How to Put Out Your Own Record #2

By Wendy Day of Rap Coalition

For four of the seven years of Rap Coalition’s existence, we have assisted artists in putting out their own records and negotiated deals. In that time we’ve seen many artists come, we’ve seen even more artists go. We’ve watched artists sell 60,000 units in a few months (at $5 a record–do the math), and we’ve seen artists piss away $50,000 in a month to no avail. This monthly column will share insights, successes and failures for those who are so inclined as to put out their own record. The street entrepreneurs. This column is for you. Stay strong, stay focused, and keep up the good hard work. Success is yours, go get it.

Although it started as an alternative for artists who couldn’t get a deal, there are 2 main reasons why someone puts out their own record: 1) to own their own destiny and control their art form by owning their own label, or 2) to get picked up by a larger label or distributor by proving that your music is marketable. You either want to be a Def Jam or distributed by a Def Jam. Regardless of the reasons, controlling your own project and proving to the world that your music is marketable, while making some money, is very attractive. There are many successful examples of self-released artists and labels who have come before: Too Short, AWOL, No Limit, Cash Money Records, Inner Soul, Esham, Slip-N-Slide, E-40, Luke Records, Revolutionary Records, Three-6 Mafia, Big Boy, Trinity Garden Cartel, Deff Trapp, CWAL, and many, many others. Some have self-destructed, some have been shut down by the Feds, some have been swallowed up by larger labels, some have robbed their artists and employees–the very people that created their success, and a few have gone on to succeed remarkably. There is a lot of money and prestige in owning your own shit in this industry, provided you have the financing and staff to do it correctly. It isn’t rocket science, so provided you have the proper tools and determination, you can make it happen for yourself. That’s our focus: doing it correctly, meaning profitably.

The basis to any successful project is the music. The music must be banging and must have appeal outside of your inner circle. That means you don’t just play it for your boys, you play it for people you don’t know who are most likely to be honest with you about whether or not it’s on point. When Creator’s Way was putting out Do Or Die’s first single in Chicago, Po’ Pimp, they gathered together all the local mix show’s DJs and club DJs and some of the local retailers and played a few songs for them. They unanimously picked Po’ Pimp as their favorite song, so CWAL has reconfirmed exactly which single to press up (and DJs felt like they played a part in choosing the single). Why spend tens of thousands of dollars on pressing if your aren’t certain you’ll have the support of the local DJs and stores?

Once you decide on the first single and press up your record, you market it within a small geographic area that you can affordably control. Unless you are backed by millions of dollars and a flawless major distributor, you don’t want to start nationally because you can’t be everywhere in the country at once. The larger labels have staffs and budgets to accommodate a national release, but since you don’t, start with just your city or town and no more than two or three others nearby. Make certain you’ve done the research in all of the areas you choose where the record will sell. Choose areas where the artists can travel easily and cheaply, since they may need to travel often into those areas to support the record. For example, it would not be a wise decision to choose New York, Houston, and the Bay Area for simultaneous release because the airfare alone will kill you financially every time your artist needed to travel to support the record at radio or retail or with a show. Once the record hits, however, it will spread naturally and you can’t control this. When Twista released his first single, Emotions, even though we tried to contain it to Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Louis (all within a few hours driving distant from Chicago) the record naturally spread to Louisiana, Atlanta and Cleveland. By the time all that happened, we had enough income from the record sales to send Twista into those markets. Cash Money Records focused on Louisiana and Texas for all of their releases until they decided they wanted major distribution and then they expanded slowly throughout the South and up into the Mid-West. At this point there has enough money from their record sales to make those moves and enough of a track record to be taken seriously by a regional distributor. The success they experienced with this expansion gave me enough ammunition to get them a $30 million distribution with a major, allowing them complete ownership of their masters and their company. Master P focused on Oakland and the surrounding areas prior to signing to his distribution deal even though he was getting sales in his hometown of New Orleans. He was not distracted by that and kept his focus on his target area (everything beyond the Bay Area and Northern California was gravy).

Timing is the key element for the project. Once you choose a release date, everything works backwards from that date. All aspects of the project’s set-up is worked simultaneously so that everything happens at once on that all important release date. In other words, if a local newspaper writes about your artist or publishes a review of the record, it’s important that it comes out at the same time the record is released. It does no good to have an article published four months before the record drops. No one will remember it. The street team needs to blitz the streets before the project drops to build anticipation for its release but in a timely fashion. How many times have you gone to a store to buy a record you’ve been hearing about for months only to find out it’s not out yet? Remember that first Snoop Doggy Dogg record? We all waited a year for it to drop, but couldn’t wait to run to the store to buy it the day it came out. Make certain when choosing your release date that it’s a realistic time frame to accomplish the art work, the printing, the pressing, the street blitz, and local press. Don’t worry about national press, you’ll need that later. Why would you want someone in Oakland to read about a record that can only be bought in Houston? As you grow, the national press will come.

This series will continue in every issue of Murder Dog and will contain information on pressing, street teams, distribution, foreign licensing, overseas distribution, artist development, flow of product, retail and radio, artist imaging and more. Each issue will also answer two specific questions sent in by our readers. Although the questions can not be answered individually, they should be directed to Rap Coalition at 111 East 14th Street, #339, New York, NY 10003. And remember, if you don’t own your own shit, you’re just sharecropping.

Q. How do I find out if a distributor is right for me?

A. Look at the other labels and music they distribute. Is it similar? Ask them for the phone local retail stores if they buy from that distributor and if they have a good relationship with them.

Q. Do I need a distributor right away?

A. No, you can put your product in stores on consignment, meaning you give it to them and when it sells they pay you. Once your product has a demand and they start to sell units regularly, it will be easier to get paid. If your record becomes a hit and sells quickly, it will be very easy to get paid in advance, and you’ll have the distributors coming to you to do a deal. Remember this is a business. As long as someone thinks they can make money off you, they will. If they know they can, the terms will be more favorable for you. The less risk involved for a store or distributor, the better the deal is for you.

Quote of the month:

DJ DMD from Inner Soul Records (who just signed a multi-million dollar distribution deal with Elektra Records in May) on how the single "25 Lighters" was chosen: When I came out of the studio, where I had combined the freestyle of Fat Pat (RIP) and Lik Keke on 25 Lighters, I played the song for Steve Nice from The Box radio station in Houston to get some feedback. He grabbed the tape out of my hand and put it right on the radio without even editing the curses. It got such a tremendous response that it forced our hand. Not only did that have to be the single, but we had to have it pressed up immediately to fill the demand Steve caused."