Record Labels

Major Record Labels

Definition:

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 you tube and face book 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 and Connor Maynard.

Ed Sheeran and Azelia Banks

      

The major record labels currently in the UK make up some of the most major record companies in the music industry. This includes Sony Music Entertainment UK, which is one of the largest in the world. This company has a broad array of local artist as well as international stars. Major bands are signed to Sony including The Ting Ting's, the clash, MGMT and ke$ha. Further examples of British companies include the EMI group, 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. The EMI group has managed some of the most influential and iconic artist of all time. These include artists from Britain such as the spice girls, the Beatles and Kate bush. A further example of a major record label is the Warner Music Group which is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry. The majority of record labels are essensially Large companies within the music industry that may also own smaller record labels. Artists regullary switch between record labels, such as Azelia Banks who went from indie to major and signed up with Universal after complaining about her former label XL. Creative differences between the artist and the record label can influence weather or not the relationship between the two will have a future, with many artists also moving on to various labels depending on there growth and popularity or even there changing target market. Traditionally artists gain a considerable fanbase before being approached by the record label, this is true for British indie guitarist turned global superstar Ed Sheeran, who after countless amounts of low budget tours was able to gain enough of a fan base to be approached by his record label which eventually made him an even bigger star; obviuously increasing his populartity.

Major labels such as 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 comapany 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 beniefits 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 musican 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 apperences on TV, Creating strong and valuble 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.