Record labels.

Label is short for record label. Record labels are companies that manufacture and distribute recorded music and promote that music (or at least hire people to handle the promotion). There are two kinds of record labels independent (indie labels) and major labels (aka big four labels). Indie record labels are independent companies that do not have a corporate backer. Major labels are large corporations often owned by a parent company, like Sony. Three major companies dominate the industry and they are Universal music group, Sony music entertainment, and Warner music group.

 

 







 

 



 

 

 



 

 

The most successful bands are usually with mainstream record labels or subsidiary's of one of these major companies, for example if we look at Slipknot for example, they are signed by RoadrunnerRecords.  

 

They concentrate primarily on metal bands which can be linked to my genre, it is a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, they feature artists such as Slash and Nickleback. They distribute their products mainly through iTunes and Amazon, however also have direct links to buy concert tickets and CD's online. Social Media is very important for the company as they are promoting their company and bands through social media, there are direct links to twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google, to follow the bands and the company, they spread there image mainly through these sites and not their website.

Here is the home page for the website:

 

 

On the other hand, Metropolis records are an Independent company and therefore their website is a lot different compared to the Roadrunner Records website:

 

As you can see the website is a lot less sophisticated compared to Roadrunners website. I should imagine this company will rely more on word of mouth and live events to generate revenue rather than actual record sales. There website will not get viewed as much as the other website and this is why it doesn't promote as much as the major company does and this is also down to the fact they haven't got the funds too. They distribute their products through the actual website not ITunes and Amazon, this is most likely down to the fact they haven't got the funds to put a link to ITunes, Spotify and other major companies into their website. They are also targeting a niche market and therefore wouldn't need to, only hard-core fans buy their singles and therefore they charge premium prices and sell it of their own website. However like Roadrunners website they to have links to social media sites and will rely on this a lot to spread the word about the band such as upcoming events ect, each artist has social media sites attached and their own YouTube channels. You can see the difference between big record labels and indie record labels just from their websites and how they operate.

 

I have also noticed something about their Facebook Pages after looking at them:

 

Just from looking at them you can see a massive difference, the Roadrunner records Facebook page (bottom one) is all about selling the band or merchandise, compared to the independent bands Facebook page which is more relaxed and he is trying to connect with the fans instead of just selling things to them.

 

However looking all record labels (big and small) in my genre there products are distributed mainly online through their website or other companies (iTunes) they also have links to the radio weather it be big companies like Last FM or smaller radio companies. They all use websites suited to their genre and social media sites dedicated to the bands. They use social media to promote the bands image and sell their singles, albums and merchandise.