Why independent labels work for some music veterans

While dreams of signing with a major label dance in the heads of many aspiring artists attending the upcoming Atlantis Music Conference, major-label veterans like Tony Rich, Joi and Goodie Mob’s Big Gipp are now pursuing independent recording careers.

For some, as the music industry’s window for talent seems to shrink each day — without winning “American Idol,” would Ruben Stoddard really have gotten a record deal? — the independent route may be more a necessity than an option.

But for those who’ve already experienced the scope of the majors, indies can offer an attractive alternative.

Major-label deals, as the bankruptcies of TLC and Toni Braxton have shown, are not always financially beneficial. Former LaFace labelmate singer/songwriter Rich, best known for the Grammy-winning album Words, understands how major-label artists can go broke. “A major artist signed to a major record label,” explains Rich, “may go into their first day of record release with a debt of maybe $2 million because they spent so much money using all the big-time producers.”

Independent labels, on the other hand, work with limited budgets that make the prospect of debt unlikely, with a break-even point that hovers around 20,000 to 30,000 albums sold rather than the 3 million or 4 million required at most major labels. But Rich, who just released Resurrected on Compendia, believes artists should look after their own best interests — or suffer the consequences. “Artists that do not write or produce don’t make money,” he says. “Songwriters, we get paid at the same time the label does. On record one, we make money.”

Another plus is the creative control typically found at independent labels, something Joi finds essential at this point in her career. “The industry as it stands now,” she says, “could not support me.” Even though sex sells, Joi’s female-empowered sensuality has created problems for her. That she has never lived up to the industry’s expectations for her may be partly due to the limitations it places on female artists. “My sexuality,” she explains, “is not the kind that you jack off to a Playboy with, and they don’t understand that.” Joi is currently in the studio recording her next album, which she hopes to release in March through a distribution deal with Raphael Saadiq’s Pookie Records.

Being a major-label veteran on an independent label’s roster does have its advantages. According to Big Gipp, he has a name and an established international fan base because he was once on a major label. “I’ve been a major artist for eight years, and we was in the first boat to really come out of Atlanta,” he explains. “It’s like my foothold in the industry, as far as being a worldwide artist; I done already laid that down. I done already been to Germany, Japan and everywhere I need to go as far as [what’s needed for] an artist to be at an independent label right now.” Big Gipp’s solo album, Mutant Mindframe, on Goodie Mob Records, drops Aug. 12 through Koch Entertainment.??