Record Labels Can Be Pretty Evil

Dave In Charge Rejects Another Record Label

Over the past few months, a number of independent record labels have been in touch. With the amount of publicity I’ve managed to get recently and the hype for upcoming tracks, it’s understandable. However, rejecting their half-baked offers has been a no-brainer.

There are pros and cons to getting signed to a record label. With the right deal, it could be the best thing you’ve ever done, or, in some cases, it could leave you in a worse position to where you started.

So far, these offers seem to fall roughly into two categories:

1. Free Publicity

Some of the offers I’ve received have asked for all rights to my music in return for their promotion. Fair enough, that could work for some to help get their name out. Although, when it turns out that other videos they’ve been promoting have a mere 200-300 views each, how could their label be right for anyone?

2. We’ll Help You Claim Your Royalties

The other type of offer is from labels that just want to help. They will register my songs with the appropriate organisations (PRS, PPL, etc) to ensure I don’t lose out on any royalties. In return, they only want 20% to cover their costs. Fair enough, the way that the music industry operates can be very confusing to some who are just starting out and someone else managing this aspect could give them piece of mind. However, if they bothered to check, they’ll see I’ve done it myself.

Please stop approaching me with offers that fall into the categories above. In addition, remember that I’m in charge; I’m doing this my way, using my own strategy, and it’s going pretty well.