Brandon Butler

Both are valid paths. But don't put all your energy into getting signed. Act like you will never get signed and do everything in your power to promote your music - mainly touring and social media. If you do it right, you can succeed without signing. But when/if you get signed, guess what? You STILL act like you never got signed and do everything in your power to promote your music - mainly touring and social media. Why? Most labels are nothing more than banks these days. But banks can be useful. The only thing they are going to do is lend you some money to record, make a video, photo shoots, MAYBE a tour. And they want that money back. So unless you are the next big thing they will not throw money at you or give you promotional support like ad campaigns and the like. They want you to do all that, which goes back to my advice in the first paragraph. I know from whence I speak because I am signed and I didn't follow my own advice.