by J. Michael Storey

Created on: September 19, 2008

Ah, the best and/or worst situation you could ever find yourself in: starting and running an indie record label. I have done this twice now: once with a group of partners, and once on my own. I have to say that the sole operation has been a lot more simplistic and a lot less stressful, however, they both have their pros and cons.

I suggest going it alone in the beginning so that you can get the paperwork and the vision down on paper without too much compromise on your own beliefs. Once you get that vision down on paper (and do that, it's mandatory to success,) you can then file all your 'boring' paperwork with the state and federal governments so that you can get your EIN number through the IRS and then open your business bank account (check for those cool banks that offer FREE BUSINESS CHECKING and NO MINIMUM BALANCE.) Once you go through those steps, you're in pretty solid shape and you can then begin to put your label's name out there however you'd like.

I would also recommend making sure that your web domain names are available (.com, .net, etc) which you can do on GoDaddy.com, BEFORE you register your business with the governments. It's not $10.00 to secure those names, so do that immediately. And make sure you also grab up the myspace URL for your label, purevolume.com, facebook.com, imeem, virb, and on and on and on. Register as many social networking sites as possible. You don't want a label name that is already owned and or being promoted by someone else online (considering it's the new mandatory business realm.)

Once you go through all that fun, it's up to you to either find the artist(s) or be the artist. Try to network with as many people as possible because recording, production, mixing, mastering, pressing, marketing, public relations, advertising, and other promotion isn't cheap or quick. The more people you make friends with, the cheaper your overhead becomes. I once put out a record from start to finish with only $1500.00 because of the friends I made at different companies in my local area and beyond. I would almost call this the most important aspect of daily indie label business. NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK! It's fun too. Really.

So, that said, if you would like to get more in depth about this subject, I am always available to talk. You can find my contact information right here on my Profile on Helium. I hope this was enough to get you started! Talk to you soon.

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