I know of several people who have purchased (for a hefty sum in my opinion) a large guide for unsigned musicians to help them find gigs in the UK only to find that some of the listed promoters have stopped promoting a particular venue, stopped promoting altogether or a venue has shut down completely.

Well, I am most pleased to announce that the kind fellas at musicborn.com have created a free (yes FREE) up-to-date online promoter directory available from

 http://www.musicborn.com/promoter_directory.php

You'll see a vast list of various UK promoters including all of the venues they currently promote. So, artists, get out there and show them what you got!

AIM (Association of Independent Music) have created a useful PDF with tips on how to open your own record label. As you've heard in the media, many signed artists are unhappy with their current labels, due to the lack of control and unfair percentage cuts, and are now opting out to start their own. You can find AIM on myspace. They're one of my top friends in www.myspace.com/polkadotrecords.


Here is an extract from the 8 page file:

HOW TO START AN INDEPENDENT RECORD LABEL

A BRIEF OVERVIEW
Owning your own record label. It's the dream of many of us, from the artist
that wants to get their music heard, to the manager, producer or promoter
that has found the next big thing. Sometimes it seems like the only
alternative to securing a release with another label, although it can become a
destination and brand in itself. Here I offer some suggestions to get you on
the right track with your plans, but the exciting thing about the music
industry is that despite the rules and regulations there is lots of opportunity
for us to come up with innovative new ways of doing things. In fact, as with
any business idea, a music product that is high quality, that people want,
that is exciting and original, stands the best chance of success.

Funding your label
In a survey the 5 most common ways of financing music businesses were:
1) Capital or personal savings of owners (77% use this sort of finance)
2) Bank Overdraft 19.7%
3) Loan from Family or friends (15.8%)
4) Loan from Bank (11.9%),
5) Loan from Owners or Directors (10.3%).

There are small pockets of public funding available, in the form of grants and
loans. These tend to be limited to economically deprived areas, or for
businesses that have been turned down for bank finance. More often support
tends to be available in non-financial form such as office space, training or
business advice (see Business Plans section for more on where to access
funding and advice).
Where this funding is not available, a typical way of raising cash is from
running another music business; club promoters, DJ's, or former artists are
all amongst those who have turned their industry knowledge, brand name,
and the cash they have built up into successful labels.
If you are not in the position to put in a lot of capital, one way some labels
start up on a very small budget is to get one or more partners to put in a
start up sum, say £250 or £500 each. This could be paid into the label fund
over time, say your first six months while you continue to work at your 'day
job'. These funds could enable you to record and release some product. The
key to the survival of this type of company will be making your money back
(breaking even) on every product you release.
The low budgets may mean that you cannot afford extensive marketing of
your products, and will probably have to get out there and market them
yourself. If you can't raise the money to get your first release out that way,
you could look into getting a bank loan. This is obviously only going to be a
good idea if you have a business idea that will make back the money plus
interest (plus hopefully some profit) within the time of the loan. This is the
essence of running a business, and starting small and building a track record,
contacts and experience will enable you to leverage more money and
support in the future.

Income and Expenses
When calculating your budget, consider the following sources of Income and
Expenses, it is not exhaustive, and unfortunately unexpected costs seem to
arise much more often than unexpected sources of income!

Income
• Record Sales (from selling your physical product (CD's, Vinyl) in the UK,
and via export deals which can include the budget market, singles market
or compilations or artist albums market)
• Broadcast Income (Income from having your recordings broadcast on
radio or television, or played in public places. This will be collected for
you and paid to you when you join Phonographic Performance Limited –
See below for more about collection societies)
• Licensing (Giving a licence to other record companies to release your
recordings on compilations, or under an exclusive licence for a whole
album, for which they pay you a licence fee or royalty on the records
they sell)
• Secondary Licensing (getting your music licensed by the producers of
advertisements, computer games, films or television programmes - also
known as Synchronisation licensing as it involves the synchronisation of
your music with their pictures)
• Merchandise, Touring, Fan club, Website, Branding, Sponsorship (if these
are part of your deal with your artists, you can sell concert tickets, tshirts
and other items, and can do so on behalf of your label if it builds a
brand name of its own)
• Digital sales & ringtones (still tiny compared to record sales at on
average under 5% of revenue, but a growth area of the business that
some have made profit from).
• International broadcast and licensing income from international airplay
and from companies who have exclusively licensed a piece of music for
their country (territory).

Expenses
• Overheads (rent, electricity, business rates, telephone, computers,
insurance, office equipment and furnishings, stationery)
• Staff Costs (Including accountancy and legal advice)
• Taxes such as VAT and National Insurance
• MCPS bills (Publishing)
• Recording, mixing and mastering recordings
• Producers Fees
• Artists advances and expenses
• Travel expenses
• Manufacturing costs (or digitising costs for digital downloads)
• Artwork and Design (including pack design, photography, websites,
logos, promotional materials)
• Videos
• Radio and TV promotion for records or videos (plugging)
• Press (PR)
• Advertising (above the line) and Direct Marketing (below the line)
promotion of your product
• Distribution Fees and Sales Costs

*Note that some of these are fixed costs, meaning they will have to be
met and are unrelated to how many records you are likely to sell, for
example the overheads. On the other hand, if you get the promotion of
your record at the appropriate level for your release then hopefully your
sales and other income streams will increase relative to the amount you
have spent on promotion.

Keeping fixed costs as low as possible will help your label deal with
successful and less successful times. Also, remember that costs are often
payable well in advance of the related income (for example manufacturing
bills may be payable months before record sales income, or radio
promotion payable in advance of broadcast income), so you must make
sure that your cash flow doesn't dry up before you can
from your activities. It's a tricky balancing act.



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To read the rest of the article from AIM check out...

http://www.musicindie.org/clientdocuments/information/AIMStartALabel.pdf

Getting your songs on itunes, napster, amazon, etc... 

You don't need to be signed to get your music up on the internet. I recommend TuneCore. (www.tunecore.com) 

 

I think it's about a tenner per year per album and the great thing is you keep 100% of the royalties.

Some internet aggregates take a 30% commision which is just silly as they're not doing anything for you.

It's all digital so why should they take a cut?

 

Obviously just because it's available doesn't mean anyone wants to buy it. That's where PR comes in.

Either you do it slowly by word of mouth, flyering, myspace and playing lots of gigs or can speed up the process by employing a PR company.

Sometimes PR companies will take a gamble and promote you for free because they like your music and think you're going somewhere but most of them will charge you a monthly or fixed fee. You should find out what artists they currently promote because they may not currently have contacts with the sort of people that you want to be promoted to.

PR companies promote you to:

Radio DJ's/program editors - A radio plugger may promote your music to national, local or student radio stations. It's easier to get onto student stations obviously and much harder to get played let's say on Radio 2 during the day. BBC6 is a great station and are more willing to put on unsigned bands. I prefer listening to that station for new music above Radio 1 or 2. (I personally listen to Radio 4 most of the time especially the science programs and desert island discs)

Magazines (either printed or internet)– They'll probably promote you to general or specialist music magazines that would enjoy your music. But it's a guess as who knows if they'll like you or not. Be prepared; not everyone will like you. Some might give you a bad review but you've got to respect their opinions and just get over it.

Newspapers – local, national or student.

Club Djs - Wouldn't that be so cool to go to a nightclub and your song is playing! I need to work on a dance track.

Television – music video channels or TV programs

And anywhere else that might help you.

PR is expensive. Most unsigned people can't afford to hire a big PR company, I certainly can't, so for the time being do as much as you can. I expect most of a record label's budget goes to PR. Research online, at libraries and ask around. I personally would prefer to use my money on recording really nice sounding albums rather than spending money to get known/famous. But I guess it depends on how fast you want other people to hear your music.

I hope this helps those unsigned artists out there who want to know what to do next. I also recommend researching various Cd manufacturing companies to get the best price for the quality that you want. I know of several companies (I can't say who they are for legal reasons) that charge you almost double what you can get somewhere else. It's easier if a label does all this stuff for you but if you don't want to wait then get started yourself.

If I find out anything else useful I'll let you all know. All the best. x kinzli

Useful list of promoters/nights in london I've had several unsigned UK and US musicians ask if I can recommend venues to play at in london. I've made a list of some of the venues that i've played in or will play in plus their addresses. I don't have all of the contact details but you can either type in the venue and find the promoter on the internet or look them up on myspace. i've listed a few promoters on myspace at www.myspace.com/polkadotrecords. If you can't get in touch with them via email or phone then i recommend going to one of the nights and giving the promoter your demo tape/cd.
 
I hope this list is helpful and do get in touch if you can recommend other unsigned venues that you'd like me to post on this blog. sorry i couldn't be more helpful. all the best and keep playing!

x kinzli


In no particular order:

• Feed the Monkey @ Jrink, 62 Frith Street, London, W1 3JN
• Feed the Monkey @ World's End, 21-23, Stroud Green Rd, Finsbury Park, London,  n4 3ef
• Hooked on Music @ The Big Chill House, 257-259 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London,  N1 9NL
• Hooked on Music @ 93 Feet East, 150 Brick Lane, London, London, E1 6QL
• IKToms Wired @ Cross Kings, 126 York Way, London, N1 0AX
• IKToms @ Liberties Bar, 100 Camden High Street, London, NW1 0LU
• Musicborn @ Zenith Bar, 125Packington Street, London, N1 7EA
• Kicker Conspiracy@ Lock Tavern, 35 Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8AJ
• Earmusic @ The Star, 47 Chester Road, London, N19 5DF
• Pangea Project, 72 Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington, London, N16 6XS
• The Servant's Jazz Quarters, 10 Bradbury St, London, N16 8JN
• Folk @ The Moon, 10 Half Moon Lane, London, SE24 9HU
• Songwriters Anonymous @ Biddle Bros, 88 Lower Clapton Road, London, E5 0QR
• Songwriters Anonymous @ VIBE LIVE, 91 Brick Lane. E1 6QL
• TheBedford, 77 Bedford Hill, London, SW12 9HD
• The Green Note, 106 Parkway, London, NW1 7AN
• Electroacoustic Club @ The Slaughtered Lamb, 34-35 Great Sutton Street, London, EC1V 0DX
  
• Debugged @The Constitution, 42 St. Pancras Way, London, NW1 0QT
• Sound Bites @ The Abbey,124 Kentish Town Road, London, NW1 9QB
• The 12 Bar Club, Denmark Street, London, WC2H 8NL
• Cobden Club, 170 Kensal Road, London, W10 5BN
• The Great Indoors, 50 Great Dover St, The Roebuck, Borough, London, SE1 4YG
• Ravenous Promotions@ Ginglik, 1 Shepherds Bush Green, London, W12 8PH
  
• Windmill, 22 Blenheim Gardens. Brixton, SW2 5BZ
• Idlelive @ Idlewild, 55 Shirland Rd, London, W9 2JD
• 333 Motherbar, 333 Old St, London, EC1V 9LE
• Cameo Sessions@ Soho Revue Bar, 11 Walkers Ct, London, W1F OED
• Doughnuts for Darwin@ The Perseverance,11 Shroton Street, London, NW1 6UG
• The Icarus Club @ Dirty South, 162 Lee High Road, London, SE13 5PR
• 15MinClub@The Living Room, 18-26 Essex Road, London, N1 8LN
• The Blag Club, 68 Notting Hill Gate, London, W11 3HT
  
• The Goldhawk Sessions @ The Goldhawk,122-124 Goldhawk Rd, London, W12 8HH
• OffLine@ JAMM, 261 Brixton Rd, London, SW9 6LH
• Redbricks in the Sticks@ The Gladstone, 64 Lant Street, London, SE1 1QN
• LondonUnplugged @ The Cavendish Arms, 128 Hartington Rd, London, SW8 2HJ
• Acoustic Showcase@ Fiddlers Elbow, 1 Malden Road, London, NW5 3HS
• Broken Toy Music @ World's End, 21 - 23 Stroud Green Road, London, N4 3EF
• Solobar, 20 Inverness Street, Camden Town, London NW1 7HJ