The "underground" is still trying to operate as an underground, even though it has too much<br />                        straight up economic activity to still operate under that system.

                    The advantages to independent labels, in my opinion is that "experimental" or cutting edge<br />                        ideas (even in something like club orientated house) can be tried out and released without<br />                        worrying about recouping a huge investment. The scale is smaller, the time frame for<br />                        release is shorter, the percentage of money returned to the artist is higher. Advertising is<br />                        small or non-existent.

                    In a small operation you have nearly complete control over most aspects of what you are<br />                        doing.

                           The act of music is not merely the sounds on the record, it includes how those sounds<br />                               are transmitted to the world. The decision as to how a record is released (packaging,<br />                               marketing, promotion) profoundly affects the experience of that record for everyone.

                    Major labels, in my current opinion, are not nearly as evil or short-sighted as they used to<br />                        be. Some areas of culture, should you wish to get involved with those areas, can only be<br />                        accessed through major label involvement. Those channels of media, distribution and retail<br />                        are pretty rigidly controlled. You need a bigger scale of money and business contacts to<br />                        traverse those channels, simple fact of life. My own theory is that most people are basically<br />                        dumb, so expect that to sell things to those people, you are going to have go through a lot<br />                        of dumb shit. However, large and major labels have gotten fairly good at selling stuff to the<br />                        people in the areas between the esoteric-underground-hipsterz and the<br />                        masses-of-bland-stupidity-macarena-spice-girlz. Over the decades, some surprisingly<br />                        strange records have been released by majors. But dealing with the mob does have its<br />                        consequences. Check out the Negativland vs. U2's record company fiasco. <br />