Record Labels

Major vs. Independent

The Big 3

The music industry consist of 3 major record labels: Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music group. Most other record labels are subsidiaries of these huge conglomerates who make up 80% of the music that is produced.




How It Works:


An artist may either be signed to the central label or a subsidiary of that label. A subsidiary may sign artists and staff and make most of their own financial decisions independently however the final say comes from the parent label. Poor performance from a subsidiary label can lead to the closing of that subsidiary, resulting in its artists being distributed amongst the other subsidiary labels owned by the conglomerate.



Independent Labels

The difference between major and independent labels  fundamentally is control. As an artist signed to a major record label you are giving up creative control of what your image and what you release and about 80% of the rights to your music is given to the label. In return the artist signs a contract that entitles them to high quality recordings, production and distribution because the budget they have allows them to hire the best professionals in the industry and well as having huge influence and resources themselves.


In contrast an indie label is a smaller company with less money and less artists meaning artists get a lot more individual attention due to the label having to be a huge supporter of your career to what to invest in you in the first place. Artists have a lot more if not, all creative control and get the rights to their music back after a period of time.





Despite the ideology that independent labels are small companies unpopular artists, many of the biggest artists are either signed to or made their breakthrough signed to independent label. For example Adele's debut album 21 went platinum worldwide and she's now one of the worlds most influential artists after having a humble beginning signed to the indie label XL Recordings. Boy Better Know are an English grime collective found in 2005 by brothers Jamie and Joseph Adenuga, better know by their MC stage names, JME and Skepta. It was made as a means to publish theirs and their artists music independently. Finally Warp Records is a label originating in Sheffield who have had great success in the music industry and have even broadened their specialties with the birth of Warp productions thus being able to use synergy by using their artists to promote their films for example Alex Turner, lead singer of Arctic Monkeys wrote and sang the soundtrack for Submarine, an indie film produced by Warp Films.