In this essay I will be discussing the four main areas of the music industry; I hope to gain knowledge about them and how they connect to one another so I can better myself overall as a musician.
Record Labels:
Record Labels are brands that are responsible for marketing the music recordings and music videos of bands/artists; there are two types of record labels, major and independent. There are only 3 major record labels left which are Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group, a record label is classed major when it has more than 5% market share.
Major Record Labels
There are many pros to signing to a major record label and the most obvious and perhaps most important one is that these big companies have a lot of money, this means they will be spending more money promoting your record, which means a higher chance of sales and popularity. Having more cash available also means they will invest a lot in touring, recording and music videos which will all benefit your career in a band or as a solo artist. Although the pros of signing a major record deal sounds incredibly rewarding, there is a few downsides which may cause a band/artist to be put off. Firstly, signing to a major record company won’t always last as long as the artist wants it to; if your major label is paying a lot of money to promote you they will not keep you signed if you are not selling records to return the output of money back into their pockets. A lot of the time they will sign a lot of acts just to see what ones are popular and will make money, resulting in the unpopular acts being dropped. Furthermore, things like artist unfriendly deals which leave the artist earning a lot less money than the label and not having full creative control of material are all disadvantages which could leave an artist or band seeking a better deal from in an independent label. 1
Independent Record Labels
An independent record label is a label not associated with the big three