Indie Music
Indie Music
Independent Music, Indie for short, is a very broad category of music. Rather than describing the style, composition, or genre of the music it refers more to the methods of publishing and producing music. Typically a recording contract with a major label is much more advantageous to the label rather than the artist. While having a contract with a label can be helpful it doesn’t mean that the band will do well. On average an artist with a major label gets 10-15% royalties after paying off recoupable expenses and advances.
So basically the record company covers costs of touring, production, merchandise, and salary, but the band has to pay the money back before getting whatever is left. Contracts with Indie labels are similar to ones with major labels but tend to be more individualized and flexible. Royalties are often more than a major label since there tend to be smaller expenses than major labels. Recently “profit sharing” of the net gain is becoming more common which can be very advantageous if the artist becomes popular enough. With the advent of the internet the major labels powers of marketing, while still monolithic, is not the only option.
A Indie artist can spread their music quickly and to a wide audience simply by putting up pages and songs on various social networking sites and even music sites specifically for Indie music. It also provides a cheap means of distribution, since downloading a song costs a lot less to the artist than having thousands of CD’s made. Some artist prefer to remain indie because they have enough business savvy to self manage, or because they prefer to have complete control over the whole musical process. Other bands may decide to go with a major label simply for the convenience and power of the established system.
