Early Independent Labels

> Indie-Pendent Scotland
> Vic Galloway traces the roots of Scottish Indie record labels and
> hears from the independently minded individuals responsible for
> Sensible records, Fast, Zoom and Postcard records.

bbc radio scotland, available via 'listen again' here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radioscotland_aod.shtml?scotland/feature1_tue

Apple were always tied to EMI.

OTM. the question shouldn't be "how did (indie labels) come about" but rather "why do they all turn themselves into multinational conglomerates sooner or later?"

Oak records - Label run to produce records from sessions recorded by R.G. Jones' studio. Small runs, for promo/sales at gigs etc.

that's not the same oak records that released dwight yoakam's first ep in the '80s, is it?

MCD's comment that "they were all independent at one point" is pretty much accurate. The split between indies and majors up until the late '60s wasn't really that large as the biggest selling "major" releases still only sold in the hundreds-of-thousands. The big records were mostly things like musicals which sold to a broad general audience and stayed on the charts for ages. It wasn't until the late '60s that people realized there was a huge untapped "youth market" and the industry became a big business and attracted all of the outside financiers.

So what was the earliest big conglomerate label? Maybe Philips? They seemed to have had a big global presence and an involvement in businesses outside of music (i.e. electronics). Were they the blueprint for the Sony-style conglomerate?

"Following Asch's death in 1987, the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington, D.C., acquired Folkways Recordings and the label's business papers and files in order to ensure that the sounds and genius of its artists would continue to be available to future generations.

As a condition of the acquisition, the Smithsonian agreed that virtually all of the firm's 2,168 titles would remain "in print" forever--a condition that Smithsonian Folkways continues to honor through its custom order service. Whether it sells 8,000 copies each year or only one copy every five years, every Folkways title remains available for purchase. "