Releasing music yourself (1 Viewer)

[Moods For Mallards]

I haven't done this before, i.e. release an album or EP. I'm planning to do it quite soon and I'm fixing to set up a label to make it all seem proper and stuff. Is this standard enough for you lot or do you not bother with that? I know I can just set myself up with CD Baby or whomever without inventing a record label, but it doesn't seem right.
In the event of staring a label, do you actually register it as a company?
This might all seem strikingly obvious.

 

[cpr]

I'm currently in the process of setting up a label and it is confusing as hell but will be worthwhile when the jobs done I'd imagine. We released our first EP ourselves,it was expensive to get pressed etc and you do need to register yourself as a company if you wanna do it properly but it's not necessary

 

[theoootini]

go the digital route?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_label

 

[Froog]

some friends of mine released their own ep's. pressing and production can be very expensive. i'm sure there is cheap ways of doing all that, but the quality would suffer i'd imagine.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

I'm currently in the process of setting up a label and it is confusing as hell but will be worthwhile when the jobs done I'd imagine. We released our first EP ourselves,it was expensive to get pressed etc and you do need to register yourself as a company if you wanna do it properly but it's not necessary

Thanks. Yes, I was going to go registering it as a company but I wanted to make sure that wasn't outrageously extravagant. Yeah, it's gonna be expensive to get them reproduced.

 

[cpr]

this is the route I'm currently going down

http://www.companyformations.ie/formationsprices.php

 

[Goodbye]

thingsyourmissing.com

 

[aoboa]

this is the route I'm currently going down

http://www.companyformations.ie/formationsprices.php

Would you not just set up as a sole trader / partnership?
Ltd company means doing monthly VAT returns and loads of other stuff. Hardly worth it if you're setting up a record label, which lets face it, is unlikely to make any money.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

this is the route I'm currently going down

http://www.companyformations.ie/formationsprices.php

Hmmm, cheers. This better turn out to be a Ham Sandwich-like success story.

On the other hand, I could eschew any notion of seeming like a pro and just use CD Baby for online stuff and try to flog a few hard copies at gigs.

 

[cpr]

Would you not just set up as a sole trader / partnership?
Ltd company means doing monthly VAT returns and loads of other stuff. Hardly worth it if you're setting up a record label, which lets face it, is unlikely to make any money.

I'm waiting to hear back about setting up as a sole trader, it's real head scratching stuff for a non business head like me.

 

[pete]

http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=28723

 

[cpr]

http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=28723

thanks pete.|..|

 

[Moods For Mallards]

Yeah thanks Pete.

For now I think I'll do it as a sole trader unless something I read convinces me otherwise.

 

[taubstumm]

unless you're planning regular releases (say, every three months or so), don't register as anything. just get the stuff pressed and make it happen. if it gets busy, register as something then, but for the moment just do the music.

 

[taubstumm]

oh yeah, if you want to make up a record label name, just go ahead and stick it on the record. you can always turn that into your 'real' business name down the line if needs be.

 

[cpr]

oh yeah, if you want to make up a record label name, just go ahead and stick it on the record. you can always turn that into your 'real' business name down the line if needs be.

true dat, thats what I did for our first release.

 

[Moods For Mallards]

Yes, that's the crux of the matter. Clearly it won't be too busy so I was just wondering how to go about it. I'll throw my assumed record label name on the sleeves.
Thanks, s.

 

[cpr]

as you can see from our back cover thats what we did!

 

[lympog]

not really necessary to start a label (especially in ireland) - all you need to do is a set yourself up as a company / partnership / sole trader

I haven't done this before, i.e. release an album or EP. I'm planning to do it quite soon and I'm fixing to set up a label to make it all seem proper and stuff. Is this standard enough for you lot or do you not bother with that? I know I can just set myself up with CD Baby or whomever without inventing a record label, but it doesn't seem right.
In the event of staring a label, do you actually register it as a company?
This might all seem strikingly obvious.

 

[Gambra]

Registering? Tax? VAT? Wha? Unless your're going to be getting in a turnover of several grand a year then it's worth it. To be honest there's really only 2 or 3 labels on this board which would need that. If your label gets "successful" then sure you may need to register it or what not but most labels that start out in the fashion your planning to will fail after a few releases.

Money is a huge factor in a label, you will be far far better off spending that cash on pressing something (again which isn't really a good idea unless you can really shift at least 500 copies) which will be your main expense. Start small, don't press 500 copies of your EP or 7 inch and then realise you can't shift them.