How to start a psytrance label?!

On 2006-06-26 15:53, FREGLE wrote:
well, first of all, put it firmly in ur head that u will very probably not sell more then 2000 copies, so don't press more then 2000!! I'd start out with 1000, if everything goes rght u can order another 1000... Look around for the cheapest printing company. Keep in mind that printing the cd's will cost 2000€. The mastering will cost around 1000€, some are cheaper, like ka-sol, some more expensive, like artifakt... U will need to pay ur artists, u can choose to go for a single payment or for royalties... Royalties are a lot harder to control (always calculating which percentage has to go to the artists and then giving them the money becomes irritating and too time-consuming) so i would opt for the single payment... A less known artist will be happy with 200€ per song, but a well known artist will be more expensive... Watch out with that, don't buy too many expensive songs or u will lose money. Don't expect to gain money either, be happy if u get ur money back... Promotion is also very important. You will have to give away a lot of cd's to reviewers, dj's, artists. To get ur cd known. Also, drag around a carton of them to parties, like that u make more money on every cd u sell. If possible try to do distributoion urself... It's not that hard in the pcyscene, there aren't a lot of online stores, and not a lot of local stores either. But they might refuse to buy them if it doesn't come from a known distributer like wirikuta... That being said, if u start up as label owner wirikuta might not want to take the risk either, so the first time u will probably be obligated to do the distribution urself... If u have some known names on the cd this will be easier. Having a distributer is not a guarantee that it will sell better, but ur cd will be more available, so u have more chances that it will be a succes. Most important of all is that u need to have at least 3000€ to pay most of the costs (not even all the costs), and be prepared to lose part of that amount, especially the first time u will very very probably lose money...

On 2006-06-26 16:17, Jikkenteki wrote:
In addition to the info above....

If you want some really "real world" numbers for now-a-days, don't expect to sell more than 500 copies even, but print 1000 anyways as the price difference between 500 and 1000 is almost nothing. Giving away copies is a great idea (trust me you'll have tons of extras), but DON'T focus only on giving them only to DJs and reviewers (be a bit selective here and give them to the people who can actually help you out. Most DJs will just throw the CD in their "hey, I'm lucky" pile and probably only listen to it a couple times and if you're lucky play it out once). Instead focus on gietting them to the actual people on the dance floor. You'll get a lot more loyal of a fan base, better promotion for your artists, and more people remembering you and wanting to see your artists live if you give a healthy amount to the regular fans on the dancefloor. These, after all, are the people who pay to come to the parties and the people you want to keep coming back. Some goodwill to these people goes a long way.

distro. (i heard arabesque is the best around price view)