Record Labels

Major Record Labels

The music industry is dominated by four multi-national corporations:

   Universal

·          Sony Music

·          Warner Brother
        EMI

These are referred to as “The Majors”. The majority of these are backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as; Film, TV and Electronics.

Major-Independents

Most of these “Majors” own, or license, a series of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genres.

·          Columbia

·          Island

·          Syco

·          RCA

·          Virgin

These companies are known as “Major-independent”.

Independents

There are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors. These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialised niches in the industry.

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

 It is often the case that record labels begin as independents, but then are bought by a major and then becomes major-independents.