Record Labels

In this sector there are two different types major and independent, these two different types of record labels rival each other and fight for the rights for artists. Recently recording artist tend to rely on the major record labels to broaden their audience market their music be promoted on radio and TV in a positive light because the major record labels have a bigger budget and have more to spend on these rather than the independent artists. Major record labels are narrowed down to a ‘’ top four’’ these top four labels consist of
• Warner music group
• EMI
• Sony music entertainment
• Universal music group
These big four major record labels control about 70% of the world music market and about 80% of the US music market, and are in control of what are called a music group which usually has non music outlets as well for example sound recording and distributors.
An imprint is a brand or trademark not a company it is a division or a specific sector in a major record label for example my artist is in an imprint called fiction music for indie artist and its larger company is called Polydor.
Record companies out of the control of the big four are often considered to be independent labels where the term ‘’ indie ‘’ comes from, most consider indie labels to be defined by them releasing non-mainstream music
A label sets up a contract with the artist to advertise the artists work in return for royalties on the sales of the songs. For inexperienced recording artists the label will be involved in recording session’s song choice selecting producers and other things however for experienced artists the label will be less involved.
As technology has improved over the years more independent labels are becoming more common and are able to be more successful examples of this technology are home studios, the internet, and various different recording equipment. These independent labels are often artist owned and do not have the budgets available to them as the major labels do this results in the independent labels having smaller costs but have higher royalties because they independent labels pay out up to 70% royalty payments from sales whereas the majors only pay out 10% from sales.
My artist is in the indie genre and this genre benefits from the major record labels however because my artist already has a good reputation and a good audience and recognition a major record label is not needed and the costs the major labels use is not needed so it will be an independent label because of lower production costs and still the artistic creativity of the artist on the video.