Bryan: As I started doing consulting work for independent record labels, I started realizing that a lot of the questions were the same over and over. So, part – again out of necessity, I started putting together some of the things that were, that would answer, that would speak to the questions that people had, consistently, especially small companies. And it all developed into a toolbox, and so it’s a set of tools that record labels can use to manage their infrastructure, manage their employees, manage their releases. So it’s things like a template designed specifically for writing your marketing plan, specifically for a record, a template for writing your business plan for a record label, specific. Of course there are millions of business plan templates out there, but something that’s very specific to a record company. Template for creating your one sheet. How do you present yourself as a label to a distributor? People don’t know what to do, so it outlines all the things that you need to include in your package when you’re presenting yourself to a distributor. How do you create your sales projections?
Jay: Advice from a general perspective, what type of entity should you choose when you form your label? What type of deals might you, in turn to, either from a distribution perspective or as a label or artist? So there are a couple of informational points provided there along with data input type forms that the clients can use to help to structure their label.
Bryan: Absolutely. And, you know, and to add on to what Jay was saying in terms of information, just basic things that a lot of people, you know – because I’ve worked in the industry, I used to take for granted that everybody knew how to register your product with BDS. People don’t know how to do that. So what I did was also put together all the information on how do you register your product with BDS and Media Base and R and R and Sound Scan and Street Pulse and Media Guide and how do you get your UPC code? All those things are together.
One of the other – one of the huge problems that labels have, even the big labels, is maintaining accountability over the people that they employ or the consultants that they hire. So I put together some very specific reports that we use for radio reps and street reps and retail marketing people that are designed so that when they fill those reports out, you’re able to get the information that you really need from them and maintain that accountability. So it’s a set of a lot of tools that you need on a daily basis to manage your company. And again, Jay, as an attorney, has some real specific knowledge about some portions of it. I had some specific knowledge, and again, between myself and Jay, we went out and talked to our friends and got information that we needed so that we were able to answer all the questions. So when you are running your company, these tools are the kind of things that you will use on a daily basis.
And in addition to those kinds of tools, we also have a set of resources. So it’s a list of, I think it’s about 15 pages, of various like technology providers and websites that help Indy labels that are other tools that you can use for marketing online and monitoring and you know, just, you know, whatever you need as an independent record company. Trade associations, various conferences, there’s a detailed list of all the music conferences that take place around the country and even some internationally so that you can then go out and seek out additional information on your own.
It’s a digital download. You just go to the website, put in your credit card number, and it’s, essentially it’s an electronic book, but instead of being – but it’s dynamic, because there are tools that you’re gonna – it’s not just, you know, PDF where it’s gonna – or read only documents, but there are all of these templates. There are forms and reports that you’re able to use again and again for each of your projects. There’s – another one of the important tools is a release schedule checklist, so when you pick your release date, what are the things leading up the release of your record, for the 18 weeks prior to that release date. People don’t realize – you know, everybody gets caught up in, “Oh we’re gonna shoot a video” or something, but when are you gonna ship your POP to the field staff, and when are you gonna book your co-op advertising, and when do you have to ship your product to the distribution center? Those are the kind of issues that if you don’t address, you record’s not coming out. So a lot of small companies don’t realize what a lot of those things are, so we just laid it out for them.
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