Indie Labels

Progressively developing indie record label companies

When we say independent labels, we refer to those working independently or outside the scope of the Big Four – a group of major labels in the music industry. The Big Four record labels are composed of EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner. In the United Kingdom alone, there are more than 200 indie record labels. Let us talk about some of them.

One of the most famous indie record labels is Domino Recording Company, who is now on its 16^th year in the music industry. In the United Kingdom, it is considered as one of the longest running and most triumphant recording company. Domino Records was established and is based in London. It also has an office established in Brooklyn, New York in the United States. During the early years of Domino Records, most of their releases were records of American independent artists and curious British music.

During 2005, Domino Records was greatly successful in the production of Franz Ferdinand’s album entitled You Could Have It so Much Better, which hit the top rank in UK hits in October of the same year. That very same month, one of Arctic Monkey’s single ranked first in the UK music charts.  Some of their signed artists in the UK include Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkey, Orange Juice and The Pastels.

Another independent music label who broke the scene in 2000 is Accidental Records. Spearheaded by Matthew Herbert, which is a musician himself, Accidental Records focus on representing indie music that is both weird and wonderful (according to their own words). This label stationed their headquarters in South London. One of their famous releases is Roisin Murphy’s debut album entitled “Ruby Blue”.

A progressively developing indie record and label company in UK is Aardvark Records, Ltd. Established in 2003, Aardvark Records has done many major influences in the online indie music industry. They were among the first indie record labels who advocated internet radio and podcast. Aardvark Records also consistently make themselves and their artists’ music available to anyone by having MySpace accounts which allows free streaming of music, blogs that show recent activities and up and coming events of artists signed under them and more. This company is based in Cornwall, United Kingdom.

Another one of the longest running independent record labels is ZTT records, which was established in 1983. Four people composed of Paul Morley, Trevor Horn, Gary Langan and Jill Sinclair, put their heads together to create this independent label. Trevor Horn was a member if the group The Buggles, which made popular the song entitled “Video Killed the Radio Star”. This independent label is also known as Zang Thumb Tuum. During the 90s, ZTT triumphed in its ventures as a dance label in launching 808 State and Seal. Currently, they feature remixes of their artist Art of Noise. The company is based in Sarm West Studios in London.