Parent companies and the music industry

Universal Music

Universal is a world known industry giant not only has it cornered music it also has film under its belt.

Universal Music UK is the biggest music company and home to many top UK artists churning out hit bands and artists year after year.

From Take That to Florence and the machines to New hit folk band Mumford &Sons and world wide long standing Rolling Stones these artists are owned by Universal.

Small independent labels have tried and tried to come up against the larger Labels however have found it easier to distribute their own artists by allowing companies like Universal  to take over and pump money into them and through that have ownership.

Lets take a look at who is under the Universal umbrella.

                                                         Universal

AM Records    : Formed in 1962 grew to become the largest independent in America worked with Artists such as The Carpenters, Carole King, The Police, Janet Jackson. Reactivated as a frontline label in the UK in October 2006, under Universal. Acts to come out of AM records Duffy and the Horrors.

DECCA Records : This British Label was established in 1929 by Edward Lewis the name Decca dates back to a portable gramophone called “Decca Dulcephone”. Within years it was the second largest record label in the world. Artists included Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday Judy Garland. Today  Decca carrys on discovering talent in areas such as pop, rock, and folk.

FICTION: Founded in 1978 by Chris Parry. In the nineties the label was bought by Polydor who is now under Universal  : Artists are The Cure , The Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Nash and Snow Patrol.

ISLAND Records Group: Great Music since 1959. In 2009 marked the 50^th Anniversary of Island records. The label was founded in Jamaica relocating to London in the early 60’s. Artists The legend Bob Marley, The Fratellis,U2, Grace Jones the B’52’s.

Mercury Records : Def Jam came under this label current world wide artists come from here Rihanna, Kanye West , Jay Z, Mariah Carey one of leading hit makers and distribustion in the word.

GEFFEN : An American label owned by universal . Founded in 1980 by David Geffen. Artists include first signee Donna Summer. Other artists Elton John, Cher , Joni Mitchell , Guns & Roses . Universal Music came along and reorganized labels under Polydor which included Geffen this was in 1999.

LONDON Recordings : HQ in London however originally marketed records in the USA, Canada and Latin America from 1947 to 1979. In America the label was best known as the American imprint of the pre 1971 recordings of the Rolling Stones. Again this label was under Polygram.

Polydor : Founded in Germany in 1946. The UK division was not established until 1956 which coinside the rock’n’roll revolution. Artists include The Jam, Beegees , Van Morrison , Shed Seven and

Eagle eye Cherry.

The Music industry is dominated by the four Majors ,

Universal  Music Group

Sony Music Group

Warner Music Group

EMI Group

The Independants  V  The Major Labels

Independent labels are known as Indie, these labels are record companies in their own right however can suffer with the distribution of their artists music. As technology has changed indie’s  are able to start achieving in the music place with the help of the channel of I’tunes to distribute their projects.

The download market can now help a small label with a couple of artists reach the mainstream.

One of the most successful indie label is that of Beggars Banquet it began as a chain of record shops it followed like many independants and produced artists and distributed their music through the chain of shops. As the genre of music was punk the fan base was already there and many punks or fan of punk music would go out of their way to visit the record stores and buy the music. Artists such as Gary Numan secured the label’s future and paved the way for future artists reaching the mainstream.  Recent indies artists are The Charlatans and The Cult. They now no longer take on new signings. Beggars Banquet now are Beggars Group and now created an umbrella to place other indie labels underneath them. Rough Trade , Matador 4AD and XL recordings have a place in the music industry underneath this umbrella. The distribution is through Alternative Distribution in the US.

The Major labels and the music sold take up 75% of the music market , with the changes in the download market we should start seeing a shift in the market place.

Why do these majors have so much of the market , lets take a look at each world wide.

Sony BMG who have more than 20 smaller labels underneath them have offices in more than 30 countries worldwide.  RCA, Columbia were majors in their time and now come under the Song BMG umbrella. Sony BMG have also have distribution and part ownership in smaller independants they are GOOD music, Nick Records, Wind Up records and Independiente.

Sony BMG are the biggest label in the world however with regards to sales Universal are the top. Universal have an office in nearly every country in the world they own or partly own hundreds of other music labels.

EMI are best known for their signing of “The Beatles”  and they of course became the best selling band in the history of music and that is how EMI put their place on the market. They still to this day own the catalogue of “The Beatles”.  EMI have also had hits with other artists such as Pink Floyd, Pet shop Boys, The White Stripes.

Warner Music Group, were into the film industry and the idea behind the label was to release soundtracks to their movies. This made them an instant hit and placed them on the market as a leading music label. Recently Warner created a very good partnership with the MTV networks this would help with advertising the Warner labels music .

The format for the four majors have now changed EMI recording music business has now been bought by Universal despite Warner Music putting a bid in of around 2 billion dollars.