Music Labels

Major music labels

My research has found that there are currently three main music labels in the industry. These are:

• Universal Music Group
• Sony Music Entertainment
• Warner Music Group

Universal Music Group recorded a revenue of $6.552 billion in the year 2013 and are a conglomerate company with other record labels as subsidiary companies. An example of a subsidiary company is Roc-A-Fella founded by Jay-Z and currently has Kanye West signed to it. Their logo is representative of the instantly recognizable universal brand of Universal. 

Sony Music Entertainment recorded a revenue of $4.89 billion in the year 2014. Similarly to Universal Music Group they have many companies as subsidiaries. Artists signed to Sony include Michael Jackson and Outkast. The logo resembles a dash of paint which could perhaps represent the artistic nature of their acts. The colour red could represent action and the nature of their artists. 

Warner Music Group recorded a revenue of $2.87 billion in the year 2013. Again they are a parent company to smaller labels such as Maybach Music founded by Rick Ross. Artists signed to this label include Rick Ross and Meek Mill. Their logo seems modern and minimalist which could perhaps show that they look for innovation within the company.

Aftermath is a smaller record label founded by Dr. Dre with artists such as Eminem signed to it. Universal Music Group are responsible for their distribution worldwide but have no direct ownership over the label. Despite being smaller than the previous three, they are still massive in their own right. They generally focus on having a small number of high profile releases, considering themselves a 'boutique label'. 

Top Dawg Entertainment is a record label that has come to prominence in recent years, with artists such as Kendrick Lamar and ScHoolboy Q signed to it helping their rise. As the label that Kendrick Lamar is signed to, any conventions that they have are things that we should be looking to emulate. In 2012, they signed a joint venture deal with Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.

A general convention within hip-hop and rap is that artists seem to form their own record labels, most famously with Aftermath Entertainment and Dr Dre, and use the worldwide labels such as Sony or Universal as distributors. Acts can also be associated with multiple labels. For example, Kendrick Lamar is associated with both Aftermath and Top Dawg. 

An article from The Guardian has this information about how the average album's royalites are split between the labels, distributors and artists:

This shows that artists actually get a small cut from their album sales. In fact, with the prominence of streaming music, most artists make the majority of their money through tours. This is even more true for independent record labels who would not have same reach as a giant such as Sony to get sales. 

Generally, independent labels go for smaller acts, usually allowing them to create their own image. This is in contrast to mainstream labels who generally only go for big acts with guaranteed profits. These mainstream labels have much bigger budgets allowing for more marketing and generally bringing in more money as a result. 

To summarize, I think that I would try to get signed with an independent label for the music video as it would allow us to have more creative influence over the video itself. A label such as Top Dawg Entertainment would make sense as they have worked with Kendrick Lamar before and would have an understanding of what he wants from a music video.  

Source:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/03/how-much-musicians-make-spotify-itunes-youtube