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When a group of passionate people unite to combine their musical talents, it’s usually called a band. When a band sets long-term goals for themselves, getting signed is usually one them. It’s really just common sense. You want to be promoted by people that have the money to promote you and you want to get paid by people that have the money to pay you. It’s all about exposure and profit. Who reaps more benefits: the band signed to Sony or the singer-songwriter at your local coffee shop?

I’m not trying to bash the struggling artists or the bands that would much rather take the DIY route. In fact, I applaud them. I just don’t understand why nearly 25% of the ones surveyed would rather not be signed. Fear of losing control of your music and image? Being a “sell out”? I mean, there’s alternatives. The whole crowdfunding thing seems to be working for a select few. In the long run though, I think being signed is still what musicians strive for. This survey obviously proves that.

If you’re in a band, do you want to be signed? If yes, what label tickles your fancy?

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In a recent survey conducted by ReverbNation and Digital Music News, over 75% of indie Artists said that it was one of their goals to get signed to a record label.  The exact percentage varied from genre to genre, including a high of  81% of hip hop artists wanting a deal, and a low of 63% of alternative artists wanting to get signed.

When asked which labels were at the top of their wish lists, artists surveyed consistently listed Sony, Universal, Atlantic, Warner, Columbia, Epic, Capitol, and Interscope.

via ReverbNation Blog

So if you remember what artist development was it might show your age. If you have no idea what I’m talking about then you’re a few steps ahead of some bands. Basically there was a time and place when labels worked with artist to help their music and fan base grow. Those days are gone, but bands can do so much more on their own now. Jeff Price of Tunecore lays out the story. It’s a good read.

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Sometime in the 90’s, “artist development” for rock and alternative bands, got turned on its head.  Gone were the days of a major label aspiring to propel an artist over many years to “rock legend” with multiple releases, tour dates, interviews and in-store appearances Led Zep, Rolling Stones, Springsteen, The Byrds etc. Instead, new artists were given six weeks from the street date of their debut album to have a radio/MTV hit.  If the first single from the album failed, the artist would typically get dropped; their career effectively over before it even began.

This change occurred with the consolidation of the music industry under multi-national billion dollar companies many publicly traded.   Gone were the days of patience for a “return on investment”.  Instead, the world boiled down to revenues earned over the last 90 days.  Shareholders demanded quick growth, the value of a company lived and died by what was reported and booked every quarter of the year.  If the company invested $1 million dollars into a band in January, it cared only about how quickly it could see its money back and how much profit would be made.

Read more @  TuneCorner

Are you an up and coming band desperately trying to get picked up by a label? It’s not going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to seem impossible, and it definitely won’t happen over night. Follow these steps and be persistent. If you play your cards right, you might get a shot. A long, long shot.

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1. There’s Nothing Unique About Your Group
Bands need to show they’ve penetrated a niche in the market which labels don’t have access to. Show you’ve got a niche, and labels will recognize you’re the vehicle to take them there.

2. Attitude
Never under estimate the power of a good attitude. Labels are essentially entering into a business relationship with artists and the last thing they want to do is enter into a relationship with a group who feels entitled to being signed or someone who’s arrogant.

3. Funds Aren’t Flowing
Musicians should only sign with labels who (a) are legitimate, (b) have money for development, and (c) have distribution in place. Today this is the equivalent to finding a unicorn wearing a diamond saddle who’s sitting in a pot of gold while smoking fountain of youth cigarettes with a leprechaun.

4. Timing Is Everything
Cycles in the music business make and break sales. If you aren’t falling in the right cycle in terms of market demand and genre success, hold tight, the cycle will more than likely rotate back in your favor.

5. The Delivery’s Wrong
Rejections are common when bands pitch their products inappropriately. You get one shot. Pitch incorrectly, the door closes. Entertainment attorneys know how to structure label proposals and better yet, work with label executives on a personal and daily basis. Use them and maximize your chances of getting signed.

via Music Globalization

Oh hey now this is a good idea. A crowdsourced record label. Pretty…pretty sweet there Crowdbands. We’ve also covered Pledge Music doing a bit of the same but more of the KickStarter model. Either way, it’s more opportunity for you to pick, push, promote and see the bands you love blow up. Hey now.

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Crowdbands is a crowd sourcing platform that lets fans vote on a variety of band decisions — from album titles to tour dates to collaborations.

Genius Idea:  Yelling “Your new guitarist is a talentless hack — you should have stuck with Marco!” in the middle of the set isn’t going to convince your favorite band to drop Johnny Six-Strings. If you persist in shouting, however, it will probably impel them to have you removed from the venue.

Music fans are an opinionated set — just check out the comments section of any music blog — but until recently, there haven’t been many forums in which fans can vent those opinions in a constructive way. Enter Crowdbands.

Remember how Devo crowd sourced their album, Something For Everybody, allowing fans to choose which tracks would appear on the disc? Well, Crowdbands is like that, but turned up to 11.

via Mashable

Heads up labels of any size the Orchard has released a major upgrade so you can get more done faster. Huge data uploads? Yes. “Release Builder”? Yes. Error checking? Yes. If you’re not familiar, the Orchard has been in the digital distro game since creation. If you’re an old pro, you probably already know about these changes. All the same, more info at DMN.

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In digital music years, the Orchard is probably the equivalent of your grandfather – though gray hairs count for something in this business. This is one of the first companies to deliver digital distribution services to labels, and now, the Orchard is getting ready to release a serious upgrade. We were just given an exclusive demo of this updated ‘Release Builder’ this week, and everything looked pretty slick (even after some tricky requests). This tool just got bigger, and a lot more useful to member labels.

So what are the major enhancements? Labels can now upload large amounts of music, complete with metadata, artwork, and of course audio. In fact, the updated Release Builder can ingest a huge spreadsheet of information and a large collection of songs – even hundreds of albums, typically in an overnight build. It actually checks over all the metadata and spits back errors, and eliminates manual calling and content-checking. Then, the content is repackaged for delivery to a network that reaches 600 retailer endpoints.

Read more @ Digital Music News