1. Aim of the lesson; we are going to look at a particular type of music institution- A record label
What is a record label?
A record label is someone who signs new and upcoming artists to make new music for a specific
audience, they are the financial backers and supporters of that artist and inject money for music
related schemes.
What do Record Labels do?
Provides the funds to produce and make music, provides the funds for the costs of the studio work
unless they are a subsidiary and have access to the studios. The music record label also should try to
aim advertisements to make the artist more known in general.
Music Labels should also....
-Talent scout to finds the new and upcoming artists.
-Manage the band and the artists.
-Produce, manufacture and distribute records.
-Marketing and promotion via music videos etc.
-Copyright the material of the artist.
There are two types of record labels-
Independent/minor and Major Record labels
Major
There are now only three main major record companies and they produce at one
time 75% of the singles that in the charts. They are: Sony BMG, Universal Music
Group and Warner Music Group.
Minor/ Independent
A smaller company that operates without the funding of the major three.
Many Big Artists start their solo careers on minor record labels.
Minor companies are preference in some cases as they allow freedom and control of music offering
more diversity in the world of music.
Subsidiary's SONY Examples
RCA-Mainstream pop and RnB
Christina Ag..
Alexandra Burk

2. -Pink
-Justin Timberlake
COLUMBIA- Rock and Folk
-Editors
-Foo Fighters
-Bruce Springsteen
-Kings of Leon
Minor Labels-
Domino- Artic Monkeys
Manage Records- Arcade Fire
4AD- Bon Iver- "Skinny Love"
Lost Highway- Ryan Adams
Rough Trade- White stripes
Bastille
-Released two songs in June 2010.
-Laura Palmer EP in early 2011
-None of the songs charted
December 2011---->EMI-----> Virgin
Records-----> They got a song in the top 40
"Flaws".
Universal then took over and in September
in had the contract of Bastille to play with in
which the owner did making the band one of his focusses. Between then and April 2003 the band
was re-imaged and was re-branded to become more mainstream. The next album released 4th
single "Pompeii" which hit number 2 on the charts and the album they released in March 2013 went
straight to 1.