The Music Industry: Record Labels

Major Record Labels

"The Majors"

The music industry is dominated by four multi-national corporations:


Universal Music Group

Artists signed to this label include:

• The Game 
• Ja Rule
• Lorde

Sony Music
Artists signed to this label include:

• Jennifer Hudson
• Sia
• Usher

Warner Records
Artists signed to this label include:

• Biffy Clyro
• Foals
• Kimbra

These record labels are referred to as "The Majors". They are backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as film, TV and electronics.

Major-independents

The 'majors' own, or license, a series of smaller subsidiary companies in companies in order to reach different audiences in different genres.



Island Records

Artists signed to this label include:

• Jessie Ware
• JP Cooper
• Half Moon Run

Roc Nation

Artists signed to this label include:

• Rihanna
• Grimes
• Kanye West

Kanye West is signed to Roc-A-Fella (founded by Jay-Z) which acts as a subsidiary of Universal. It was founded as an independent record company however major deals with Universal has brought success with a new American Entertainment Company, "Roc Nation".




Syco Records



Artists signed to this label include:

• One Direction (joint U.S. deal with Columbia records)
• Tamera Foster
• Sam Bailey

Syco Entertainment, who own the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent franchises, is a joint global venture between Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment where Syco Music is the subsidiary.

Independents

There are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors. They often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialised niches in the industry. It is often that record labels begin as independents, but then are bought by a major and then become major-independents.

Domino Records

Domino Records is a highly successful independent; founded in 1993 by Laurence Bell and his partner Jacqui Rice. Many early releases were artists who were in the USA that were signed to Drag City, forming a relationship that is active to this day.



Recent high profile releases include Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys who have brought publicity. Domino is now one of the longest running and most successful independent record labels in the UK.

The company have a wing of the label based in Brooklyn, NY that handles releases in the US. There is also a German division called "Domino Deutschland" and a French division called "Domino France".

In 2011, they announced that it was beginning a book publishing division called "The Domino Press". The first book released on 3rd February 2011 was by James Yorkston, a Scottish folk musician, titled:‘It’s Lovely To Be Here – The Touring Diaries Of A Scottish Gent’.