The four major record labels that dominate the music industry are Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Universal Music Group. Together they control about 75% of the global music market. Each label owns numerous subsidiary labels that sign and manage artists. The labels provide funding to produce, market and distribute music worldwide in exchange for profits from album and single sales. While online retailers now compete with traditional stores, the "big four" labels remain the dominant players in the global music industry.

1. 
The Music Industry
And the ‘Big Four’

2. The Basics
 The music industry is massive, it consists of many
different areas such as retailers, artists, producers,
distributors, manufacturers, engineers, record labels,
record studios, publishers, marketing agencies and song
writers
 An artist is signed under contract by a record company
to produce a set number of singles and/or albums
 The record company will then pay for the album to be
produced, manufactured and marketed throughout the
world and the revenue received from the sales of the
album/single will go to cover the cost of producing the
CD

3. Changes in the Industry
 The music industry is feeling the impact of the changing
market for music, as the way music is purchased is
undergoing massive changes, along with the
development on new forms of entertainment such as
DVDs
 Businesses that are involved with selling music have had
to come to terms with the changes in the market as well,
with the major retailers HMV, Virgin and Tower Records
having to face renewed competition from online
retailers such as Amazon
 Online retailers have had global success because of their
quick delivery times and extensive range of stock

4. 
The Big Four
Which companies are a part of the ‘big four’?

5. The Big Four –The Basics
 There are the 'big four' labels in the music industry, which are
basically the major record labels who represent the majority
of the music industry, accounting for 75% of the total sales of
recorded music in the world
 Artists signed to a 'big four' label are either signed to the main
label or signed to a subsidiary of the label, for example a
band/artist might be signed to Sony, or they might be signed
to Sony's subsidiary label Columbia Records
 The subsidiary labels have their own employees and usually
sign their own bands and artists and make their own financial
decisions, however, they're still answerable to the main
company, which sets their overall budget and makes big
decisions such as reducing staff numbers, et

6. The Big Four –The Basics
 The hierarchical structure of a 'big four' recording label
can be complex, and can also differ from label to label
 A 'big four' label is a company that manages several
smaller companies as well
 These major companies can also sometimes offer
distribution to indie labels, where they offer the indie's
releases to stores along with their own releases, but
they don't have a say in what albums the indie releases
or how the indie manages their label

7. 
Sony BMG

8.  Sony BMG was born out of the merger of two music
industry giants: Sony Music and BMG Music
 Sony BMG hold a 25% share of the music market
 The company has offices in more than 30 countries
around the world and employs several thousand
people
 Sony BMG also own and distribute more than 20
labels, some of which are the biggest names in the
business, for example, SoSo Def, Red Music
Distribution and J Records
 Some of the company's top selling artists include
Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and The Fray

9. 
Warner Music Group

10.  Warner Music Group began as a branch of a movie
studio
 Warner Bros movie studio began the label in 1958
as a way to release the soundtracks from their films
 The timing for starting a music label was good
because of the increasing popularity of rock'n'roll
music and pop music, therefore it didn't take long
for the Warner record label to grow
 The late 1960s and early 1970s were important for
Warner Music Group because in 1968 they acquired
Atlantic Records, which at the time was the well-
known for its jazz and R&B music

11.  Shortly after, Warner expanded again, this time by
buying Elektra Records
 The company also changed its name to Warner
Communications but became better known in the
industry as WEA (Warner Elektra Atlantic)
 In 1987, Warner merged with the Time corporation thus
forming the powerful media corporation Time Warner.
 Time Warner sold Warner Music in 2003 for $2.3 billion
 Warner Music Group owns or partially owns or
distributes some of the world's best known record
labels, for example Atlantic Records, Bad Boy and
Roadrunner Records

12. 
EMI

13.  EMI was founded in 1931 and was firstly manufacturer
of gramaphone record players under the name of The
UK Grammaphone Company
 EMI was very successful in the record player market, but
it was as a record label that the company really shot to
fame
 Also in 1931, the company opened the Abbey Road
music studios in London, with Abbey Road being hugely
significant in the music industry because of The Beatles
who are the artists that later put EMI on the map
 To this day, the Abbey Road music studio is still known as
a musician's 'dream studio’
 In the beginning, EMI had licensing arrangements with
RCA Records and Colombia Records but these
arrangements came to an in end in the 1950s

14.  Until 1957, EMI was predominantly a European
label, however in that year the company purchased
the controlling stake in a US label called Capitol
Records
 This relationship marked the beginning of a period
of major commercial international success for EMI
which was largely down to The Beatles
 During this time, the company also launched
several subsidiary labels such as HMV, Columbia
Gramaphone and Parlophone
 Other than The Beatles, EMI has signed many other
top selling artists such as The Beach Boys, The
White Stripes, Elvis and Pet Shop Boys

15. 
The Universal Music Group

16.  The Universal Music Group is an American multinational
company - a subsidiary of Universal Studios
 In the early days, Universal Records was seen as an
unimportant extension of the Universal Pictures Group
who were the most successful movie studios in
Hollywood - Universal Records was just the label which
Universal Pictures would use to release the soundtracks
from their films
 Universal Records eventually grew and evolved, until it
became the big label it is now
 Now, the company employs nearly 7000 people, and is
broken up into many different divisions such as Universal
Music Publishing Group, Universal Music Group
Distribution, Universal Republic Recording, etc.

17.  Although Sony BMG may be the biggest label in the
world, Universal is the top selling label because not
only do they have branches of the Universal label in
nearly every country worldwide, they also own or
partly own well over 100 other labels
 Some of these subsidiary labels are amongst the
best selling and most well-known names in the
music industry, for example, Motown, Def Jam,
Island and Verve
 Some artists signed with Universal or with their
subsidiaries include Kayne West, 50 Cent, Mariah
Carey and Gwen Stefani