I have a budget to promote my label: Now what?

[Moody]

I would also use some of the money to throw a couple underground parties which you can recoupe some, if not all, of the money back. Get some respected talent on the bill and place yourself on a decent time slot to be heard, although probably not headliner at this point.

This is how most people I know in the scene got going.

[dj superflat]

you can actually get good promotion for $20K. you've gotta find the right outfit, that's able to hit the demo you want. they can get your music out to all the right stations, press, etc. having someone work full time on getting your music heard in the right places, reviewed, exposure, can be truly worthwhile, assuming you've got something worth the effort. this can work particularly well if you're just focused on a city/region, because you can find folk who can effectively guarantee great coverage for far less than your $20K. (national obviously pricier, has to be tailored to a given scene.) but, again, you pick the wrong outfit, you're just burning your cash.

just about everything else i've heard suggested is virtually free -- various websites, CDbaby --or doesn't seem to leverage $20K the way you should. please note, however, that you pick the wrong outfit and you get nothing.

don't pay to play on tours (if the audience isn't there already)
don't pay for old school distribution in a digital age (particularly if the audience isn't already there)
do have an awesome website (but i don't like flash, find it way too slow even on highspeed connections, think you lose attention that way)

[dj superflat]

forgot: don't buy banner ads on bigtime sites like you mentioned (itunes). but it may be worth a banner advert -- if way chique and enticing -- on a more targeted website that hits whatever demo you're selling to.

further, depending where you are, things like late nite cable can be surprisingly cheap for a 30 second spot, even for decent shows. so if you've got a great video -- which can be done way cheap with the right student director -- that's an option.

[tw1nstates]

Uhh,

Gotta step in here.

My day job is running a marketing company. We work with massive multinational clients and really small one man bands.

The big guns can afford to throw money at concepts to see if they stick. We are very often a part of it.

I run the business so I think that I have got a fairly good stand point to make *some* comment.

Firstly it might be worth seeing whether there is a market for what you are doing. Is it viable? (you don't have to be Britney to sell records / play gigs but if your stuff is shit then use the money to live for a year and get as much time making tracks in as possible.

if it is viable (peer review is prob the best way in your situation) find out by sending it to labels / dj's that you like./If you get some positive feedback then work your next step from there. i.e. if the labels are saying it's good but needs polish get an engineer in and work with them. if you get offered a deal then licence a track as a single, no option on future material until you have seen performance from the label. They willpromote you to an extent and you can use the money to live on. Util the cash starts to rollin. . . Which might be a while, and given todays climate for selling recorded music will probably be from gigging and t shirts etc. . .

Alternatively use myspace et all to build up a fan base. Loads of ppl say it doesn't work, I know people who use it sucessfully. There is a good downloadable pdf that some guy wrote about marketing your music through myspace. . . It's a great way to connect with other artists that are further on that may give you feedback. RJD2 might be too busy to check stuff that you have done but i bet there are a few people just a few steps further down the line that mgith be able to helpyou in some way. .

Untill you have a revenure stream and a viable product you are just burning your money on stuff like banner adverts. if the music is viable for your market (sorry i know this sounds offensive to some creative types but the reality is he is talking about investing into his own business so these things are important)

Ask people who have done it. Other artists,independant smaller labels etc., A few might tell you to piss off but the music community as a whole ends to be inclusive and if you have good stuff you willvery quickly realise cos pplwill want to talk to you do deals with you etc. Be nice, polite humble etc. We work with a few small companies that basically get services from us at loads less than others mainly cos we like them.

Don't listen to advice on forums like this cos most of the people who are making it in their chosen profession aren't wasting their time posting here (this applies to me as much as anyone else!)

There is a lot of disinformation spread in places such as this so the best way is to research by asking people who are actually successful in the way you want to be / music you want to make. . .

Everyone has an opinion.This is just another one Albeit from someone that has seen loads and loads of companies burn marketing funds.

Don't spend any money until you have drawn up a list of pro's cons of what you could spend that money on. . . Think about it, ask other labels what has worked for them. Make contacts with people and don't do anything untilyou have researched it fully. Test your market before bringing the product out and spending your money on it. invest oher ppls money in your business if you possibly can.


Pesoanlly I would use it to live for as long as possible, pay your rent / phone bills etc and get marketing your self using all the free tools there are. You can get stuff sold online for next to nothing so going into a market top heavy is fine if you are pepsi or coke (and it often doesnt work for them even with their million pound budgets!) but seems to me that it's almost always a waste for anyone else. . .

My 20 yen for what it's worth. . .

[Beatport]

@ tw1nstates


Awesome response. Very constructive. Thanks a lot for the advice!

[mathew]

I would call your label stompy and give your artists names like "Beatport" and "Juno" and "Necodo".

[Mr_You]

*deleted*

[dhilsabeck]

Bump

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep07/a ... dlabel.htm

It cuts off for non subscribers but it's worth the 99p for the whole article.