Always wondered about the influence of the record companies over the bands.
Are they free to write and create new CDs?
Or has the record company a big deal in what is on the new CDs of bands?
What's more important, what the band likes or what the record company likes.?
I think the bands write what they like while the record companies thing about how it will sell.

What are your thoughts about this.?

The record companies hold a lot of influence over bands--especially the newer ones that do not have a proven fan base. The record executives want to take any band, mold them into something marketable, and make a profit. So, they hire producers to give the labels what they want--not the artists.

As an artist gets a following and start making the label money, they do gain more freedom with their material. With more sales comes a better renegotiation of their contracts which gets them a more free choice of their producer, who they write with, etc.

A lot depends on the label too - I've heard some labels are a lot stricter than others as far as allowing the artists to do what they want.

True. Smaller labels started by artists themselves seem to want their artists to kind of develop on their own. Take Gotee (started by Toby Mac) or InPop (founded by Peter Furler of Newsboys). They both have had good success and just seem to look for artists who kind of do their own thing to start with.

So to be an indie band gives a band more freedom what comes on a CD than the bands have with a label?

That's not always the case, but it does tend to be more that way. Some of the smaller labels really want to make money, but they also want the artists to make music they love. If the artists are really talented and loving the music they make, chances are fans will too. If the fans love it, they buy more music.

You pretty much nailed it AllDat....

The smaller labels generally will p/up bands that the majors pass over. A major label will usually look for that marketability and a whole slew of other things. Many times a band will get signed because they were popular in the underground but the majors try to tinker with a bands sound.

Traditionally the indies will let the bands do their own thing because that's why the indie signed 'em in the first place....