Building A Record Label Around Ideals

In Wednesday's Indie Label's class we were discussing basic business plan elements and I got onto my soapbox about how a record company should stand for something more, needs to, no has to, stand for more than just exploiting masters. A lot of today's label's do.

They call it 'branding' but even in these crazy time an indie label can / should aim to build loyalty with their buyers. All these articles and books are aimed at how a musician can build a fan base (they only need 1,000 True Fans, Permission Marketing and so on (will post those later), but all those rules apply to labels. Build loyalty with the consumer, they will trust the label's taste and choice and give each artist a listen / a chance.

And then stand for something, be known as the label that puts out great music and supports cleaning up the environment, talking to their consumers (great customer service), etc.

I ran across this presentation and article from Umair Haque about how / why businesses with positive ideals are / will be successful in the future. I have a small issue with some of the examples he gives, he acknowledges some of the shortfalls of the example of Nike, Walmart, etc but then shrugs it off, but the concepts are on target