Tips on Record Labels

Video Transcript

"Now let's talk about record labels, signing with some organization that's going to sponsor you, stuff like that. Do you really need one? Can you survive as an independent artist? Well, there's some choices that you're going to have to make. And for some people, a record label is the way to go. For people who are like, Miley Cyrus, right, who's 15 years old, star phenom, she's definitely going to go with a record label, because she's already got all sorts of exposure and they can effectively keep her in the spotlight. If you're small and if you're somebody who's not readily marketable, now my thing is not a thing that fits into an easy cookie cutter box of pop star diva, right? So I'm going to be a different kind of performer. So it's been beneficial for me to go my own way. The difference is that a record label owns you, but promotes you to more people. Being independent, you own all your own stuff, but you're not going to get to more people. I know bands, I know people who have signed with record labels, and they seem very popular, they really are very popular, they're actually playing in front of lots more people than I'm playing for, and yet they're making $15,000-$20,000 a year, just struggling to get by. Me on the other hand, there are years that I've made $25,000, $30,000, whatever, more dollars and I've been doing fine as far as supporting myself and they've envied the position that I have because I own all my own content and all that kind of stuff. There are years also where it's been really lean and I've gotten nobody to fall back on that's definitely going to pay for my touring whenever I'm going out and being on the road. So think about those things when thinking, do I need a record label or not? It's a big issue. Make sure you research it. Make sure you know what you're signing when you're getting into it. Otherwise, man more power to you."