You can see a label as an organizational unit. In the best of worlds: As an artist I want to associate with a label because they already have an audience for t

You can see a label as an organizational unit. In the best of worlds: As an artist I want to associate with a label because they already have an audience for the kind of music I work on. As a consumer I take note of the label and keep track of their catalog because they somewhat consistently release and promote music I am interested in. The label owners have a self-interest in promoting their catalog, doing work I personally want to spend as little time as possible on. My music has only cost me money in aggregate, and I've almost exclusively released music for free, as a hobby outside my day job. Thanks to labels I have reached an audience without doing much else than producing music and suggesting my music to labels. This has gotten me an audience where I might not have found one myself, for example in Russia (because I released an EP with a Russian netlabel in the mid 00s that then caught on because they promoted their catalog by hosting regular parties). You just have to be very wary, as I suggested, of what labels you sign with and what conditions. This is easy for beginners to overlook. But by all means, tell me more about why I should spend time "making a label" instead of making music, and explain how running a business around my music will affect my artistic integrity positively.