Most of us all have a favourite song or artist, one thing that sets the mood or has a special place in our hearts. We all have our own taste of music which is unique to our personality and life experiences.

The method and channel it gets to you the consumer is often dealt through a record company or label. These are the people that help produce and make all of the CD’s that you bought and shared with your friends (Most people haven’t bought a CD in years, thanks iTunes).

When a band or artist finally signs a contract with a major record label it can be a huge moment in their career, a moment where they feel they finally made it. With this huge break, limits can be put on creativity and who they can work with.

The record label is in control of what you can put out as an artist and must be
cleared through company executives to pass their vision of how you represent their brand. For some it can be a challenging way to create what you want to hear.

Most people think independent artists can’t breakthrough and be pro table while making music. That’s where you are wrong, there are plenty of well-known independent artists out there who don’t hand over control of what they create. Take a look at some you most likely know or heard of that are independent: Bon Iver, Tegan and Sara, Passion Pit, Death Cab for Cutie, and Chance the Rapper.

Let’s look at Chance the Rapper, who has recently made a big splash in hip-hop music over the past few years. Chance has released three mixtapes over his career starting back in 2012. All of his music has been available for free throughout the years and has only made profit through merchandise and touring.

Thinking he would be far behind other artists is where most are incorrect. Chance was the first independent rapper to play on Saturday Night Live, his last mixtape was the first to crack the Billboard 200 on streaming alone, and hosted his own music festival at the end of September in Chicago.

A music festival with many big named hip-hop and R&B artists such as Kanye West, Common, Lil Wayne, John Legend, and Alicia Keys to name a few. These artists didn’t attend because they were forced to. They came because they knew how talented he was and to support good music.

Music venues struggle to keep regular crowds coming in over the weekends as Lethbridge has lost another venue.

So when you’re out with friends and see a band is performing at a club or know of a show coming into town that you haven’t heard of, check them out, you never know if you’ll have another chance to see them perform.