news category created 11 November 2010 written by Mick Glossop
The Music Producers Guild (UK) held the first of a series of DIY Record Company Events at Metropolis Studios on November 11th, 2010 to a sell out crowd. Panelists Michael Fuller of AIM,Patrick Rackow of BASCA, Ben Jones of the Musicians Union, and producer and MPG ChairmanSteve Levine each presented their views on how the record industry is going and how important the independent label now is in the new digital economy especially with the new business models that are being employed. The session was moderated by MPG board member Tommy D, who also runs his own independent record company.
You can listen to the audio recorded at this event in the MPG Sound Archive (members only)
The audience was a mixture of new independent label owners, managers, artists wanting to launch their careers, producers and publishers, all hungry for information on the new business models. It was also good to see a large representation of women from the industry – which is often accused of being a male dominated domain.
Fuller pointed out that times had definitely changed and major record companies no longer signed new acts for development as was the case in the past. ‘They’re looking for artists who are already on their second album, have a fan base…something they can take to the next level.’
Rackow hammered home the point, ‘Make sure you know where your income streams are coming from. You might have to give away more points to collections services in other territories but it is income you wouldn’t have had in the first place. Be prepared to incentivise. Increase their share if they negotiate further sync deals or reach collection milestones.’
Levine stressed that the income from PPL is now of paramount importance and that income streams are often lost by not joining PPL or starting your own publishing company and TommyD extolled the virtues of alternative marketing routes via Facebook and Twitter.
The next DIY event will be held on the January 27th and will look at distribution routes and aggregation methods.
