There are many record labels within the music industry that specialise in different artists that make different genres of music. The main group of Record Labels include labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. As well as these record labels that are often run by conglomerates; there are also numerous independent record labels that deal with smaller artists, such as the ones that we are creating a music video for.
Roni Size, the artist that we are making a music video using their song, are a part of Full Cycle Recordings, Dope Dragon Records and V Recordings which are all independently run record labels.
Often, major record labels such as Universal Music Group will not allow their artists to have rights or control over their music and where it is used whereas independent artists on independent labels, such as Roni Size on Full Cycle Recordings etc. often are allowed to have rights and control over their music and where it is used.
Along with this point, another difference between major and independent labels is the difference in royalties that go to the artists themselves. On an independent label, the majority of the royalties made by the music (40%-75%) go to the artists themselves, whereas, on a major record label, only around 10%-15% of the royalties will directly go to the artists. This shows that artists on independent record labels are often better off being on these types of labels as they will make more of a share of their earnings from their music. However, due to the fact that they are on an independent label, it is often the occurrence that the artists on these labels are less well known and so will not make the type of money from sales that an artists on a major record label would.
Often, major record labels are run, as I have previously stated, by large conglomerates. These conglomerates often also own companies that allow them to distribute their artists music on an international scale. For example, Universal Music Group is a conglomerate and owns their own separate distribution company called Universal Music Group Distribution. In comparison, independent record labels do not have this type of an empire within the music industry and so they have to distribute their artists music through other means such as through free downloads and donation pages such as Kickstarter. Independent artists will often be more "in-tune" with social media and interacting with their fans on a more personal level in order to boost the sales of their albums; social media platforms such as twitter help artists to do this by giving independent artists a platform to interact with their fans in a more personal way; sharing their life as they go.
