Music Funding 101
Getting Signed
Every artist and band, without exception, has thought about what they would do if they were ever to be signed to a "major label." Most of you reading this are probably trying to figure out if (or how) music funding and a major-label signing can somehow both happen. Well, the real purpose of TalentFunding.com is for a band to build their own label, and for a sponsor to build their own awareness, thereby bypassing the need to be signed by (or even partner with) any larger entity. After all, a label basically just does the marketing for the band. I do understand, however, that there will still be those bands and sponsors that want to be signed to some larger group, whether it is a record label, a management company, or something else. So here is how to use sponsorship money for that:
The two main points to remember when trying to attract the attention of a larger entity is 1) the band needs to be visible in the "trade" magazines that the larger entities read, and 2) the band needs to have already paid for some of the marketing costs that the larger entity would need to pay, if the larger entity were to "sign" the band.
The first point stems from the fact that most music business people are in particular larger cities, which usually are not the same cities where the band lives. So whatever the band does, the results need to be suitable for the trade magazines to want to print. Larger labels and management companies read these trades daily, and if the band's name shows up in them, at the very least the name will be building up awareness (although, the band and sponsor should never expect to get phone calls because of it.)
Point number two makes a very strong case for finding music marketing money in the first place. Marketing is by far the most expensive part of the music business (as it is with the soda pop and perfume business) and if a band can show a label that big chunks of the marketing costs have already been taken care of, then the label can just erase those costs off the balance sheet. If enough of the marketing costs have been taken care of, then the risk to the label becomes almost zero.
To get signed however, the band needs to spend the marketing money in a vastly different way from what the majority of these TalentFunding.com articles cover. The process becomes more complex, and it requires more experience when setting up and executing this kind of marketing plan (even though the amount of money spent may be the same). The main difference is that you need to work more media, nationally, and you need to do it with less focus on the sponsor, and you do this with less (if any) local performances. This may certainly not sit well with a typical sponsor, unless that sponsor has the specific goal of wanting to be associated with the creation of a national music star on a label. The sponsor who does indeed want the band to be signed to a larger entity will be doing so because he wants to be associated with a band that could be really well known. But the sponsor also understands that the responsibility of such an undertaking falls into the hands of the larger entity, meaning that no guarantees can be given by that entity.
Aside from one other TalentFunding.com article which gives some examples of the costs of marketing campaigns designed to attract label attention, further details will have to be found in the extensive articles in our Radio-Media.com site. Those articles and campaign examples are not designed to give a sponsor any exposure, but the information there can be combined with what you learn here, so as to be able to build a campaign that attracts label attention while at the same time giving a certain amount of awareness to the sponsor.
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