Record Labels

Record Labels

Major Record Labels

The music industry is dominated by four multi national corporations:

Universal

Sony Music

Warner Brothers

EMI

These are referred to as 'The Majors'. The majority of these are backed by conglomorates with stakes in other industries such as; Film, TV and electronics.





Major-Independents

Most of these 'Majors'  own or license, a series or smaller subsidary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre.

Columbia

Island

Syco

RCA

Virgin

Thse companies are known as 'major-independents'.

Indepenedents

These are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connecton to the major.

These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialisd niches in the industry.

These are called 'independents'. An example of a highly successful independent is 'Domino Records'.

It is often that record labels begin as independents but then are bought by a major and then become major-independents.