Många bäckar små : En undersökning om hur svenska indiemusikbolag genom deras resurstillgångar fortlever inom musikbranschen ; Many a little makes a mickle : A study of how Swedish indie music compani...Read more

The main purpose of this study is to find out how Swedish independent music labels survive in the music industry. The study aims to examine the independent music labels based on their resource assets and how they through these assets can compete within the music market for continued survival. The empirical data consists of interviews with 5 informants who all runs an independent music label in Sweden today. The data was analyzed using Pierre Bourdieus capital theory and the related field concept. Based on Bourdieu’s concept of capital, I have introduced the indie capital, which is a capital of information that grows with your time on the music industry field. The results of this study shows that where the indie music labels lack economical capital, they use their cultural capital and convert it into economical capital with the help of super fans. It is also of importance to build a large song catalog from which the labels can receive a stable income. Further the results shows that the indie capital was essential when the labels were founded and remains essential for continued survival within the industry in forms of knowledge and experience. The social capital acts as en exchange of mainly the indie capital between the independent music labels. It turned out that the indie music labels acted as both competitors and colleagues within the field which means that the indie music labels can turn to each other when it is needed.