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FEATURE
“ I can do whatever I want ,” he told Billboard . “ I can do whatever videos I want , play whatever shows I want , I can release what I want , talk how I want , freely about any subject .”
Chance the Rapper has instead decided to stick with SoundCloud , expressing his loyalty to the music service in a tweet , “ I ’ ll stick with @ SoundCloud till I die . It ’ s the only music platform that cares about the artist and the fan .”
UK grime artist Skepta has done it all himself from the beginning . Starting as a pirate radio DJ , he and brother Jamie ( JME ) went on to join Roll Deep as Emcee ’ s and from there co-founded their own independent label , Boy Better Know . The label has housed and worked with artists such as Diddy , Pharrell , Dizzie Rascal and Drake as well as their very successful clothing line .
For the last decade , Skepta has remained a major player in the grime game and he believes he has done that by staying true to himself and his music , speaking and writing about what he believes and not selling his soul or being dictated to by figure heads , who have no interest in him or his music . However , there was a time when the grime star was close to signing with a label . In an interview with Timeout he explains how he was close to signing a deal .
They were like : “ We understand you ’ ve done this all yourself , Skepta . You can have a deal like no-one else has got ! You can have this , Skepta ! You can have that , Skepta !” And I nearly broke . But I just wanted to know , if all else fails musically , could I make a CD and take it worldwide by myself . Like do you actually have to do this record label thing ? And then I found out it was all a mirage . They just didn ’ t have anything for me .”
Organisations such as Aim and schemes such as the Music Export Growth Scheme ( MEGS ) help in funding , supporting and building a platform for independent artists and their music . Between January 2014 and March 2016 more than £ 1.6m was handed out through MEGS to help independent artists and independent labels market their music and artists overseas . It helped artists like Catfish and the Bottleman and Afrikan Boy to gain success overseas . This was done to help Britain as one of the biggest exporters of new music to be protected when the UK leaves the EU . AIM ( Association of Independent Music ) is another organisation that supports and represents independent music companies ; its aims are to represent issues to the government , EU and throughout the global industry as well ensuring a fair market in which the Indies can compete and thrive . AIM supports independent music companies such as VEVO , PPL , YouTube , Women in Music and are creators of the AIM music awards .
With all this being said , major record labels are not being phased out just yet with up and coming artists still signing major record deals and the majority of music being released through record labels such as Sony , Columbia and Def Jam . Major labels like these are still the core of the music industry , including radio and TV , however with the increase of independent labels and artists , independent music today is responsible for 30 % of music record sales , a percentage that will be sure to increase with social media platforms such as YouTube , Vevo and SBTV taking over and artists such as Keyshia Cole , Ray J , T . I and Gucci Mane leaving major record label deals in order to start up their own independent labels .
With Indie artists such as Macklemore , Nipsey Hussle , Fetty Wap and Childish Gambino being some of the most successful and richest artists on the planet right now and doing it all without the backing of a major label , up and coming artists today are seeing the possibility of doing it all themselves and being on top without the pressure , control and loss of artistry that they could face being signed to a record label and that is the threat .
Unless a label can offer an obscene amount of money as well as 100 % creative control ( which is unlikely ), no wonder a lot of artists don ’ t feel the need to sign to a major record deal , why would they ? If you can make great money , travel the world , make the music you want and have total freedom over what you do ? Would you sign to a major ?
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