record labels and permission

1. Record Labels and
permission
By Jamie Tilsley

2. What is a record label?
• A record label refers to the companies that take control of
various aspects associated with musical artists. They usually
vogue for multiple artists and handle things such as; marketing,
distribution and production of records. An example could be Top
Dawg Entertainment, who have multiple artists from the rap
genre, including Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab soul and Jay
Rock- all big names in the rap genre.

3. Would my artist be signed to an independent
or major record label?
• I feel it would be more appropriate for my artist to be signed
to a major record company, as it is generally a convention
that rappers get signed to major labels as money is an
ideology of rap and is more achievable when signed to a big
record label who can put out more publicity to the songs and
records through better and well funded marketing. A record
label such as ‘Top Dawg Entertainment’ would be a good suit
for my artist as they often scout young/upcoming talent but
also are well funded as they are a major record label.

4. History of Top Dawg Entertainment
• 1997 marked the beginning of the record label, receiving its name
from the founder: Anthony “ Top Dawg” Tiffith. The record label had
started with large names such as “The Game”. However the record
label hit a goldmine when they caught the rapper “Kendrick Lamar”
at the age of 15 in 2003. Later, in 2005, the record label had some
more success with one of their other signed rappers; Jay Rock. With
all these relatively young rappers being a part of the record label,
this allowed Top Dawg Entertainment to build up young talent and
create future stars. This is a big reason for the recognition and
success of the label.

5. Copyright
• Copyright meaning: “The exclusive and assignable legal right,
given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print,
publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical
material.”
• Within the music industry, it is the job of the record label to get
the songs of their artists copyrighted as to prevent other artists
from stealing lyrics, melodies and beats from their songs and
profiting off the success of a catchy song. Its also the labels job to
make sure their artists use any previously copyrighted material, as
they could be sued for using another labels copyrighted music.

6. What we are/not allowed to do
• As we are using a copyrighted song: Untitled 03 by
Kendrick Lamar, there are certain things we must uphold
when creating our music video. The most important part
of using the music video is that we cannot use the song
to get any type of revenue and can only use it for
educational purposes. This means when we upload our
video to YouTube to put it on a viewing platform for our
blog, we mustn't monetize the video in order to get
money from it.

7. Our Record label
Our group has chosen to make a record label to be placed in
various places within our project. These places include, our
DIGIPAK, our poster for our artist and in our music video. We
have chosen the name: Crew Records. This will represent our
record label and will link to the logo we have planned. We
plan to create a rounded logo with the C and R being present
to represent the “Crew” and “Records”.

8. Our Record label Logo

9. What I have learned
• Through my research of record labels and permission, I
have realised what conventional record company logos
look like in the rap genre, allowing me to create a fitting
logo to accompany our record label. I have also learned
that there are repercussions if we don’t handle the use
of the copyrighted song properly. This research will allow
me to stay out of legal trouble in regards to the
companies song and will let me use it for educational
purposes only.