Starting a small DIY punk label

So you want to put out a record. Good. The barrier to entry has never been lower, which is both the best and worst thing about it. Anyone can start a label; most people who do learn the hard way. Here is what we have picked up from watching small labels come and go, and from the ones that stick around.

Start with one release, not a plan

The classic mistake is the five-year business plan. Nobody needs your mission statement. Pick one band you actually believe in, agree on a release, and do that one properly. If it goes well, do another.

Before you spend a penny, sort out the boring bits:

Agree in writing who pays for what and who owns what. A short email exchange is enough, but get it in writing. Who owns the master? Who owns the artwork? Who gets how many copies? What happens if the band splits up?
Decide the format based on the band and the audience, not your fantasy. A tape is a reasonable first release for a new band with 80 friends. A double LP is not.
Keep the first run small. 50–100 tapes or 100–300 records. You can always repress. You cannot un-press.

Tapes: cheap, fast, and still the best entry point

Cassettes remain the cheapest physical format and the fastest to turn around. Duplication is straightforward, and short runs are viable in a way vinyl never will be. Real-time duplicators still exist for people who want to dub at home, but most small labels use a duplication outfit.

Things worth knowing:

Ask for the actual tape stock. Cheap ferric tape in a nice shell is fine for punk; just know what you are getting. Chrome tape costs more and matters more if the release is long.
Check the running time against the tape length. A C30 holds roughly 15 minutes per side. If your record is 22 minutes a side, you need a C46 or C60, and you need to accept some hiss.
Printing is where the money goes. Labels, J-cards and shell stickers add up. A short run with photocopied J-cards and hand-stamped shells looks great and costs almost nothing. A short run with full-colour printing costs more than the tapes.
Shell colour and stickers are not vanity. They are how people find your tape in a box at a gig.

A realistic first run of 50 tapes with photocopied J-cards and printed labels lands in the low hundreds of pounds, all in. If you are paying a band a fee on top, budget for it separately.

Vinyl: slower, dearer, and worth doing once

Vinyl is the format people ask about and the format that will hurt you financially if you are careless. Pressing plants have lead times measured in months, not weeks, and prices have risen steadily. Small runs of 100–300 are common for DIY labels, but the per-unit cost at that scale is high.

What to watch:

Get quotes from more than one plant, and ask what is included. Plating, test pressings, labels, shrink wrap and shipping are often quoted separately. The cheapest quote is frequently not the cheapest order.
Order test pressings and actually listen to them. This is not a formality. Check the run-in, the run-out, and whether the mastering suits the format. A loud, compressed digital master cut to vinyl can sound thin or distort.
Master for the format. Ask the mastering engineer for a vinyl-specific cut. It costs a little more and saves a lot of disappointment.
Do not order 500 because the unit price is better. You will be storing them for years. Storage is a cost, and records are heavy.
Account for shipping both ways. Freight on a few hundred records is not trivial, and neither is the packaging you will need to post them.

A 100–300 run of a single LP, with a basic sleeve and labels, realistically runs into four figures once mastering, plating, test pressings and freight are counted. Get the full number before you announce anything.

If you want a sense of how varied small-label output is, browsing Discogs for a scene you know is a useful reality check on pressing sizes and formats.

Distro trades and the art of the swap

Distro trades are the circulatory system of DIY punk. You send a box of your release to another label or distro; they send you a box of theirs. No money changes hands, both catalogues get wider, and both of you get stock to sell at gigs.

How to do it well:

Trade like for like. Ten copies for ten copies is the standard starting point. If someone’s release retails much higher than yours, adjust the count rather than arguing about it.
Be honest about your stock and your reach. Do not promise a trade you cannot fulfil because you only pressed 50 and half are already spoken for.
Keep a simple spreadsheet. What went out, what came in, who owes what. You will forget otherwise, and so will they.
Package properly. A tape in a jiffy bag with no padding arrives cracked. Records need proper mailers with stiffeners. This is the single most common source of bad feeling between labels.
Follow up, but not weekly. A polite email after a month is fine. Chasing someone about a trade is a good way to not trade with them again.

Distro trades also function as market research. The stuff that moves from your distro box tells you what your audience actually buys, which is more useful than any amount of guessing.

Bandcamp, and the rest of the online shop

Bandcamp remains the default for DIY releases, and for good reason: it lets you sell digital and physical in one place, it pays out reasonably, and Bandcamp Friday — the days when the platform waives its cut — are worth planning releases around. Do not treat it as a magic wand; it is a shop, not an audience.

Practical points:

Set up the artist page properly. Track titles, credits, release date, and a real description. Buyers notice when a page is half-finished.
Decide who runs the Bandcamp. Usually the label, sometimes the band. Whichever it is, write it down. Duplicate pages for the same release help nobody.
Use the mailing list. Bandcamp’s fan notification is the most reliable way to reach people who have already bought from you. Use it sparingly and it stays effective.
Keep a physical presence too. A table at a gig, a local record shop that will take a few on sale-or-return, a distro that will stock you. Online sales are a fraction of what a good gig table does on the night.

If you want to see how established small labels present themselves, Bandcamp’s label pages and the Wikipedia entry on independent record labels are reasonable places to start, though neither will teach you what your local scene wants.

Costs, and what to avoid

A rough shape for a first release, all in, including postage and a modest promo budget:

Tape, 50 copies, photocopied J-cards: low hundreds.
Single LP, 100–300 copies: four figures, before you have sold a single one.
Merch to sell alongside: whatever you can afford. A run of shirts is often more profitable per unit than the record.
Postage and packaging: budget properly. It is the cost everyone underestimates.

What to avoid:

Announcing a release date before the pressing plant confirms it. Plants run late. Say “spring” until you have the records in your hands.
Pressing more than you can store, post and sell. Ambition is fine; a spare room full of unsold LPs is not.
Paying a band in promises. If you cannot pay, say so up front and agree on copies instead.
Skipping the paperwork. A one-page agreement protects everyone, including you.
Chasing trends. The releases that sell are the ones the label actually cares about, not the ones that looked good on a spreadsheet.

None of this is glamorous. Most of it is postage, spreadsheets and email. But a small label that pays its bands, ships on time and answers its messages will still be here in five years, and that is the whole game.

FAQ

How many copies should a new label press for a first release?

Keep the first run small: 50–100 tapes or 100–300 records. You can always repress, but you cannot un-press, and unsold stock is a storage cost.

What is a distro trade in DIY punk?

A distro trade is when you send a box of your release to another label or distro and they send you a box of theirs, with no money changing hands. Ten copies for ten copies is the standard starting point, adjusted if retail prices differ much.

Should I master separately for vinyl?

Yes. Ask the mastering engineer for a vinyl-specific cut, because a loud, compressed digital master cut to vinyl can sound thin or distort. It costs a little more and avoids disappointment.

When should I announce a release date?

Not until the pressing plant has confirmed it, and ideally not until you have the records in your hands. Plants run late, so say something vague like "spring" until then.

Starting a small DIY punk label: tapes, vinyl and distro trades