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 conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as; Film, TV and Electronics. 

Major Independent 

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 genre. These include: 

Columbia

Island

Syco

RCA

Virgin

These companies are known as ‘major-independents’. 

Independent 

•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 that record labels begin as independents, but then are bought by a major and then become major-independents.