Record label
Definition
A record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and video recordings, on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. The name derives from the paper label at the center of an analog disc record.
Most major record labels are owned by a few large multinational companies that make up the almost all of the global recording industry, although there is a recent resurgence in independent record labels. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_label [Jul 2004]
Some record labels
The big four record labels
They are commonly referred to as the 'majors'. The "Big Four" record companies which hold over 75% of the market share ($25 billion market). (Compare with the "Big Six" film companies.) These are:- Universal Music Group ($7 billion revenue), which includes A&M, Decca/London, Deutsche Grammophon, Island/Def Jam, MCA, Motown, Philips, Rampagge, and others;
- Sony BMG Music Entertainment ($5 billion), which includes American Columbia, Epic, Arista, Jive, Ravenous, J, RCA and others;
- EMI Group ($4 billion), which includes Angel, Blue Note, Capitol, European Columbia, Elektrola, Odeon, Parlophone, Pathé Marconi, Virgin, Positiva and others;
- Warner Music Group (a.k.a. WEA) ($2.5 billion), which includes Asylum, Elektra, Erato, Atlantic, Sire, Sub Pop (49% Warner ownership), Reprise, Rhino and others.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_record_labels
Independent record label
The concept of an independent record label is a record label perceived as operating outside the sphere of the 'major' record labels, which is to say the few record companies which dominate the recorded music industry in the West. The boundaries are often blurred however, not only because some independent record labels - particularly when they are successful - have often been co-opted as subsidiaries of major labels; additionally, successfully functioning independent record labels also rely in part on international licensing deals, and other deals, with major record labels.Not surprisingly, once independent labels gained some cachet in the late 1970s, major labels also created apparently 'independent' labels which were typically simply facades. Such labels - which would sometimes operate away from the parent company - might be created for one artist, or for the purposes of signing artists under different contractual arrangements to those who were signed to the parent label. Boutique (aka vanity) labels will also be created for bands or for particular record industry identities. In all cases, 'independence' is in the eye of the beholder.
In the new century, independent record labels are changing into a new form with the emergence of open source record labels. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_record_label
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