As part of IMPALA’s Faces of the Independent Sector storytelling series, co-funded by the European Union, and celebrating our 25th anniversary, we are publishing the fifth interview in the series with Céline Lepage, general manager of FÉLIN, the French federation of independent labels and distributors, and team member of Born Bad Records.

Interesting parallels this week between the independent music sector’s views on the risks of concentration and two other equally important sectors – live music and film.

IMPALA is pleased to announce the release of its second report as part of our new Digital Forward project, co-funded by the European Union, titled: ‘Digital Marketing for Independent Record Labels PART 2 – Mastering On-Platform Strategies’. This report turns to what happens inside the streaming platforms themselves, looking at algorithms, geographic specificities, market penetration, platform tools, and more.

“It is testament to the innovation in the independent sector that Revelator has been bought by Warner. As we have consistently said, all independent businesses need good exit options. Big players are important in all markets, and we hope that this will see more competition among the majors. At the same time, the trend continues whereby labels and artists who made a conscious choice to go with an independent partner, now find themselves with a major and the independent ecosystem loses another chunk of its infrastructure. That’s bad news for artists, fans, and Europe’s diversity as whole…