Description

Learn the elements of how to start a record label from veteran industry expert Bro. Steve Harris. Special guest appearance by Donald Passman, Vickie Lataillade and Kerry Douglas.

Transcript

How to Start a Record Label Steve Harris: Well, now you’re in the entertainment business and you’ve got a record company. Well, it’s a lot of the things that come with putting together a record company, you’d be surprised. You know, I had a CEO calling me one time and told me, “Steve, I spent $300,000.00 going down the wrong road.” Very simply, he just didn’t know. Record companies are popping up each and everyday, every other week. Every body has a record coming. Now in my opinion when the record companies up already, you want to make sure you have proper structure to put it together and make sure it’s an effective record company that matches your ministry. There are a lot of things involved in putting together a great and successful record label. Don Passman: Well, in all you need to know about the music business, I talk about three different kinds of labels so it’s the major labels, the ones that you would think of sort of Sony BMGs, the EMIs and the Warner Music Group — people like that. Then there’s what I call a mini-major which is basically a rather large company that is distributed by a major that is its own independent kind of company. They are the actually bearing the — these days that have been bought up by the majors for the most part but that’s cycle will go around again. And then, there’s a true independents that are independently owned, that are distributed either through independent distribution or distributed perhaps by a major sometimes as well. Vicki Lataillade: We started the label with approximately $6,000.00 of my debts, post retirement money. Gospo Centric was ran out of a garage. For a very long time, we took the Berry Gordy model there. And first of all, I feel that when you try to — especially for the kind of music that we do, it depends on your genre. If you’re doing rock, of you’re doing gospel, reggae things or things like that, those artists — I don’t think they care so much about the glitz, they want to know what you’re putting into them so that becomes critical. But we had money to put into them but I found that in the comfortable setting, artists who were comfortable, they knew that we weren’t trying to wear the money on our backs, that we were not spending the money on them. So it was very clear because we were in a garage. It’s about the artist. Kerry Douglas: When we started, I taught it with my kids’ right out of my home. Now, I'm industrial. The kids, they want those and try it with me. They said, “Dad, we ain’t packing over a hundred thousand magazines anymore. We’re done.” So, I have the Mac out to do, my printer, my packaging company, all done now so I’ve even done it at my office anymore because we’ve grown. We’ve grown too much for that. Vicki Lataillade: Why, you don’t want to pay rent for a high rise that I didn’t even own. And, if I own that garage in every building we’ve been and we’ve owned. And, they’ve been — I got to tell you some of the things that have helped this out the most when times got tough, I could go to the bank and out money up against my real estate or my masters or the masters — my record masters. Your record masters are also a form of equity.