How would you run a record label?

With the tight economy affecting everything including music, artists are way more business savvy these days. I asked several artists from rookies ro veterans how they would run a record label.

K-RINO

1.i would build a roster with a mixture of diverse artists from different genres.

2.i would seek out artists of substance and potential longevity.

3.i would make marketing and promotion a TOP priority.

4.i would have a branch of my label dedicated strictly to
artist development.

5.i would focus on heavily exposing my label’s name and logo
in order to be easily identified by the public(tv radio,magazines,street promo)

ICEMAN

1. Fans come first. The label would stay focused on what was important to the music fans, and give them what they want. They’re the ones who are financially supporting the label and it’s artists, so they are the most important people in the equation. I would institute open feedback policies, and with the money I’d save by firing all these worthless execs and A&R people, I’d hire extra customer service people to focus on the needs of the customer.

2. I would hire artist managers as staff to work directly for the label. They wouldn’t be called artist managers, they’d be called artist development, and they’d be compensated the same way they are now. 7.5-15% of that artist’s profits. No artist would be allowed to bring in outside managers, because that would conflict with the goals of the label. Again, if an artist didn’t agree with this, they could sign elsewhere. There are too many untalented unsigned artists out there, to waste time, energy and money on those who don’t want to play ball.

3. A&R people would be a thing of the past. Do the major labels really need all of these A&Rs running around trying to look self-important, drawing huge salaries, and racking up huge budgets for nothing? No. you can just as easily find artists to sign in places like MySpace and ReverbNation nowadays. The A&Rs would be among the first to go. They’d be replaced with artist development people (see number 2).

4. I would change the compensation scale for all executives. No more drawing huge salaries for nothing. I would compensate all executives the same way that Steve Jobs (Apple) gets compensated. He only gets ONE DOLLAR A YEAR IN SALARY. The rest of his millions come from profit-sharing, bonuses and incentives. No free rides. If the executives want to get rich, they have to work to make sure the label is successful.

5. I would move all artists to 360 deals. Meaning the label would get 70% of music sales, and 30% of everything else (merchandise, live shows, licensing, etc). That would make the artists true partners, and they would have to work to make sure their projects were successful. Again, no more free rides. Any artist that doesn’t want to work to ensure his or her own success, I wouldn’t want them signed to my label anyway. On the other hand, I wouldn’t make the artist recoup the label’s expenses (marketing, promotion, etc). The label would absorb those costs as part of the cost of doing business. The only thing the artists would have to recoup would be their advances. Legally speaking, I know this would be a headache, but that’s what these major label lawyers are for. I definitely wouldn’t be paying them to sue old ladies for downloading tracks.

6. I would focus promotion and marketing efforts equally on all artists on the roster. Most artists at major labels fail commercially because the labels don’t support them. Major labels currently survive off of the commercial success of 5% of their artists. They lose money on the rest. That’s ridiculous. Every artist would get equal marketing and promotion support.

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Hey, I know this is more than 5 sentences, but I couldn’t find a shorter way to say these things! I definitely believe that these are some of the steps the major labels need to take to survive into the future.

MAC-GOTCHA

First and foremost, have good music an promote heavy!!

STRESS

i would run my label honest sign real talent no one hit wonders, if u hot u will definitely get a chance. Respect the artist as a person and there craft, da game is about money but not everything glitters. I would hire real A&R’s who share the same taste of music and passion,hunger and desire. Artist wont sit on da shelf for years they will get they shot to blow.