As we’ve mentioned, the days of the traditional label deal and 90′s type recording career are long gone. In fact, the pursuit of a music label deal should be at the bottom of a musician’s list of priorities. The lottery-like odds of ever being discovered by a major (or minor) are probably the most important reason musicians today should self-manage their careers but when you drill down into the economics it seems almost silly to want to join a music label, especially a major or major subsidiary. Due to shrinking revenues from CD sales the reduced margins from digital sales, labels are putting more economic pressure on musicians by requesting 360 deals; deals that require the act to share profits from touring, merchandise and other revenue streams with the label – on top of the cut the label takes from the music. Seems like double-dipping.
Today musicians can manage all aspects of their careers with help from partners like bandcamp & ReverbNation and keep a much bigger share of the revenue they create. A hard working act may generate enough revenue to keep recording, touring and marketing themselves – why give up any left over profit to a label? Is a music labels marketing efforts going to be any more successful than an independent musicians? Do music labels know social media better than you? I doubt it. Most use interns or junior employees to manage their acts social media marketing.
The labels are passing on some of their risk to musicians with the 360 deal. Why assume any of the label’s risk? Musicians today should shoulder all of the risk associated with their career. Sure, its a lot scarier, but the rewards are all yours to keep. I would think long and hard about signing any type of deal today. If you’ve generated enough buzz to get on a label’s radar, chances are you can do just fine without them for the rest of your career.
