In many ways the digital age has been the cloud with the silver lining for independent record labels. In some cases they have been hit hardest by the downturn in recorded music sales as their profit margins were so tight, however the wealth of new opportunities for cheap sales, marketing and distribution that the web has offered has also meant that they have been able to innovate new ways of doing business and move quicker than their large cumbersome major label competitors.
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Martin Mills is chairman of ‘The Beggars Group’ of record labels, they’ve signed and worked with many of the leading independent artists and continue to try and find innovative ways of pushing the industry forward. In this interview he talks about the challenges facing the major labels.
The leading independents were not only the first to fully embrace legal digital downloads as a way to distribute music and keep their overheads to a minimum but they were also amongst the first to realise that the fans also loved a good physical product and invested in custom artwork, packaging and the ultimate indie lover’s delight – special limited edition vinyl releases. In marketing terms they have often been one step ahead of the major labels in utilising online peer-to-peer marketing trends like social networking and pioneering new ways to fans to interact with the bands and each other. One of the major strengths of Indie labels have always been their ability to build up solid bases of fanatical loyal fans and the internet has only helped focus that talent.
The indie labels have never been able to offer the sort of recording or marketing budgets that the majors have but then that’s not what they’re there for. What indie labels excel at is taking quirky cutting edge acts and building them loyal fan bases. It doesn’t always end up with a top 10 hit (in fact it rarely does because they can cost tens of thousands to market) but then that’s not the point. Indie signings aren’t always suitable for a mainstream audience but the right label will find the artist’s niche and exploit it. While the overall sales from an indie release will often be smaller than a major label release the budget it took to achieve those sales from an indie label will often be a lot smaller and so eventually the artist gets to see a lot more cash in the form of royalties.
on Jun 10th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
[...] The Indie Labels [...]