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Wow... Check this out.... Are you still an Un-Signed Artist?
This project was something put together in response to
ongoing frustration with the perpetuation of the myth that being signed
to a record label is the way in which you achieve success as a musician. Most
of the time, the complete opposite is true.
The thought that maybe if EVERYONE was “signed”,
then there could be no stigma attached to the notion of being “unsigned”.
And so that’s what this site is all about.
Check out http://anyandallrecords.com/
We are a record label, and the reason that you are signing to a record label
is so that you are no longer an unsigned artist. But just to be clear, we
thought it would be helpful to outline a few things that we will not do as
your record label.
Who knows? You may even start to find that you don’t need a
record label…
- We won’t release your record. We recommend
you use Bandcamp for that.
- We won’t fund your recording sessions,
your CD manufacture or your vinyl pressing. But you may want to
have a crack at Pledge
Music if you’d like your fans to help you out with that.
- We won’t send out promos of your music
to anyone. We suggest you use Soundcloud for
that sort of thing.
- We won’t promote or list your gigs anywhere.
We do recommend that you put them on Songkick,
however.
- We won’t provide you with any tour support.
You might want to check out Couchsurfing as
a way to save money on that.
- We won’t invest in artist development.
However, you may want to see about what you can do towards getting
an Un-Convention happening
in your area. They often help.
- We won’t be your career advisors. Danny
Barnes has already written the best article ever about how
to make a living playing music. Go and read it. Seriously.
In addition, Steve Lawson has written an Independent
Music Manifesto and Andrew Dubber has written a book about Music
in the Digital Age. Those should get you started.
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- We won’t do social media for you. We do recommend
that you use Twitter (as
long as you’re chatty and friendly and don’t use it in a spammy
way) and we expect you’re probably already on Facebook.
- We won’t run your website. We reckon you should start a blog, though,
if you haven’t already. You could use Tumblr, WordPress or Posterous – or
(even better) get your own website on your own domain name. If you don’t
know how to do that, get a techie friend to help. It’s easy and cheap – and
so good for you.
- We won’t make you a video. But we suggest you
put any that you have on YouTube or Vimeo.
Besides, you could make a video using your phone if you wanted. Start with
a good idea, and work from there.
- We won’t bother you, demand that you change your music, organise
your life for you or do any of the other stuff that you’d like to think
that record labels do – but usually don’t.
- We won’t put you in debt, charge you for all sorts
of things that you don’t need, lie to you, with hold or hide your
royalties, get you to pay for something that we end up owning, pretend
that £4 is the ‘cost
price’ for a CD, shelve your records and prevent you from releasing
them, take a cut of your merchandise or touring, spend your money on first
class travel for our VP of Marketing, fund anyone’s expensive coke
habit, discriminate on the basis of race, class, gender or age… and
ultimately, we won’t exploit or screw you over in any way.
We can promise you that we won’t do any of the bad things that record
labels sometimes do. But nor will we do anything else. You’re basically
on your own. Except you’ll find that people tend to be helpful if you
ask. So you’re not really on your own at all. Nobody is.
Contract
- I/We, the undersigned, agree to sign at the bottom of this contract by
ticking a box.
- I/We understand that signing to Any
And All Records as our record label obligates nobody to anything.
- I/We understand that we may use the Any And All Records logo on any promotional
piece of communication about our music.
- I/We agree to stop calling ourselves “unsigned” and
to encourage others not to use that term.
- I/We understand that if we want to go sign to some
other record label, that’s
all cool. We totally get that this contract will instantly expire the moment
we decide we want to go do that. We think it’s cool that this is completely
non-exclusive.
- I/We understand that there is no small print, and
nobody’s
being tricked into anything here. No money will change hands and nobody’s
situation or rights are different than they were before we agreed to this.
- I/We
promise to do our best to go and be awesome to the best of our ability.
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