Pros and cons of being in a record label

Hey everyone! So today, I’m going to be talking about what are the pros and cons of signing with a record label.

Before we get into that, let’s have our moment of silence.

At this time, I would like all of us to pray to God to help us to become better Christians. Ask God to help us to better understand his word, ask God to help us to pray more often, ask God to put his spirit in us. Take a minimum of 5  minutes and pray for these things. 

Now back to the show

Pros

There are quite a few reasons why people should get signed to a record label.

The first reason is that they have the infrastructure and marketing budget to being able to promote your product to masses of audiences. 

If influence and power is really what you’re looking for, a major or indie record label is definitely something that you should consider. 

They have the ability to take your music places that you’ve never even heard of. 

It’s still an insane amount of work that you have to put up, but it’s definitely not impossible. 

The second reason why someone should sign to a record label is that it provides money. 

That big bonus that the record label promises you is very appealing to the starving artist. 

And I know that it’s very tempting to become a musician for that sole reason, but I’ll go over those consequences in the future. 

They have people that can make your music sound even better. 

The music industry has a plethora of talent and professionals all trying to break through in the industry. 

Each of them has either enough talent or more than enough talent of what you need in your music. 

They also have people to take care of your PR, your Management, your Lawyers, etc. etc. 

Those sound engineers that the music industry has also have the best ears when it comes to mixing. The songwriters are phenomenal, the artists are world class, the managers are the best, and etc. etc. 

Cons

Most of the things that a record label will do to your career are things that you can do yourself. 

It is absolutely possible to market yourself, mix yourself, master, write, record, sing, and play yourself. 

You can book your own shows if you have enough influence by yourself, you can even put your songs on different radio stations if you  have enough support, it just takes a little work and patience. 

That bonus that the record label gives you, you’re going to have to pay back. 

A Record label may give you a 500,000 dollar bonus, but they are going to ask you to give all that back to them, one way or another.

It could be in the form of album sales, merch sales, ticket sales, streaming royalties, etc. etc. 

And if you don’t sell enough albums, then you could end up owing money to the record label. 

You could end up owing 200,000 dollars worth of money to the record label, and why would anyone want that?

You can also find people with an insane amount of talent on your own. You don’t need a record label to help you find people to mix and master your music. You could even do it all on your own. 

What would I personally do?

In reality, I know it sounds so cool to be signed to a record label, but it’s not needed nowadays. 

You can perfectly promote your music on your own, you can perfectly find your audience on your own, you can make merch on your own, etc. etc. 

I mean don’t get me wrong, I think that if a major record label were to ever offer themselves up to me I would take it. 

But I kind of don’t want to because of the downsides to being in a Record label. 

When you’re in a record label, you are a sort of employee to them. Even though you have power and influence on your own, you still need the label to help you to make tours, sell ticket and merch, and get you in front of great songwriters because you never did it yourself. 

But if you take the time to do it on your own, you can do good on your own. 

Broadcast

I sure hope that I have been an inspiration and a hope to you all. Please remember to pray, read your bible, go to church, and love God above all else. Like, comment, share, subscribe, and I will see you all next time. 

Remember if you want to go to heaven, then believe in Jesus and you will go to heaven. (John 3:16)

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. 

German Gonzalez, signing out!