Founding A Record Label
- 1. W!ZARD Records Founding a Record Label
- 2. Leadership Record labels are founded based on passion – people who have a genuine passion for music and want to be able to influence the landscape. W!ZARD Records was set-up by James Gilmore, his useful qualities to set-up a record label include: -Experimentation Time (spent 2 years before official launch working with artists to discover the different skills he can bring to the table) -Connections (both with major labels, independent labels and like-minded individuals who may be interested in the project) -Outlet (operating the UK’s Most Popular Online Teen Radio Station, managers and labels find it difficult to target the core 13 to 19 demographic which James owns) A label is run by a team of people, in the case of W!ZARD Records, James Gilmore acts as the Managing Director with Fraser Frengley acting as the Assistant Director.
- 3. Artists When finding your first artist to sign, it is important that they are local so that you can easily communicate with them and build hype around their act. In the case of W!ZARD Records, we discovered that we had really strong managerial skills so we launched a strong International Talent Management department whereby we focus most of our efforts and resources on managing artists from outside of the UK, growing their UK fan bases and generating new revenue opportunities and publishing music territorially. The current artist roster is on the following slide.
- 4. Different Departments In A Label - A&R - Sales - Promotion - Marketing - New Media - Production - Product Management - Finance - Business Affairs/Legal - International Development - Publishing and Distribution Some of these will be given out to third parties, others will be shared by different departments.
- 5. Artist & Repertoire A&R is made-up of talent scouts who source new talent and nurture the talent from when they are signed. They work creatively with the artists to launch their record and develop them as a marketable character. Talent scouts work closely with management companies as well as searching on social media (YouTube, Vine, Facebook, etc…), going to gigs, reading blogs, talking to pluggers, etc…
- 6. Sales This is an over-hanging branch which co-ordinates promotions, publishing and distribution. They will work to get music into stores and onto digital sites – working with the label’s distributers and with physical stores in order to make sure the music gets sold. There are many online distributers who will aid in this process, others will do distribution entirely in-house. Sales will often work extremely closely with the promotion and publicity departments for a release.
- 7. Marketing Key differences between Advertising, Promotion, Publicity, PR and Marketing: If an artist is releasing an album and you paint a sign saying, “Album Release Coming Soon” – that’s Advertising If you put the sign on the side of a van and drive that through town – that’s Promotion. If the car makes headlines for saving someone’s life – that’s Publicity If the person in question says nice comments about the incident – that’s Public Relations If you planned the whole campaign from beginning to end – that’s Marketing. This is one of the most creative, inventive and organised departments. Making records stand out. Promotional videos, campaigns, merchandise, etc…
- 8. Promotion Online promotion, radio pluggers, TV pluggers, print pluggers, etc… This team work to get records exposure on as many platforms as possible. They also act as a liaison between the record label and outlets.
- 9. Product Management Product managers are in charge of bringing all the other departments together (sales, marketing, promotion, etc.) to work together on the artist’s records. This ensures that everyone is in sync and on track to release a successful record. They also work to ensure that the general output is of a high quality. Need to be a good manager, very motivated and able to inspire and rally other people and teams.
- 10. New Media This is a more quaternary department. Searching for new ways to promote, advertise and deliver music to different markets depending on the goals set with the artists themselves. Looking for new, inventive and creative ways of delivering music to a mass audience with a personal approach. This is a really crucial part of the label – if a new, intuitive way of delivering music is discovered it can lead to an extremely successful release and make a record’s sales soar.
- 11. Finance Documenting, updating and paying artist royalties. They also keep track of the label’s income and expenses. For W!ZARD Records, this is dealt more by our publishing house, Show:Me Publishing, which works on the physical and virtual distribution of music through publishing contracts.
- 12. Business Affairs/Legal This team is responsible for the company’s contracts, not only with the artists, but with digital service providers, foreign licensees etc… Business affairs people negotiate the deals, and in conjunction with other executives, make the decisions as to what to give and what to hold. The legal department gives legal advice and drafts the contracts.
- 13. Organisation Crucially, W!ZARD Records is split into two different sections: W!ZARD Records – this is the record label and international talent management arm. They deal more with managing talent, long-term promotions, PR, marketing and A&R. Show:Me Publishing – this is the subsidiary which deals with publishing deals and distribution. They generally work on short-term contracts, working with an artist for only a few releases and then dealing with the royalties and rights on that music.
- 16. A major advantage of signing with a major record label is that there are very solid systems in publishing to ensure that no artist is taken advantage of and all money is shared as it should be. This system does not exist so solidly in the world of independent music, which is where we come into the picture. Show:Me is the global music publishing arm of W!ZARD Records and is home to some of the most talented independent artists and songwriters producing today. Show:Me provides networking and publishing expertise across a range of essential services and tools for our artists.
- 17. The services provided by Show:Me: Placement (including synchronization, radio, TV, print, etc…) Licensing (including copyright, royalties and other licences) Networking (the ability to access our network for collaborations) Publishing (including full distribution services) Promotion (PR and press for releases)
- 18. Unlike a record deal, a publishing deal is a tool for the artist to manage. Whilst with a record deal you have a manager who plans and schedules your release, etc… with a publishing deal you plan, record and execute your tracks but come to us when you want to release them – then we can look after all of the above services for those releases. This is very common practise in the world of major record labels, with the likes of Warner Chappell being a prime example. We are now the independent alternative.