dubstepforum.com

So...

(a) A financial plan needs to be drawn up, by people who have experience with the various aspects of the process

(b) A method for dealing with the treasury/fund needs to be devised. This is going to be difficult, as as aa already demonstrated, if large amounts of cash are to be involved on the part of some, then they will need to have trust in the financial element of the label. There are various legal techniques for this, a Trust of some sort being the most obvious. In two weeks I will be studying the UK law of trusts very very hard for my exams, so will be able to give more detailed advice then. Essentially its a fund set up with a particular purpose, to which only certain individuals have access, and there are various procedures which can be put in place to put checks on the powers of any one individual over the fund (therefore making it a safer way to invest). However, correct legal drafting would be required, and while after revision I could probably give it a reasonable stab, it would obviously not carry the certainty that it would were experienced lawyers involved (which, unfortunately would obviously come at quite some cost). Furthermore, I am not at all sure how the cross-atlantic nature of the label would work out in such legal terms

So there's a start for discussion, so lets have some opinions (on both parts)

probably best to keep finances in the UK i think.

also gonna need some sort of paypal account which is probably the easiest method of dealing with payment.

I disagree with the idea that it's better to keep them anywhere in particular. I definately think paypal is the best way, though. With paypal, there could be a person in the US and a person in the UK with access... it shouldn't be exclusive, at all.

You can add 2 bank accounts and 2 credit cards to the account, one from each side of the pond, etc...

no sense in being the old boys club of the UK, yet again.

I don't know as much about the business end. I have money, I have passion for music, I want to associate myself with something positive for music(not just dubstep)

other than that, I don't care a whole lot. I will fight to the death to keep this from being a "uk label" though...

i mentioned that we should keep finances in the uk to avoid any possible conflict with US law...although this probs might not be the case with paypal

this may sound really obvious, but this label would be incorporated right? i mean, if i'm not mistaken the UK and the US are pretty similar on tax laws (somewhat at least) - if its a sole proprietorship or a partnership then the person(s) are taxed on the income as if it was individual income.. make it an LLC or incorporate it and it shields those persons from owning the label and being taxed on the income, the entity is taxed and such, but only if money is drawn out through dividends/salaries/etc are the individuals taxed

i can dig up some of my older business books or have a troll around online to find out the specifics if needed, i'm not much in the way of finance in the UK but i did have to take a fair few classes for my degree here, it's not that different from what i've seen but there are different accounting rules etc.

Well, you can get away with not having an LLC for a while. It does cost a little bit of money to get that all started up, and it might be best to leave that until there is money coming IN.

And you can keep yourself covered by just making sure you have all the correct P + C info on the labels.

Plus its not like we are putting out mainstream pop, where you need a lawyer for every step you take so you are not ravaged by someone else.

Also in the US, the state you are in affects how much it will cost to set up your business. There is a difference in fees and taxes. from state to state.

Incorporation in the US requires a few thousand dollars... and a lawyer... count that out for now.

we really need to know who is serious about donating-

i can donate if were actually gunna do this

i wouldnt expect any help from other labels tho as the potential for this is huge

we are talking about discovering new artists first hand here..

although if bigger labels see our label as a test ground for new artists wont they step in and rape us of the artist?

just a thought-we may be doing leg work for bigger labels

8bitwonder wrote:although if bigger labels see our label as a test ground for new artists wont they step in and rape us of the artist?

just a thought-we may be doing leg work for bigger labels

thing is, if its a non-profit ting it doesnt really matter, in a way that is the function id personally imagined for the up-and-coming side of things...provide a sort of spring-board to bring through talented people who might need that push, hopefully allowing them to move on and up and work with other labels, while the co-op could continue to get new artists out

Regarding substantial cash loans to get it off the ground, i wont be able to until probably late summer unfortunately as im just finishing uni and will need to get on my feet and get a job going and such before i can do something like that. Although having said that, im sure i could manage a smaller thing like £50 or something minor like that, which if a lot of people did, might be enough to get some stuff running

if this ends up happening, I can probably put up about $1000 or so... I really want to see this succeed, but I also would like some kind of assurance that I'm not sending my money into a paypal account of someone who is going to fuck me over, ya know?

I'll have to check my funds when it comes time to do this, but I'm pretty sure I can swing about that much.

id probs manage 50£ or so

8 bit - i can see your concerns, but tbh i wouldnt be to bothered. it's about getting this new music out on vinyl / other formats so it can be heard.if say big labels pick up some the artists im sure there'll be many more about.

ramadanman wrote:id probs manage 50£ or so

8 bit - i can see your concerns, but tbh i wouldnt be to bothered. it's about getting this new music out on vinyl / other formats so it can be heard.if say big labels pick up some the artists im sure there'll be many more about.

safe then guys thats us all agreed then that its about the music and talent-

im gunna start work on a prototype financial plan

if das cool with you lot

go to town, mate

250 12" promos

£450 + vat includes mastering, metalwork, text only label included, in disco bag

thats £528 quid


if say 4 people put money in thats £132 punds each

250 vinyl at £5.99 each=1497.50

thats the £132 pounds back to the people who put it in and then £969.50 profit to re-invest

if we sold 100 records then we have broken even and started making profit with less than half records sold

thats just an example

and a safe first pressing

I'd like to try at least a 500 press run. We could even sell the album specifically through this website or a website set up for the label, with a paypal/credit card form.

We have to consider the costs of paying for promotion and things like that, as well...

Where did you get the information on the cost of pressing though, because that sounds kindof cheap and I'd like to get in contact with them for myself, if nothing more

i really don't think we should aim high with the pressing run - if something sells out it does have that air of exclusivity almost. i'd rather press fewer records and have them sell out, than press too many and have them unsold.

8 bit - nice work you've done there. sounding pretty promising.

I can understand that, which is why I've lowered my suggested run from 1500-2000 down to 500.

In all seriousness, if we were to sign, say a Coki/Skream/Vex'd/Loefah tune or something like that... how long do you think it would take for that to sell out? We're talking minutes.

I don't want to create a black market for our tunes like DMZ and HotFlush do... its nice to think that people would pay 60 dollars for our record on Ebay, but I don't want them to have to... know what I mean?

It also shows that we have faith in our product to go with a slightly higher run. 250 records would sell out to just this site alone. I also think that there are some producers on this website who make tracks that would sell completely out within minutes if we only do 250 record runs... and thats without any big names on the record... thats our homegrown producers.

A lot of running a record label has to do with faith in what you are doing.

I think it's really as simple as Do you believe that we can sell 500+ copies of this/these track/s?

If not, then it must not be good enough. An amazing track will sell. Once you get it in the hands of Joe Nice, Loefah, Plastician, Vex'd, etc... if it's big and they are spinning it, people will buy it. Even if they aren't spinning it, if it's big people will buy it.

If we don't have any tracks worth investing 500 or more in, then maybe we shouldn't be bothering. I for one, think there are some tracks that have been posted on this website that are more than worthy of an A-side pressing and 500 record runs, at LEAST.

Consider for a moment if you were a big name and were asked for a bangin tune for a 250 record run... they would be, essentially, taking that record off of the market for a major label to pick up... it's going to make it so that we are pretty much exclusively the holders of their track.

Why should they have faith in our label, if we don't have faith enough in their track to give them a proper release?

Not trying to be down on this, these are serious questions. If we're going to do it, I can handle a smaller run, but 500 should be bare minimum to show the world that we are serious about what we are doing.

you have to consider that 100 of those would be handed down to bigger names to play, given out at shows to promote, etc...

our first release should be ALL about getting our name out there and showing the entire world that we aren't fucking around when it comes to this. We've convinced ourselves that this is a good idea... no need to convince ourselves further... now it's time to dominate the rest of the world.

We don't just want to get the good stuff out there, we want to be able to facilitate the release of lots more.

I'm talking monthly releases, increasing in size each time, etc... I want to be able to find this record on every online shop I visit.

ok you make some really good points there aural assassin. nice to see hardcore enthusiasm!

call it 500 then

Plus you can always repress. Keeping a low initial first run is probably a good idea for the first release. Just to ensure that all the money is made back, and the project can continue.

Plus once you have all the masters repressing is all the easier.

a freind owns a pressing plant