Record Labels

By definition, a record label is "a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos."

Majority of large record companies are large conglomerates that own a number of subsidiary record labels that operate beneath them.

Organisation of a large record label

Usually a very large record label looks similar to this, they are quite hierarchical

Some of the less obvious roles are in charge of:

A&R (artists and repetorire) - in charge of discovering new talent. A&R work quite hands-on with artists they decide to sign; from song selection to choosing where and how the album will be recorded. The people under this department bridge the gap between the recording artist and the other departments in the company

New Media - in charge of dealing with the newer aspects of the music business including promoting and producing music videos. They often help the artist create an Internet presence and investigates new technologies in which artists can stream music/music videos through the Internet.

Artist Development - in charge of planning the artists careers, although many record labels in more recent years have gotten rid of Artist Development departments due to the overtaking idea of the artist being more of a 'product.' Therefore more and more departments have renamed this department "Product Development." It generally promotes and publicises the artist over the course of their career, particularly in the beginning

Record Label Liaison -  this is usually one person or a small group of people who liaise between the record companies distribution company and the record company. They help to decide when to release and album and make sure theres no conflicts with any of the other labels the record company may own.

Major UK Record Labels:

If an artists is signed to a major UK record label, they usually only get 10-15% royalties on their own music. This too is only given to them once all debt has been paid back to the record label (for tours, album artwork, CD's etc).

Indie Record Label
Young Turks is a British Independent record label which was launched by Caius Pawson under XL Recordings and is growing to be quite a successful label.
The artists are slightly more underground for example: FKA Twigs, SBTRKT, Sampha, The XX, Jamie XX etc, but the individuality of each of these artists allows them to be good competitors with some more mainstream artists, without the amount of financial backing that a more generic mainstream artist would need.



Independent Artist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, most famous for their songs 'Thrift Shop' and 'Can't Hold Us' are very famous yet independent artists. They believe there in the importance of creative control always and that no amount of money is equivalent to that.  With social media such as Twitter and YouTube, they feel like there is no need to be signed to get them onto channels like MTV because people hardly consume music like that anymore anyway.

Labels which produce a lot of my favourite music:

"Top Dawg Entertainment" 
TDE is an independent American recorded label which was founded in 2004 by Anthony Tiffth. There are only 7 members: Jay Rock, SZA, Isaiah Rashad, Black Hippy, Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q and one of my favorite artists Ab-Soul. They are mainly singers and rappers from the hip-hop and neo-soul genre although I feel they aren't your typical rappers because they rap/sing about more interesting things as oppose to more commercial rappers who rap about money and women. This is why I enjoy their music more.





"Real Playaz"

Real Playaz is a drum and bass and Jungle record label with known DJ's such as DJ Hazard, DJ Hype, Original Sin and Sub Zero. Occasionally music by this record label will be played on Radio 1 and Kiss but the DJs are more well known for their performances at Fabric Nightclub.