Should Artists Sign with Labels?

As the music industry continues to expand, music creation is becoming more feasible for the average person. With the rise of Indie distribution services, virtually anyone can upload an MP3 onto all major platforms and receive 100% profits. The most notable of the Indie distribution services include:

- TuneCore

- Distrokid

- CDBaby

- United Masters

These services allow for any artist to upload their musical recordings through their site and onto all major platforms at competitively low prices. With this understanding, should any artist sign with a record label?

Well, the answer depends on a variety of factors such as:

- Personal Objective

- Budget

- Leverage

- Network

These four essential factors should respectfully dictate an artist’s decision to sign any contract with record labels. Signing with a label can be an incredible step in an artist’s career, but it can also be extremely detrimental. If an artist desires commercial success with worldwide name recognition, then signing with a major label is likely the best avenue to actualize that goal. However, if an artist desires commercial success, but not at the expense of losing control of their finances, then a label deal may be counterintuitive.

Record labels provide numerous benefits to artists including bigger budgets, access to higher-quality studios, better producers/engineers, and a high-earning network. Each of these benefits can catapult an artist to phenomenal heights like we have seen with Lil Nas X and Lil Baby. Nonetheless, these major recording contracts can leave artists accepting millions on the front-end, while relinquishing monumental paydays on the backend. Not only that, but within these contracts, labels even require artists to pay back the money they accepted in exchange for the money they would have received on the backend!

While this may seem extremely discouraging to an aspiring artist, all is not lost. With careful consideration and understanding of the music industry, these contract situations can be avoided. Social media is more powerful and more widespread than ever before. Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have become the main sources of music consumption throughout the world and each of these services is free to use. Successfully developing competitive social media strategies can increase an artist’s fan base the same way as record labels.

The best part about social media is quality and consistency never go unnoticed! The world rewards persistence and if the music is good, people WILL find it. Any artist with talent and determination can reach formidable levels of success without the exploitation of major record labels. Delayed gratification is the name of the game for independents in the music industry.