Mar 4, 2017 With the rise of many independent artists such as Chance and Joey, is signing even worth it anymore and on top of that is giving your music away for free a good idea? 6LACK released his debut album for free and its got attention that it obviously wouldn't have purely because of that fact. I like the idea of letting your fans pay for merch or show tickets rather than for a project they may/may not enjoy.
Mar 4, 2017 Did he sign with someone? I know he had that apple music deal for coloring book but we all know it was him that threw that b---- up on datpiff right after release
Mar 4, 2017 Being independent comes with its own set of challenges. You need to do more yourself and don't have the backing a label would provide. If you're independant, it falls on you a lot more. It depends on what the artist feels they're capable of, imo. On the free thing, that's up to the artist as well. Personally, I'd offer it for free, but also allow people to pay IF they wanted to. 'Cause some people will. And some money is better than no money lmao.
Mar 4, 2017 Ahh yeah thats something I forgot to mention, 6LACK is signed and released the album on itunes but he also put it on soundcloud/youtube etc.
Mar 4, 2017 My question though is, if he was signed to a label, what would they be getting out of it?
Mar 4, 2017 On the real why would you need to sign to a label? Look at everything a label does for you and think about it yourself. ( Can I do these things by myself ) A label in most cases will simply put a lot of funding behind your work in return getting around 70% more then they actually invest in with some album sales only generating the artist like 0.50 cents on the 12.99 mark. In my opinion the commonly seen issue for people who remain independent is they're not sure when to release songs, without flooding, or without depriving. This is probably the biggest issue in the music scene today, even when you're on a label I feel like it's still a bit of an issue. But let's consider some other sides of the triangle. Provided you wanted to stay independent your Social Media would be a power house of promoters reaching out to you, what's stopping you from reaching back to them? Premiering tracks yourself on platforms like Complex, HNHH, XXL, DJ Akademiks, WSHH, NoJumper provided that's the genre you're in.. What's stopping that from happening? Eventually if you keep pushing these songs out there, people gonna take notice. As someone who owns well over the rightful amount of blogs, I can tell you now there's a lot of people who've contacted me and months later blew up on their own, I've been talking with the rapper Russ since early 2013 before he even knew he was gonna blow up, he was sliding me hundreds every week to help him promote his works, look at him now. Provided you don't wanna read everything = my opinion is NO, you shouldn't sign with a label unless you're simply not able to socialize with other people and market yourself.
Mar 4, 2017 I read it all, thats what I've been thinking about- even if you're not the most promising rapper you'll still get record labels hitting you up just so they can squeeze every little penny out of you and thats why if I ever did get anywhere with music I wouldn't sign to a label, unless they on some independent TDE s---
Mar 4, 2017 it really depends on which label you're going for, singing for Epic record or Syco music is a bad decision because they work their artists out and they get most of the money that those artists are bringing
Mar 4, 2017 Even then it's really not worth it man, Social Media contains like 80 - 85% of the population over the age of 15 at this point, why would you need to use any form of label to push your work when that kinda of static is already on some platform? Be it VK, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, who the f--- knows what other social media outlets there are in other countries. What's stopping you from reaching out to those type of people on your own, the producers you get in contact with alone can help boost your career. Imagine, you reach out to a small dude like Cash Money AP, he f---s with your s--- starts sending your beats to throw your joint over, you pushing out tracks by the week. Cash Money AP fans be reaching out like, yo dawg I wanna feature (just to get on that Cash Money AP beat) because he don't really f--- with them like he f---s with you. Eventually dudes who are bigger in the production game gonna start reaching back too, these people know the politics of the music game, they know the way people try and finesse, they know the struggle, you need to reach out to people who been going through the same s--- and aren't completely established but have a name bigger then yours and say , Yo dude, I can't offer you much but let's work.. maybe you'll f--- with my s---, maybe not. s--- happens, if he doesn't f--- with it. Move on, artist are like b------s.. there's millions of them out-there, don't get your feelings hurt when you reach out to Lil Durk and he says your music sounds like the Lolipop lady taking the pipe.
Mar 4, 2017 Yea, he got signed this past year but he gets 65% of all revenue, and it's more a promotional type deal appose to being an actual label.
Mar 4, 2017 russ signed a massive deal and is blowing up because of it he's signed as well virtually nobody approaches any semblance of mainstream success w/o corporate backing
Mar 4, 2017 artists that don't have enough exposure or enough money literally have to be under any label because they need a team behind them and labels take advantage of that situation, it's pretty sad but that's what business is all about
Mar 4, 2017 I wasn't using Russ as an independent artist example, I was just saying he's a head I've known for many years who recently generated a large amount of success. For so many years he DID do this s--- on his own, he struggled for so so so long before anyone even knew his name. I found this a lil while ago, this is the original owner of atrilli.net ( site that I now own ) You can see this tweet literally has nobody on it, where tweets now generating thousands of likes.
Mar 4, 2017 Yeah thats another con of it, I think the best way to go is to gain success off the internet and ride off of that, like how Yachty did it. You need to take a smart approach. I'm at a point where I have a small following from other s--- that could carry over and grow both fanbases simultaneously but most artists dont have that so they take the first deal they get. Its sad really.
