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 major (the big three labels – Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment/Sony Music and Warner Music Group) and independent labels (indie labels – Rough Trade, Big Machine Records and Syco Music).
How do we differentiate between major and independent labels? We need to understand that a major label commands a high percentage of the annual sales of records and has their own distribution system whereas an independent label is funded independently and is not connect to any of the big three major labels.
Having said that there are pros and cons both being in a major and independent label. When an artist signs to a major label, he can expect that there are more funds ready for him to work with as compared to an independent label where it has lesser funds for the artist to work with. Apart from funds, a major label has relatively more employees as compared to an independent label and thus the artist might find it difficult to have close personal relationships with people of the higher management. On the other hand artists that signs to a major label will realize that the rights to their music will be controlled fully by the label as supposed to an independent label where artists get the rights to their music.
Within a label there are many roles that people acquire. Firstly we have the CEO (chief executive officer) who is in charge of the business of the whole company and are responsible for making decision and coming up with strategies for the company. Sometimes the CEO and the Chairman are the same person. Next we have the Managing Director/President where his main duty is to focus on the overall direction of the label alongside with the CEO: what type of artists to sign, methods of marketing, and most of all having the final say and approval over each departments’ dad to da operations. What I’ve just covered is considered the higher-level management of the company.
In a label there’s many different departments comprising A&R (Artist & Repertoire), Promotion, Artist Development, Marketing, Publicity Department, New Media. What does A&R stands for? A&R basically stands for Artist & Repertoire and is considered of the most important departments of the whole label. A label needs artists that will make good music and eventually music that sells well so that the label makes money however if there’s no A&R department then a label might as well close down because a label is artist driven. The main role of the A&R department is to scout, find and report new talent to the label so that the label can sign new artists that the label think will be beneficial to them. Within A&R we have three groups of people, firstly the A&R Scouts who is at the bottom of the hierarchy. A&R Scouts are the person that goes on to the Internet to find and scout new artists. They will also go to artists’, bands’ live shows to decide whether they have the potential to be signed to the label. After the Scouts we then have the A&R Manager where basically the information being researched by the Scouts are handed over to the Managers for further review and to decide whether to sign the artist and negotiate the deal, it’s the manager job to get the rest of the department at the label interested in the artist, presenting to the PR and promotions people. Lastly the Head of A&R will set the overall policy for the label and may take part in decisions about high profile or new artists.
Artist Development is also another important department of the label that needs to be managed properly. Sometimes a label will decide to sign an artist that has needs to be developed even more before going for live shows, tours and recording music. This is the department that a new artist that’s just signed to a label will go to. In this department there are high profile people in the industry that will teach and nurture new talents to reach their potential before releasing records.
A record label plays a vital role in the music industry be it a major or an independent label. Competition is tough but both the major and independent are there to help many artists to realize their dreams. Never underestimate the power of record labels.
