The main goal of most of the artists is to get signed by a label, that will take over the marketing of the music and the artist himself. Sometimes it goes even further and the label also takes over the complete process like production, distribution, promotion, and development. Sounds great right? But it also has its darker sides. By signing a contract with a label the artist directly loses any right of the songs. Often the artist also has to pay back all the money, that the label has used for the artist’s marketing etc. The artist only earns money out of artist royalties, which are determined in the recording contract between him and the label. However, it is often just a small amount.
Is it possible to be independent of a label and still be successful?
Yes, of course! There are some great artists without a label, for example, Chance The Rapper, the Naked and the Famous, Example or Deadmau5.
Due to digital technologies like streaming websites, the industry has totally changed and artists don’t need to sell a single record to be successful. The included statistic shows, that the annual growth rate of revenue, coming from physical music, is decreasing and is expected to decrease in the near future.
But how do they get their songs in the digital stores?
There a several music distribution sites like awal, landr, distrokid, tunecore, where you can upload your songs and then your music will appear on the major streaming platforms. This is an amazing service, because it is affordable and effortless, as the websites are very self-explaining. The use of streaming websites is nowadays also the most efficient and profitable way to spread music, considering their annual growth rate of revenue.
Especially in the younger age categories, the so-called millennials, music streaming is highly popular.
If you are not ready to enter the big platforms, there are other options, to check whether your music is appealing to others.
Youtube is great because you can reach a wide audience, create your own channel and interact with your audience in the comments.
Soundcloud has established a network of mainstream and emerging artists and DJs. It can be very helpful to connect with others to get tips and constructive feedback. There is also a blog included, that guide new artists through the first steps of their career.
Another mentionable aspect is that artists don’t need a real studio anymore, thanks to brilliant tools for music production, easily applicable from the computer. These are so-called Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
Logic Pro X is a program, especially designed for Mac users to record, edit and mix music, available for about 230€.
Fl Studio can be used by mac and windows user and starts at 89€.
Since I’m doubtlessly not an expert in this field, I’ll add a review of the two from another blog.
https://www.slant.co/versus/6426/6430/~fl-studio_vs_logic-pro-x
To sum it up, on the basis of the presented methods I can say on the one hand artists are no longer reliant on labels. On the other hand, their number has strongly increased due to this fact. Nevertheless, the demand of the audience will decide which musicians can really make it to the top and be outstanding in the long term.
I hope you enjoyed reading my post, let me know in the comments what you think about it!
All the best,
Lara
Music Meets Media 
Unglaublich wie sich die Musikindustrie in den letzten Jahren verändert hat, früher wäre Musik hören ohne CDs undenkbar gewesen…
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Ja, jede Industrie muss sich heutzutage an die Digitalisierung anpassen, in diesem Fall überwiegen jedoch meiner Meinung nach die positiven Aspekte.
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