Artist career

Do independent artists need a label

Not at the start. A label invests money, contacts, and its team's work, and takes a share plus some of your decisions in return. An artist with no releases and no audience has nothing to trade, which is why the offers do not come. The conversation becomes real once there is a catalogue and numbers visible from outside.

What a label actually gives

• An advance — money upfront, recouped from royalties later.
• Access to editors, radio, and media through people rather than forms.
• A team doing the work you have no time for.

What a label takes

• A share of income, often permanently for those releases.
• Master rights for the term of the deal, sometimes indefinitely.
• The right to decide when and what comes out.

A distributor is not a label

• A distributor delivers your release to platforms and takes no rights. They are different things, and confusing them is what costs artists most.

In short

• What should I read first in a contract? Term, territory, share, and what happens to the rights when it ends. If the masters never come back, that is a sale, not a deal.
• Can I work with a label for one release only? Yes, and it is common. One release is the cheapest way to see how a team actually works.

Next

• Do you need a manager
• How artists make money from music
• How to start a music career
• The independent artist's career