4 ms·

99% of any successful music artist is marketing. Getting people to hear and listen to an artist's music is the extremely hard part of it. Why would anyone need

99% of any successful music artist is marketing. Getting people to hear and listen to an artist's music is the extremely hard part of it. Why would anyone need a music label when they can release everything on Youtube or Tiktok by themselves?

vkou 3y ago
> Why would anyone need a music label when they can release everything on Youtube or Tiktok by themselves? And how would they differentiate themselves from the fifty million other people who are doing the same thing on YouTube? Labels have historically provided assistance with recording and marketing, in exchange for the lion's share of the bounty. Recording may have gotten easier, but the gap between the skills of a musician, and a marketer is still here. I'm not saying the economics of the past were great, but the economics of the present aren't, either.
- purpleblue 3y ago
  This is my point. A "music label" with zero money and zero strategy for marketing as the above seems to indicate won't be successful. The technology behind it isn't as important as the money needed to market it.
saaaaaam 3y ago
Because labels run properly have great data to market more effectively, and can spin up tried and trusted playbooks, because they tend to be genre specialists. An electronic artist won't sign to a folk label - but a folk artist signing to that label can plug into a whole bunch of proven strategies, which mean far less money and opportunity is wasted. There's a whole bunch of stuff - pixel data, audience profiling, relationships with playlist curators, email lists - that a label can apply to an artist they sign. Releasing music onto YouTube or Tiktok is not marketing - it's distribution. Distribution is trivial, it's a commodity service. Because anyone can distribute music, there's lots of it. Getting much heard requires specialist expertise - and that's why there's probably more value in good labels today than there was ten years ago.
- purpleblue 3y ago
  And what exactly does OP have over and above the artist marketing themselves and keeping 100% of the money?
  - saaaaaam 3y ago
    Your guess is as good as mine! But one of the most successful indie labels I know was started by someone with no experience at all in music - but lots of experience in digital marketing.

vkou 3y ago

> Why would anyone need a music label when they can release everything on Youtube or Tiktok by themselves? And how would they differentiate themselves from the fifty million other people who are doing the same thing on YouTube? Labels have historically provided assistance with recording and marketing, in exchange for the lion's share of the bounty. Recording may have gotten easier, but the gap between the skills of a musician, and a marketer is still here. I'm not saying the economics of the past were great, but the economics of the present aren't, either.

purpleblue 3y ago
This is my point. A "music label" with zero money and zero strategy for marketing as the above seems to indicate won't be successful. The technology behind it isn't as important as the money needed to market it.

saaaaaam 3y ago

Because labels run properly have great data to market more effectively, and can spin up tried and trusted playbooks, because they tend to be genre specialists. An electronic artist won't sign to a folk label - but a folk artist signing to that label can plug into a whole bunch of proven strategies, which mean far less money and opportunity is wasted. There's a whole bunch of stuff - pixel data, audience profiling, relationships with playlist curators, email lists - that a label can apply to an artist they sign. Releasing music onto YouTube or Tiktok is not marketing - it's distribution. Distribution is trivial, it's a commodity service. Because anyone can distribute music, there's lots of it. Getting much heard requires specialist expertise - and that's why there's probably more value in good labels today than there was ten years ago.

purpleblue 3y ago
And what exactly does OP have over and above the artist marketing themselves and keeping 100% of the money?
- saaaaaam 3y ago
  Your guess is as good as mine! But one of the most successful indie labels I know was started by someone with no experience at all in music - but lots of experience in digital marketing.