I have noticed quite a lot of confusion of how to actually go about releasing your own music these days. I have also noticed a lot of confusion on how to start your own record label too. I have recently done both after many countless hours of hard work and tears. To me music is a passion and starting an independent record label was my main priority in life and something that I could not just let go of. It was something I had to peruse in order to feel that I've at least given it a shot in life.

Depending on what your intentions are as a musician, actually releasing your music is not something that's that hard at all! I admit that starting a record label can be hard work, but the hard work is worth it if you can have the mindset in place of doing it for the love of your music and passion, rather than to simply make money out of it. By releasing your own music you will eventually gain exposure to a worldwide audience and be able to reach out to the people who will also enjoy your music just as much as you did making it.

I have many friends who enjoy making music like I do. My friend is a guitarist and singer and good at it too. He always used to say to me "oh I'd get an album finished but what's the point, no one will ever hear it, blah blah blah". Then I say to him why don't you get an album done to the best you can and try sending that out, he replies "there's too much competition blah blah blah". Maybe in a sense it's true, but with the change in the music industry and the tools we have at hand on the Internet these days it has merely made releasing your very own music the way forward! There is no reason that you can't release your own music today. You do not need to be signed to a record label in order to do so but so many of us are unaware of this. Some of us know that it's possible to approach iTunes independently to release our music, but there's so many more digital download stores out there on the Internet to push your music out to even though iTunes is accountable for probably around 70% of all downloads. This is where the music distributors come into the picture. You can get your music distributed to a large number of stores worldwide by using the correct distributors that are available to us online.

The new digital age and the Internet have made it possible for people like me, my friend, and most of all you, a chance to release our own music worldwide independently. Best of all it has made it possible to release your own music without actually being signed to a record label. Only until recently I never released how this was even possible. My friend didn't even realize how this was even possible. We can now use online music distributors to release our music and cut out all the middlemen. There are many music distributors available on the internet that are all very good to use, many of which will work in a different principle on how they take their cut from your music releases. Some of these music distributors will just take a one off yearly payment and charge you a fee per song you upload for release, whilst others may want a 15-20% share from every release sold online through them as well as a small distribution cost from every release depending on how many download stores you want to distribute your song to. Many of these distributors offer good customer service, as well as the necessary ISRC codes that will identify your song and make it chart eligible. Most of these distributors even have online software in which you release your songs with, along with online tutorial videos on how to release your music with the software to make the process much easier such as music distributor Rebeat for example.

My favorite distributors are a German based distribution company called Feiyr. I mainly use them for my record label releases as they have great software imbedded into their online website which makes it great for releasing tracks for my record label. They also have a large list of digital distribution stores that they use to distribute your music too, as well as a large popular amount of record labels using their services.

If your thinking of starting a record label then it is not easy I'll be honest. I never imagined it being easy either and as frustrating as it has been for me, I haven't given up either. It could have been a lot easier if there were more information that I managed to find available online, but I never found it unfortunately. It has been one big trial and error mission for me, but the mistakes pay off in the long run. Any articles I found on the subject were never continued or about a page long. The best way that I found to learn was to just chuck myself into the deep end and get on with it. As soon as you start using your first Music distributor to release your music and see your first release, everything will start to fit into place nicely. If you can use a computer and are familiar with the Internet which I'm sure you are, then you have no excuses not to get started now. It seems that perseverance is your best friend, so please remember that and don't give up. Once you hit that brick wall you must keep going. Countless times we have all felt like throwing in the towel and giving up, but remember that's just the easy way out, that's because it's true! If you have read this far then you will be as determined, if not more determined than me with a fire in your heart to succeed. You want to start a record label or you want to release your own music. You want to test the waters with yours and others music and there is no better opportunity than to start today. You at least owe it to yourself! Today's digital age and the Internet have made it possible for you to do just that, so no more excuses!

Expect failure along the way and take it with open arms, as you'll soon be one step closer to reaching your goals!

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you get your music out there!

Kenny Reid is the founder of independent dance music record label Jackalfunk and creator of the howtoreleasemusic.com website. He produces music under the artist name Ansola and other pseudonyms. For some helpful beginners advice on how to start a record label or how to release music, then be sure to visit the website.

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