In our modern world, it is becoming easier to build your music career and release your music independently, without the backing of a label. And many artists find this amazing. However, like almost anything in our lives, releasing music all by yourself is also coming with its cons and pros.

MusicPromoToday highlights for you some of the major factors that you better consider before you decide to self-release your music.

Let’s take a deeper dive into each category:

The Pros of Self-Releasing

You Own Your Music:
 This means no expensive lawyers, no perplexing contracts, no signing over your own music, and your approach to your art in general. This way you are avoiding the possibility of getting yourself in a bad deal and you are the only one who owns the rights to your music – you decide how your music is used, when and where it is used, the prices and all kinds of stuff like that.

You Eat The Whole Pie:
Sometimes, when you are working with labels you are the last on the list in terms of pay. That is easy to understand but very hard to accept. Every person in your team working for your music to become more popular is getting a cut. That is why, when you are doing it all by yourself you are not sharing your profit with others.

You Dictate The Rules:  All labels on this planet, no matter how artist-friendly or significant they are, become incredibly demanding when it comes to the project that they are willing to work on with you. There are always conflicts between the artist and the label – you want your music to sound like this, and the label wants it to sound like that. Depending on what is written in the contract you have signed, in the majority of cases, the label will win. When you’re putting out your music all by yourself, none of these may happen to you. You will do everything from the release dates to the touring.


The Cons of Self-Releasing Music


The Financial Burden Is All Yours:
One of the main reasons that artists want to deal with a record label is because it is a known fact that there is money behind each release. Very often, even a small indie label is taking the costs associated with releasing a record or PR, and pressing on its shoulders. However, in case you are releasing your music all by yourself then you are going to foot the bill.  Also, labels have established connections with PR companies, which is good because they can significantly reduce the rates.


Stack of Contacts You Don’t Have:  Labels always have their list of contacts who help them promote their releases—media, promoters, agents, and so on. Sure, you have to start somewhere to get your own list of connections, and if you keep plugging away at self-releasing your music, you’ll have your network of connections soon enough. However, not having those contacts in your hands from the outset will make your self-releasing process even harder.



You Won’t Have Time: Releasing and promoting music can be way too time-consuming. It’s a full-time job that requires all of your time and attention. Arranging press, promoting your album, keeping track of sales, booking shows – all of these will take away all your time so you won’t be concentrating on your music thus, you won’t be having anything fresh to follow up with because you’ve been consumed with the business side of things.

In case you liked the article and would like to get more information about music promoting and PR, stay tuned to MusicPromoToday for more.