Patryk Galuszka, Katarzyna M. Wyrzykowska, Rethinking Independence: What Does 'Independent Record Label’ Mean Today?, In: Ewa Mazierska, Les Gillon, Tony Rigg (eds), Popular Music in the Post-Digital Age Politics, Economy, Culture and Technology, Bloomsbury Academic 2018.
Our main goal in this paper is to draw from empirical data gathered within a particular recording market, Poland, to find a new criterion to distinguish independent record labels from ‘mainstream’ or ‘dependent’ ones. In-depth interviews conducted with representatives of fifty-two record labels operating in the same economic and legal conditions allow us to compare the answers provided by our respondents. We believe that analysing the development of independent record labels in a country located away from the centre of the music industry may enrich the global debate on the issue, and that our conclusions will prove interesting to scholars working in other countries.