SORRY, You Are Way Off If You Think An Independent Record Label Can’t Be Super Profitable!!!
 by: Ty Cohen

Independent records labels are usually more profitable for the owner of the label than being allied with a major label because the artist gets to keep 100% of the profit. So if money is the only measure of profitably, independence puts more money in the artist’s pocket.

But if you are part of a new genre of music, you will probably need the big boys to make your genre become popular enough to command a world wide audience. Take rap music as an example. Without the backing of the big record labels, rap would still be basically a local phenomenon. The support that the major record labels gave to rap artists is the reason it has become so successful.

Riding on the tails of that success is a very profitable independent market for rapsters and because of the national market created by the major labels marketing and distribution efforts, the independents are raking in huge amounts of money.

Without the initial backing of their genre, the independent artists will still be making more money than artists working for a big label, but the total amount of profit would be less because of the much smaller market for the music.

The smart independent will leverage the money spent by the big labels to help increase the popularity of their own genre of music as the basis for making their own independent label more successful.

Other Factors

Some of the changes that can help out the independent artist make more money include:

* Home-studio systems like ProTools have dramatically reduced recording costs. A sound studio can be built in your home for around $10,000.

* Selling directly to the customer through the internet and eliminating the 70-80% that goes to the retailer. As a result they can offer the public lower prices, take the lessons taught over at http://www.SellMusicOnlineLikeCrazy.com for example.

* Sell music in MP3 format and burn CDs only when they are actually ordered. One of the biggest distribution costs is burning, labeling and shipping CDs to retail outlets with no guarantee the CDS will actually sell.

You need to understand that all of the above savings will not eliminate the need to aggressively market your music. Artists who already have a following have been very successful with their independent labels. The major benefit of signing with a major record label is the marketing they provide. Smaller media consultants can do the marketing and promotion of a CD for much less than a major record label but good marketing and promotion people will never come cheap. However, you may be able to get a smaller media company to work on a low flat rate that covers their basic costs plus a % of the profits from the sale of the music.

Piracy…Help or Hindrance?

Piracy does not necessarily hurting the artist. It does hurt the big record labels and many of the larger independent labels that produce other people’s work because they only make money from the sale of the CD or from licensing fees if they own the copyright to the music.

The file sharing networks that allow the piracy of so much of today’s music can raise the music’s and therefore the artist’s visibility. Being more visible can actually lead to increased sales for artists who don’t have huge promotional budgets. By being more visible, the artist can become more popular and will be able to book more live performances. Even the most die-hard “free downloader” will shell out money to attend a live concert.

The bottom line is music piracy hurts everyone involved in the creation and distribution of the music except the performer. Historically, under the big record labels, the performer usually got the smallest piece of the profit pie. That fact is behind some performers giving away MP3 versions of their music so they can draw bigger crowds to live performances and also charge their fans for professional quality CDs.

About The Author

Ty Cohen is the acclaimed author of over a dozen best-selling music industry “How to” books and courses. Grab a copy of Ty Cohen’s latest book title by visiting http://www.MusicBooksByTy.com and to learn more about starting or turning your existing record label into a world wide, profit pulling record label visit:
http://www.TheUltimateRecordLabel.com/landing_page.htm Start A Record Label Today!

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Hey Readers! I’ve been comin across some crazy stuff the past few days from a few different blogs around the web which I just had to share with you. Check em out below…

Will DRM Save The Record Industry?

When music consumers began to share digital music electronically over the internet using file sharing software such as Kazaa, Limeware and BitTorrent, suddenly it was possible for a music customer to access all the music they wanted for …

Mr Hildrew’s Media Blog: Illegal File Sharing and the Music Industry

Lots of fuss in the blogosphere about file-sharing and illegal downloading this week. It all started when Peter Mandelson (the Government's Business Secretary) pledged last week to go after people who download music illegally and punish …

Yeh, Billy Bragg, but what about the indies?

While reading TheCure.com's blog by Robert Smith (oddly, nothing updated since May 2009), Robert goes on about the unfairness of a new artist with file sharing. In one paragraph he mentions for those who cannot perform live or look good (no merchandise) … I also try to manage music, cyclocross (which requires a LOT of training if you are just starting out and is very physically demanding, on the bike, off the bike, over the barriers without hindering momentum), work, …

Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.

Have a great day!

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There are several good P2P (peer to peer) programs available over the Internet. Some of the free P2P programs one can choose from are: BitTorrent, eDonkey / Overnet, WinMx, Shareaza, Limewire, emule, Ares, AudioGalaxy, Kazaa, iMesh, and BearShare. Others, which are not free, include iTunes and Rhapsody.

The best P2P programs are adjudged ?best? due to their high acceptance levels with the P2P network user community. There are several parameters which are critical for acceptance of a P2P File sharing system by a large community of users. One such parameter is the availability of the program at all times. If the server of a P2P network program is switched off, or the mirrors are not able to take the load of high demands of visitors, or file servers are not available, it blocks all the new downloads. This causes a significant effect on the popularity of the network and reduces its acceptance among its users. Yet another parameter is Integrity, which is often compromised by corrupted files which creep in to the network if the network uses donated resources for hosting meta-data. Such corrupted files could be any kind of malware such as spyware, adware, Trojan horses, Browser hijackers, key loggers, data miners and remote installers. A network with some moderators sure helps remove all the malware files from the network and retain the integrity of the program. Moreover, the program should also be efficient in terms of download speed and effective in terms of providing a large number of files for downloading.

These parameters are usually used to judge a P2P program, but can hold different priorities for different users. For example, a user may prefer to download a program that has the most number of music files available even if the threat of malware from that program is higher than others.

Thus, users looking for a good P2P program should check all such programs against the parameters given above and after ascertaining which parameter is most critical to them and which program fares best on that parameter, should choose that program.

P2P [http://www.P2P-Web.com] provides detailed information on P2P, P2P Downloads, P2P Applications, Free P2P and more. P2P is affiliated with Mpeg Encoders.

Article Source:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Bailey

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