Starting Your Own Record Label as a Successful Business

Setting up and running a record label is a dream business venture for many musicians and creative entrepreneurs. Independent music is a fast-growing sector of the industry with massive potential for the future, but many budding music moguls simply don’t know how to start a record label and run it as a successful business.

The essentials of starting an independent record label

First of all, it’s important to draw up an achievable business plan, setting out the goals you want to achieve during a specific time period, whether that’s signing a certain number of artists, putting on a series of shows or generating revenue through merchandising or other potential streams.

To get your label off the ground, you’ll need official registration as a limited company. You’ll also need to arrange business banking so you can manage your finances effectively. It’s important to secure a web domain for your label too, in order to give your company a professional and legitimate online profile.

Creating legally-binding contracts and signing new artists is the most complicated and expensive aspect of starting and running record label as a business. Essential contracts can range from Sound Recording Licenses, Merchandising Agreements and 360 Deals, to Management Agreements, Artist Development and Synchronization Licenses, each with their own unique purpose and implications. Hiring lawyers to write these contracts for you can be incredibly costly, but there is another option designed to make it much easier and more affordable to run an independent label.

The record label of the future

Setting up and managing the many aspects of a new record label can be complicated and often expensive. There is, however, an innovative way to fast-track these crucial first steps and kick-start a career in the music business as a record label owner, without an in-depth knowledge of business management. It’s called Record Label in a Box.