The Role Of The Recording Label

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The Role of Recording Label In Today’s Music Industry Cambridge Dictionaries Online website defines ‘label’ simply as: ‘a company that makes and sells musical recordings’. In order to understand the role of labels, we should define basic label types, discuss label’s typical structure, and understand how the recent changes in the business affected the labels. Label types Two basic types are Major record label and Independent label (or Indie). A major label is a large record company with many departments, years-proven experience, and large-scale budgets. The biggest major labels are the so-called “Big-3”, represented by Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. These mega-companies own many smaller labels. Such a child-label is a company by itself: it manages its own staff, signs its own artists and has its own budget. An Independent label is a smaller company that doesn’t have a parent company to report. Independents specialise in one music genre, unlike the majors, who can handle vast spectrum of music styles. Passman (2011 pp.66-67) defines two subtypes of Indies: Major-Distributed Independent and True Independent. He explains: ‘Major-Distributed ..an independent entity that has little or no staff, but rather signs artists and contracts with a major label to perform all functions except recording the records.‘ ‘A true independent is not owned by a major label, but rather is financed by its owners and/or investors ..distribute their records through independent distributors’ The Label structure One can learn the label’s basic functions are by studying its departments. Larger label naturally has more specialized departments, while smaller label’s members have to cope with multiple responsibilities. Knab (2010) describes major label management as the following hierarchy: CEO – responsible to
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