Research into record labels

Record labels play an unprecedented part in the music industry with successful musicians getting signed into a variety of big and small record labels depending on the artists image and success. The bigger an artist gets in the industry the bigger the label they are signed too. It is within the record labels interest to sign the most successful artist with the most potential as income from advertising, gigs and record sales will all benefit the record label and generate money. Sources such as Youtube and Facebook can get artist signed into much bigger record labels as they visibly see their popularity on the Internet. This has now happened to a variety of artists who began their careers and was signed in this way, such as Justin Bieber.

Major record labels

A second major record  is sony entertainment they have major artists such as Britney Spears, J. Cole and Justin Timberlake. The sony entertainment group own other labels such as Arista UK who own Bistro, Filth and Rowdy music groups. The Arista music group have baby face, Gary glitter and Taylor Hicks signed to them. The company signed a content deal with the popular video sharing community Youtube. This allowed the company to promote their music videos on Youtube and be able to impress the target audience as they can now reach a wider audience which in turn will benefit themselves and ther signed artists. They also have a website which is songbmr.com, this promotes their artists and allows them to show the audience when their albums are being release etc.

The last major record label i am going to look at is Emi, like the other two record labels this is a world wide record label .The rolling stones, Avicii, Bastille and Chase & Status are all signed to this record label and it clear that they are doing quite well through this company. A smaller record company that EMI own are capitol who also own priority record company, This company have people such as Deana Carter, Jameson Clark and Jessi Colter. Emi own Emi films and have links to HMV, so they can easily have a selling opportunities for their artists to make their album or single known and sold.This is the fourth largest business group and family of record labels in the industry. Like many companies EMI also has smaller companies attached such as EMI's music publishing which is based in New York City. The company is now wholly owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners.

 Universal music group is considered to be one of the largest record labels within the industry. Well known artist that are signed to this record label include Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Robin Thicke. The universal music group own smaller companies who have associated labels within them. An example of label that is owned by the universal music group would be Decca, they own smaller labels such as Ace of Clubs and Ace of Diamonds. The Decca music label have Alfie Boe, Bela Fleck and Brooklyn Rider signed to them. The universal music group are linked with Vevo as they co-developed them. This allows for free, ad-supported streaming of music video and other music content. They also have a website which allows them to promote their artists by telling the public when their evens or singles are being released.universal also own and manage smaller subsidery companies that assist with the overall success of the artist and indeed the music being produced. This is evident in Universal music group, with the label owning Universal Music Publishing Group, The third largest publishing company for music. Its primary function is to administer copyrights with over 1 million being owned by UMPG. The group itself has been associated with a wide array of artists such as the corrs, Bon Jovi and Prince. UMPG administers the prestigious 60,000 title Rondor Music Catalog and also owns or administers a multitude of prestigious catalogs. Of course the multi million dollar profits from smaller companies benefits the record label and is feeding in gross profit from the artist back into the label itself. Publicity is also created by publishing the works of the artist on a global scale, as the record label has control over TV and advertising of the artist and can also market the musician to a sub genre of people who will buy into the artists life style. This overall makes the artist more of a success and generates more money for the label via magazine shoots, record sales and public appearances on TV, Creating strong and valuable links across the whole of the media industry. This links the label and the artist with the media, as promotion is the key for an artists success as the media is able to portray the artist on a massive scale.

Independent records

A.Ace Records Ltd. was started in 1978.Initially the company only gained permission from the label based in Mississippi to use the name in the UK, but eventually also acquired the rights to publish their recordings. When Chiswick's pop side was licensed to EMI in 1984, Ace switched to more licensing and reissuing work. In the 1980s it also gained the licensing for Modern Records,and its follow up company Kent Records, whilst in the 1990s, the company bought the labels including all original master tapes.They stick to the rock and roll genre music artists although they have been associated with other genres such as pop. They were based in the us but could promote their artists in the UK to help to try to make them a success globally. The artists that they have signed include BB king, Joe Tex and the champs.

A second independent music company is Cherry red. Cherry Red grew from the rock promotion company  founded in 1971 to promote rock concerts at the Malvern Winter Gardens. In the wake of the independent record boom that followed the advent of punk rock, founders Iain McNay who remains company chairman and Richard Jones released the label's first single, "Bad Hearts" by local punk band The Tights, in June 1978.Cherry Red's early roster included releases by Morgan Fisher under various pseudonyms, using a small studio installed in his Notting Hill flat, as well as material licensed from The Hollywood Brats, Destroy All Monsters and The Runaways. The latter was the label's biggest seller until McNay invested $10,000 in the recording of the debut studio album by San Franciscan political punk band Dead Kennedys. Cherry Red continued to sign contemporary artists but increasingly moved into the reissue market from the late 1980s onwards. It has a number of subsidiary labels dealing in genre-specific releases, curating many "critically unloved" musical genres, in partial continuation of McNay's earlier advocacy of the unfashionable. It was set up to promote rock concerts and to sign rock artists.They have the passage, Thomas Leer and felt signed to this company.

Personally I think that the music industry is dominated by four major companies as more well known artists would only want to sign to these labels as they would likely feel as they're only chance of being noticed and becoming successful is through a a large record label. There has not been much evidence to support that independent artists have been able to become successful within the music industry as the larger record labels have an advantage due to having larger financial backing and other benefits. Independent labels are not able to compete with the larger record labels which therefore doesn't allow them to dominate to succeed within the music industry. Independant and less recognised artists will therefore not be able to prosper within the music industry as they are not able to reach mainstream audiences in order to flourish. The independent record labels do offer new and fresh artists that no one has heard of before which might get noticed by the major record labels.
Independent label's will not be classified as successful in comparison to major record labels., 


Independent record labels are able to nurture and develop artists over a period of time which is something that major record labels are not able to offer as they're main focus is profit and record sales, meaning artists can be released if they do not certain targets. This may make independent record labels more appealing to smaller/ less well-known artists as they feel they have time to develop and gain a bigger following over time. 

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