Toward a Post-Dependency Record Label Environment: A Service-Based Model for Artist-Centered Music Economies

The modern music industry remains structurally dependent on ownership-based contracts that exchange access, distribution, and marketing for long-term control over creative output. While historically justified by capital constraints and technological barriers, these arrangements increasingly conflict with contemporary production realities, digital distribution infrastructures, and creator autonomy. This paper proposes a post-dependency record label environment in which labels operate as service providers rather than rights holders. Using the Sefirot V4 framework (2025) as a structural model, the paper reframes record labels as modular, non-extractive service institutions offering distribution, marketing, and promotional services on transparent, time-bounded terms. The central claim is that ownership transfer is no longer a functional requirement for industry coordination. Instead, a service-based architecture improves economic efficiency, reduces systemic exploitation, increases long-term stability, and aligns institutional incentives with artist sustainability rather than dependency.