BEYOND THE EMBRACE Guitarist Explains Differences Between Major Labels And 'Indies'

May 23, 2004

BEYOND THE EMBRACE guitarist Oscar Gouveia recently spoke to SouthCoastToday.com about the difference between major record labels and "indies."

"Major labels are like big-chain grocery stores and indies are like Mom-and-Pop stores that cater to a specific style or ethnicity," he said. "Indies appeal to specific kinds of music, like metal, punk or hardcore.

"It's a question of would you rather be just another band on a major label, or a big band on an indie?" he continued. "If you sell 500,000 copies of your record on an indie, then you're huge. If you sell that many on a major label, then you might get dropped."

According to Gouveia, there are advantages to being with an indie.

"Like anything in life, you learn from your mistakes," he told SouthCoastToday.com. "So you probably don't want to jump right into the industry with a major label. You learn what to do and what not to do.

"We learned that promotion costs a lot of money," he continued. "The label has to use its resources wisely. Every band has a budget and after that the more records you sell, the more promotion you'll get. Also, large record companies will take notice if you hit it big in the underground.

"But there are some bands that choose to stay on indies."

Gouveia says that the members of BEYOND THE EMBRACE had to get smart about their business dealings very quickly.

"Once you realize that you've got to file taxes for something you've been doing for fun for so long, you learn to handle your money a little better," he said. "You have to separate what comes from shirts, CDs, overhead, profit. You start getting more organized.

"The myth that you can give up your day job once you've been signed isn't really true.

"You need to think about how you're going to adjust your life. You've got to pay your bills, but then you realize that you're going to be touring and your boss isn't going to hold your job for a month. Most companies don't want someone who's going to take a month off to tour." [Read more]

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).