Record Labels

Record Labels are important and especially important to an artist for a number of reasons. They publish music from their signed artists usually through media and help promote the artists songs and their upcoming tours or albums. Signing to a good label can help an artist increase their popularity, as the record label wants the artist to make them money, so they will further push and market the artist in order to do so, which gets the artist more exposure to the public and more potential listeners.

The three current major record labels in the UK are Sony Music UK, Universal and EMI. Sony Music UK are responsible for managing artists such as Ke$ha, The Ting Tings, MGMT and The Clash, whilst Universal manage acts such as whilst arguably the most well known UK label, EMI are responsible for distributing music from artists such as the Spice Girls, Kate Bush and The Beatles. Sony Music UK own many subsidary record labels, their most known being Columbia records, which manages 50 Cent, Shakira and Pharrell Williams, whilst their other main subsidary label, Epic Records manages some highly popular UK artists such as Olly Murs, Ozzy Osbourne and Example. Universal's two main subsidary companies are Parlophone, who are responsible for UK artists such as Tinie Tempah, Coldplay and Radiohead, whilst one of their other subsidaries, Mercury manage some UK artists, examples being Pixie Lott, Chase and Status and also Jake Bugg, who's song "Two fingers" is what our music video is based upon.

Universal are a multinational record company and a subsidary of the Universal studios. Around the time of it's creation, the record label was seen as an unimportant extension of the universal pictures group, who were the most successful movies studio in hollywood, the label used to be what the film company used to release their soundtracks from, however the label evolved, and has kept doing so to this very date, as it has over 7000 employees and is broken up into many different music subsidaries and divisons. Although however Sony BMG is the biggest label in the world, universal is the top selling label, as not only do they have other branches, they also own or partly own well over 100 other music labels, some of which are the best-selling and most well known names in the music industry, which feature Def Jam, Motown and Island.

EMI was founded in 1931, who firstly manufactured grammaphones. They were very succesful in the record player market, but they didn't truly rise to fame until they went into the record label market. EMI own the Abbey Road music studios in london, which was hugely influential and made famous by the worldwide popular band The Beatles, who are seen by many as being responsible for putting EMI on the map. It's success further sky rocketted through it's own subsidary brands, with them owning HMV and Parlophone. This lead to EMI signing other massively successful artists over the years, such as Elvis Pressley and Coldplay.

Independent

Independent labels are sole company, usually lesser known labels that differ from the majors. They are known to produce more original music true to a genre and typically don't sell to a mass audience, meaning their can be more freedom in their music. There are typically not many artists on an independent labels roster. Independent labels tend to be far more popular amongst a niche audience.

An example of UK independant music labels are Cooking Vinyl, who manage well known acts such as Marilyn Manson, The Cranberries and Madness, and also the independant grime label Boy Better Know (BBK) who were founded by Skepta and JME and also manage well known UK artist Wiley. BBK founded 2005 and are seen by many as the pioneers of the Grime genre and it's artists are those who brought such attention to grime on the UK scene and were the most successful. Most of BBK's songs are regularly played on music channels such as Channel AKA. Cooking Vinyl was founded in the UK in 1986 by Pete Lawrence and Martin Goldschmidt. They have been very successful and made a lot of money with the artists on their roster, for example, the prodigy who cooking vinyl manage had the biggest selling independant album of the year "Invaders must die" in 2009, which sold 1.2 million units worldwide. An example of Cooking  Vinyl's independent benefits is that the label offers innovation services-only deals which means they claim no stake in an artists copyrights, therefore the artist themselves has full control over what happens to their music once it has been produced. Cooking Vinyl was the first independent label based in the UK to strike a deal with the MP3 download site eMusic, which helped them develop the ways in which the audience of their artists could listen to their music.

Independent labels offer some support that major labels cannot. Major labels will only really take care into and spend time on it's best selling artists, as they make they make the label the most money, however independent labels are far more supportive of their artists and have it as more of a "family" approach, giving less popular artists on their label a promotional push and also advice and spending time on them, where as a major record label would just drop the artist and not waste time.

Conclusion

Overall, the large majority of music artists aim to be signed by a major record label, because there are many pros to working with them and a lot of money can be made, usually considerably more than independent. Major labels have more money to spend on advertising an artist and marketting them to an audience, either with their music and videos or the artist themselves through magazines and interviews. Furthermore, major labels tend to have more connections within the entertainment industry that can be very beneficial to an artist and can lead to wider more exciting opportunities for them. However, the independent record labels may find that the music industry being dominated by four companies unfair because it means that artists may not take another look at the independent ones because they are not as known and are controlled by the majors and their own decisions are limited. An artist signing up to an independent label also has it's pros. Artists signed to a major label will have to fight for the attention of the label, as they usually have a lot more artists signed to them, meaning more competition for the artist themselves, and more successful artists will likely be prioritised over new ones, meaning they may not get enough of a push or attention and may be neglected. Another con are artists deals they may sign with the label, some of which can usually lead to an artist having little flexibility within the industry and a loss of creative control and their label forcing them to go in directions they may not want. Although it may be more of a struggle, Independent labels can be as successful as major, mainly because of the fact that typically less artists are signed to them, therefore more attention can be given to selling an artist and their music. Success is mostly judged by the majority and fans based on how well known an artist is, because an artist with more fans is more likely to sell a high amount of albums and songs compared to an artist with a smaller following and they will therefore in turn make a larger overall profit. The music industry is very money orientated and the major labels are seen as being more successful than independent labels because they make more money than them.  Independent labels will offer artists a more down to earth and friendly service, compared to the major record labels who don't offer this and will have more artists signed to them, therefore they will only have a limited amount of time to spend with each artist. Independent artists do not have to worry about fitting in or breaking through and have more freedom in their decision making and can usually release content of their choice. 

In my opinion, I believe it is wrong that 4 major labels dominate and technically "own" the music industry, as real uncovered talent may not be found, and also once signed to the labels, they may be ignored, as major labels only really care about their best artists. A major label has limitless funds to promote and sell an artist as much as they want to make money, and the artist they are promoting may be getting a bigger push than some other artist on an independent label who is better than them, and I believe this is unfair as the more talented artist would deserve the push more, but they aren't supported by mass funds, so it's hard for them. The artists you will see on TV shows and in films are getting mass exposure due to a large record label promoting them and signing big deals to get them on screen, you wouldn't see someone like Jake Bugg in a hollywood movie, instead to use an actual example, you'd see Justin Timberlake in films.