According to this source. 75% of indie artist seeks a label deal. Are you one of them? If yes, then this tutorial will increase your chances on how to get signed to a record label and start to make money with your music.
As a warning, it really takes a lot of hard work, dedication and commitment to get signed to a record label. You need to establish a strong foundation and reputation as a recording artist, which is often very hard and takes a lot of time.
This is how you do this (there is no shortcut and there is no luck factor involved):
Climbing stairs of success
Step1.) Write great songs. Of course, you might argue songwriting talent is not needed but it is. A lot of recording labels today are cutting music publishing cost and they are signing artist that write songs for themselves so that they can negotiate a much lower mechanical licensing fees for each song. If you have a lot of great songs, then you have secured the step 1. Go to step 2.
However, the problem on this step is that a lot of wannabes artist believes their song is great when in fact it’s not. Try to get an honest opinion from the wide variety of sources about your song. Make sure they are not your mama, papa, friend or brother because they do not tell the truth. Give it to a real music critic, someone who is unrelated to you so that you can receive honest opinion about your music. Do not proceed to step 2 and the rest of the steps if you are not sure you have “lots” of quality songs.
You can read this very useful guide on 6 most proven hit songwriting tips.
Step2.) Can you sing “really” well? This is where most of the debate is. A lot of artists today particularly the mainstream “pop” scene are not really brilliant singers. Well it’s not an excuse, to be a great artist you should still be able to sing really well. Forget about that crappy artist that gets signed with their poor singing skills, they do not last long. If you want to make a living in music, aim for a long term success; not just a 2 year success span, 5 year success span. Think of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson they have careers that span over the lifetime and their songs are still played today. They are your role models as a recording artist.
Again the problem is that only few can sing really well. And the recording label is very selective about your voice quality particularly if you are aiming for a more “vocal” focused genre such as country and ballads. Get honest opinion about your raw singing skills; join a lot of singing contest. If you cannot win “first place” even “once”; you might not have great/quality voices that can compete and makes your label proud – its time to think another career NOT in the music business.