At SXSW, Indie Labels Talk About Tough Times

March 20, 2009 6:48 p.m. by Tony Sclafani

The economic downturn has hurt more than big labels, it seems.

The Los Angeles Times' Todd Martens is reporting that the mood was grim as indie record label owners gathered at the annual South by Southwest music conference to discuss business. Sales are down, layoffs are rising and piracy is still a threat.

Apparently, what happened was a session called "Indie Labels Keep the Faith" mutated from a talks about community spirit to money-related "horror" stories and "and strategies for survival amid the cutthroat industry climate." Execs from Rounder Records, Kill Rock Stars and Touch and Go (which recently went catalog-only) all chimed in. Not good.

3 Responses

March 21, 2009 at 1:19 p.m.

Johnmel

This isn't so surprising. Only small will survive. I think everything will just go to a subscription model: you pay the label-people for finding and curating music (which you could also do yourself, but opinions are always nice, just like at art galleries...) and you also pay to be a supporter of the arts (like old-fashioned patronage but on a democratic scale). Meanwhile, it's been obvious for awhile now that bands can only make money by thinking small: tour tour tour. Hardcore was always right. Hopefully once bands like the Rolling Stones die off, this could be the end of the bloated, repeat-the-same-thing-over-and-over rock career. Bands will have to continually innovate or go away... Or maybe the exact opposite will happen: everyone will find their little niche, their sound, and they will just repeat it forever because it has its critical mass of supporters. Meanwhile, audiences will stratify and musical taste will not only become even more subjective but it will also become a lifestyle badge or voracious consumerism rather than intense, thoughtful listening.

March 21, 2009 at 3:54 p.m.

tonys

Good points, Johnmel. I also wonder if the concept of labels will eventually fade away, leaving artists as individual proprietors, getting their work out through a MySpace-like model. And it's worth mooting whether this would result in people using gimmickry to get attention to pursuing their artistic visions, commerciality be damned. - Tony Sclafani

March 24, 2009 at 6:54 p.m.

Johnmel

I agree Tony. I think they will disappear, eventually. Perhaps labels in some form will exist as collectives, because there still has to be some form of association for artists. Also, even if you can sell everything over the internet (or, more likely, give it away for free), there still are reasons to have something like a "label". 1.) It acts as some way people can find new artists without being lost in the ocean of internet information. (I guess that's also what sites like this and writers for it are supposed to do, too.) And 2.) Start-up money/publicity people/distribution networks...these things will still be needed by artists, and labels provide that kind of organization--but as a service to the artist, not for the label's own market share. As far as as proprietorship goes, I don't know the standard contract for labels these days but don't most artists nowadays own their recordings and simply use the label as a distribution/publicity network?

I don't know. I am just brainstorming off the cuff, but it's always nice to think about what the future of music will look like.