Album and a Record Label?
Hey friend,
I hope you've been well!
For a long time, I have always dreamed of being able to release an album, and for years I asked myself, am I ready for this?
The industry tells you that albums are out of fashion and that you should stick to releasing singles, because the algorithm..
Yet despite the nay sayers, it seems like the best artists have always still released albums and their fans love them for it.
I always felt like I had to wait until I built a big audience before I bothered to write an album, but there is something inside of me that just feels like it needs to be written.
Sometimes when you feel a calling to do something, you have to ignore what everybody else is telling you and just go for it.
With all that being said, finding a label to release an album with is even harder than finding one to sign a single or two.
For years I felt like I had to wait until I had a big enough record deal to make the album happen, but that just seems like waiting for a lottery these days.
The only solution I see, start my own record label and launch it with my own album!
This solves two problems, creative control over the songwriting and copyright ownership of my music.
Having an album I own 100% of will make every sale and sync license deal that much more sweet when I know a label isn’t taking 50-75% of every dollar!
The other beautiful thing about running a record label is that I can develop artists that I believe in and help get their music out into the world.
I have been fortunate to sign to some pretty amazing labels, and I have learned how the industry works to an extent.
Now I would love to start my own imprint, release cool music, do cool label parties in dream locations, and develop the next generation!
So all that being said, I am excited to get to work on this album, build out this label and chart forward on this new path!
1 Cool Insight on Creativity and Psychology
Why it can be good to let your mind wander more often
Most of us these days don’t spend a ton of time mind wandering because every time we have a spare moment, we pull out our phone, scroll through Instagram, check our emails, check our notifications, etc.
We never give our mind the time to let creative thoughts merge and create new connections between ideas when we are always consuming content.
Creativity is a synthesis of two or more ideas into a new idea, and the more our mind wanders, the more it will look for these new connections when we’re bored.
When we give our mind time to wander rather than constantly consume, we can boost our creativity and help find solutions to problems we’ve been dealing with in our work.
1 Cool Thing I Learned This Week
I have been doing a lot of research around record labels the past week or two and have been listening to some really cool podcasts on starting and running a record label.
One thing I found fascinating was the process for pressing vinyl and cassette tapes (I know right?)
It’s so cool to me to hear that vinyl, CD, and cassettes are actually becoming popular again.
As fans become nostalgic about holding physical merch in their hands from their favourite bands, vinyl and CD sales are actually peaking for the first time in decades!
This is all very exciting for us music lovers, there’s something special about holding a vinyl album in your hands and dropping the needle on it for the first time.
Personally, I can’t wait to press my own album to vinyl one day!
That is a day I have looked forward to since I was a little kid, and that day feels closer now than it ever has been.
2024 is the year I write my debut album!
I hope you are interested in coming along for the ride, I will keep you in the loop as this thing develops!
Book Recommendation
Why I love this book
This book ties in nicely with last weeks book Flow.
Johann Hari goes on a mission around the world to find out what is happening to our focus and attention spans.
For decades our attention span has been plummeting.
As our technology gets faster and more sophisticated, we read less books and spend more time skimming through articles.
Rather than spend an hour or two deep in a book, focused on one task, we are constantly flooding our mind with dopamine as we flick through articles and videos, getting notifications and texts all day long.
We have become so accustom to this way of life that we don’t realize what is happening to us.
We are all constantly looking down at our phones and it is affecting our ability to focus on the important areas of our life.
This book is a gripping read! It reads like a thriller.
I cracked it open and read 60 pages in the first sitting, I just couldn’t put it down.
It speaks to this moment that we are all living through in the modern world.
Constantly bombarded with information all day, every day.
He explores the causes of this dwindling of our attention span, and he outlines a few things we can do to try to prevent it.
The truth is, it’s gonna be pretty damn hard..
Key Takeaways
Take time to slow down
The hyper speed of our modern world has caused our attention to speed up at an insane rate.
By practicing things like yoga, meditation, reading long books, going for walks in nature without cell service, etc, we can help slow down our minds and gain a sense of balance in our life.
Read more books
When we read on a screen, our eyes skim the page and look for the important bits.
It’s why content is written the way it is online, it’s the reason I space these lines out to make them easier to read.
We can highlight important sections so that our brain doesn’t get bored.
The problem is when we go to read a book and try to read it the way we read on the internet, we get bored quickly and put the book down.
We have to train our minds to slow down and get use to reading books again.
As you develop the patience and attention span to focus on reading a book for an hour, you are strengthening your ability to focus in other areas of your life.
Spend more time reading books on creativity, business, self-development, etc.
They really help you grow as a person, and as a creative!
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There are so many other great stories and insights in this book, I highly recommend it!
Take care my friend,
- Niko
PS - If you are interested in learning how I write a song around an a capella, you can find my music production course here! 👇
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