Very Serious: Does anyone want to start a record label?
So I am early on in my career in banking (return offer) and a major label has shown interest in my demo but they really want to reinvent me as a rapper and I am not really down with that. I recently had a eureka moment with 2 songs I want to release as my debut and figured to bootstrap it with $20k in private student loans haven't taken the plunge and applied yet. Currently booked to record the songs in January next year.
I frequently see "Whats the point of life", "I have nothing to do", "Having an X life crisis" type posts on here and I was wondering if anyone wanted to join me on this journey, if you're looking for something out of the ordinary.
Before you get to roasting me think about it Jason Flom, founder of Lava Records Dad is Joseph Flom who made his money in M&A. Mumford and Sons was funded in their early career from band member Winston Marshall's dad who is the CEO of Marshal Wace. Koch records was founded by a German Banker and the list goes on.
So its not too crazy an idea for people in finance to dabble directly in the arts. Is there any one that has any experience in this industry or wants to know more let me know or PM me.
PS This is more geared towards senior colleagues (VP and above) who are bored and can risk thousands of dollars on an endeavor like this. I don't think it is wise, safe or even advisable someone in Associate or Analyst level should risk such a large part of their paycheck and possibly reputation in this manner.
I actually like this idea even though its kinda funny. People looking for a spark in their life could be interested in you kid just don't give up. $20k in student loans is risky though.
One thing I'll say is people who invest in music careers this way usually had a past with the individual but its the age of the internet and stranger things have happened.
How much are we talking here? I have friends from college who worked in talent management that now work in advertising and am bored on a fairly regular basis.
I took a few minutes to think about an answer to this question. I'll say i'm looking for $5k max so all in we're at about $25k. I say this because a problem musicians can have is actually having too much money to start out with and they invest it in shitty ideas rather than the very best.
In my mind this would force us to think better and if we need to raise more money then we'll pull on your aforementioned contacts.
If you are bored, I'll say there are a lot of "interesting" characters in this industry. True story: An acquaintance of mine just spent around $80k of a private investors money (so he says, I suspect he did something illegal but I can't see him doing anything crazy enough to pull that kind of dough) all on diamond chains and rings and hasn't even released a song yet. I told him to sell some of it but he refused and said he wanted chains all his life and would rather be broke and have them. He is also kinda known in club scene because he used to be a bouncer and parties with the hottest girls in the city most weekends.
Now he is looking for even more money to actually make the music and videos. Having a conversation with someone like that would make you lose braincells but I guarantee you wouldn't be bored.
How does $5k max turn into $25k?
not OP and it's been a year since your comment but are you still bored on a fairly regular basis/how interested would you be in getting involved in something like this?
Dude just raise $25k
Literally have zero options to do that for a couple years. I don't come from a rich or connected family. By the time I start my job I'll be the highest earner in my family. So a student loan is the most sure fire way to do that in the mean time. I also need connections
My friend launched on iTunes and built up a following making $80K just on iTunes per year a few years ago. I don’t think there were any upfront costs than releasing a song other than the cost to produce the song. He hit really hard in Australia before the US, then he had such a following he went on tour for a bit. I think he went to NYU Tisch, so received some relevant training to make it in the arts.
Damn he went to Tisch? Probably had a great network of producers, engineers and media people around him. I literally had to bootstrap my career thus far with side hustles before I got into finance. This field is literally a life saver. Can't wait to start FT next year.
Hey bro send me a PM if you see this
We’ve found the next DJ D-Sol
Funny I initially wanted to be a DJ because my dream was to produce EDM, this was before avicii died, after that that I lost interest in that scene and went more into indie pop.
Maybe I'll post an update couple years down the line to show what progress I've made. I predict I would've had at least one chart topper.
can you explain in more detail why you don't want to just sign with the major label which has expressed interest?
It's really not a good financial decision for an artist long term. The industry is set up to grind out talent, lure them in with what sounds like alot of money, get them to produce a good album get traction, then burn them out producing a few crap at best follow on albums then get dropped for "not performing" and they end up owning your product and you don't get dick in terms of lifetime revenues. This is widely known and this is why anyone who can these days doesn't go to a major label if they can help it. Plus it doesn't cost much to produce music these days like it did in the early 2000's and before. If you have talent you can produce an entire album for less than 10K at home and get 95% of the quality as you can in a "professional studio".
the problem isn't producing music it's getting traction from the perspective of gaining a following. I started this music project that I've been working on like 6 months ago, at first my problem was that I wasn't getting good enough quality songs made, then recently I started putting money into the project to get high quality songs made, I've put about $3,700 into the project at this point. now I have good songs but no idea how to get people to actually listen to them once I put them out unless I find a label to work with.
Would be very interested. Got any material online we could check out?
It sounds fun but I don't think I have the ears to tell what a hit is. And a hit is a hit!
not OP but have been thinking about this same thing basically. craig.owen do you want to PM me?
Yes I do, sent a PM
my music project is currently like a junk bond so if anyone wants to finance it then the risk reward paradigm would have to be quite favorable.
just to be clear the reason why it's not bankable is because I have no solid distribution strategy at this point. with a solid distribution strategy I think that the project could become quite successful.
I've been doing research today and basically every record label that exists has a distribution deal set up with one of the major labels' distribution companies. at least in my niche genre the labels that I am familiar with: Pure Noise Records - The Orchard, UNFD - The Orchard, etc, some artists have direct deals set up with these distribution companies like the band Northlane has a deal with Believe Digital. I wonder if it would be possible to work directly with one of the more legit distributors like The Orchard (Sony) or Believe Digital without already having some kind of huge following, like if you could spend money with these distributors' marketing services and do that to build a following. I just filled out forms on some of these distributors' websites and basically asked what kind of ad spend you would have to commit to doing with them to be able to work with them and how it all works we shall see what happens.
update one of the four distributors got back to me with an automated type of response that I can't reply to which says to try and use their lower tier offering instead. none of the other three responded.
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