To keep a minor independent record company going, accompanies a lot of challenges.
Qualities to discover an artist’s talent and anticipate a trend, commitment to provide an appropriate environment to develop skills and abilities of the artist, communicative paths to reach listeners, all these require possible financial plans. It is obvious that affection and passion for music are essential. And yet, not only to stick to the company vision, but a flexibility to respond to a possible eventuality is necessary. But it is still not perfect. Because of luck, an unpredictable element, always haunts this business.
So the fact that a small independent record company like Respect Records could celebrate its 30th anniversary is almost a miracle. The company has survived even in the period of a crucial transition from the physical to the digital; it's all the more so.
VARIOUS ARTISTS Respect! The World: 30th Anniversary Of Respect Records Respect（2025）
The catalog of the label covers many different areas of music, like jazz and chanson, setting the world music at its center.
Much of the music in its catalog is away from the major trend in current popular music. Despite this, why has this label survived? Because, though it might sound paradoxical, they are not the major company.
In this world, not a few wonderful musical works are buried by the filter of major record company culture. But this company has steadily unearthed these unheard treasures and brought them to the listeners.
This 30th Anniversary Edition includes a new recording of “Itsumo Arigato” by Hasiken and 19 songs taken from the original masters recorded over the last 10 years since the 20th Anniversary Edition.
You will see that much of the music in the edition includes traditional songs, pop music, and jazz from Okinawa, French Manouche swing, and accordion music, and all these are their strong area, which is why. Like the collaboration between Cape Verdean and Brazilian artists, some works embody representations of the cross-cultural exchange happening in the current popular music scene, while others feature ocalina melodies that could sound like healing music.
The label seems to set an aim to release its 40th Anniversary as well. The higher its aspiration, the better the outcome.
