The near-death of the independent label

For the past 15-20 years, labels that were once truly independent in every sense have slowly melted away. Over time, they have become subsumed into a series of larger bodies, forever impressing upon artists the need to be commercially viable, now more than ever before. Labels such as XL, Young Turks, Matador, and 4AD, for example, all claim ‘independent’ status, yet are, in actual fact, all part of the same unifying body: Beggars Group.

This tricks the listener into thinking that they are listening to the genuine, organic product of an artist who may very well have spent years underground and unnoticed, had it not been for the keen eyes of the ‘independent’ label bringing them to our attention. Perhaps the figure for whom this is most applicable is the seemingly ever-present Jamie xx. Since The xx’s beat maker turned solo producer, there has been a sickly ‘packaging up’ of his image. For example, the continuity in album covers between his solo work and that of The xx, and the overtly trendy Good Times pop up record shop all point towards the need to brand and commodify an artist. This all comes from the need to sell records. Of course in any industry, money is at the centre of everything, but here it seems to be so glaringly central you can’t run away from it.

This disintegration of independent labels has given rise to self-promotion, but this cannot achieve the clout a record label has.

What this disintegration of independent record labels has given rise to, in connection with the internet boom we have experienced over the last 15 years, is self-promotion. Websites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp provide a platform for artists to self-release material, and earn a small amount of money whilst doing it. But what you cannot achieve from self-promotion is the clout a record label has. And with these slowly merging in to one another, and with the potential demise of SoundCloud on the way, it seems like, for the time being at least, we will be subjected to an ever decreasing pool of artists manufactured by ever larger conglomerates.

However, there are a few success stories where real self-governing labels are holding on to their independence, offering a ray of hope. This sense of autonomy has been maintained by the likes of The Quietus Phonographic Corporation, Vanity Pill, Tasty Morsels and Phantasy, for example. It is not necessarily because they have a commitment to a particularly niche genre or scene, but they present less of a need to neatly brand everyone on their roster for the selling of records. (Everything on Tasty Morsels, for example, is free). They all have a DIY feel to them which is, in turn, a sense of honesty and sincerity in the music making, its distribution, and the overall aesthetic of the label and their artists. The hardcore punk scene appears to have embraced this ‘Do-It-Yourself’ ethos more than any other; here, labels spring up in bedrooms, and EPs are recorded on cassette tapes and distributed for pennies. They’re not trying to fool us.

The concept of the independent label is, then, both a dying trend and one typically skewed in its presentation. Though a ray of hope is to be found in the continuation of artists promoting themselves online, and the few remaining independent labels which are committed to allowing the singular vision of the artist to flourish. In the end, these are the distributors which are not trying to pull the wool over our eyes.