
Many young musicians ask themselves how they can control their career. The longing for recognition of their talent is great. There are many marketing specialists on the net who offer good tips for such artists. At the end of this post I will post some links.
But even if you get the best out of the tips, the subject is not finished, because it means an enormous effort and a lot of work. That a record company would do this work in appreciation of talent is a big dream, but it is only a pipe dream. You have to take a critical look at the interests of the artist and the record company.
Surely both parties want to make money in the end and not lose it. Unfortunately, business models have such an inherent nature that an investment is necessary at the beginning, and the profit is only earned later. How much later it may be, is the decisive difference between artist and record company.
The artist’s drive is passion, and passion often shifts the profit expectation far behind, depending on the survival model. Record companies do not have that much patience. That’s why they reduce their investment in new artists to a minimum and rely on the newcomer’s own efforts. This means de facto that in the beginning, the whole burden of artist development continues to rest with the artist. A record company is not an artist management! You have to know this difference.
Nevertheless, a record contract can be useful, because building up your own distribution of the recordings also takes up a lot of time. Unfortunately, there are endless differences between such contracts, especially with regard to the size of the company. Of course, this article cannot cover all the peculiarities of the music business, but there are a few aspects every newcomer should be aware of.
A record label is not an artist management.
A record label invests only in dependence of visible listener acceptance.
The artist must prove this acceptance, if possible before signing a contract.
The work on one’s own development of the artist profile does not end with the drawing of a contract.
The contacts of the record companies may give rise to sudden opportunities. The artist must then immediately be in a position to take advantage of these opportunities.