Independents Day 08 is a worldwide event, taking place on the weekend of 4^th July to raise money for the independent music community and their chosen charities.

Starting in New Zealand and ending in the US, activities include the largest ever auction of independent music memorabilia (via eBay) and limited edition albums featuring the cream of independent talent from all over the globe, all supported by a comprehensive retail campaign and a series of one-off music shows and retrospectives across TV and radio.

The History of Independent Music

Independents Day by Ira Robbins

Many of the world’s nations mark the day of their independence, a concept bound up with freedom and self-determination. For the United States, independence promised its citizens life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. 

Though it has rarely required war, diplomacy or intercession by the UN to achieve, independence in the music business offers the same benefits. For more than half a century, independent record labels have risen up, not in opposition to the dwindling population of global music companies but in crucial complement to them. Any genre of music you can name would be much poorer and less adventurous if not for the vision and courage of labels unafraid to back artists who want more than to ape last month’s hits.

Elvis Presley didn’t make an appointment and wait in the reception area of RCA Records until someone there recognized what he had to offer, he marched into Memphis Recording Service, a storefront operation where Sun Records’ Sam Phillips heard something he could work with. The first label in America willing to take a chance on the Beatles – who were signed to a British powerhouse, EMI, but unknown in the States – was Vee-Jay, a family-owned label in Chicago, where another family business played home to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley. Each of these artists – plus hundreds more, from James Brown to Nirvana, Run-D.M.C. to the Smiths, Alison Krauss and Arctic Monkeys — changed the sound of music, and none of them were first spotted by a major label. That’s a lot for the independent label world to be proud of.

And why not? Other than the few that were set up as divisions of existing entertainment companies, most labels, including many of those now considered majors, started out small, as the bright idea of someone with ears, a few bucks to invest, maybe a record store for a base of operations, or maybe a car for distribution. Atlantic, Motown, Def Jam, Island, Rough Trade, Rhino, Elektra, Merge, Beggars Banquet, A&M, Mercury, Virgin – all of them were or are independent labels. It’s always been more about a concept than corporate structure, about the willingness to explore and innovate, to drive the culture forward and not just churn out mass entertainment in the wake of established taste. 

In the 21st century, as the means of distribution shifts, independent labels are increasingly the source of new artists. The album sales and download charts are packed with names first promoted by independent labels. Even established artists, from Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails to Garth Brooks, have found that major labels don’t serve their needs, and have gone the DIY route, which takes independence to the max.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if a record company is big or little, old and established or young and unsteady: a board of directors, layers of management answering to an overseas CEO who in turn is beholden to stockholders is never going to have the ears of young people in direct contact with the music and artists, putting out records they love regardless of profit margins and quarterly sales projections. And independent labels have blazed the way not just in the sound of music, but in ways of partnering with bands and serving their fans. 

The result, happily, has been a steady flow of music delivered just the way the artists create it, free of homogenization and compromise. In the music world, everyone benefits from independence. Long may it wave.

Ira Robbins, Founder - Trouser Press.com

The Independent Music Scene by Martin Mills

The concept of the major music label is a relatively recent one. Warners started off as three independent labels ( Warners itself, Atlantic and Elektra, each producing some truly great music in their own fields ), and back in the days when EMI signed The Beatles, they would have had no idea of whether they were signing to a major or an independent.

Most of our global musical heritage started off on small labels - Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, The Doors, Love, Van Morrison, The Who, Marc Bolan, the list goes on and on.

But then the majors were created through the economic forces of consolidation, and from 20 or so big companies of the early ’90s, which included such as Virgin and Motown, there are now just four ‘majors’.

And whereas a few decades ago it really didn’t make much difference to the artists’ lives and careers whether they were Bob Dylan on Columbia, or Bob Marley on Island, it now makes a huge difference - and every new artist is aware of that difference.

That is because the majors are corporations with shareholders, either the public or venture capitalists, and the delivery of financial results is their duty - better and better ones, ideally. The artists are the raw material of these results and, since a single breakthrough artist can make such a difference to these results, the scale of investment, and pressure for commercial success, are irresistible.

On the other side, in the independent sector, smaller labels started and run by music fans, artistry, credibility and respect dominate, and whilst the commercial imperative can be there, it is not the be all and end all. Which is why many many artists, including those with ambitious aspirations, choose to go for what may ( or may not be ) a smaller deal in the independent sector, seeking the company of their peers, and a fertile and creative environment - and I do not need to spell out the sometimes very big names that have made that choice in recent years.

And despite the economic and market pressures created by consolidation - which is why independents oppose it - even now most great new music originates in the independent sector, as shown by the genesis of new gold artists, and markers such as the Hmv critics’ poll of polls, and the Mercury Music Prize, where music from independents dominates.

If you go into a great independent record store,a different music lives, breathes, flourishes, and is exposed to new fans, outside the mainstream initially, but ultimately who knows ? Vive la difference

Martin Mills, Chairman of Beggars Group