How to Start a Record Label in the Netherlands: KVK, Sena, ISRCs and Getting on Beatport

You have a folder of finished techno tracks, a few friends with music just as good, and a name you keep writing on everything. Starting your own label feels like the obvious next step. Then the practical questions arrive: do you need a company, who gives you the codes, how do you get onto Beatport, and what do you sign with the artists?

Most guides to starting a label in the Netherlands stop at company formation. That is the easy part. The steps that decide whether your label looks real to DJs, stores and collecting societies are the ones after it. This guide walks through them in the order you will hit them, with an electronic and club music lens.

Do you need a company to start a record label in the Netherlands?

You need to be registered with the KVK, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, as soon as the label sells music or signs artists as a business. For most first labels, an eenmanszaak (sole proprietorship) is enough. You register online, finish the registration at a KVK appointment and pay a one-off fee. Sources quote slightly different figures for 2026, all in the 80 to 90 euro range, so check the current amount on the KVK site before you pay.

A BV (private limited company) is the other option. Its main advantage is that you are not personally liable for the company's debts. The downside is cost and admin: a BV has to be set up through a notary, while an eenmanszaak does not.

My view: start as an eenmanszaak unless you are taking real financial risk from day one, such as vinyl pressing runs, advances to artists or office rent. If you already run an eenmanszaak for DJ fees, you can usually add the label as an extra activity or trade name rather than starting a second business. Talk to an accountant who knows creative freelancers before you decide.

• Eenmanszaak: cheap, fast, no notary, you carry the risk personally.
• BV: limited liability, notary required, more bookkeeping and annual costs.
• Partnership with friends: put the split of costs, profits and the label name in writing before the first release, whatever structure you choose.

How do you check and protect your label name?

Before you print a logo, search the name everywhere a DJ or store would see it. Check Beatport, Discogs, Bandcamp and the streaming services for an existing label or artist with the same or a similar name. Then search the Benelux trademark register at BOIP, the office for the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Registering the name as a Benelux trademark is optional, but it is not expensive compared with a rebrand. BOIP's basic fee for an individual Benelux trademark is 244 euros including one class, 27 euros for a second class and 81 euros for each class from the third. Most labels look at class 9 (which covers recorded media and downloadable music) and class 41 (entertainment services, which covers events). If you plan label nights or merch, think about whether those need cover too.

A short, distinctive name is easier to protect and easier to find in a Beatport search. Avoid generic words like "Techno Records". You will not be able to stop anyone else using them, and nobody will find you.

How do you get ISRC codes and register your label with Sena?

Every track you release needs an ISRC, the code that identifies a specific recording. In the Netherlands, Sena issues them. Once you register with Sena as a producer, meaning the party that owns the master and carries the financial responsibility for the recording, you can request a master owner code free of charge. With that one code you can create an unlimited number of ISRCs for recordings you own, for audio and video.

The format is simple: NL for the country, a three-character code that identifies you, two digits for the year, then five digits you assign yourself. Keep a spreadsheet and never reuse a number.

Registering with Sena is also how the label gets paid when its recordings are played in public in the Netherlands, on radio, in bars and shops and in clubs. Registration is free. If you release your own music on your own label, Sena gives you two accounts, one as performing artist and one as producer, and you are paid on both sides.

There is one catch worth knowing. Sena's own FAQ tells DJs and producers who make music in a DAW to register as performing artists rather than producers. The deciding question is who owns the master and paid for the recording. Once the label is a real business that releases other people's records and pays for mastering and artwork, it is the producer for those releases. Check your situation with Sena before you register so the money goes to the right account.

• Your distributor can also issue ISRCs, but only if Sena has officially appointed it as an ISRC manager. Using your own Sena code keeps the catalogue tied to your label if you ever change distributor.
• Register each release with Sena as it comes out, not in a batch at the end of the year.

How do you get a new label onto Beatport in 2026?

This is where most new electronic labels get stuck. Beatport does not take uploads from new labels directly. You deliver through a distributor that supports Beatport, and that distributor has to register your label with Beatport before your first release goes out. LabelGrid says processing for new labels typically takes 5 to 14 business days, so do this weeks ahead of your first release date.

Expect to provide your label genres, a short bio and links to your Spotify or SoundCloud and Instagram. Some distributors also set activity rules. Too Lost, for example, says a label must plan at least 10 releases every 6 months to keep its own Beatport channel. A one-release-a-quarter label would not meet that bar with that distributor.

The bigger issue is the label name itself. Revelator and Nodable both say that under Beatport's current system some accounts cannot get a new, unique label page and are delivered under a shared page called "Independent Co." instead. For a techno label that wants DJs to follow it on Beatport, that defeats the purpose.

• Before you sign with any distributor, ask in writing: can you create a new, unique Beatport label page for us, and how long does it take?
• Ask which other stores they deliver to, including Traxsource and Bandcamp, and how you move the label if you leave. Beatport allows only one distributor per label page, and a transfer needs the current distributor to approve it.
• If a distributor cannot give you your own Beatport page, consider a label services company that already has its own Beatport accounts, and read its contract carefully.

What should your contract with artists say?

Even if the first release is by your best friend, sign a short written agreement. The most important choice is whether the artist licenses the track to you or assigns it. With an assignment, the label owns the recording. With a licence, the artist keeps ownership and gives the label the right to release it, often exclusively, for a set period. Most small electronic labels work on exclusive licences, and that is fairer to artists who may want their catalogue back later.

A workable one-track or EP agreement covers:

• Licence or assignment, the territory (normally worldwide) and the term, with a clear date when rights revert to the artist.
• The royalty split of net receipts, what costs come off first (mastering, artwork, promo) and how often you send statements.
• Who controls remixes, and whether the label can commission them without asking.
• Sync and licensing requests: who approves them and how the money is split.
• The artist's promise that they own everything in the track, including samples.

Keep the split and the cost list simple. Disputes at small labels rarely come from the headline percentage. They come from costs nobody agreed to and statements that never arrived. Have a lawyer check your template once, then reuse it.

How do VAT and money work for a small label?

Money reaches a small label from several places: the distributor's monthly or quarterly statement, Bandcamp payouts, Sena, and later perhaps sync or vinyl sales. Track each source in its own column from the start.

On VAT, a Dutch business with turnover of no more than 20,000 euros excluding VAT in the current and previous calendar year can use the kleineondernemersregeling (KOR), the small business scheme. You apply through the Belastingdienst at least four weeks before you want it to start. It cuts admin, but you also cannot reclaim VAT on costs, which matters if you press vinyl. If your eenmanszaak also invoices DJ fees, that turnover counts towards the same limit.

For digital sales on Bandcamp, Bandcamp charges and pays the VAT to EU buyers on digital goods, so you do not need to register for VAT in other EU countries for those downloads. Streaming and store income through your distributor arrives as a business payment to you, not as a sale to consumers. Confirm with your accountant how to invoice or report it, especially if the distributor is based outside the Netherlands.

Pay artists on a fixed schedule, for example within 30 days of the end of each quarter, and send a statement even when the amount is small. Reliability is the cheapest reputation a new label can buy.

What to do this week

You can get the foundations of a label in place in one focused week. Do it in this order:

• Search your label name on Beatport, Discogs, Bandcamp and the BOIP register, and pick a backup name.
• Decide eenmanszaak or BV with your accountant, and book the KVK appointment.
• Register with Sena and request your master owner code for ISRCs.
• Email three distributors that support Beatport and ask, in writing, whether they can create a new unique label page, how long it takes and what activity rules apply.
• Draft a one-page exclusive licence agreement with term, split, costs and statement dates, and have a music lawyer check it once.
• Set your first release date at least six weeks out so the Beatport set-up, ISRCs and promo all have time.

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