Dependent Records has established itself over the years as one of the most well-known and successful German electronic labels and is the home of artists like Rotersand, mind.in.a.box, Suicide Commando, Stromkern, Girls Under Glass, and many others. But sadly, the label announced at the start of the year that they will no longer be accepting new bands to the label and will be shutting down permanently once their contractual obligations were met. With all of the recent releases coming from Dependent, it looks like that time is probably coming pretty soon now. But why did they make such a drastic decision? It’s not money, Dependent has actually been pretty successful. The real reason why they are shutting down is because of illegal downloading and piracy.
In label founder Stefan Herwig’s own words: “This is not about money, and it never was. It’s about being encouraged to continue to release music.” He explains how few albums are being purchased legally compared to the number that are downloaded illegally from P2P and torrent sites. “A popular claim often seen on Internet fora maintains that the P2P culture weakens the majors and bolsters the independent labels. This is, we can assure you, 100% bullshit.” In reality, piracy hurts the small labels just as much, if not more than the majors, because indie labels are operating with lower numbers and much slimmer margins. Stefan gives us a further example, “if 60% of the audience at a concert gained entry with forged tickets, the promoter, the band, the concert agency, and the venue would all be broke in a matter of weeks.” The same thing has been happening with the music itself, and Dependent has just had enough of it.
It’s sad, but true. Dependent estimates that the number of illegally downloaded albums exceeds their legally purchased albums by 3 to 5 times. And with no real legal actions being taken to change the ancient intellectual property laws in Germany (or in America, for that matter), industries where this is so important are dying fast. Who knows what the future holds for indie labels and the talented but underappreciated bands they support.
