How To Get Signed To A Major Record Label

what's up guys they need keys here welcome back to channel so last week I made a video which was all about how I got signed and dropped to a major record label when I was 18 and you can probably see that around here if you haven't seen it or possibly maybe it's here or if not it's in the description below so you can go and check that out but there was a lot of comments and a lot of people saying things like I would never sign to a major label which is cool I totally admire your balls for being able to say no cuz I can promise you when a major label comes knocking at your door it is quite difficult to say no to the money to the experience and to the opportunity so if you can say no to that then fantastic but there were lots and lots of questions and comments mostly around how did that actually happen didn't go into detail of how you made that happen how it got signed so I just thought that's fair enough so I'm gonna do a video on how you can get signed to a major label should you want to if if you want to you don't have to it's just one of those things but if you did want to get signed these are the things that you would have to do if you wanted to get signed to a major label or add the title I'm gonna go with which is how do you get sign to a major record label so when it came to me get in signed I do feel like I was a little bit of a passenger and I was quite lucky I was a bass player in a band that happened to be doing quite well I wasn't the driving force and I didn't really learn whilst I was doing it however over the last 20 years I have seen within music education so many artists and band that have been signed to labels of all different sizes and there are some traits that really goes through when that process happens so what we need to do is we need to look at what these artists and bands have in common for when those bands have been signed to a major and then what you can do to implement that into your band and also one more thing which is even if you don't want to get signed to a major label most of the stuff within this video it's just generally good practice this is good things that you should probably be doing anyway whether you want to get signed or whether you don't cuz after all it is up to you you don't have to if you don't want to okay and now on with the classic top ten list number one is this is now a life choice this is not let's see what happens or we'll put some music out and hope for the best this is you saying this is what I want to happen so now it is a life choice the music industry when you get to this level is a business therefore you need to set yourself up like a business doing a little bit in music every now and again is absolutely not going to cut it the bands who get signed some majors are the ones who are aiming for that they are saying we are going to write all of the songs we're going to rehearse all of the time we are going to be hardcore and prevalent on social media growing that audience we are going to hustle hustle hustle that becomes a business it's not a few hours in the evening it's pretty much 9:00 till 5:00 or if not 9:00 till 9:00 and even if you are working full time it's all of the other time effectively rule number one if you see what happens nothing happens you have to make this happen let's think about if this was actually a business so let's say you weren't a musician you were a an ice cream seller you sell the best ice creams in town fantastic but there's so much more to this you still gonna have the branding the marketing the advertising you've got to get people aware of it you've got to do all of the other stuff outside of just making great ice cream so therefore that's the bit that we need to put into your music career no not making great ice cream but all of the rest of the stuff to take this seriously number two songs major labels invest money they need hits it is as simple as that they need that return of investment so therefore you have to write songs obviously you need to write songs for your single for your EP or for your album but long gone are the days where you write a song and you put it out now you are going to have to hundreds of songs it's not just a case of let's scrape together our songs to make an album it's a case of another one and another one and another one and another one your job is now all about the music so therefore you have to practice you have to experiment you have to co-write you have to rewrite anything you can do to say I need to make a better song and if you are there right now saying I've got all of the songs I am now sorted then fantastic you or them for most people they have songs that they say that's such a killer song and then if you say are you gonna put all of them out of singles most people say maybe not that as a singer it's a really good album track so you need to be writing and writing and writing but you certainly need a couple of hits because otherwise those major labels they won't be interested tip number three get your together now because when you get signed and the music come out there is no more music for you because at which point you will be going into promo you'll be going to marketing and that stuff takes a lot of time and that's what happens you set yourself up and if you're signing to a major label they're gonna want a lot of promotion to get that return of investment so an example of this is when we set up BIM I wanted to be a music teacher that's what I loved I loved teaching music and helping musicians but of course as it grew I found myself in meetings with accountants and marketing meetings and I hated that stuff it wasn't what I wanted to do but that is what happens when you've got that return of investment so the takeaway for this is you need to learn about promotion you need to learn about marketing you need to learn about anything advertising now because when this happens you will be involved in that you can't just pass it across because if you do you probably will find something will go wrong or you'll be completely ripped off tip number four who is the leader now music labels will sign good music but they want it to be attached to someone who stands for something that is a leader not just a leader of that music and that band but a leader of people and that is why they stand for something bringing in a label means you are bringing in financial support you bringing in experience but you're not bringing in leadership when it comes to that music and that product that needs to be you in fact it has to be you and a label is not going to assign someone who isn't a leader this is your army and your face so the take away for this one is what would you do if you got signed to a major label if you are signed and you had a hundred grand or 200,000 or 300,000 who are you gonna work with what producers are you gonna work with what Studios do you want to go in and why all of these questions you need to know this because otherwise you're going to be in the same mentality and you're getting some investment so you can fast-track this you can work with the best people you need to know who are the best people in your genre tip number five touring and gigging still works now music doesn't sell physically anymore so there has to be a return of investment and that comes down to things like possibly sync deals merch and of course live show tickets that's where a big bulk of money is right now and labels will not want to lose that income in fact they'll be very wary of you if they are going into a deal where they don't get that income and if they don't you need to basically make sure that you're making up somewhere else touring and gigging is not just where you're going to make money but it's where you're going to make a statement so the takeaway for this is you are now not just gigging so that you can build an audience you are gigging to practice to get better so that every time you're doing a show when you're put on to the next level up you are keeping people entertained you're making sure people come back to your shows time and time again this is just as much about improvement to number six make yourself remarkable think about your art think about what you look like at the moment do you stand out are you unique there's many reasons for this but if you are not remarkable it is very hard to take control of something and build if you just are what is normal and everyday and that's your selling point it's very very difficult to sell you are a leader of movement your demographic has bought into you for a certain reason you have to stand up and say this is who I am this is who I stand for this is what I do and people have to say yes I am with you I get that I agree you are what I want to fit in with that tribe so which case you have to be remarkable you have to make content or music which is remarkable and that remarkable just needs to be a bit edgy it needs to be something that hasn't been done before and is a bit unique the other thing with being remarkable is if you look and are generally a bit unique and remarkable your content in your social media is so much easier if you think about someone like Marilyn Manson and then you think about someone like me who's gonna have the better social media when it comes to the general day today it's probably Marilyn Manson isn't it he looks like an absolute loony so he can do pretty much anything he wants and it's gonna look pretty decent whereas I've got to really think about what it is that I'm doing because I look like normal everyday day male number seven is engagement and I'm gonna say numbers because I think it's a different game but record labels are going to invest in you because they want to inflate it they want to take something and they wanna put steroids into it and they want to maximize it they are going to know whether this will work because they are going to be any engagement they're going to be in your comments they're going to be seeing what is working and what is not so all very well having lots of numbers attached to your Instagram but who cares who actually enjoys this what is actually going on those are the numbers that really matter and they really matter tip number eight what is your story or more important what do you stand for if a major label is gonna invest in you it helps to have a story because that makes you more marketable so put it another way who do you represent when it comes to your demographic who other people are in your tribe are going to put their hand up and say that is what I'm looking for I am following you for the music as well as for what you stand for you represent me that comes to your story so what is it when it comes to your market there's this idea that having niche music or being in a niche band will never get you signed to a major label which is not strictly true in fact it's complete rubbish what gets you signed to a major label is when they can see that this is going to work there is return of investment I put in this money I get this back obviously with a niche band or niche music it makes it a bigger gamble but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened it's happened many many times for major labels to sign very heavy bands they just need to see that proof first number 9 creating a buzz I would say this is probably the most important thing in the lead up to get inside I know it absolutely was for me when we got signed we just had a buzzer bass and even we were thinking this is very exciting and by creating a buzz what I mean is everyone starts to talk about you now there's a few ways that you can do this but I have a few ideas for you to really drive home this exclusivity and that's what this is about if you can make something feel more exclusive then what happens is people feel like they're they're having to work for it they feel like they're accepted and they're in the club and that drives this forward so a couple of ideas on how you can build that buzz and build that exclusivity is when you're playing a gig play a venue which is too small for the amount of people that you know that you can get in there I know that's a crazy idea but let's just say you can get 50 60 70 people down to that venue we'll hire a venue that only holds 25 or 30 so that way you sell out because that's what this is about people are outside trying to get in I've seen that so many times the people who are outside will spread that word faster than the people who are inside they are pissed off because they can't get in they're not in the know they're not in the crowd they're not seeing the thing that these people are witnessing and they will go away pissed off but you better believe the next time you will have twice as many people there in creating the exclusivity you are creating the FOMO you missed out man that's your problem you're the dumb who missed that you better believe they will not miss out again and neither will the people they know and number 10 and lastly but certainly no means least ly even though that's not a word is it's not about having a reason to get signed that is the biggest mistake in getting signed to a major label it is about having no reason whatsoever why you wouldn't get signed so if your bass player doesn't quite fit in there's a reason why you wouldn't get signed if you can't put out songs as much as you want probably have to wait for a couple of months it's a reason why you wouldn't get signed if you're just not very good at this social media thing it's a reason why you won't get signed you have to go through every single detail in anything which will stop you from getting signed will stop you from getting signed you have to look at the massive bands that around the world and say there's no reason this is a band that was going to make it with or without a major label at any time that's the case a major label will say if they're going to make it with or without us it should probably be with us so those are a bunch of ideas if you want to set yourself up to get signed to a major label but more important this shouldn't be about signing to major labels and before everyone goes in the comments going you don't want to sign into a major label yes fine I don't care about that what I care about is good practice and everything in this list is about good practice because this means you're improving you're learning you're providing value and if you're getting better then you'll be getting a bigger audience if you're getting a bigger audience than this goes round and round and round and that is how you can grow to play better venues and eventually monetize your art so guys thank you so much for watching but before you go I have got a favor I know that over 65% of you guys don't subscribe to this channel and I'm on a mission to get to 100k I'm on like 80 mm and I'm really really keen to get there as quick as possible so if I can ask you a massive massive favor you can just hit that subscribe button and that like button it'll make a massive massive deal to me so thank you so much for doing that otherwise stay safe and I will see you guys tomorrow

Channel: Damian Keyes

Views: 43,171

Rating: 4.9561987 out of 5

Keywords: damian keyes, damo keyes, how to get signed to a major record label, how to get signed, sign to a record label, how to sign to a label, what record labels are looking for, how to get signed 2020, music industry advice, music marketing, music marketing 101, music marketing 2020, how to get signed to any record label, adam ivy, burstimo, how to get signed to an indie label, what are labels looking for, how to release music, get a record deal now, how to get a record deal in 2020

Id: r-zyjMhuG6U

Length: 15min 22sec (922 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020