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Special Feature

Hints and Tips about starting a DIY Music Label

Article written by Trevor M - Mar 13, 2010

DIY Record

My background and the basics of a DIY music label

I had always dreamt of running a record label, right from the time when I first got my mitts on a 7” single in the early 80s. When I was in my mid 20s in the time before the internet had really taken hold. I tried, and failed, to start a label from my bedsit in Wales. The band I wanted to release sounded a little like the Orb. They made sounds on their Ataris. I liked it. The label was going to be called Symphobia.

Rewind to my student days in Newcastle in the early 90. Inspired by John Peel and the fanzines I had been buying in my teenage years I had started a proper paper fanzine. ‘Wiremesh’ didn’t last long. I think I did 3 issues. All long lost and forgotten with features on bands like Sofahead and Leatherface. I didn’t find it easy to build and copy zines when I had bugger all money coming in. But I still had a DIY itch that I wanted to scratch.

My dream of getting Symphobia off the ground was always going to be an uphill struggle. I didn’t have the money or the know how for a start. What was a DAT tape? What was mastering? How do I get my records into record shops? (more on this later). How did record contracts work? I probably trawled the back pages of Sounds, NME and Melody Maker looking for adverts from pressing plants that did small runs of vinyl. Because even back in the mid 90s, when vinyl was a dirty word, I still wanted to do my releases on vinyl. After finally getting all the information I required, the band I wanted to release (name not remembered, as they never settled on one) decided to call it a day. So, I was then stuck with the idea of a record label and no one to release. And the local gig scene wasn’t inspiring me to take my dream further. I really didn’t want to release a death metal band from Ystradgynlais.

Fast forward 10 years. The Internet is established. I can browse to websites set up by enthusiastic unsigned bands or even use myspace and hear an unlimited number of unsigned bands making the kind of music that makes me want to release records. Again. Or in reality for the first time. I started out by revisiting the fanzine idea and in October 2004 I started my first proper blog – Lostmusic. Within a few years this had morphed into putting on shows in London and yes, a proper record label, with 7” singles. Some of them even made it into shops and everything.

What had changed? Well, alongside all the bands being readily available, CDr’s were invented and also acceptable and they were cheap to buy and use. So there was no fretting over DAT tapes and other confusing things. The internet also made the doing part of DIY easier. I could easily research pressing plants and record manufacturing online – finding places that were happy to do smaller runs to cater for the micro labels like Lostmusic suddenly made it all more affordable. I could make 500 7” singles for £800. Not exactly cheap – but split between the three partners in Lostmusic it was within reach.

And it’s only when 6 boxes with 500 pristine platters arrive at your door do you realise that making the records is only half the battle. You’ve got to be abIe to flog them, too. So I crudely built a paypal shop on the website to sell the records – I have limited web building skills and the shop was a source of much frustration over time and I have since, for a modest fee, upgraded to a properly designed web shop. I still haven’t really sussed out the distribution malarkey, to this day. I am currently in talks with Cargo about taking my stock.

What I did do was this: I sent the records out to interested outlets like Norman Records, Rough Trade and a handful of others. I then found collecting the sales money is time consuming, especially as these stores take the stock on a sale or return. At first I even found that I was being paid less than it cost per single to make by some of the stores. Talk about putting you off before you’ve barely had a chance to begin.

You can also use specialist distros that abound on line. They often pay in advance for stock and they’re a great way of getting your records to more people. There are places like Fraction Discs in Sweden or Thee SPC here in the UK that often take a few copies and help get the records you’ve spent your money on out to people that might want to hear them! Lostmusic muddled through and after a number of 7” releases and a few home produced CDr releases – I decided to go it alone and my current label Odd Box Records was born just under a year ago.

If I was advising anyone on setting up a small DIY label I think I’d stress the following:

• be prepared to lose a bit of cash along the way – releasing records isn’t cheap.

• only release bands you really believe in, regardless of whether you think they have the potential to make it.

• do it at your own pace.

• try and build a list of useful contacts (be that blogs that like what you are releasing, radio stations and DJs that also like what you are doing or press contacts). You can then write that all important press release to send out with promo copies of your latest release.

• putting on live shows can be a lot of fun but also a lot of stress. It’s also a good way to sell your records/CDs direct to the fans of the band.

• try and get distribution sorted. It’s a nut that I’ve yet to fully crack, but being able to sell your records is a key part of actually running a record label. Without selling records you are nothing more than a warehouse, really.

You can read part 2 of this article here

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About the author: Trevor McCabe runs Oddbox Records and is a fixture on the London indiepop and noisepop live scenes. He recently appeared on Tom Robinson’s BBC Radio 6 show to talk about DIY music releases.

Links:
http://oddboxrecords.com
http://diyrecordlabels.ning.com/