what being an independent artist means and what's the difference with signed artists (a thread)

an independent artist is basically an artist that has no record contract under a record label (Sony, Warner Bros and Universal). By being independent an artist can have more control of their profits and creative process as well as more ownership of their masters

usually artists choose to sign a record deal since the record company provides biggest exposure to wider audiences and invests a lot of money to an artist (since louis is a millionaire and has already a huge dedicated fanbase this will not be a problem for him).

now let's see how big record labels work

they invest huge amounts of money to a big amount of artists. however, these amounts of money are expected to be given back to the label by the artist. if the artist doesn't become a commercial success and is unable to give the money back then the artist is in debt to the label

now you may ask. since only a small amount of the artists that are signed to major labels are commercially successful then how aren't the labels bankrupted, since they invest so much money that most of the times do not receive back? the answer is, cause of their huge artists.

label are in very huge need of the big artists (who are approximately the 5%) because they work as a substitute to the large amounts of money that they invest in smaller artists (the other 95%).

So to make it more clear they need big artists to milk out of them as much money as they can and that’s why their contracts are so complicated and binding, because if those artists could walk out of their contracts easily they would be a huge threat to the label.

that's why so many big artists complain that they are "slaves" to their labels. because the system of record companies is based on the exploitation of artists in general and more specifically huge artists.

this video explains it very well

it's easy therefore to understand how much more freedom (personal and creative) being independent gives to an artist. independent artists have more free will. ofc they're still are bound to contracts and marketing campaigns to make money, but they're more able to negotiate

so if BMG isn't Louis' record label then what is their role?

they will basically work as distributors and/or publishers of his music. their work will be to communicate with streaming companies, promote his songs for commercial use etc.

they will probably have small ownership of his copyright and he will be able to move to a different distributor if he wants