Reserch into Record Labels - Miss Gerogiou

Record labels are essential in the music industry as they ultimately allow the artist a place to feel secure, while recording and producing there songs and being protected by a company. In addition to this the record labels are able to have some creative control over the artist by bringing in particular managers and other members of staff to produce a much more successful portrayal of the artist. Record labels are able to take on artists and produce them in a particular way that suits there image. For the artists point of view it may benefit them as they are allowed to be given a lot of free promotion for there songs and albums they release as the record labels are able to supply this for them, although it may be at a disadvantage if they sign up to a record label that wants to have a lot of control and change there image completely as a lot of record labels have down to there artists in the past. Overall if you are able to get signed to a major record label your chances of making it big remain very positive as they would have other artists that are successful and they would be able to promote the newer artists who join the record label. Whereas independent record label may actually induce the artists to be more original and not be so mainstream. 

Universal Music Group is one of Amercias worldwide. It is primarily known as being the biggest music record label in the world. Its headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California and London. On there official website we are able to see a list of well-known artists that they provide for and have signed to there label. Such as very popular artists like Ariana Grande, Eminem and  Lady GaGa. As well as this they also have lesser well known artists like Ben Howard, Colbie Caillat and Corrine bailey Rae. This allows them to create a lot of successful through the use of them solely being able to produce songs that cater to a range of different audiences. Universal is overall a very powerful company as they do make a majority of films and have there own theme park at Disney World. Overall we can see by just analysing there history that they are a successful company and artists have a very high advantage by signing with them due to the fact that they will be given a lot of attention and promotion. This is because Universal can afford it. Here are a list of some of the artists that they provide on there website. 

Emi record labels was created in 1957. It actually owns and manages the following smaller labels such as, The Gramophone and the Parlaphone. Virgin EMI records remains a solid part of EMI and for the most part they all remain one big company they produces artists such as Rihanna, Lorde and Taylor Swift. All being hugely successful artists. We learn that here the majority of major record labels have a good mixture of different artists. Rihanna being portrayed as the typical 'bad girl' of modern music and Lorde being known for her different style contributes to the fact that she is able to appeal to a particular target audience, as her genre and look is more alternative to a mainstream audience. Finally having Taylor Swift in the picture we are able to see how much of an impact this will have, as they don't only have the 'bad girl' of the music industry, but they have Taylor Swift whose image is all about being the 'good girl' which juxtaposes the overall attitude that is produced when thinking about the range of different artists EMI provides. 

Island records is still one of The UK's major record labels. It is one of the most popular and successful record labels that follow off from UMG. With artists such as Nicki Minaj, Nina Nesbit and Rizzle Kicks. Like Virgin Emi Records the audience are again intrigued by there mixture of artists choice. Nicki Minaj is a majorly powerful rap artist who is displayed really sexual in her music and music videos. This is obviously very typical in the mainstream industry and implies that they have her scene on to appeal and to keep up with that very alluring image of an artist who is glamorous and is successful. These particular artists are also very easy to promote at they are able to use there sexuality to there advantage. Nina Nesbit is an indie artist that appeals to the smaller indie audience. She remains very low-key and by watching her music videos you wouldn't expect her to be related to such a successful record label as you would assume she was from an independent record label. Finally Rissal Kicks who are probably known for being the most 'cheekiest duo' in the music industry will bring a funner element to there music label. This will entice an audience whom appreciate the fun side to music overall again having a varied amount of artists seem to be the way to go in create a world-wide renown music record label.

One of the independent record labels I have focused on is Rough Trade Records. It was created in 1978 by Geoff Travis. The main starting point of music sold here was Punk, early Indie Pop and sold albums from popular bands at the time such as The Smiths. Soon after Geoff Travis began to manage bands as well as sell albums. In 1980's the major labels began to become more successful which hit hard on 'Rough Trade' and eventually led them into bankruptcy. Geoff Travis started up his label again in the 90's which led to success of bands such as The Libertines, The Strokes and Antony and the Johnsons. Overall we are able to see how much of an effect the major labels have on the independent labels. The major labels overall have more control and can sometimes 'steal the limelight' over lesser known labels.

Cherry Drop records was founded in Scotland, Edinburgh in April 2011. It is well known for producing house music and won an award for the Youn Scot Creative Enterprise which made the company grow due to financial support. As a company Cherry Drop records moved to new york to continuing growing the business which overall made for an successful account. Some of there artists include, Guro Project, Phunk Investigation and Ernesto Mendoza. This type of independent record differs to the major record labels we have looked at due to his favouritism of the house genre. Major record labels tend to get out on a whim and provide alot of different tastes. Including indie, pop and hip hop. Whereas for example Cherry Drop records appeals to a certain target audience which may be aimed at the younger generation who like clubbing and this music. Overall it may lesson there profit and make them more vulnerable compared to the larger record labels due to the fact if one music genre is less popular for whatever reason they could overall go bankrupt whereas major record labels have other genres to fall back on.

Overall the main differences that seem to play a major part in the divide of these two record labels are that money is crucial to having a successful record label. The major record labels are financially usually very stable and are able to sign more and more artists onto the label and in the process make even more money from the 'fresh' talent they are able to find. This overall allows the audience to enjoy a variety of different artists form the record labels that are majorly dominant in the music industry. This is because major record labels produce artists that are very varied and different to each other. This compares to how independent record labels produce there artists they usually tend to stick to one genre and adapt on making this genre the best it can be. This is due to the fact that they do not have the financial backing to be more 'risky' as if it crumbles or flops they will just end up bankrupt and have to start over or lose everything they have worked for. The artists that I am looking into using for my music video is part of a record label that is actually very successful as it is joined to universal. In addition to this it is harder for the independent record labels to produce more well known artists because they do not always have the necessary funding to create high quality music videos with extreme visual effects and locations. Record label's such as Sony BMG are able to dominate the music industries just because they have the required funding to produce an artist who is very precise and able to fit the conventions of a successful mainstream artist. Rough Trade lies at 26/50 in the source below. http://www.radiox.co.uk/x-lists/50-greatest-record-labels-all-time/rough-trade/
This is in comparison to Virgin being at number 9/50. This enables us to see that major record labels are in evidence more successful due to the fact that as a major record label it has more money to develop an artist. http://www.radiox.co.uk/x-lists/50-greatest-record-labels-all-time/virgin/

 I do think that major records would be a better fit for our music video as it is indie and may need the financial backing to promote it further, whereas an independent label may struggle to do this, although the independent record labels are able to comfort and really help a person to become the artist they want to be whereas the major record labels may true to bully an artist into being a particular way.