A brand is a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers"
Record Labels enforce the copyright protection of the band or artist, mainly concerning the protection of sound recordings and music videos. They also handle the contracts between the band members and their managers.
The term "record label" originally comes from the circular label that is found at the center of a vinyl record which displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information.
Around 23% of label revenue is poured back into the signing and developing of new talent through their A&R (artist and repertoire) departments. Record labels enable artists, through advances and marketing/sales support, to treat music making as a full-time career. They exploit the artists’ recordings commercially and collect and pay the resulting royalties on their behalf.
Labels traditionally pay for the recording and mixing of albums (which they eventually, and hopefully get back through the sales of said albums), and they often underwrite new acts’ touring costs to help raise their profile and sales.
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Large record labels, known as 'Major Labels', may own several 'Sub-Labels' that trade under a different name. Music collectors often use the term sublabel to refer to either an imprint or a subordinate label company (such as those within a group). Since of 2008, there are now only 4 'major labels', however in the beginning there were 6, there were:
Warner Music Group (WMG) is one of the big four record companies, the third largest in the business group and family of record labels in the recording industry.
Warner Music Group was formed in 2004 when it was spun off and made completely separate from Time Warner; as a result Time Warner no longer retains any ownership whatsoever in the Warner Music Group.
In May 2011, the company announced its sale to Access Industries Inc. The purchase of the company was completed on July 20, 2011.
EMI (one of the main four remaining)
EMI, is a British multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and was one of the "big four" record companies.
It was formed in March 1931 by the merger of the Columbia Graphophone Company and the Gramophone Company.
Sony Music Entertain (one of the main four remaining)
Sony Music Entertainment (SME or Sony Music) is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation.
The company, which evolved into Sony Music, was founded in 1929 as the American Record Corporation (ARC) through the merger of several smaller record companies.
Bertelsmann Music Group
Bertelsmann Music Group, (BMG), was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann. It consisted of the BMG Music Publishing company, the world's third largest music publisher and the world's largest independent music publisher, and the 50% share of the joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Sony BMG).
Universal Music Group (UMG) (one of the main four remaining)
Universal Music Group (UMG) is a multinational music company. It is the largest of the "big four" record companies by its leading market share and its multitude of global operations. Universal Music Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of French media conglomerate Vivendi.
Universal Music Group owns a music publisher, Universal Music Publishing Group, which became the world's largest following the 2007 acquisition of BMG Music Publishing.
The UMG corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California, United States.
Polygram
PolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.
World music market sales shares, according to IFPI.
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Independent Record LabelsIndependant record labels ('indie') are record companies that work without the funding from the larger companies, they often allow many smaller music acts the boost they need to begin their musical career. Although most Indie labels are fairly small, some are be large corporations that still remain independant.
The bands taken on by Indie labels will often be completely different to the mainstream genre of music (pop/R&B etc) that would most likely be found in the larger record labels.
In the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s, the major record companies EMI, Philips, and Decca had so much power that independent labels struggled to become established. Several British producers launched independent labels as outlets for their work.
Some independent record labels are:
Wall Of SoundWall of Sound is an independent record label based in London, England.
The label was founded by Mark Jones in 1994 and started out producing electronic music genres such as big beat before diversifying into a broad range of musical genres.
http://www.wallofsound.net/ is the website for this label.
Current artists
- Aeroplane
- Grace Jones
- The Human League
- Reverend and The Makers
- Röyksopp
- Scala & Kolacny Brothers
- The Jolly Boys featuring Albert Minott
- Tiesto v Diplo featuring Busta Rhymes
Drowned In SoundDrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway (who manage Mick Hucknall and Brett Anderson). The site is an editorially independent music website.
DiS started as an email fanzine in 1998 called 'The Last Resort' but was relaunched by founder Sean Adams as Drowned in Sound in 2000. It is currently edited by Sean Adams.
Record label
In 2003 Drowned in Sound started a record label which has released recordings by:
- Adam Gnade
- Bat for Lashes
- Blood Red Shoes
- Brett Anderson
- Emily Haines
- Emmy the Great
- Jeniferever
- Kaiser Chiefs
- The Koreans
- Les Incompétents
- Martha Wainwright
- Metric
- Redjetson
- The Stills
- ThisGirl
- Youthmovies
