Music

i just need to know what kind of stuff i should be doing, i want to eventually do an internship for a record label, or just any kind of music company, and eventually land a job with a record label, what kind of things should i be doing?

Because almost everyone is now buying their music online, the music industry is suffering big time and is laying off people by the thousands. Here in LA, there are many thousand laid off people with record labels that have tons of experience and will grab any openings there are before you will be considered for them. Same for real estate.

Do not try to get into a dying industry.

Also, what is a strategy to get the best deal without get ripped off?

i cant help u with the strategy but if u wanna get signed perfrom somewhere like a club,any where u can if u get noticed then ur lucky

what do i need to know and how to set it up?

OK it’s been a half an hour and nobody’s answered your question so I will give you my advise and "wisdom". What you mostly need is money. That’s essentially what you’ll be, money. Band or artists need some one to foot the bill to have music recorded, pressed and possibly promoted and distributed. Having resources like recording equipment would help but it’s not essential.
Granted you can call yourself a record label if you have recording equipment, a bunch of blank CD-Rs and just stick your name and/or logo on the back of a CD but most bands aren’t gonna need someone else to do that for them. Now if you’re going to just start releasing your own music¹ and you’ve got this stuff you’re all set. Though that’s more self-releasing than a record label, though you could expand into one.²
To be an actual label you need to have funds to have CDs or vinyl or even cassette tapes (as some bands still do) recorded and pressed. Your best bet is to get into music some other way (start a zine, book shows in your area) and gradually easy your way into it. A lot of minor labels started as zines³ and began to include 7" records with there magazines and gradually they shifted to record labels.
Either way start small. Find a band (if you don’t already know one), either borrow some money or earn it somehow, record a two or three song 7", they sell it you recoup expenses maybe earn some more money and you put that towards your next project.
This seems kinda scattered to me but I think I got it all down. Good luck.

And I have to cite one example that’s always bothered me. Why is Radiohead considered an Indie band? For roughly 13 years they were signed to Capitol/Parlophone…both of which are owned by EMI. What about them is "Indie"?

I’m a fan, I enjoy their music, but there’s tons of users here who are into then more than I am. With all that being said, why is it that so many people here consider them an Indie band? What was it that made you think they were Indie? I think it’s time we iron out for everyone what Indie or….Independent (from a major label) really means.

MQ: Favorite INDIE band??
I have no problem with saying….

"I like Indie music"

It’s a bit vague, but at least I get the point.

I do have a problem with taking major label acts and calling them Indie. It’s just ridiculous. And as a fan of a particular group, how do you not know what label they’re on?
Marc, yes only recently have they become "indie" and quite frankly, one independent release after a career of major label releases hardly qualifies you as an Indie band.

i’ve never heard of Radiohead as an indie band… and I’ve always heard of bands on independant labels labeled as an indie band… i.e. Arcade Fire, indie… Ash, indie… Belle & Sebastian, indie.. R.E.M. – until they signed with Warner were indie [Murmur, Reckoning, Fables & Document]… The White Stripes, indie…

Also, lots of well known bands start out "indie" until they get offered a contract by a big record label.. such as R.E.M. or Green Day or even Nirvana.

Unfortunately, the term indie, is now used to refer to non-mainstream artists such as Radiohead… However before they released Kid A… no one called them indie.

Only recently is Radiohead correctly "indie". In Rainbows is their only indie album… they are no longer with with EMI. The album was released through tbd records… which is actually independant.

I’m completely mad at the Warner Music Group (WMG) for either silencing or removing any of their music that is heard on their YouTube music videos, either official or fan-made. Years ago YouTube users were free to upload their videos containing WMG music; today they weren’t allowed. And if that trend continues, I fear that other music labels would follow and we’ll never promote our music videos again on the site.

Do you hate the WMG for bullying YouTube over their videos just as I do? When will that issue be settled for good? There are plenty of video channels promoting the fight against WMG, but I’m only a regular YouTube user watching and commenting videos. Here’s one of these channels: http://www.youtube.com/user/AntiWarner

And these videos, too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i9-o9Sn6-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hllf44_7PQE

WMG are wankers for doing this. Found a way around it. If you put something like a star wars intro for 20-30 secs in the front you can slip the song in afterwards.

I am a high school junior looking at colleges. I know that when I’m done with schooling im going to start a record label. I’m looking for a school that would have a major in business (possibly music business, but almost no schools have that) and a minor in music production. know of any good schools?

I agree with Chuckles. I took classes at Foothill College in California. It was the first school in the country to teach pro tools, and pro tools is what most studio’s use now. I took music business 101, pro tools 101, and mixing and mastering. I now pay someone else to mix and master my songs because I learned how but its still difficult to me. I learned how to produce songs on my own, long before I ever took classes, and I only use pro tools for recording vocals, so majority of the stuff I use today I learned on my own, the classes werent a complete waste of time, I learned a few things, but you can learn so much more just by watching a few tutorials or picking up a few books. If an artist needs a producer, they arent going to sit there and pass up on someone who has good music if they dont have a degree. They dont care about the degree, they just care about the sound. Pro Tools will cost you about $2,500, FL Studio will cost you about $300. To record vocals I recommend pro tools, to produce music from scratch, I recommend FL Studio. Just get a fast computer to handle all the fx you will be using. I have a musicxpc professional, it cost me about $2,600. But this was years ago and theres plenty of fast computers now for much cheaper. Thats really all you need, and some good studio monitors (About $1000).

I have a passion for singing and songwriting, and I was wondering how I can contact record labels, music producers, manger etc… to ask permission to send them my press kit? Any tips.

Thank you.

Google the specific record label direct, there should be an email or phone number somewhere.

Do they realize indie stands for independent? Having a label doesn’t make the music instantly worse, most of the time.

A band can be indie and be signed to a label. Indie labels have little creative control over bands, and aren’t controlled by a major label, such as Sony or Warner Bros. They mostly don’t market and heavily publicize artists, so Indie bands that do get big work really hard and make great music and are almost always really amazing, talented people, so they actually deserve to be famous and make money.

Indie labels give bands much bigger royalties, so when I buy an indie album, more of my money is going to to band. On major labels, a lot more of the money goes to label’s owner and other people that didn’t really do anything to make the album better.

On indie labels, especially ones like Saddle Creek or Barsuk or Merge or Team Love, the people on the label are really great friends, or, especially on Saddle Creek, pretty much family. Personally, I’d rather fund and idolize people like that than to pay for some impersonal major label where the term "label mates" doesn’t actually mean musicians know each other.

Indie labels don’t focus on making the musician famous or making money. The D-I-Y ethic of indie is a makes for far better and more interesting music than the insane artist-cultivation and publicizing of majors. If a major label has enough money, they can make any talentless idiot famous and rich and an instant cultural phenomenon with enough promotional drive.

Major labels have more control over the music the musicians are making (Example: On Rilo Kiley’s last album, Warner Bros. made them use an alternate and, in my opinion, inferior version of two of the songs). Very rarely will Indie label drop bands if they aren’t successful or popular enough.

A lot of the time, band’s music get worse after signing to a major label, sometimes because it gets really overproduced, and sometimes because incredible pressure put on a lot of fairly new band signed to majors to create a multi-million dollar albums in a really short amount of time.

I personally listen to both major and indie bands, but, when listening to major bands, a lot of the time I like their early, low fi, less ambitious material best.

hey
I want to make dvd and cds with labes on them so they look more original than having it writen with a black marker.

any help, know any good programs for that, thanks?

You will need a printer that Prints Cd/DVD. Also there are special printable CD/DVDs that you will need.

I use an Epson R220. It comes with a program for such printing and can handle the job with ease.

I am writing a genius screenplay and want to use 2-3 songs from a small indie folk singer. How do I go about getting permission for the use of his songs? Does anyone know a general price range for this type of thing? Do I contact his record label?

Will they want to see a trailer first? I dont know where to start.

Yes, you contact his record label and start from there. You’d be paying whomever owns the rights to the songs–it’s not always the artist.

Or you might not have to pay, maybe they’ll be overjoyed to get the exposure and let ya do it for free!

good luck