The Indie Vs. Major Debate Circa 2007

The Sunday Times online took a fairly balance look at the major vs. indie debate form the artist perspective.  Do you need a major to have mega-success?  Is being owned by a label worth it?  Or is it really even that bad?

“Go into the Universal car park and look at the amount of German hardware that needs to be paid for,” says Ian Grenfell, a former executive at East West records and now MD
of Mick Hucknall’s groundbreaking venture simplyred.com. “Who’s going to pay for that? There is a mechanism to keep artists permanently unrecouped. It’s not like a bank loan — it’s worse than that. It’s a bank loan you can never pay off.”

“It’s too easy to slag off the major labels,” says Nick Ray-monde, who was part of the team that signed and developed Take That and Kasabian at the premerger BMG, and now runs a multimedia promotions and management company…A small operation like his, Ray-monde argues, can start the ball rolling. “But once a band get to a certain level, you need more power.” He doesn’t accept that the royalty split is always unfair. “To do things on a mass scale, you need to take a hit on the money. Nothing of nothing is nothing. And the market is so quick.."  (more)