Releasing Music without a Recording Deal
Photo by Gavin Whitner
Waiting for someone to discover you and sign you up may never come. It’s simply not enough to sit at home and write music in your room hoping to be discovered. There are so many musicians out there that you must get out of your comfort zone and get busy if you want to be noticed. Simply playing in your home town local is no longer enough or the right strategy.
The good part of all of this is it’s so much easier to release your music and amass loyal fans without the backing of a record label. Getting a recording deal is still one of the best ways to get into the mainstream music industry, but it’s not the only way to get noticed. Every day there are thousands of songs released by musicians across the world that enjoy a great following.
100 % Ownership
When you release your own music, you own it 100%. There is no one who will come to lay claim to it in any way. This is important because when under a contract by a recording label, part of the ownership of all of the ownership of the music may be to the record label and not the musician. The contracts that you sign may end up being the worst decision you make if you’re not well versed in what they mean.
Understanding Music Distribution
Learn in advance about how to distribute your music. This is one of the reasons why record labels are sort after. As an artist, it can be confusing not knowing where to start distributing your music. With the digital age came better channels to distribute music than just relying on labels. There are so many musicians that have had their songs played across the world after uploading them to YouTube and Soundcloud.
There are many music distribution channels available to musicians that want to distribute their music without the use of a record label, for example this chillout radio is one of them. These channels don’t own the rights to the music but simply charge you a certain amount as a fee. This fee can be an annual payment or a % of the total earning of the song on their channel. Some don’t charge anything at all which can be positive and negative.
It’s positive they don’t charge because then the service is free. It can also be negative since relying on them can lead to disappointment when they close shop. You must also consider the duration it takes for your music to be uploaded on these channels. Some are quick and will have your music online in a day and some may take longer than a week. You can use both and have a plan where you send your music one after the other for a consistent release if you have multiple songs.
Make sure you study each distribution channel you’ll use to ensure you keep track of all the earning you get from your music is streamed or downloaded. Some channels have timely payment and some have a waiting period.
