Label or distributor: which one an independent artist in India needs

Label or distributor: which one an independent artist in India needs

An independent artist asking which label to sign with is usually asking the wrong question first. Three kinds of company stand between a finished recording and Spotify, and only one of them is a label. The other two will take a finished master tomorrow. This guide sets the three side by side on the four things that matter: what they do, who owns the recording afterwards, how the money moves, and who decides.

What each one does

A distributor delivers. You give it the master, the artwork and the metadata, and it sends them to the streaming platforms, collects the money and pays you. It does not listen to the song first and it does not promote it. DistroKid, TuneCore and CD Baby are distributors.

An artist services company delivers and adds people. It pitches to playlists, plans the release, runs marketing and sometimes manages rights, for a percentage of the income. Believe describes its India arm as artist development services for independent artists and labels. The Orchard and Virgin Music Group work with labels and established artists and do not take unsolicited music.

A label chooses. It decides what it releases, often pays for or finishes the recording, releases it under the label's name, and takes a share of the income. In return the artist gets production, a mix and a master, artwork, a release page, sometimes a video, and a person whose job is the release. A label also carries an audience: people who follow the label's releases because of what the label has released before.

Who owns the master

The master is the recording itself, as distinct from the song. With a distributor the answer is simple: you own it, you always did, and the distributor only has permission to deliver it. TuneCore describes its artists as retaining all their rights for a flat annual fee. DistroKid says artists keep all their earnings.

With a label the answer depends on the deal and on who paid. A label that funds the recording usually owns the master, because it paid for it. A label that takes a finished recording usually licenses it for a term, after which the rights return to you. Some small labels say plainly that the artist keeps the copyright. Underscore Records in New Delhi, which releases Indian classical music, states on its site that the copyrights rest in most cases with the musicians who made the recordings.

Ask the question before anything else, and ask it in two parts. Who owns the master, and for how long. A licence with a term that ends is a different thing from an assignment that does not. Read the term, not the headline.

How the money moves

Distributors charge in three ways. A subscription costs the same whether you release one single or twelve, so it suits an artist who releases often. A one-time fee per release suits an artist with one song. A commission costs nothing up front and a share of everything later.

A label takes a share of the income instead of a fee, and the share is the price of everything the label put in. The percentage alone tells you little. A label that paid for the studio, the video and the campaign and takes half has spent more on your song than a distributor ever will. A label that took a finished master, pressed upload and takes half has not. Match the share to what was done.

Two other streams are the same on every route. The public performance of the song, as distinct from the recording, is collected by the Indian Performing Right Society for the composer and the lyricist, and no distributor or label registers you there. The singer's right as a performer is administered by a separate society. The IPRS guide covers both.

Who decides

With a distributor every decision is yours: the date, the artwork, the single, the order of the album. With artist services most decisions are still yours and the company advises. With a label the release is a joint decision at best, and the label's call on the things it paid for.

This is the trade. An artist who wants no one between the song and the listener wants a distributor. An artist who wants hands and an audience wants a label, and gives up some of the calls to get them.

When a small label is worth its share

For most pop, hip-hop and indie releases the honest answer in India today is a distributor first. The tools are cheap, the platforms are open, and an audience is built on Instagram and YouTube rather than by a label. A label becomes worth its share when it adds something you cannot buy. That means production you could not afford, a catalogue whose listeners already want your kind of music, or a name that gets a playlist editor to press play.

Ghazal, semi-classical and classical releases tip this balance. Their audience is specific and hard to reach by advertising, and a label that already releases that music has gathered exactly those listeners. The guide to independent labels for ghazal and semi-classical music lists the few whose own sites say they release it. BeatRootRaga, which publishes this site, is among them and states its own terms on its label page.

Questions to settle before you sign anything

• Who owns the master, and if it is licensed, for how many years.
• What share of streaming income goes to the artist, and whether that is before or after distribution fees.
• What the label is putting in: recording, mixing, mastering, video, artwork, promotion, and which of these are paid back from the artist's share.
• Whether the deal is exclusive, and for which territories and formats.
• Whether the composer and lyricist keep their publishing, or the label takes a share of that too.
• When royalty statements arrive and how payment is made.
• What happens to the recording when the term ends or the label closes.

A company that answers these in writing is one you can work with, whatever the answers are. A company that will not is telling you something too.