Decades ago, the 'common' music artist was usually in charge of lyrics, basic chord changes and vocal performance. Arranging, recording, producing, mixing and mastering were excedingly expensive activities. For a band to do that all on their own would be akin to mining iron ore before (making the griddle to) making a burger. So in would come the record company, with long-term investments that would pay off in the long run.

Times have changed. Quality issues apart, it's not uncommon for a self-produced, self-mixed and self-mastered release to pop up. So, what do labels do nowadays? It's a serious question, not an attempt to diss these enterprises. Are they in charge of promotion only? I imagine a good network with radio stations and so-called playlist curators would be a valuable asset for artists who would already be overloaded with composition, performance, production, mixing and mastering tasks. But if that is the case, these companies are mere specialized advertising agencies — are they any better than general digital advertising agencies, focused on data mining and the like? What am I missing?

 

Last edited: Jul 21, 2025

This reads like it's phishing for information for an article of some sort.

no insult intended.

but most of these questions and the sad answers to them are readily available in one queries any search engine or here.

 

Sorry about that. I thought about asking people in the loop because I wonder if it's really worth it taking the time to look for an agent, label etc., and also if it's a good investment nowadays, as opposed to paying for social media ads.

 

Last edited: Jul 21, 2025

The main function of labels/record co.'s is as it always was... To make money, artists be damned.

 

labels (publishers and right exploiters) and record companies (media production and distribution) are still doing what they always did, their business just got a bit smaller.

with mastering studios it is basically the same story.

nobody who is right in his head does all of this on his own.

 

Putting out a record is nothing. Are you up to planning the logistics of a tour and do you have the ability and money to make sure everything goes smooth and the way it should? Is your name big enough you can call up venues and book your own headlining shows? Do you even know any booking agents and do they take you seriously at your level? Do you have all the contacts in the industry to actually get press and get reviews in major publications (digital and otherwise), or are you limited to your Soundcloud "audience"?

Despite the fact that they only exist to make money off artists, they actually provide and do an awful lot that most of you have no clue about behind the scenes..

 

Pimp.

 

Errrr they 've become glorified advertisers. What DoubleTake said, they will pimp and exploit your presence & work to make money and if your deal is good, maybe you will make some too. If not, you will probably be classified as "another dissatisfied customer"...
Whatever you do, try to keep publishing to yourself, if you don't know anything about it, learn, like right now.
Cheers

 

what you guys fail to understand is that when you do all of this yourself, then you are the publisher and the record company.

so this only means that the business field still exist and still has relevance.


there are >100,000 new titles daily on streaming platforms, 99,99% of them make less than 3 cents per month and are not available on physical media. because they do not have a publisher.

getting a deal for a game or cinema movie music, organizing tours, or selling media is a fulltime job.

 

Thanks! Well, I know Distokid et al, I know Bandcamp and I know social media platforms as well. Is that it? I mean, I surely would need help, I don't think I have the chops (or energy, or time) to create a strategic promotion plan and execute it. I would also like to release my material on physical media, but have no idea where to start.

 

Thanks, this makes sense. My music is also not mainstream at all. I was thinking labels like Stones Throw, Far Out and Acid Jazz — I don't even know if they're considered big or small, it's just more or less aligned with the style of music I'm making. I don't know if that alignment is really all that important either.

 

You don’t need commercial labels because this song says what it’s about:
ABBA - Money, Money, Money (Lyrics)

Believe in your own creative power, find some fellow artists, start your own label and market your music yourself.

 

Publishing, although somehow related since it's all a big cycle, is not about promotion. Simply put, it's the rights to your songs' usage like release, cover etc etc. You want to keep that to yourself mate. Music selling digital platforms and real record labels exploit the naive noobs by having them give away the only thing worth having when you get older and that's publishing. This coming from me, a person who did this mistake early on and lost a great deal since my most important pieces of work are owned by others and at 59 i wouldn't think for a moment that i will have another shot of going really big again. So learn about it.
Cheers

 

There will always be someone to exploit people's creativeness and make money out of it. In both good and bad ways. The "still relevant biz field" you describe is constantly shrinking, hence what you describe as fulltime jobs is parts of the biz that in my day we never paid any attention to, since we were very busy with everything else that you didn't mention. And cinema, good luck getting a deal with that.
Cheers

 

When I was younger they covered a wide variety of areas they no longer include:
PAST
If the band or artist had a huge following, they were 'chomping at the bit' to get them signed.
They would offer advances ranging from $50,000 - $250,000. Advances almost no longer exist and the artist(s) had to pay it all back before they received one cent.
They would include in their contract compulsory promotions, touring and other areas and would assign a manager if the artist(s) did not have one. They would make a video and that bill would go onto the artist(s) advance.
They would push onto radio stations, assign a producer and a high-tech studio also at the artist(s) expense which also had to be paid back. Marketing, publicists and sales people they employed also had to be covered first.

TODAY - They guarantee much like YouTube and Google Premium - that the music will get a lot of airplay and will be marketed. Videos are a rare thing and advances even rarer unless your name is Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc etc and you are changing labels.
They are a financial agent mechanism that has higher connection preferences with major streaming services. Other than that, what was past is past.

The only thing that has not changed, is that if they believe they will make a shitload of money from you, then you will get a major deal. This percentage is whatever the current trend says it is (0.1% ??) and they will basically own you for the duration of the contract.

 

Last edited: Jul 23, 2025

As for royalties...
An average recording deal used to pay in the vicinity of 3% of sales and 15% of publishing. Compared to now, even if the percentage is the same, the returns would likely be less with streaming.

 

How The Music Industry Works

 

If you look at Spotify for example, the major labels own majority shares of the streaming service and the distribution company (eg Distrokid). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on there

 

Best to manage your own label & promotion ...maybe start on bandcamp etc..