Monetizing music label - how?

[Weaxer]

Hello.

I am a part of an independent label for electronic music. We are growing rapidly and would like to start making some profit. It would be great if you could point us in the right direction. The releases we make don't really do much for us. We have a facebook page with 20k fans, a Twitter with 10k followers as well as an Instagram account with an engaged crowd. We are also planning to launch a new website (using Wordpress) real soon. The community is active and dedicated and we want to keep everything as professional as possible.

Thanks in advance.

 

[masteraffmarket]

this might be to simplistic but have you tried selling records?

 

[funkybunker]

If your fans are actually real, send them to your Youtube videos and monetize them with adsense.
As for your website, the obvious is selling downloads through iTunes, Amazon etc.
Since this is your Label and related to your Bands, you technically ARE the product.

 

[Weaxer]

this might be to simplistic but have you tried selling records?

Our music is sold digitally only. As the evolving EDM scene looks right now, phyiscal sales is not really a profitable option. We are looking to take advantage of our website/social networks.

If your fans are actually real, send them to your Youtube videos and monetize them with adsense.
As for your website, the obvious is selling downloads through iTunes, Amazon etc.
Since this is your Label and related to your Bands, you technically ARE the product.

We are already selling releases digitally as I mentioned before, via web music stores such as iTunes and Beatport. The income is just not good enough to keep the label alive with our current standing. We are in need of additional options. Adsense is being considered, however. Our fanbase consists of 100% legit fans/followers.

 

[bmills]

I also own a label and there is no money from sales, unless you are pumping out decent releases a week at which you might be making little money at the most. Make sure you find a good distributor that comes with a promotional package (ie symphonic distribution does I believe) and that you market, market, market! Post on every facebook group/page you can find without being too spammy.

The only way to make real money is from shows. Period. The first show you will lose money and that is almost guaranteed. However if you can pull in a following from that show, the next one you will hopefully break even, and so on. Also once you prove yourself by throwing good shows, people will come to you and ask how you booked some of your artists (which are hopefully on your roster). Here you can broker bookings (aka be a manager) which will make you the most money for the amount of work you have to do.

It's a long journey but definitely pays off at the end

 

[duzkerotzki]

Think about merchandise. the most money music labels make is not made by the music itself, but more by touring and merchandise.