Record labels are companies that market and distribute music. They invest in artists by funding the recording, writing, and production of music videos. Artists typically sign contracts to make a set number of albums with a label. Independent labels operate autonomously and sign smaller artists, while major labels are funded by larger parent companies. The artist in this case would be best suited to XL Recordings, an independent label founded in 1989 that initially focused on dance music but has since expanded genres. It has signed several popular artists. Record labels hold copyright over the music they release in order to exclusively profit from distributing it and prevent others from commercializing the work without permission. The student envisions starting their own small independent label called Drum Kit

1. 5. Record Labels and
Permissions
Victoria Rooney

2. What are record labels?
A record label is a company that markets and distributes
music. Sony Music Entertainment, Epic Records and so
on are examples of these. Record labels manufacture
the artist’s music and pay for them to be recorded,
written, music videos to be directed and filmed, and
much more. Artists often sign contracts with record
labels for an amount of albums to be made and
distributed with them. Artists lately have become
progressively more dependent on their record labels to
expand their consumer base they do this through their
star image which I have discussed in another task.

3. Would your artist be signed to a major or
independent label?
Our artist is going to be signed to an independent
label. This is because independent record labels are
not given money by major companies, and act
independently. The majority of artists start on
independent record labels. We would be signed to
an independent label because they work
independently which we are going to and produce
the music videos themselves, another thing in
which we are going to be doing.

4. Tell me a brief history of the record label you think your artist is best suited to. What
are their origins? What other artists do they have signed? Do they specialize in
certain type of music or do they have a very broad genre base?
Our artist would be appropriate for XL Recordings,
which is an independent record label. They have
signed many popular artist. XL Recordings was
launched in 1989, to produce dance music, but
now includes other types of genres.

5. What is copyright and how are the record
labels responsible for this?
Copyright is a name meaning the ownership of
something. The person with copyright over
something is the only person that can
distribute it and make a profit from it. Record
labels have this as they must to keep
ownership of the music the artists produce so
that people cannot make money from their
work.

6. Our Record Label
Our record label is named Drum Kit records. Our label is a
outline of a drum kit, with our name in bold clear, dark
lettering underneath it. It is an easy recognizable logo. We
are a small independent company which started out in the
early 2000’s when the pop rock genre was a particular
popular genre. Different types of artist we would sign these
can be artists such as; Nickelback, 5SOS, Paramore, Avril
Lavigne and so on.

7. What do you need to consider as you are using copyrighted music?
What are you not allowed to do with your music video? What can you
do?
We need to bear in mind the fact that the song
we are using is owned by the record label.
Therefore we cannot distribute it for money,
Therefore we will use a disclaimer
(specification) saying that we have only used
the song for an educational purpose and that
the only thing we will gain from it is our grade.
We will put the video on our blog with the
disclaimer.

8. How are you going to use what you have learned about record labels
and copyright in your productions? E.g. adding the logo to the digipak
and advert. Copyright logos etc.
We are going to use the different styles of
production and editing that the record labels
use when producing. We are going to add the
logo to our digipak and magazine advert
because it is our record label in which we have
made ourselves for our specific artist.
Again will use a disclaimer to say that it is for educational purposes only.