Do We Still Need Record Labels?

A conversation about independence, funding, and where labels add value now.

An article caught my attention recently on Darren Hemmings’ excellent Substack, Network Notes - well worth subscribing if you’re interested in the music industry and marketing. In his article he wrote how he heard Niamh Byrne of Eleven Management speak at some length about “the shift to a more management-centric world” for Gorillaz, whose new album, she mentioned, would be released fully independently. What really caught his attention though was when Niamh was asked whether bands need labels anymore. “Her answer was a fairly simple “no”, though she did remark that funding is the number one challenge for artists and that labels certainly have a role to play in that regard”.

It got me thinking about Edition’s role, something which I’m continually doing, I might add. As the business has evolved over the last decade, it is entirely feasible for artists to remove a label from the supply chain, and become self-sufficient. There are consequences for sure - more work, more risk, more upfront financing - but also clear upsides: ownership, control, and retaining the full share.

For me and Edition, it questions our ‘why’ and about purpose. Since the beginning we’ve worked from an artist-first mindset. The label started as a way to release my own music and music by friends, so that approach felt very natural. As Edition grew, holding onto that empathy mattered, and for a long time I saw that as our north star. I’ve since realised that while empathy is essential, our real purpose sits elsewhere - in our curation and our community.

The vision now is clearer. To build a company shaped by our taste - in music, design, photography - and to share that with a growing community. From there, the work becomes about the ‘how’ we do that. Strategy. Systems. Finding ways to operate effectively within the current industry landscape. Creating value matters because it sustains the work, but it isn’t the reason for doing it.

So, are labels necessary? In my view, for the right artist, with the right set of ambitions and vision, yes. We exist to help the artists we work with bring their albums to new and existing audiences, and to create enough value in the process to keep doing that over the long term. For specialist and niche music especially, community plays a central role, and I don’t see that changing. Formats will continue to shift but the desire for creativity and connection won’t. The task is to adapt alongside it.

Any Artists and musicians reading this, I’d love to explore this deeper.

Thanks

Dave