The "curatorial" function is definitely needed in 2025. If necessary, it needs to be stolen back from the likes of Spotify; bc they've proven on multiple levels that they can't be trusted with it.
The main thing a label can do is show that your band "belongs" someplace, stylistically; so fans of that "place" can be turned on to you. A label's mark is an imprimatur: it shows that someone with taste +/or expertise with a brand for those believes in your project besides you. It matters very much still; more than ever in these days where basement-DAW/AI plugin product muddies the 'self-release' waters trying to pass itself off as the real thing.
Label curatorship helps bring some semblance of order to the chaos that is the music business today; + their influence should be welcomed wherever possible.
Boy did you nail this. It’s exactly what I’ve been doing, word for word, the past 4 years. I haven’t made a dime. But the sense of community, of doing something special, of having an outlet for my talents, of supporting music I love…that’s the payoff. It’s a labor of love for sure. With streaming being what it is — you can’t expect to make money. I too have 80% of my vinyl releases in shelves here at home. But I’m a producer and a musician. I understand curation and management. Everything you said is true, true, true. Sad that the music world is such a bottomless pit of entropy. But it’s always been like that for indie participants. Bottom line, we adore music and musicians and do this because we can’t help it.
Incredibly interesting read. I started what has accidentally become an “indie label” in the eyes of many in my dorm room in 2020 called Live2. I’m a filmmaker who grew up loving film on the internet… YouTube, Vine, and yes, even TikTok eventually.
What started as making documentaries about my friends that made dope music turned into this idea that through world building online and aligning independent filmmakers in partnership with independent artists, we could break artists into the limelight.
Only after getting going and things started working did I realize we were more effective than any marketing department at any label we have come across or partnered with.
It’s been strange to navigate the business side of our partnerships with artists as we are not managing them, and we are not really a “label”… but we have a closer creative and business relationship with our artists than either their manager or labels have along the way, and our work building these worlds with artists through film has led to hundreds of millions of streams.
All this to say, I’m new here and haven’t been around the block to see the previous generations of labels, but what we are doing feels like we are solving a missing piece that artists desperately need right now… so maybe that’s the goal of any indie label, find the biggest gaps in what artists need and what they have and build around it.
Brainiac, This Heat, Glenn Branca (2 Ns, btw)… has someone been listening to my stack’s playlist??? lol
Also: Oddly enough, Other Music constantly having to order what I was looking for online is what kinda made me stop going to record stores — I just started looking online myself and skipped the middle man… haven’t really looked back (Tower Records was still there the last time I was in Other Music).
I’ve always been independent, but digital distributors ask for a label name for releases and so I had to provide one. In my situation, I regard the label name as a kind of “dba”. This helped when I decided to branch out into other genres and release music under pseudonyms. Some DSPs structure their back-end systems under a “label” name, so that makes managing my “bands” a little easier. However, I think it’s bizarre that so many DSPs ignore or marginalize “label” as a search entity. If I want to find everything released by Les Disques du Crepuscule on a DSP, it’s not easy - or it takes some effort - or it’s impossible. This oversight or omission proves that the techies really don’t really know anything about the music industry, nor do they care.
Very interesting perspective. As an artist, I must admit that the main appeal I could find in an independent label would be its ability to increase my music’s visibility. This, indeed, involves financial means, but not for production or distribution — rather for digital marketing. I believe that today, labels function primarily as "music-specialized" communication agencies. Sometimes, a label's reputation is so significant that it alone is enough to boost the artist signed to it.
The main reason is that artists (myself included) often feel uncomfortable with the marketing/social media aspect and appreciate the idea of offloading the mental burden to a community manager. This frees up time for production, songwriting, mixing, and other creative tasks.
In thriving environments like France, many labels still operate traditionally because they are subsidized by the Ministry of Culture. The system has remained unchanged for 30 years and benefits about a hundred labels, including major ones. Their helps can boost credibility, but from an artist’s perspective, the appeal of such labels is diminishing.
I’ll say it again: a label today provides marketing tools for artists — a roadmap, a network, TV placements, and so on.
The label is no longer a creative partner; it’s a stepping stone. Decision-making is driven by passion and statistics. There are still exceptions, fortunately! But they tend to be either non-profit projects or time-limited investments.
i hear you re: 4AD! i am one to have heavily relied on labels in the past, to regularly release consistently "quality" records . (i will read the link you mentioned, but) Changing to suit the consumer is futile...but it seems Epitaph and Sub Pop have managed over the years. i still feel i can count on old tried and true like Nettwerk, Warp + especially !K7 to provide the band support as well as curatorial side. They still somehow market new stuff to ensure i will hear about it eventually. i am speaking purely as someone working in the music industry (broadcasting-adjacent) - but i am curious if today's artists would agree with you. They still need help (though mostly in the form of legal counsel these days, i imagine). i'm glad labels still exist and i hope they continue.
The "curatorial" function is definitely needed in 2025. If necessary, it needs to be stolen back from the likes of Spotify; bc they've proven on multiple levels that they can't be trusted with it.
The main thing a label can do is show that your band "belongs" someplace, stylistically; so fans of that "place" can be turned on to you. A label's mark is an imprimatur: it shows that someone with taste +/or expertise with a brand for those believes in your project besides you. It matters very much still; more than ever in these days where basement-DAW/AI plugin product muddies the 'self-release' waters trying to pass itself off as the real thing.
Label curatorship helps bring some semblance of order to the chaos that is the music business today; + their influence should be welcomed wherever possible.
Boy did you nail this. It’s exactly what I’ve been doing, word for word, the past 4 years. I haven’t made a dime. But the sense of community, of doing something special, of having an outlet for my talents, of supporting music I love…that’s the payoff. It’s a labor of love for sure. With streaming being what it is — you can’t expect to make money. I too have 80% of my vinyl releases in shelves here at home. But I’m a producer and a musician. I understand curation and management. Everything you said is true, true, true. Sad that the music world is such a bottomless pit of entropy. But it’s always been like that for indie participants. Bottom line, we adore music and musicians and do this because we can’t help it.
Kindly,
Geza X,
Geza X Records
Incredibly interesting read. I started what has accidentally become an “indie label” in the eyes of many in my dorm room in 2020 called Live2. I’m a filmmaker who grew up loving film on the internet… YouTube, Vine, and yes, even TikTok eventually.
What started as making documentaries about my friends that made dope music turned into this idea that through world building online and aligning independent filmmakers in partnership with independent artists, we could break artists into the limelight.
Only after getting going and things started working did I realize we were more effective than any marketing department at any label we have come across or partnered with.
It’s been strange to navigate the business side of our partnerships with artists as we are not managing them, and we are not really a “label”… but we have a closer creative and business relationship with our artists than either their manager or labels have along the way, and our work building these worlds with artists through film has led to hundreds of millions of streams.
All this to say, I’m new here and haven’t been around the block to see the previous generations of labels, but what we are doing feels like we are solving a missing piece that artists desperately need right now… so maybe that’s the goal of any indie label, find the biggest gaps in what artists need and what they have and build around it.
Labels could be most useful to the artists they overlook — and least useful to the ones they sign.
Brainiac, This Heat, Glenn Branca (2 Ns, btw)… has someone been listening to my stack’s playlist??? lol
Also: Oddly enough, Other Music constantly having to order what I was looking for online is what kinda made me stop going to record stores — I just started looking online myself and skipped the middle man… haven’t really looked back (Tower Records was still there the last time I was in Other Music).
https://ifrqfm.substack.com/p/ifrq-fm-playlists
I’ve always been independent, but digital distributors ask for a label name for releases and so I had to provide one. In my situation, I regard the label name as a kind of “dba”. This helped when I decided to branch out into other genres and release music under pseudonyms. Some DSPs structure their back-end systems under a “label” name, so that makes managing my “bands” a little easier. However, I think it’s bizarre that so many DSPs ignore or marginalize “label” as a search entity. If I want to find everything released by Les Disques du Crepuscule on a DSP, it’s not easy - or it takes some effort - or it’s impossible. This oversight or omission proves that the techies really don’t really know anything about the music industry, nor do they care.
Very interesting perspective. As an artist, I must admit that the main appeal I could find in an independent label would be its ability to increase my music’s visibility. This, indeed, involves financial means, but not for production or distribution — rather for digital marketing. I believe that today, labels function primarily as "music-specialized" communication agencies. Sometimes, a label's reputation is so significant that it alone is enough to boost the artist signed to it.
The main reason is that artists (myself included) often feel uncomfortable with the marketing/social media aspect and appreciate the idea of offloading the mental burden to a community manager. This frees up time for production, songwriting, mixing, and other creative tasks.
In thriving environments like France, many labels still operate traditionally because they are subsidized by the Ministry of Culture. The system has remained unchanged for 30 years and benefits about a hundred labels, including major ones. Their helps can boost credibility, but from an artist’s perspective, the appeal of such labels is diminishing.
I’ll say it again: a label today provides marketing tools for artists — a roadmap, a network, TV placements, and so on.
The label is no longer a creative partner; it’s a stepping stone. Decision-making is driven by passion and statistics. There are still exceptions, fortunately! But they tend to be either non-profit projects or time-limited investments.
i hear you re: 4AD! i am one to have heavily relied on labels in the past, to regularly release consistently "quality" records . (i will read the link you mentioned, but) Changing to suit the consumer is futile...but it seems Epitaph and Sub Pop have managed over the years. i still feel i can count on old tried and true like Nettwerk, Warp + especially !K7 to provide the band support as well as curatorial side. They still somehow market new stuff to ensure i will hear about it eventually. i am speaking purely as someone working in the music industry (broadcasting-adjacent) - but i am curious if today's artists would agree with you. They still need help (though mostly in the form of legal counsel these days, i imagine). i'm glad labels still exist and i hope they continue.