, let's say you already know how to do all these things and you're actually producing music, okay, great, you're on to your next step, which is distribution, pitching, trying to get people deals and you'll need some connections. So, I recommend you do a lot of networking, find people within the industry that you can try to rub elbows with, talk to them about the possibility of new artists you have up and coming and getting that sound into their hands. And you'll need a great name. Every record label has to have a name that stands out. And don't just think that you can jump right into to this because you're going to need to have some business savvy, you're going to need to have your head on your shoulders and know how to conduct business. You know, you'll incorporate, hopefully, you don't want to run a sole proprietorship, you want to make sure you're being protected. You'll need your insurances, all of your licenses and everything to get started. It's just a couple of things that I'm naming in a general overview of how you become your own record label."