XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 that has grown to be one of the most influential and diverse independent labels. It began as a label for acid house and dance music but later signed influential artists across many genres like The Prodigy, Radiohead, Dizzee Rascal, and Adele. Radiohead in particular felt greater freedom on XL to experiment musically and with their marketing strategies. Today, XL continues to sign diverse new artists and uses social media like Tumblr to help artists engage with fans while maintaining a focus on creative freedom rather than business pressures faced by major labels.

1. Starter
• Create a record label.
• Consider:
• What genre of music would be on the
label?
• How you are going to entice
consumers to buy your artist’s music?
Strategies.
• How are you going to use web 2.0?

2. Music Industry
Aims: to examine an independent
record label case study and
research another.

3. Independent Record labels
• What are they?
• A record label that is exist and is funded
outside of a major record label.
• They are often set up by a few people and
work outside of ‘the mainstream’.
• Lots of musicians begin on independent
labels before being signed to a major
label.

4. XL Recordings- case study
• http://www.xlrecordings.com/thisweek
• XL Recordings is a British independent record
label which was launched by Tim Palmer, Nick
Halkes and Richard Russell in 1989.
• It began as ‘rave’ label during the acid house
craze of the late 80s.
• In the last 15 years it has grown into one of the
most influential and diverse independent labels
in the world.

5. XL Recordings
http://www.xlrecordings.com/

6. XL- early days
• During the early nineties, XL Recordings
releases were dance orientated ranging
techno to Breakbeat hardcore and drum
and bass.
• XL were responsible for signing The
Prodigy who released their first singles
and first album with them.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svJvT6ruolA&feature=relmfu&safe=active

7. XL and Adele
• Adele’s huge success is in part attributed to her work
with XL Recordings.
• Read the article.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08DjMT-
qR9g&ob=av2e&safe=active

8. Radiohead and XL
• Radiohead became one of the biggest selling acts in the world in the early 90s.
• They were signed to EMI and released two albums that were number 1 in the USA (‘The
Bends’ and ‘OK Computer’).
• Radiohead have always been steadfastly independent in their thinking and didn’t like
being controlled by a big label like EMI.
• EMI criticised their next two much more experimental albums which didn’t sell as well.
‘Kid A’ was one of the first albums to be leaked on Napster.
• This led to Radiohead eventually leaving EMI and moving to XL in 2007, over ten years
since they had been first signed to EMI. Once on XL, Radiohead felt greater freedoms to
experiment both musically but also in the marketing of their material.
• The release of their first XL album ‘In Rainbows’ was made available online only. This
was made more unusual by the bands request not to set a fixed price for the album. The
band asked their fans to pay ‘what they felt’ to be the right price, which of course could’ve
been 1 pence! 1.2 million downloads were reportedly sold on the day of release.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8&feature=relmfu&safe=active

9. XL- diverse and inventive
• In the late 90s/early noughties, Russell broadened the
musical horizons of the label whilst maintaining a credo
of working with artists he saw as original and inventive
• XL signed artists and released albums in this period that
were deemed to be groundbreaking in a number of
genres, including Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Boy in Da Corner’
and the White Stripes ‘White Blood Cells’.
• In recent years the label has signed acts as diverse as
indie dance band Friendly Fires, grime artist Giggs,
electro fusion artist MIA and re-signed 65 year old jazz
poet Gils Scott Heron.

10. XL. Web 2.0 and the future
• Fans can check up on all the latest news about their favorite artists with
just one mouse-click.
• Russell says that labels are increasingly worried about diminishing
profits, using ageing business models to combat piracy.
• Major labels would not give their artists the creative freedom that XL
has given its artists.
• There is a stress on personal attention to artists at XL that may be
missing at a major label, and Richard Russell has summed up the
future as such: "we (XL) will continue to be hungry for new artists and
ready to put out exciting music that will challenge fans".
• They have also pioneered the use of tumblr for artists to communicate
more freely with their audience.

11. Research
• Select an independent record label.
• Consider the following:
• How the label was founded.
• Which artists are signed to it.
• Is it genre specific or diverse.
• How does it market/promote its artists?
• How does it use web 2.0 and social
media?

12. Adele and XL
• Sold most albums in a calendar year ever (so CDs can
still sell)
• More money spend on an artist (i.e. probably by a major
record label) the bigger the pressure to succeed – stifles
creativity?
• XL only releases a small amount of music a year –
“problem in this business is that too many records are
put out”
• The big 3 have few albums in the top 10 – make a lot of
their money from singles
• A smaller, independent label can nurture talent like
Adele (would a big label be able to do this?)

13. Starter
• Every year Billboard announce the top 20
highest earning music artists in the US.
• How many can you name?
• http://www.billboard.com/#/news/top-40-money-makers-2012-
1006415552.story?page=4