SH: The music industry- Contextual research

1-      Who owns the record labels? In general record labels are part of a publishing company. Record labels are mostly singular companies, marketers and don’t necessarily converge as much as other media forms. But the major companies can own more than one record label. 

 

2-      What is involved in a record deal? Recording contracts are legally binding agreements, enabling record companies to exploit an artist's performance in a sound recording, in return for royalty payments.

Exploitation is achieved through physical sales, such as CD, vinyl and cassette; the public performance and broadcasting of works; and the sale of digital products such as downloads and mobile ringtones. The contract will define a record to include audio-visual devices as well. So 'Dualdisc', DVD and other new technologies will be caught by this definition.

The recording contract will usually require the artist to sign to the label exclusively. This means that they can't record for another label without permission, nor can they leave the contract if they're unhappy. The label, however, remains free to sign and promote as many artists as it wishes. Record labels invest huge sums of money in breaking an act and claim that they need this level of control in order to improve the chances of making a profit or, as is more often the case, to cut their losses. Occasionally the artist gets one over on the label. Mariah Carey described the termination of her long-term deal with EMI in 2002, as "the right decision for me". This, however, may have had something to do with the £19m EMI had to pay her to end the relationship!

3-      Who is responsible for making branding/ marketing decisions? In general the record label is able to control the way that an artist is marketed or branded, this is especially apparent for the hugely popular artists such as boy bands or other big names.

 

4-      Why is a music video so significant? The video is one of the best ways for the label to promote their artist and to market the persona or the character for that artist. Generally the most popular bands will use videos that really promote the artists rather than the track or the deeper meaning of that track.