I'm John McGlasson, owner of o.i.e.Records,Ltd., an indie record label based in Central Illinois. Our catalog is oriented towards musicians, since I'm a guitarist first, and wanted to see a new label that's guitar-oriented, yet diverse.
I offered to write this column, as I think I can offer some valuable insight to guitarists out there about the rapidly changing music biz, from the label's point of view. Which brings me to the topic of this column, the first of what I hope are many for this great site, Record labels...do you really need one?
As the industry evolves into a digital-only world, retail is dying. While many are in denial of this fact, all you need to know is that the mighty Tower Records, the largest, for the longest, is bankrupt. Best Buy will be phasing out cds as their loss leader as early as the end of this holiday season. Indie record stores are becoming just that again, selling vinyl records, both old and new, in addition to cds. The only ones hanging onto big retail are the big labels, who are about to be stuck with warehouses full of cds that will soon be headed for the Dollar Store...remember how fast those places filled with cassettes? The cd's day is coming, at least for the big labels. I believe labels like ours will be manufacturing cds for at least another decade, as they do sell at shows, in great numbers, if it's a great band, and we sell good amounts on our website globally. And face it, they sound much better then mp3's.
The role of the music distributor is in even greater question then that of the labels, because if there's no retail, there's nobody to distribute cds to, do the labels need distributors to handle their digital? No, but the good distributors can get you features and digital rates per play or download you likely couldn't get on your own negotiating with i-tunes or Rhapsody. Our distributor, RedeyeUSA, got Rhapsody to feature one of our releases as a Rhapsody Exclusive for one week before the official release, and allowed the artist to do Artist Picks, of great songs he loves and wants to pass on, all on their main page. We never could've gotten this ourselves, so Redeye proved again that there is enormous strength in numbers, in consolidation, and in a great list of contacts like Redeye has.
Labels provide strength in numbers for artists, or they provide a crushing death under the weight of an overstuffed, under-promoted catalog. It's up to the label to find that balance between having enough great artists to "feel" like a viable label, but not having so many that you don't have the money or manpower to promote any of them properly. We have a small catalog for that reason, though we will be announcing a huge new addition in the coming weeks!
It's yet to be proven whether or not a previously unknown artist, especially in our world of instrumental guitar, can come through the indie channels with no label, no distribution, and find success. I haven't seen it. I don't know of anybody who's ever sold enough cds on CDBaby or any other outlet of that kind to make a living from it, and while anybody can get digital through theorchard.com and others like it, you're just a face in a sea of guitarists putting their poorly recorded cd up there right next to your slick, well-produced work.
The great thing is, the playing field's even for everyone. The horrible thing is, the playing field's even for everyone. There were 65,000 new releases last year, how do you seperate yourself and stand out? Even if you have more talent then 99.5% of the field, how does anyone find out? Unless you have $50k to run your own magazine ads and hire a publicist, you can't stand out, you can't get press, and Myspace isn't going to do it if your target demographic is over 21, so what do you do?
Get yourself on a great label, let their promo people do what they do, let them hire the publicist when needed, do the manufacturing, get it distributed, run the ads, and then work just as hard as you would if you weren't on a label, doing your own promo, publicity, booking, in-store appearances, etc. It's a team effort.
Finally, and most importantly from my standpoint, do something original. Does the world really need another Eric Johnson, Satriani, or Vai clone? there are thousands. No, what we need are the NEXT Johnson, Satriani, and Vai. Nobody is going to invest in you in this scary market if you're not very, very good, and very, very original.
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