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 at 10:58 PM

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 at 11:07 PM

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