Independent
Related: independent film - alternative - counterculture - underground
Independent music labels
"Well, I think independent labels and independent producers are the breathing ground and the creative areas for the major record companies. I think major record companies for the most parts are tremendous marketing machines and that they obviously depend upon the smaller labels to find and start new directions in music. Find new artists, find new styles... and when those things happen the majors turn around and either solicitous the individual to produce records for them, try to distribute the label, buy the label and so on, and so on... So, the independent music scene is always very very healthy and always very very undefinable." -- Marvin Schlachter
Indie
- One, such as a studio or producer, that is unaffiliated with a larger or more commercial organization.
- An artistic work produced by an independent company or group: “ [His film] showed that indies could... take in millions at the box office” (Liesl Schillinger). --American Heritage Dictionary
Indie rock
Indie rock, a subgenre of rock music, is often used to refer to bands that are on small, independent record labels or who aren't on labels at all. In the 1980s, these bands were referred to as "alternative", since they were quite alternative to mainstream rock at that time. However, indie rock was effectively launched when Nirvana broke into the mainstream along with several other bands, taking the "alternative" label with them, ironically enough. "Indie rock" tends to be an umbrella term covering everyone from the Elephant 6 collective to the Pixies to the Cocteau Twins; the main thing tying these bands together is their existence in the underground. Some related genres include emo, lo-fi, alternative rock, twee pop and Britpop. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IndieIndependent Record Label
The concept of an independent record label is a record label perceived as operating outside the sphere of the 'major' record labels, which is to say the few record companies which dominate the recorded music industry in the West. The boundaries are often blurred however, not only because some independent record labels - particularly when they are successful - have often been co-opted as subsidiaries of major labels; additionally, successfully functioning independent record labels also rely in part on international licensing deals, and other deals, with major record labels.Not surprisingly, once independent labels gained some cachet in the late 1970s, major labels also created apparently 'independent' labels which were typically simply facades. Such labels - which would sometimes operate away from the parent company - might be created for one artist, or for the purposes of signing artists under different contractual arrangements to those who were signed to the parent label. Boutique (aka vanity) labels will also be created for bands or for particular record industry identities. In all cases, 'independence' is in the eye of the beholder.
In the new century, independent record labels are changing into a new form with the emergence of open source record labels. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_record_label