Of Course, almost every upcoming musician wants to know how to get signed to a record label and become a superstar with fame, popularity, money, and living a luxurious life. Who wouldn’t want that?! But all that isn’t easily handed to you. Hard work and dedication have to come in. Especially when being an upcoming musician of course. Everyone usually thinks making music is the easiest thing in the world, It Is easy that’s not the hardest part. The hardest part is making it to the top and being recognized. Getting signed to a record label is more than just signing a piece of paper and working with others. Not even, people often think because they are signed to a record label, they are going to be famous instantly. To get signed to a record label means business you work for them and they help you reach your potential level. It’s never guaranteed, it’s a chance and risk people take. Sometimes they make it and sometimes they don’t.!

What do you get from signing to a record label?

What Record labels do is, they work with you to better your music, handling the business stuff and stand by you as you progress in the music industry. They promote you out there and back you up. But they’re not only there to help you. It’s beneficial to them too, because the more famous you get the more they get paid and their business also grows. They help you, you help them. That’s how business works. Sometimes signing to a record label isn’t good because things can get heated and messy with the label officials. These things can slow the business down. And even some record labels simply lack their ability to do their part of the work and just want to get paid and benefit of your buzz. It is very important to know what you are getting yourself into and having backup plans. But also not to rely to much on the record label and then get disappointed.

Once you’re signed to a record label then the real work begins, in the beginning, it can get very stressful and chaotic. A lot of pressure and heavy loads of work coming at you. Knowing how to deal with it is highly important they are times you’ll want to give in and end it all, you’ll get discouraged and not want to continue with your career. Set your mindset to a certain pain tolerances level and up to what you can handle. Once your signed and making a name for yourself, there will be other labels wanting you that didn’t want you before. Sticking to what you have often is the best because they already know you and helped you to become who you are at that day, the struggle and stress you went through to get there. Just because you’re given a “better” opportunity doesn’t mean you’ll just take it. Always remember how and who you first started with. But if your current label doesn’t share your vision and won’t take you to the next level you might as well check out other offers to fully reach your potential.

How to actually get signed to a record label?

We’ve discussed how record labels work. But haven’t really gotten in depth on how to get signed to a record label. Well signing with a label involves having some tolerances, consistency, and motivation. Getting signed to a record label means making yourself ready with everyone and be open-minded for what’s ahead. Getting signed has to do with exposure and how you make yourself known to the world. For example, social media can help you build up a fan base for people to check you out and see what’s really up with you. Posting content that makes your fans happy and getting their attention. Referring to what signing to a record label involves, tolerances, is one of the biggest ones. It’s big because you are going to reach your limits working to reach your goal, but that’s what will set you apart from the unsuccessful musicians. Then we need the consistency to build a decent fan base you got to be consistent with your posts, music, etc. to draw new fans attention. You can’t just upload something that gets the highest views then go MIA because you think that’s good enough, no! Keep up with what you post, catch up with the littlest details, how you post, and when you post all of this is indeed important. Motivation is the highlight of it all. Having a crazy almost unlimited amount of energy to work is really important, having confidence in your work, picking up on the little mistakes to fix and learn from them. Pushing through is all effort, big things happen only if you set your mind to it, lazy work gets you nowhere but where you first started.

The process of getting yourself signed to a record label can be expensive because you need exposure and high-quality work, these two components will require you to invest money in your music career. Getting signed means to prepare yourself for work. You can get signed by being noticed by one of the best music apps like SoundCloud. Posting your idea and music there for people to see and comment on it. Once you post it on SoundCloud its visible to whomever. Which means they have the right to do a remix or edit on it to improve for the better, and also to cover your song and that should be allowed since its public. Posting on other media and sites will give you some type of attention. Also, send your demos out to different record labels don’t wait until they come to you, go to them and have a good state of mind, it is not the end of the world if you’re not selected!. It means you need to work a little harder for it and that’s okay. Having the ability to bounce back from your struggles is the greatest strength of all, instead of giving it all up. Which should never be an option.

One of the most important things about getting signed to a record label is having a good pitch for your music, for it to be presented. Now, by that means, use your fan base to convince record labels that you are an act that will draw the crowds and sell records. Be organized with your work and keep up with your work on a consistent basis. The effort you put in will be shown in the long run.

Be professional

Make your music sound professional! No matter how good you think you are… soon as you get in front of the label make sure your music is top quality. If you present your music raw as in no edit, you will not make it. It is raw because it is not edited, having a professional studio is critical for the quality and it don’t always needs to be expensive check out our article on how to build your own home studio. Make sure your piece is well looked at and has gotten a few pointers and feedback. After all of that, then you look at it again by yourself and adjust whats needed to be adjusted. If you’re satisfied with the whole project now it’s time you search for a record label.

Promote your music on different platforms

Soundcloud as it was being mentioned earlier, Youtube, and Instagram are the best place to publish your music. Soundcloud because it’s the number one music source to get your music noticed. Soon as it is published it’s public and can get listened to by everyone. That’s a good thing so anybody can comment on it, give feedback, and see how well your work is. Be careful when your releasing tracks, mixtapes, and remixes. The tracks need to be organized in order to be found easily. Also check out our article “Free Soundcloud Promotion”

It should be categorized by genres, alphabetically, and the year the music was made and also think about the titles. But it needs to be organized somehow because that should you have some type of skills. So it will be an easy search for everyone. Especially SoundCloud where record labels usually look at music to discover upcoming artists. Your account should be organized and easy for them to go through.

Youtube, is where people upload videos it’s also a safe place to upload music projects there. People usually go to youtube for videos because that’s the go-to website. The views run high there . Anything is uploaded and millions go to youtube. Don’t set your limits low to just Soundcloud. Unlike Soundcloud, Youtube videos get reposted every day and night non-stop. There’s a high possibility your video can be reposted especially since everyone can watch it online. Youtube is a reliable source only because videos go viral everytime and go straight to explore. Youtube is also an opportunity to post your tapes and see the response, you’ll just have to put in more work for the promotion than on Soundcloud. Hopefully good news comes up. Instagram is a good medium because if you post your music you can use hashtags and tag music label officials directly. They probably won’t see your inquiries at first,so you’ll have to keep tagging them a couple of times to get noticed.

For these Social Media platforms to work you need to know your target audience. Meaning, if it is targeting young adults address that, if it’s targeting older men and women let that be known. The demo cannot just be a song for everybody without a main target audience. Not all song attracts everyone some songs only attracts teens, or women even babies only. There needs to be some type of target audience here, like who would mostly listen to the music once its produced. Who will it really affect? Also, certain genres are greatly affected. For example, if it is Soul, it will probably mostly attracts older folks. But if it is Hip Hop everyone knows that goes straight to teens and young adults because of the beat and the entertainment. It’s best to find the target audience for the music then it will be easier to promote it smoothly.

It can also be helpful to create your own music website or site in general where people can look up your music, a bio and watch some music and performance videos. Always remember, it takes hard work to reach stardom and all those things happen only if you put your mind to it because talking about doing something is different than actually getting it done. What record labels look for are people who are committed because they know the path to stardom is ruff. You need to have a proper mindset of trying any and everything that will possibly take your career to the next level. They are looking for non-quitters because they are rough times you want to give up, but which you have to endure to finally reach your goal. A lot of people claim to be up for the challenge and give their word, but the truth is, that most upcoming musicians are not cut out for the job. You will constantly have to face challenges and do things out of your comfort zone to reach your goal. It’s the only way you’ll learn and become a real professional musician.

Record Labels don’t just want you because of how good your music is. They need a serious artist who they can work towards a successful future.

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BY:KEREN P