For a music producer getting your music signed to a record label is still one of the easiest and best ways to get your music out to the masses. And with thousands of record labels out there, there’s never been so much choice. We’ve dived in to explain to you how to get signed to music labels.
Follow our steps, be polite and friendly, and realistic with your ambitions.
You’ll soon start signing your music to record labels, and then you can start building up to bigger releases on bigger labels. Growing your brand and your profile.
There are any number of ways you can get your music out to the masses, but one of the most reliable and tried-and-tested ways is to get your music signed by a record label.
We’ll guide you through the various steps involved including finding the right label for you, how to submit your demo, what sort of deal you should expect and how long the process might take.
– Finding the Right Label
– How To email A&R managers
– Silence is not golden
– What a record deal looks like
– Music promotion of your track
– Timelines
– Going it alone
By getting your music signed to a reputable music label, they’ll do a lot of the promotion for you. This by giving you a bigger platform, and giving you more exposure. They will provide better music marketing, while also taking care of the mastering, artwork and uploading the music to all the relevant online music platforms.
Finding the right label
With tens of thousands of record labels out there, there’s 100% a label out there that will fit your music. But finding it can be the tricky part.
Identify the sort of music you’re making. Is it hip hop, trance, folk, or experimental synth music? You might not want to be pigeon-holed, but it’ll help if you can describe your music or if you sound similar to other artists.
If so, check what label they’ve released music on, or head to sites like Beatport and Traxsource for electronic music and check their genre pages for ideas.
Once you’ve found a label that has a similar sound, you’ll need to get in touch with them. Try to find their website, Facebook or Soundcloud page. It should have their contact details on the ‘About’ section. Email is best, but if not, drop them a message on FB or Soundcloud and ask them for their demo submission policy. You might want to check out our ‘How to Say Hi’ blog.
It’s also important to match the label to your ambitions. If you’re a new music producer just starting out in the industry, emailing to Defected/Domino/Def Jam might be overly ambitious. So maybe aim a little bit down the food chain.
Equally, if you know your music is good, don’t be afraid to back yourself and be confident. It’s a fine line, but be realistic with your ambitions and where you are in your career.
How to email
Labels will receive hundreds of submissions each day from a music producer like yourself. The bigger labels even more, so you need to be concise and send over the info they need.
Say hello, tell them you’re a fan of the label or a track in particular and quickly introduce yourself. Mention your career highlights , who you are, what music you make, what other releases you’ve had (if any). Email directly and never BCC – the personal touch will take longer, but there’s no substitute for being friendly and direct and creating that personal relationship.
Then add a link to the track – this should be a private link that should be streamable and downloadable. It’s easy to create a private Souncloud or Dropbox link that lets you do both.
Do not email a music file as an attachment. Clogging up the record label’s email address is one sure-fire way to never hear back from them.
Silence is (not) golden
So you’ve emailed your best pitch and you know your music would fit their label. But you’ve not heard back from them, and they’ve not even listened to your track (you can check via the stats on Soundcloud Pro accounts who has listened).
If it’s been 10 days to two weeks. Send the email again with a polite reminder. And if you don’t hear back, it could be that they’re not looking to release any new music or they’re not looking to add to their artist roster. It’s then time to look for the next option and start the process again.
The deal
Yay! Once you’ve had the thumbs up from a record label, there are still a few stages to lock down.
You’ll need to tell them your artist name and the name of the track. And you’ll need to tell them if there are any samples to clear. If it’s all your own music, there’s no problem. However if you’ve sampled a track (no matter how long or short the sample is), the record label will need to know so they can try and clear the sample.
They’ll also usually deal with the mastering and they’ll take care of the artwork and the release date. All this information should be included in the contract that you sign, which will also include the terms of the deal, basically stating that the record label now own all rights to the music for an agreed period of time.
The revenue
Generally, the record label will take half of the revenue and as a music producer you’ll get the other half. Once costs like promotion, artwork, mastering etc have been covered. Generally, that’s agreed to be a $50 limit. So unless you sell over $50 of music, you won’t see a penny of the money.
[bctt tweet=”Be willing to get involved in the music marketing and you’ll quickly get on the label’s good side.” username=””]
Once you hit that threshold, you’ll then start splitting the revenue. Before you get too excited, however, there are a few other costs involved. Online retailers will take half of the total sales, and if your label has used a distributor, they can take 10-20% of the original sale as well. This means once everyone has been paid, you’ll realistically be paid as a music producer 15-20% of each sale.
And when you consider the streaming figures, that’s even smaller, with an average pay out of $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream, which is again then split between the distributor, the label, any other rights holders and then you. But getting on a bigger record label can meet more access to better playlists, meaning your music could go a lot further in their hands.
Music Promotion of your track
As a general rule, the more music marketing you and the label can do, the better your chances of success. Ask the label what you can do to help, and give them all the info they’ll need to promote you including your EPK, logo, press images, biography etc.
Some labels will have very active social media campaigns and bigger labels might even have their own PR department, so ask if there’s anything else you can do to get involved. Maybe a special photo shoot, guest mix or interview to help publicise the release?
As a music producer be willing to get involved in the music marketing and you’ll quickly get on the label’s good side.
The timeline
Some labels will work six months in advance, some labels will look to get music out quickly. So ask for the timeline at the start, but don’t be worried if it takes a few months for your music to be released.
Mastering the music can take several weeks, and online retailers will ask for 2-3 weeks lead time to get the music on their site. And if you’re releasing a CD or vinyl, then that wait can take even longer.
Please don’t be alarmed if the printing press is booked up for over a year in advance. Nowadays distribution can take anything up to several months.
Your contract should state the payment terms including your payment and bank account details (Paypal is a pretty common way to do it). Most labels will pay quarterly, and give you a breakdown of the sales and streaming data. And don’t be afraid to chase them up and ask .
With so much music out there, reaching the $50 benchmark can be pretty tricky, especially when you’re first starting out, but the label should be transparent and upfront about the money.
Do it yourself
Thanks to the mp3 and online revolution, music has progressed beyond record labels being the be-all-and-end-all. While it’s a well-worn path to success, it’s increasingly easy to self-release your own music. Sites like Youtube and Soundcloud will let you monetize your music streams. And you can sell your music direct to your fanbase and followers via sites like Bandcamp.
Plus, when you release the music yourself, you have full creative control and you get 100% of the profits.
If you wish to know more about this topic then please check out these other helpful blogs.
We Ask Is Music Streaming The New DJing?
A Step By Step Guide To Middle East Streaming Site
Promote Your Music With These 7 Tips And Get More Fans
We would love to hear your comments below.
Did you enjoy these marketing and music promotion tips? Then, sign up for free insights and resources from the Ma’ana team or join our Facebook group
