It’s Time for Indie Labels to Step it Up

For decades all the indie labels out there have essentially been the Little Mac’s of the industry and when it came to the big fight they had to dodge every jab thrown their way and wait for the Mike Tyson’s of the music world to blink so they could finally have a chance to get a punch in. Now, however, with major labels failing to adapt to the internet and budgets for big releases shrinking by the day, the indies finally have a real chance at a fair fight. This is why now is the time for indie labels to step it up. How can they do this? Well, I have a few ideas.

Obviously I’ve never run a label, I’ve only seen how things work from the outside. That being said for the purposes of this article I’m going to put myself at the head of my own fictional record label and go over how I’d tackle this situation.

First, I’d make sure my artist roster is small. Just because the majors have less money doesn’t mean the indies have more. This is why indie labels can’t go dividing their funds up among numerous artists. If they want their artists to actually compete with the artists on the majors they need to try to both fund and work them as similarly as possible. Rather than giving everyone a small budget, I’d find the two to three artists I felt had the best chance to make the biggest impact and put all my time and effort into them. History has shown that once a label has a flagship artist, an artist the blows up in the mainstream, they will have a loyal fan base for a number of years. Just look at how Def Jam and Rawkus started as examples. A few artists blew up and their imprint became known as a symbol of great Hip-Hop for years to come (even when they were in the process of falling off).

Once I’d chosen the select few artists I wanted to work with I’d really work their albums. One thing I’ve noticed with the majority of indie releases is that the labels feel that putting out the album and sending one single out to college radio is all the promo they need. While this may generate enough sales to cover expenses and possibly even turn a minor profit (does anyone know if it actually does? If so, please leave a comment), it doesn’t work to create a long lasting awareness of the artist or the label. It creates more of a passing awareness. You’ll get your artist known for a month or two but then DJs and listeners will move on to whatever is sent their way next. This is how I see indie labels doing things now. They send out a single for one artist, get awareness for them for a month or two, then send out a single for the next artist on their roster. Why not send out a second and a third single for that first artist? Is his or her product not still on the shelves? Doesn’t he or she have more good songs on their album people should hear? Can’t you generate a lot more in profit this way rather than enduring the costs of having another artist record an album and having to put that entire package together?

A number of artists have proven that sometimes it takes more than one single to generate the buzz necessary to make an album a hit. Even Usher had to release a number of singles before getting the buzz he needed for the release of Confessions in 2004. By releasing a number of singles a constant awareness of the artist is created, which is something that should lead to more album sales (and concert ticket sales). By investing the money you were going to spend on another artist’s studio time to instead release another single or two and continue the promo push for your flagship artist you’re not only potentially reaping an equal, if not bigger, reward sales-wise, you’re making your flagship artist bigger and more well known, which in turn makes the label bigger and more well known, which should generate more interest in all your future releases.

I know, there’s an old adage about not putting all your eggs in one basket, and for the most part it’s a really good rule to go by. In these times, however, if an indie label wants to make the push to take it to the next level they may have to take this substantial risk to do so. The fact of the matter is all the indies out there need to realize right now is one of the few times in history that all the Little Mac’s out there have a legitimate shot to beat the Mike Tyson’s of the industry and if they don’t take advantage of it they might not see another opportunity like this ever again.