Open-source record labels are a reaction against what some musicians see as corporate control of music via means of copyright. They believe that creativity requires that musicians reappropriate and reinterpret music and sounds to enable them to create truly innovative music.

Open source record labels believe that the fight over Free/Libre and Open Content and Media are a struggle over the freedom of expression and the freedom of speech, radically opening up the possibilities of media. To this end open source record labels are attempting to release music under so-called copyleft, a license that enables music writers to develop music collaboratively and equitably and then release it into the public domain.

Examples are