A common misconception is that signing with a major record label means an artist will be successful. However, an artist usually needs to sell over a million copies of an album before seeing a profit.
Many mainstream musicians have to put $400,000 to $500,000 into each song. By avoiding commercial radio play, indie labels target audience members who are open to music unlike the mainstream music on commercial radio stations.
Artists under an indie label can have more artistic freedom and control over their content. A mainstream artist is bound to a contract and can't sign with any other label. Also, his career can terminated based on sales.
While record sales have reached a slump due to music downloading on the Internet, indie labels are growing from the Internet. Major labels have little time to react once record sales slump or once record sales start picking up again, whereas, indie labels, because of their smaller enterprise, can quickly maneuver through the market movements.
Indie artists have come to gain respect in the music industry. As a part of the underground culture, independent labels have kept to the true spirit of what is indie music.