Major record labels/parent companies

The purpose of a record label is to help fund the artist in what they are doing and help promote and distribute the artists music to his/her audience, making it available to buy with ease so that it becomes a huge hit, however if it is an independent record company then it will do the same for the artist bar distribution, in which the company negotiates a deal with a large distributer or major record company.





The warner music group own artists such as Birdy, Bruno Mars, Cee Lo Green and Oasis, the main record labels they own are Parlophone, Warner bros records and Atlantic records group, it is owned by access industries, who bought the company off of time warner through the new york stock exchange, this is a major American conglomerate who also own 'top up TV' which allows for advertisement on its channel and therefore spreads awareness of the label, creating a wider audience for its artists.



The universal music group are one of the biggest music corporations in the world, they own big artists such as 50 cent, ABBA, Ellie Golding and James Blunt, they own record labels such as Capitol records, Cash money records and Flawless records, it is owned by Vivendi, a huge mass media company in America, they own canal+ group, the leading pay television group in France, as well as a international film and series producer, this is great for advertisement and allows a wider audience (film/ tv fans that listen to music), this creates a wider audience for their artists and allows them to become more successful, benefiting the audience and the company as it brings in awareness of the artist and therefore raises the profile of the company.

Sony music entertainment are a huge record company in america, they managed artists such as Michael Jackson, Shakira, Britney Spears, Calvin Harris and Enrique Iglesias, these are huge artists in the industry and show the magnitude of the company, which draws in other big artists to join them, they own smaller companies such as Odd future records, Dreamville entertainment and DC flag records, they are owned by the Sony corporation of america,  they own sony pictures entertainment who distribute film and television series, they have distributed successful products such as spider man, men in black and resident evil which means they can advertise the label to fans of their franchise and help bring in fans of tv to become fans of their artists, making them more successful and widely renowned



Fools gold was founded in 2007 by the two DJs A-Trak and Nick Catchdubs, it linked the two genres electronic and hip hop, which helped it become a big label which introduced artists like Danny Brown and Kid Cudi, and they still own these artists.



XL recordings was launched in 1982, releasing dance and rave music, currently owned by Richard Russell, it started as an offshoot of beggars banquet records, and is part of the beggars group of labels, Russell focused on working with artists he found 'original and inventive', they own artists such as Adele, Tyler the creator and Radiohead.


I do not think it is right that there are a few dominant record labels as it makes it more difficult for new and upcoming artists at smaller labels to be recognised and become big and successful, this also prevents small labels from becoming big due to the big companies buying out smaller companies and taking upcoming artists, preventing smaller companies from making any big money, independent labels struggle to fund their artists and cannot advertise their artists and help sell them to their audience, whereas big conglomerates can afford to financially support artists and help sell them to an audience, therefore helping them become more successful as a company. Independent labels give new and upcoming stars a chance to develop and release their music, major labels only bring in established stars and do not give new artists a chance to prove themselves, this means independent labels are a key part of the industry and without them we would not have so many new artists. Big record labels allow the artist to be funded with lots of money behind them they can have lots of promotion and be sent around the world to promote themselves as artists due to the big money behind them, also they can create better and more creative music videos as the company have an endless supply of money, however, in comparison, smaller, independent companies have a limited amount of money for promotion and music video production which prevents them from being as creative as they want and truly expressing themselves, this is a barrier when trying to make the artist successful. Artists signed to bigger record label are at the top of the 'hierarchy of record labels' as they have much more funds, artists such as Michael Jackson have become successful due to the finical backing of his record label, the Sony music entertainment, this prevents smaller artists breaking onto the scene as big label artists take all the limelight. Success is measured in different ways, for a big record company an average turnover may be a massive success for independent labels, and for this reason it is hard to compare, although the majority of big artists are signed to a major record label there are independent artists that break onto the mainstream scene and become big, and example of this was macklemore and ryan lewis, their song 'thrift shop' was a huge hit and hit the mainstream music world by storm, it hit number one in the billboard top 100 and their song sold over 7 million copies in the US alone and has hit over 790 million on youtube, showing that independent artists can break through and overtake bigger artists signed to major labels. Independent labels offer support for new artists on the scene, allowing them to mould into their own image and flourish as an artist, whereas major labels expect the artist to sell straight away and settle in the industry easily, if not the artist is dropped and loses their backing from the label, also the independent labels are more open to more diverse acts to gain attention from their audience, by differing from bigger artists, the audience are more likely to look at smaller artists if they are diverse.