MARKETING CHECKLIST.

Let’s look at some overarching concepts when it comes to marketing for your record label.

I want to go macro and talk about some big picture ideas that will help you build your record label’s brand more efficiently, and promote your new releases more effectively.

1. Different Artists Have Different Needs!

• Don’t necessarily apply the same template for every release and for every artist on your label
• Ask the artist what excites them and what ideas they have, ask them what their expectations are for this new release (financial expectations, artistic expectations, etc.)
• Try something new for each new release, catered specifically to the character and aesthetic of this specific release. For example, something with college radio if you feel like it makes sense, maybe a unique merch item, or maybe pay an Instagram influencer to promote a track.
• Keep in mind, the opportunities you had for a previous release won’t necessarily compound and be available for your next release!

2. Keep Being Creative!

• Keep releasing new music, practice makes perfect!
• Encourage and enable your artists to be more prolific!
• Experiment on each new release, experiment with different genres and physical formats.
• Keep track of your experiments on a spreadsheet so you know what drove sales,what excited your artists, what engaged the most fans.
• Keep learning new things as a record label, observing the record labels you admire, making notes of what is working for them and if any fresh ideas can work for your label. Don’t copy, but collaborate and communicate!

3. Don’t Copy or Recycle Major Labels!

• Ask yourself why you’re doing what you do? Are these just out-of-date traditions?
• Assign an objective to every promotional task. What is the tangible objective of things like pre-release singles, pre-orders, pressing vinyl?
• These aren’t bad things, but it is a bad thing if you don’t have any idea of why you’re doing it!
• Question the old traditions like exhaustive touring, expensive studios, doing albums vs. singles…
• What can you do that major labels can’t do? What does your agility enable you to do that might be harder for a bigger label to accomplish? How can you leverage your community, your personality, and your generosity?

4. Share With Your Record Label Community!

• Engage with your peers on social media, share your wisdom and experience with younger record labels.
• Experiment and document your progress, measure your results and share that data with your community.
• Network in our Facebook Group, learn from guests on the Other Record Labelspodcast, and connect with record labels you admire on Twitter, Instagram, and Bandcamp!
• Start a label collective in your city where you meet with other indie record labels bi-monthly or quarterly to share ideas, resources, and to encourage one another.

5. Think Long Term!

• Let’s end this idea that albums die after release day!
• Nobody wants that to be true, but we all sort of comply and abandon our latest release. New things are easier to get excited about, not just for the public or the press, but even for us.
• Let’s see if we can start a trend where we no longer put such a heavy emphasis on release day or the lead up. And instead emphasize the long life that an album should (and does have).
• Let’s create strategies that involve promoting records months and years after release day.
• Makerelease daythe start of a brand new campaign! A great post-release strategy considers release day to be a starting line, not a finish line!