You have got two camps:
👉 “Labels are dead! Go independent!”
👉 “Without a label, you’re nobody.”
Let’s cut through the noise.
The truth?
Labels aren’t dead — they’ve just been downgraded.
20 years ago, a record deal meant:
💰 Money for studio time
📻 Radio promotion
📦 Physical distribution
🌍 Tour support
📢 Full PR machine
You signed, and boom — you were seen.
Today?
A label is less of a launchpad… and more of an amplifier.
And here’s the brutal part:
They don’t build artists from zero.
They cherry-pick those already building momentum.
👉 They sign you because:
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You’ve got a real audience
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Your branding is tight
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You release consistently
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You already act like a pro (website, press kit, mailing list, analytics)
In other words:
You do 80% of the work… so they can take credit for 20%.
And then they say: “We’re going to blow you up!”
Meanwhile, you were already trending on your own.
So yeah, are labels still relevant?
✅ Yes, if you want:
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An advance to fund your next project stress-free
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Access to industry gatekeepers (radio, festivals, sync)
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A team to scale what you’ve already started
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Legitimacy in traditional spaces (grants, awards, media)
❌ No, if you think they’ll:
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Discover you with 500 monthly listeners
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Fix your messy branding
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Promote an artist with no identity or content
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Do the work you’re too lazy to do yourself
Newsflash:
The stronger you are alone, the more power you have at the table.
You stop being a project.
You become a partner.
The new rule?
👉 Don’t chase a label to exist.
👉 Build your own empire first.
👉 Then let them accelerate it — not create it.
Because here’s the reality:
Labels don’t save careers.
They monetize them.
So the question isn’t:
"Will a label sign me?"
It’s:
"When will I be too big to ignore… and too smart to give it all away?"