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Inside the Record Industry

Lesson 3: Knowing the Playing Field

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A Label by Any Name

Just like artists have essential qualities, so too do labels. Now more than ever, we need to determine not only what it is that we as artists bring to the table, but what exactly labels bring to the table. In determining both of these things, you will begin to see that getting signed to a label has as much to do with finding the right partner as it does having a "great" demo, and so on. It will also show you that "labels" can come in many shapes and sizes.

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Berkleemusic Online School -- BMB-150.01 Getting Signed! An Insider's Guide to the Record Industry: Late Spring, 2002 2002-2004 Berklee College of Music. All rights reserved. Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

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What Labels Do for You

Describe what you think a label should do for you as an artist. Think about it from a broad perspective. Don't be shy about listing all things great and small. Keep in mind that there is a wide range of labels: form huge multinational conglomerates to a guy in a dorm room. Think about what qualities the multinational and the guy in the dorm-room have in common. Do they both do some of the same jobs? In the activity below, drag the things you think a label should do for a musician to the appropriate box at the bottom.

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Berkleemusic Online School -- BMB-150.01 Getting Signed! An Insider's Guide to the Record Industry: Late Spring, 2002 2002-2004 Berklee College of Music. All rights reserved. Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

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Key People
Yes, your A&R person will be your best friend from the time he or she signs you to the label to the time they drop your sorry ass. And, while you may not really think of this person as your best friend, you will pretend to, while in his or her company, as you should. That said, there are others at the label whom you darn well better cozy up to. The first would be whoever is in the "production" department. At labels, the production department isn't a room littered with Phil Spectors and Nigel Godriches. Rather, it would perhaps better be described as the art department. For whatever reason, the place where CD packages are put together and designed at a label is called the production department. I have seen more projects derailed because an artist or artist manager can't get along with members of the production department (designers) than I'd like to remember. Whether you use an outside designer, design yourself, or leave it up to the label, at some point, you will interface with the production department. It will make your life much easier if you keep them on your side. This means getting to know them, not immediately poo-pooing their ideas, just because they're not your ideas, and generally respecting their jobs and their schedules. The final group you should really make an effort to ingratiate yourself with are the sales people. The record business, like football, is a game of inches, and careers are made through an accretion of small gestures. In other words, when a salesperson walks into a retailer with an armload of CDs that he or she is trying to convince said retailer to buy, you want yours to go to the top of the pile. In order to do this, you must first make great music, but then you must get to knowas best you canthe people selling it. They really are the first line of offense, in this game.

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Berkleemusic Online School -- BMB-150.01 Getting Signed! An Insider's Guide to the Record Industry: Late Spring, 2002 2002-2004 Berklee College of Music. All rights reserved. Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.