How To Get A Record Deal

How To Get A Record Deal

Let's face it, what young wannabe recording artist hasn't dream of
having the lifestyle of a major recording artists between the luxurious
cars, fancy homes, blinged out jewelry, major city tours, A-list
parties, groupies, endorsements, and the opportunity to have enough
wealth to take care of family and close friends? Which all lead to the
recognition that allows you to sign autographs, skip lines and get
ushered straight thru to VIP sections with bottles of your favorite
drinks sitting in buckets of ice with enough glasses to imply that you
came to party with friends and maybe make a few new ones.

The dream of living this lifestyle usually comes with a major label
recording contract giving you a large sum of money at the start with
promise of unfounded riches later providing you can appeal to enough
people (millions) that will spend their money to hear what you have to
say.

Well the days of those deals have come and gone, at least that's the way
it seems. Years ago, 1 out of every 50 rappers could get a deal like
that, unfortunately, in today's market those numbers have changed to 1
out of every 500 rappers.

The Internet has changed the game, robbing record labels of billions of
dollars in sales.  These days, people download more free music then they
purchase. Think about the last time you walked into a record store to
buy an album or single from your favorite artist. This reality has
forced major labels to reconsider what they're willing/able to give new
artists who don't have existing record sales numbers to indicate a large
enough fan base to support major contract offers.

So what's an artist to do? Well the first thing is to change your
approach at achieving those previously mentioned dreams. Learn how to
use the Internet to your advantage.  Become a direct receiver of the
monetary gains your precious commodity and or talent can attract. The
unpopular truth is you can make more money selling less albums/singles
as an independent artist versus signing with a major label. However,
BET, MTV, and VH1 won't enlighten you with these facts, because it
doesn't fatten their pockets.

A few questions I'll leave for you to debate/discuss:
1.  What does today's recording artist have to do to make it to the top?
2.  If your son or daughter blurts out at the dinner table " Mom, Dad I
wanna be a rapper" what will you say?
3.  How will you convince them one way or the other?