One of my life long goals is to start a music label...Might be a pipe dream, but I think it is something I would like to try... Has anyone ever tried to produce a record?.. I'm not planning to make a million dollars.. just seems like a good hobby type thing.. I don't play music myself.. don't have many connections and not a ton of capital... any thoughts?

Seems like a bad idea to me.

Seems like it would be expensive, and it isn't like you have your own band or anything... you would have to hope to find a good band so you can even break even.

I assume that you probably don't know much about distribution, etc., so I don't think I'd mess with it.

Good luck to you if you do it though

A friend of mine did, I think he has like one or two bands signed, but I'm not sure how far along that has gone.

It's a cool idea, but I'm not sure if this is the best time to get into the music industry. Seems like the RIAA is trying to stamp out anything that can even be remotely considered as independent on the music scene, since that type of music will no doubt promote piracy, which is killing their business, and has nothing to do with their policy of constantly innundating the listener with crap.

But if you really want to, I'd try to find some local, unsigned bands in your area. Check out some shows, see who looks like they've got potential to sell. Starting a business is never easy, but if you know what you're doing you can pull it off.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of music would you want to promote?

probably Rap... Maybe not the best choice for a white Jew from Long Island, but it is what I enjoy

My best friend is currently doing just that. I have helped on the side with legal work. He has a more modest approach - finding and producing local bands from NY/DC/PA and then having a proper demo to shop to larger labels.

He's stated that the hardest thing above all is finding REAL talent. He's found that once you get a group, rock or rap, into a studio, you find out what live music often covers up - drummers who can't keep a beat, rappers whose lyrics make no sense, singers who really can't sing very well, etc. Just to put together five songs is often difficult.

You have to have a promoter involved. Someone has to hustle shows for you. You have to have distribution or no one hears the music.

Just talking to him and reading some of the documents I've seen what I would have been in for had I stuck with music instead of going to law school. It's very very very hard.

I'm not sure what real advice I can give you, but what seems to work for him is to have dedicated people - meaning someone to handle distibution, someone to promote, someone to find talent, someone to produce, etc. Get some solid equipment - be prepared to sink about 20K into recording equipment. Be prepared to play for nothing just to get the music heard.

The best advice I can give you - this is NOT a side project. This is a 25 (stated correctly) hour a day job. You can't do this in your free time.

To start - check out local competitions and approach people with a professional business card. Know the language and be able to converse. My friend found a real talented kid at lunchtime of a school! Find out where the local rehearsal space is and stalk it. Network, network....you get the picture.

Good luck.

I got one. www.scam-o-rama.com

It's hard. Get a partner. Read some books. Start with "Think And Grow Rich" and "Laws Of Success" by Napolean Hill. Read books on the music business. ("Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business"? Can't remember the name. There's a few of them out there). There are tons of fanzines out there that interview record label people. Depending on what type of music you're into, get those fanzines and start learning from other people's mistakes and see how they did it.

Keep putting out product. Once you stop, the public (and your distributers) are going to forget about you.

If I was to do it again, I would've gotten a partner. Also would have tried to do it on someone else's money. I would've maybe tried start a subsidiary for a major label. At least you'd be guaranteed distribution.

Anyone can press up CDs. You have to make sure you can get them out there to sell.

Times are changing though. Record labels may be on their way out, thanks to the Internet.

Hey, it worked for the Beastie Boys.

the 2 women founders of the Simple Machines label put out a FREE downloadable manual on everything they have learned in 10 years. Do a search and print it out.