As the new world of independent music progresses, artists are quickly realising operating on their own without the support of a record company means that they are having to learn, implement, or hire in a whole range of new specialist skills to get their music off the starting block.
Releasing a track, whether it’s on your own website or through a digital distributor is very easy now, but can also be fraught with pitfalls if you haven’t approached it from a business perspective.
My first advice to any artist who wants to succeed on their own is treat your music as your own start up business from the word go, and operate everything as your own music production company. If you want to sustain a long term independent career in music, this is the single most important piece of advice you will ever read.
When record labels sign a track, they will generally deal with things like registering your track with royalty collection agencies, clearing samples you may have used in your track, tracking down publishers to make sure any cover versions are attributed to the right songwriter, prepare marketing for the track, getting press and publicity, and promoting it to radio and DJs to name just a few things.
Artist now have the power to bypass the record label and release tracks themselves, however the one thing that is absolutely critical to your success as an indie is also having the knowledge of the business areas of the music industry in some depth so you can avoid legal pitfalls.
The repercussions of putting out a track with an un-cleared sample, or not registering the publisher of a cover song, even for promotional purposes, and yes, even on your MySpace page, could wipe out your track for good. Rights owners and record labels will and do go after independent labels and regularly ask sites like iTunes, MySpace and YouTube to take down copyright infringements, and not only are you fighting a battle, you may also be sued for the infringement you have already carried out, and no they won’t take ignorance as a defence. As it’s your business the risk sits wholly with you, no one else.
Personally I don’t think that it’s a productive tactic for the rights owners, they could certainly do better by offering partnerships with talented independent artists that use their material, instead of going straight for litigation but that’s a whole other article in itself…
To support your music, educate yourself on the areas of the music business you feel you are weakest in, whether it’s legal, financial, or marketing, and make sure you get good advice and partnerships for your new ‘record business’.
If there is something that no matter how many books and articles you read on the subject you still find baffling or downright boring, then outsource it. Yes it will cost you money to pay someone to do it for you, but the investment will pay off in the long term, and you’ll get better results by contracting someone in who is passionate about their specialist skills. In the world of virtual working, you can also choose your supplier carefully to get the most cost effective partner.
By taking on board that by releasing your music independently you are in fact starting a business, you’ll set yourself a firm footing for it’s success, and by taking the decision to fully commit to treating your music as a professional product, you’ll find that making it a success will be a much more painless and easier process.
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