Focus on the Music!

Ever since I was in high school my best friend and I have wanted to start a record label. We’ve always had ideas for how the music industry should be and were drawn to certain artists that would fit into our perfect label.  (Even though sometimes our tastes in music clash.) We recently had a conversation about starting a label because in our opinion, some of the new artists (specifically hip-hop) are, to put it simply, just not good. It just seems very effortless and like new rappers and the labels that sign them are just out for a one hit song that is usually catchy and commercial. These artists never usually stick around the industry very long, coincidence?

Focusing on money and quick fame is not our priority. It’s the music. David J. Spangenberg aka “Professor Pooch,” author, understands. On Music Think Tank Spangenberg has over 45 years in the music industry and under his main criteria he listed “grrreat songs that grab you and take you away to another land...that has always been, and always will be #1 in my book!!!” YES! I think that is what GREAT music should do. Music that when you hear it 10 years from now, still gives you the same feeling.

As an independent label competing with major labels, it is really crucial to focus on seeking and signing talent that will last and not just one whose success is based on a current trend. Often, indie labels don’t have the finances and resources that the major labels have so they can’t keep running through a roster of artists to keep up based on trends. A great piece of advice from Fortune sums up this idea. “By prioritizing lasting talent over pure marketability – shooting for singles and doubles instead of home runs – indies have organically increased their profits. I believe that if you focus on the music, the money will come.