Record Labels

Record Labels are companies or organisations that represent artists in the music industry. When representing an artist they manage the production and distribution of music and the artist's brand and marketing.

Two of the UK's biggest record labels are Warner Music Group and Sony Music, both of which were founded by their conglomerate owners.

Warner Music Group

Warner Music Group is the world's 3rd largest record label and up until 2003 it was a part of the Time Warner conglomeration. It is worth almost $3 billion and has over 3,000 employees.

They represent a wide variety of artists from huge pop acts such as Kylie Minogue to rock bands like Green Day and Paramore all the way down to smaller Indie/Acoustic artists such as Lewis Watson.

Independent Labels

For the duration of our project we will model ourselves on an independent record label, keeping this in mind I have researched various UK independent record labels.

Rough Trade

Rough Trade Artist: Warpaint

Rough Trade is a London based independent record label founded in 1978. They mainly represent Rock, Alternative and Independent acts such as Warpaint, Belle & Sebastian and The Libertines. In 2007 it was sold to the Beggars Group, an independent label containing four smaller record labels.









Turn First Records

Dan Croll, a Turn First Records artist

Turn First Records is a branch of the small independent music and branding company Turn First Artists. It is London based and was established by music manager Sarah Stennett. They represent a wide variety of artists including the Indie/Acoustic artist Dan Croll and Rapper Iggy Azalea.








LAB Records

LAB Records Artist, Young Kato. Now signed to BMG Chrysalis, a major record label.

LAB Records is an independent record label based in Manchester. Founded in 2007, they also have a distribution division LAB Exposure and a New York based management company LAB Partners. LAB Records mainly represents Pop and Rock artists such as Anavae and Young Kato.

Self Distribution

Nowadays many artists choose to self distribute their music online using platforms such a youtube, Bandcamp and Itunes, advertising it using social media. Lewis Watson, 5 Seconds of Summer and The Vamps posted covers of songs and their own original songs on youtube before signing with major record labels.

Australian Band 5 Seconds of Summer, now signed with Capitol Records - part of the Universal Music Group