Record Labels

Record Labels Major, Minor and IndependentRecord labels

A record label is trademark associated with the marketing of music. Artists in the music industry have become very dependent on the record label that they are signed with as they help the artist a lot. The label are accountable for promoting the artist and also funding them in ventures which they take part in for example concerts. The label are also responsible for the marketing and promotion which would be things such as a music video which need a lot of marketing so that the fans of the artist will know about their latest video. The label deal with production and help the artist distribute their records and albums which are produced because the more money the artist makes for themselves the more money the label will receive as they get a percentage from the overall budget.

Major

Major record labels are large worldwide media groups. There are three big major record labels these are Sony BMG, Universal music group and Warner music group. The big 3 can at any one time represent 75% of the music sold within a year. This shows how dominant these 3 record labels can be and near enough over power the music industry.

Minor/independent

Minor record labels are smaller labels that operate without the funding of the big three record labels. Examples of minor labels are Domino (Arctic Monkeys), Rough Trade, 4AD (Bon Iver), Merge and Lost highway. Although these labels operate with a lot of funding they still have quite a few successful artist that do well in the music industry who prefer to be with a smaller label because that is how they became successful.