Far from being the first important step on which the success of the whole enterprise would really depend. But the wording “creating a label” still implies coming up with its name, logo, concept, that is a certain fixation of the idea in time and space, so in the mind of the project creator this step is defined as the starting point of the whole process.
Established producers, this point is also not too interesting: what is there to talk about, invite a designer, a lawyer, and they will solve your problems. But an independent label creator is often a lawyer, musician, designer and producer, so it is useful to go deeper into this topic.
As already mentioned, it’s not difficult to register a label on digital distribution sites, and thus through their mediation hope to get a percentage of the sales of your music product. But it is obvious that for normal interaction between a label and artists, vinyl companies and stores, contracts and agreements will have to be made. So legalizing their activities is a natural step, again, at some point.
To illustrate the process, let’s follow the chain of events from end to beginning. The happy owner of a record of his favorite band comes out of the store with, of course, the label’s name and logo on the cover. This is nothing other than your brand, a registered trademark to which you have exclusive rights. It performs at least two important functions: it protects your intellectual property and promotes your label.
But a trademark can only be owned by a business entity, i.e. a private entrepreneur or a legal person. The first thing a friendly lawyer will tell you: such variants of registration as FLP (individual entrepreneur) and PE are very simple, but, as for the label, unreliable and unpromising, because they do not cause any confidence in customers and partners.