How I started a Record Label from scratch
And did it completely wrong (but it worked)
This is the story of how I started my own record label, from the ground up to signing my first artist, and navigating the first year of releasing music.
Part 1: Why did I even start a record label?
I was just a producer uploading beats online hoping the right artist would find them.
Helping artists succeed, building a catalog and having a community around the thing I loved doing the most wasn’t a priority for me, beat sales and producer credits in songs with streaming numbers in Spotify was all I needed.
I understood copyright in the most basic way, the kind where BeatStars sends the license automatically to the customer after their beat purchase.
I still remember being 19 years old, making beats in my grandparents’ apartment on $10 headphones and a $150 junk PC.
Only one very specific goal was on my mind back then: to sell a single beat.
It took five months of posting every day, messaging artists, and hearing nothing back.
Then it happened.
I sold my first beat lease for and it felt surreal. I don’t think anything has ever beaten that feeling to this day.
Everyone around me doubted what I was trying to do.
That $20.00 beat sale (as insignificant as it might seem) meant a lot to me: it gave me proof that it was possible.
and after awhile.. it kinda worked.
I got my first placement that reached 1 million+ streams (Until UMG noticed I used their sample and took all the royalties, but that’s a whole different story)
Beat sales were steady
Other songs I produced started getting traction as well:
Produced this song back in 2020, currently sitting at 2,300,000 streams at the time of writing this.
On paper, it looked like I was winning, and the 19 year old version of me would have been proud to see how far it had gone.
But the current version of me wasn’t satisfied.
Most of the time, I never saw anything beyond that initial beat sale, I had no idea when the songs are dropping, and if I’m being honest, many of the relationships with these artists felt distant.
I was
Chasing payments
Requesting songs be taken down over uncleared beats
Watching publishing royalties come in that barely reflected the stream count
Once the beat was delivered and used for a song, that was it. I had no leverage beyond that single transaction and nothing to show for it besides a producer credit.
Selling beats online just didn’t cut it anymore.
I wanted to create real relationships with the artists I worked with.
I wanted to help artists move forward
I wanted to build something meaningful and structured
I wanted control.
Because without that control, I was just participating in other people’s moments.
Part 2: The obstacles of starting a record label
Realizing I wanted to do more than just make beats was the turning point for me.
That’s when the idea of my own record label, a place where I could sign artists and work with them personally started to make sense.
The only issue was that I had no connections, no experience and no idea how a record deal even worked. In my head running a record company was only for people in suits, with legal teams, lawyers, and massive budgets.
Even at the start, it felt like a reach.
Is there anything else I can offer an artist to sign with me beyond the beats?
I had to be realistic. I couldn’t walk up to an artist who had established his presence online, built his audience and tell them I was starting a label. I had no strategy, no systems set up and no experience running a label.
That’s when I started looking at the artists who were using my beats, but weren’t quite there yet. The artists with no idea on how to turn a good song into more than a YouTube upload. The type of artist throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping something sticks. And me? I was just the guy selling them the pasta.
That’s when it clicked: These were the artists I could sign, we both had nothing to lose.
I couldn’t offer an artist a huge advance and to be featured on playlists, but I could offer myself as a producer who was actually invested and not just someone waiting for a beat lease to clear.
After my intentions were clear, more questions started appearing:
How do you even get to the point where you’re ready to sign your first artist?
I could only list the things I was missing:
I had no recording agreements
No company formed
No structure
No software to run my day to day operations
I was already aware of advice like “get a lawyer, an accountant and stay compliant” but I needed something more specific to help me launch my label.
I needed a step by step guide and a system to help me get there.
That’s when I found the 60 Day Record Label (I’m not affiliated or promoting them).
Thanks to the course I managed to learn how to:
Setup an LLC, get the EIN and banking for my record label
Begin to understand how record deals work
Setup my own publishing company to collect publishing royalties
Understand the software needed to successfully run the label operations
Operate like an actual record label and be accountable to the artists I sign
And of course, I’m skipping over a lot of details, and there was a lot of information I had to find outside of the course.
For example, I had to find how to account for artist royalties and splits using Infinite Catalog Newsletter, which I’m very happy with choosing to this day.
Running a label can be complicated and different for everyone. So I can’t give any general advice or how to set it up.
After months of building the foundation, researching and correcting mistakes, I was finally ready to sign my first artist.
Part 3: Signing the first record deal
And so it happened… We officially signed our first record deal with Gstone_sa.
He had 3 monthly listeners on Spotify, and I had just finished setting up the record company. From the outside, it looked insignificant.
But to me, it felt special.
He had been using my beats for years. And he became the first artist to trust me enough to actually sign a recording agreement under my label.
It wasn’t about the numbers, it was about the fact that he gave it a chance.
That was the moment the label stopped being an idea and became something real.
The deal
I offered to cover the cost of an entertainment attorney to review the contract with him because I didn’t want confusion later.
He ultimately decided he didn’t need it, but the option was there.
There was no rush.
To put it simply, it was a 360 deal with a 10-20 track album commitment and 5 additional single releases.
One could argue that these types of deals are unfair by default, but I think the context matters here.
At the time there were:
No customers
No revenue
No audience
I was taking a gamble on this artist.
There was, however:
A good advance, more money than he had ever earned from music before
Clearly defined obligations for both the artist and label
Someone willing to invest in him.
For him, it was proof that his music is worth much more than what Spotify says.
The goal was clearly defined
It was simple:
~10,000 monthly listeners on Spotify
At least 50% of the advance and expenses recouped within the first year
You might ask:
Why 10,000 monthly listeners?
I never really cared about vanity metrics, the number itself was symbolic and it was more about boosting the artist’s confidence. As much as I disliked the “monthly listeners” metric, I knew the artist cared about it.
The number seemed like a lot, but now that I think about it, it’s totally irrelevant to how much impact an artist can have.
Why 50% of the advance and expenses recouped within the first year?
Knowing that streaming pays fractions of a penny per stream and that the artist has no track record, it actually felt ambitious.
Now that I’m looking back I should have probably aimed higher.
If we could get him to that point, then that means we were doing something right.
I wasn’t chasing a quick flip or TikTok virality, but rather investing for the long term.
Because I had been producing music for years now, I could understand a few things that most people who are just getting started overlook:
Music is intellectual property
Intellectual property appreciates over time and needs to be managed
Opportunities stack
When I was just getting started with making beats, I was really frustrated when I would send out beats and they didn’t sell immediately.
I thought to myself:
The beat either does well in the first week and if it doesn’t do anything then it’s over and nothing will happen with it.
I was completely wrong about how I thought about my beat catalog.
Recording artists are still finding beats that were posted from 5-6 years ago on my YouTube channel and purchasing them
The songs I produced are still getting plays
People still listen to music from the 80s and songs that are 40 years old are still getting placed in movies and shows (think Stranger Things and Kate Bush).
Music has no expiration date.
Part 4: Gstone, we’ve got work to do
So it began.
I made the beats and he recorded the songs.
It took us 4 months to get the album completed. We also finished the singles at different stages throughout the contract period.
Everything went better than expected. No arguments, deadlines were met, and we both knew what to expect from each other.
We were just trying to make the best music possible.
That felt like the easy part.
Now we were ready for the next step, to create the content and figure out a release strategy.
At this point I had no data and no choice but to speculate on what could work.
So we followed the playbook:
Music videos
Photoshoots
Short form content for TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels
Playlist and radio pitching
Everything you’re told you’re supposed to do.
After all, that’s how everyone does it…. right?
We decided to start with the music videos and tried to pick the strongest records, the ones with the biggest potential.
Videographers were hired, locations were booked and we even brought in a model to appear alongside the artist in the videos.
Up until this point everything looked great.
The music video contracts were signed and the content shoot schedule was finalized.
But the moment the actual work started, things became a lot more complicated.
Unexpected expenses
Schedules clashing
Last minute changes just hours before shooting
It turns out getting a bunch of people together for a music video shoot would be far more complicated than it seemed.
Surprisingly, we somehow managed to make it work.
Over time, the music videos were completed, the photoshoots were finished, and the social media content was edited and ready.
Eventually, we had:
Releases scheduled across all digital platforms
Music videos locked in
Content prepared for social media
Email campaigns drafted
Playlist pitches prepared for DSPs and independent curators
Pre-save links
Eight months of work and most of the budget was gone.
Everything was lined up and scheduled.
We were ready.
Part 5: The Launch
Now that we had put in the work, it was time to see what all of our efforts combined would lead up to. I was excited and had trouble keeping my expectations low.
At least it felt like we were headed somewhere.
The first single release
Weeks before the first single release, we started the pre-release campaign.
Social media posts and short videos
Pre-save links
Email list campaigns.
At the same time, we pitched to every playlist and DSP we could find.
Then, the single was officially live on all streaming platforms.
Content kept coming out
Email campaigns went out
Then, the music video dropped:
We kept promoting it and not much happened.
The music video didn’t have a massive budget and the content was okay.
The single results?
We managed to convert a few people into listeners.
But compared to the time, effort, coordination, and money it took to execute the release… It felt underwhelming.
A couple thousand streams and around 20,000 views across all social media.
The streaming revenue and sales were meaningless, but that was to be expected.
I was in this for the long-term and viewed it mostly as a test to see what could work.
At this point, I didn’t see a reason to keep pushing the single.
We had a full length album coming.
More music and more content.
The album release
Then came the real test, and this time, we went all in.
20 track album
20 lyric videos
2 official music videos
5 fan pages pushing over 1,200 luxury-style edit videos across social platforms
Professional photoshoots
200+ short-form videos from the artist
Email campaigns
Playlist pitching
Radio submissions
This was where I put most of the budget and most of my expectations.
And I expected strong results.
Even before the album dropped, we wanted to build hype around it.
Content was rolling out consistently
Snippets
Teasers
We pushed hard for pre-saves. Not much was achieved until this point.
Then, the album went live.
Along with it came the alternate versions, each having 20 tracks:
We dropped the first music video.
And the second.
During all of this, me, the artist and the content schedule kept working non-stop.
Five fan pages were posting 10–15 luxury-style edits per day across social media.
Email campaigns were blasting to my mailing list.
Social media posts
Stories
Radio submissions
Playlist submissions
I needed to prove to both myself and the artist that we could do this.
We kept this going for months and eventually it was time to look at the results.
The album results on streaming?
To say I was disappointed would be a huge understatement.
Streaming revenue: ~$120
Total album streams across all platforms: ~200,000 (with most of them coming from the label’s SoundCloud page)
Monthly listeners on Spotify: ~150
Total views across the artist page, label page, and five fan pages: roughly 700,000
The 700,000 views across all social media pages sounded impressive, but in reality it converted to nothing.
We blew the budget on music videos, content, software and we had nothing to show for it.
No playlisting
No attention on social media
No radio
No people talking about the album
That’s when realized:
I was doing the same thing most independent artists were doing, just at a larger scale.
Throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something would stick.
It felt like a massive failure and it seemed like it was leading nowhere.
For the first time, I questioned whether any of it made sense.
For a couple of weeks, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like there no other options than to just drop the other singles and cut my losses early.
At this point I was exhausted, and out of ideas.
Then, one morning a simple question came to my mind:
What if I gave everything away?
The beat stems
The mixed acapellas
Every sound from the album
For free.
So instead of trying to gatekeep the music, what if I just uploaded it everywhere without expecting anything in return?
I didn’t know if it would work, but what I did know was that there was nothing to lose.
Part 6: Opening the vault
I had a new idea: an album sound pack.
As a producer, I had been browsing producer packs for years - sample packs, drum kits, vocals. I knew there was a ton out there.
But I had never seen an artist or label turn an entire album into a sound pack.
What if producers could use the actual sounds from the album in their own tracks?
What if they could explore how the music was built?
This was my last attempt at trying to revive the release before it became part of the back catalog.
So I compiled everything into one single digital product.
Track stems
Acapellas
Beats
Loops
MIDI files
Drum Kit
The Acapellas of the album were now online for anyone to download, for free.
I informed the artist about the plan, and he was sceptical at first.
After all, anyone would be able to download the acapellas and all sorts of remixes will start getting uploaded.
There was no quality control and the terms were such that anyone could drop on SoundCloud and YouTube.
From his perspective, it felt risky, but from mine, it felt necessary.
We had already tried everything else and the decision was ultimately up to me.
So, what happened after that?
At first, nothing.
Then the download notifications started coming in.
A few the first day.
A couple hundred the next week.
Then we started getting hundreds of downloads every day.
Within days, producers were tagging the artist in remixes and flooding his DMs.
The artist messaged me:
Bro, what’s going on? My DMs are going crazy on IG I got all these producers hitting me up.. 😭
I replied:
It worked, producers are downloading and using the vocals.
Some were hobbyists making remixes in their bedrooms and some were established producers working with other artists and labels.
And they weren’t just downloading.
They were creating brand new tracks using the vocals from the album.
Tracks started dropping on SoundCloud and YouTube.
Different genres, different styles and different audiences.
In a couple of months, the tracks reached 18,000 downloads.
Producers who found us through the free track downloads became customers.
Some bought other packs
Some bought services
Some built relationships with us
For the first time since the release, it felt like we were doing something right.
And the best part? Nothing was forced, it all felt organic.
We reached the goal, in the most unexpected way possible…
Remember the goal I had set in the beginning of this article?
10,000 monthly listeners
50% of the advances and expenses recouped
We actually did it.
DENRO, a producer who found us online, caught the attention of a European label, Chapter 8, with a remix using our vocal tracks.
I negotiated for Gstone to be featured as a main artist on the track and cleared the vocal track for the release. Their playlisting and connections helped him get beyond the 10,000 monthly listener count on Spotify.
And thanks to the sound packs and all the downloads, the relationships we built with producers translated into real, actual revenue.
It was definitely not the path I originally mapped out for reaching the goals. I thought streaming and social media would be our main driver, but it turns out I was wrong.
Final Thoughts
Looking back at our first year of releasing music, a few things became apparent to me.
Streams shoud probably not be the main goal
For most independent artist and labels, real money doesn’t come from Spotify. It comes from live performances, services, collaborations, direct-to-fan products, and real relationships. Streams can definitely help, but they rarely pay the expenses on their own. If I had understood that earlier, I would’ve approached the everything differently.
Don’t copy what everyone else is doing
We tried all the generic online advice.
Pre-saves
Playlist pitching
Social Media Campaigns
Music Videos
It took a lot of resources and effort, and when it didn’t work out, everything felt like a complete waste of time.
What actually worked was something specific to us.
I’m a producer, so instead of gatekeeping the album like a finished product, I turned it into raw material for other producers. That was our unfair advantage.
What works for you will be something very specific to you.
If you ever feel disappointed when it comes to releasing music, just know many other people (including me) go through this. Go and find whatever works best for you and build from there.
Also…
Don’t be afraid to try new things
The moment we opened up and let people create with the music, everything changed. We stopped trying to get attention and encouraged collaboration.
Producers didn’t just listen, they felt inspired and created new records with us. And that created a lot more value than any social media campaign could.
Giving away the stems felt counter-intuitive at some points. The artist was skeptical. But that one idea that came from desperation, ended up saving our record deal.
And that might be the biggest lesson of all:
Sometimes the win doesn’t come from doing the plan perfectly, it comes from being willing to change it fails.
Love this!