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With Major Label Deals Expiring, Will Beloved Alt Bands Go Indie Again?

Indie bands' major label deals are expiring. What happens next? Acts like Paramore and MGMT emerged from their deals into a different music industry.

There is also a new set of players for artists to choose from — not just the major labels and prominent indies, but a number of distribution companies that offer some level of services. “If the label wants you to stay, they have the power to say, ‘We can adjust the royalty rate on your catalog,’ or in rare cases, take your recordings out of perpetuity and set reversions so you eventually get them back,” Harding says. For its upcoming album, the band opted to sign with Thirty Tigers, which is distributed by Sony’s The Orchard and offers some services, including radio.

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