#034: Make Indie Labels Great Again
“Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness” ― Malcolm Gladwell
The independent music sector is growing like never before within music history. The indie market share, which consists of all independent distributors and record labels, sits at approximately 40% of the global recorded music sales in 2020. This seems like great news, since as recently as 2000 the independent market share was only 21-22% of the total pie. However, much of this growth has come from the sheer volume of releases due to the ability of recording artists to release their own music through distributors such as DistroKid and TuneCore. This alone is a remarkable change since it has given artists the ability to secure global distribution, while controlling the copyright ownership and revenue streams. Nothing like that existed prior to the digital age of music distribution. But even with this growth, the industry is in desperate need of a second wave of advancements to truly shift the playing field and that burden falls on independent record labels. To compete with the top major label artists, it isn’t enough to simply have distribution and control. I’m biased on this topic after launching Preach Records this past week. But Preach Records only can help so many artists until we would just turn into another AWAL. We aren’t going to fall for that trap. If independent recording artists had a massive infrastructure of quality independent labels in tact, the combination of the budgets and the label teams would truly be able to compete against the major labels in every way. Here are the five reasons why it’s essential for a golden age of independent records labels to emerge in the coming years ahead:
Artists need hands on support and a team surrounding them to streamline career growth. Too many distributors just provide the technology to release the music, but not the personnel and resources to allow a path to success. This includes project management, marketing, PR, DSP support, music licensing and beyond. The major labels provide this, but they take way too much ownership, control and revenue.
Artists need funding in order to take their careers to the next level. A team is good, but a team with funding is even better. Too many distributors only provide the ability to distribute and don’t provide the ability to secure a marketing fund to promote each release.
Success breeds success. Once an indie label provides a dedicated team and budget, the ability for exponential growth increases dramatically from release to release.
Even if an artist achieves an immense amount of success with an indie label and decides to upstream to a major label, the back-catalog typically remains with the independent label which keeps the market shares in tact. Even if the back-catalog migrates in the deal, this level of success allows the independent label to attract the next group of talent who will follow a similar path.
With the continued emergence of the independent sector and indie labels specifically, it will continue to put the pressure on the major labels to execute deals that are more fair to the recording artist and doesn’t take ownership or overwhelming revenue control. This is already overdue, but it will take immense pressure to change the mindset of the corporate bureaucracies of the Warner, Sony and Universal’s of the world. Independent record labels play a key role in forcing this change.
_____________________________________________________________________
JAY’S SONGS OF THE WEEK:
Dylan Dunlap - “Soldier On”
Fiji Blue - “It Takes Two”
Jackson Breit - “Straight Shooter”
Chloe x Halle - “80/20”
Ant Clemons - “June 1st”
