The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.^[1] In the early 1980s he had co-founded Fabrikjazz, a cultural organization, with Remo Rau and pianist Irène Schweizer.^[1] "It was due to high-quality festival recordings made by Swiss Radio that Landolt was eventually inspired to start the label": he said that "Irène Schweizer was internationally known at this time, but her music wasn't well documented, [...] I decided to bring out the first recordings as LPs".^[1] The first release sold well – 2,000 copies in one month.^[1] In 2003 the 80th album was released^[2] and by mid-2013 Intakt had released more than 220.^[1]

The label "sees itself as something more than a traditional record company, working with its artists over the long term to produce carefully curated editions."^[1] In the late 1990s, a subscription service was introduced, allowing customers to buy every new release directly from the label at a discount.^[2] Although the catalogue has been made available for digital download, as of 2013 Landolt still enjoys producing CDs as a physical product.^[1]