Start Your Record Label FAST (4 Easy Steps) | Music Attorney Explains
If you want to learn how to start a record label by yourself, here’s some good news! Learning how to start a record label is easy, and you can do it in just 4 simple steps.
- Choose Your Name
Before deciding on a name, you want to do some research to see if the name is available. You want to avoid the headache of possibly getting a cease-and-desist letter by someone who already owns that name. You can start by doing a simple Google search, and by also searching for the name on social media. You can even get into touch with a trademark attorney, who can do a formal trademark search for you. When it comes to your record label name, you always want one that is unique, and that represents the brand of your record label.
- Define Roles
Next, if you have friends and family helping you start your record label, it’s important to define roles right away, which helps avoid a lot of issues down the road. You’re typically going to have positions like an accountant, artist management, booking agent, CEO, COO, legal, etc, and the powers, or limitations, of that position need to be defined in the beginning.
You may be doing this by yourself in the beginning, and that’s ok. Just remember that when you bring in a partner to help, if you have not defined roles, that person may think they are a co-owner in your record label, and that could lead to an unnecessary and expensive legal dispute later on.
- Register Your Company
Third, you want to formally register your company. Doing so creates a liability shield that protects you in case anything goes wrong. You want to make sure you register your company in the state you live in, or the state where you’re conducting your business in.
There are a few different entity types you can choose, but the most common is an “LLC” (Limited Liability Company). You can typically fill out and file your LLC paperwork, or, simply hire an attorney to do it for you. What you can do is call a local attorney and ask them about rates. If those rates work with your budget, you can have the attorney do it for you.
- Claim Web Domain and Social Media Accounts
If you’re going to have a website (which is always a good idea as a record label), make sure you get it as soon as possible. Next, when it comes to social media, you want to get the username for your record label on all social media profiles (whether you plan on posting content to all platforms or not), and, really important, make sure your social media username is the exact same on all social media profiles. Having the same username not only helps with branding, but it’s going to make it easier for your fans follow you.
Even if you don’t have content ready to go, you don’t want another person to claim that username. Do all you can to claim that username on all social media platforms as soon as possible to avoid someone else taking it.
Conclusion
Starting a record label by yourself may sound like something challenging, but it is not impossible. Early on, you may have to learn how to do a lot of things on your own, and that is ok.
At the end of the day, remember these 4 steps, and you will already be on the road to success!
