Addressing an SRO crowd, Paul Menes from the
California Lawyers for the Arts provided attendees with an exhaustive, nearly comprehensive outline of what's needed to run your own record label.
Starting with the reasons major labels are structured as they are, Paul discussed many of the pitfalls common to a small label when first starting out.
Liability in regards to intellectual property was of special interest, using his experiences with "Tiki Man" as an example of what can happen when
something as simple as not registering a name can create career threatening issues.
He then made it clear how important getting everything set in writing, even though a contract is
nothing more than a piece of paper, and it's not "bulletproof."
Regarding digital distribution, he did a quick breakdown of how a typical 99 cent download
translates to less than a nickel to the writers & or artists when all is done, unless you are all the entities involved in the transaction.
During the Q&A time, Paul expressed his opinion that the "magic 10k" sales to get noticed was a myth, & how he's heard about great bands getting signed without huge independent sales
numbers.
Overall, the bottom line is that running a record label is a serious business, & that if an artist
isn't ready to accept that fact, signing on with someone else may not be such a bad thing after all.
Rounding out the evening with plenty of networking & interaction, this LAMP event once again lit the fires of enterprise for those considering starting their own labels.
Addressing an SRO crowd, Paul Menes from the
California Lawyers for the Arts provided attendees with an exhaustive, nearly comprehensive outline of what's needed to run your own record label.
