Sound and music industry - Record companies

What is a record company?

Well a record company is where labels would find the artist and then get the artists to go out and perform. They also record the artist they find and distribute the product out.

Major and independents.

Major labels and independent labels are different they have their own way of doing things. For example, a “major” label are “major” companies. They may be well known and the company that most artist want to go to. They will also accept people with a variety of different genre. Also major labels are very well known and that most artists want to get into to get themselves known and get into the music industry. An example of a major label is Sony and universal music group. These are known as like the exclusive deal which will do everything for you. Get you noticed in the big world of the music industry. You will have a lot of competition so they will help you get noticed if they think you will be good enough. However you will have to work hard and do the things they ask for to benefit from it. Meaning you will earn more money from it. As for indie labels. There are many around nowadays, so at least if you do your research and want to try it out and get into it then you will come across one at least. And if anything you could always try and make your own label if you want to. Maybe you want to help others out rather than getting yourself known to the community. Indie labels grow with the more people they have signed to it. They are not as well-known as the major ones, but they are known to the extent of people who may be trying out or maybe they think it’s a good place to start. It is always good to start of steady rather than diving in the deep end and things not ending well. Indie labels are known to be independent. The good thing about an indie label is the level of freedom and being able to use things available to you for what you need it for. For example the studio. You will have access to a home studio maybe that you can record and jam and rehears songs in. this will benefit you because you could make albums in there and it maybe with either no fee or a little fee. It’s still nice to have access to a studio rather than trying to find a space to rent out for you to record a song elsewhere that may take time and could end up denting your budget. Another thing with indie labels is that they are usually tailored to a specific music genre which is good. If you are into heavy metal then you will be in an independent label company that will help distribute that kind of music and make it appealing to the audience with the same taste in music. Whereas maybe you like country or folk or pop or R&B. all these are fine and they will most likely have their own genre company to in into. This will benefit you greatly. If you’re a country singer and songwriter then you wouldn’t want to sign up to a rock or heavy metal because it just wouldn’t go. You would just be in the wrong company. So you can get different companies for whatever music genre you are into. The main aspect of a indie label is that you may have little more freedom in the aspect that you can help out with tour plans or merchandise designs and album cover releases. You have more freedom in the different areas of the company.

Finding and signing artists.

Who takes care of finding and signing the artists? Well these people are called the A&R representatives. These people tend to scout different areas. Maybe they will search at a local event such as a pub gig or in the background at a concert. For people that are performing anywhere or releasing albums onto YouTube. Content that they make themselves and maybe they think “wow. They are really good!” then they may get into contact with them and ask to meet up or come by the office and they will talk about what happens next. They also have to keep up with the trends that are going on and get in behind. They are almost like a secret agent scouting to find talent. They also have to take into consideration to will they get noticed easily? Will people find them interesting? Wil;l they benefit from signing this person? You have to think about their talent and will they be a benefit. Will you profit from them being signed to your company? Signing them will be done by many people at the same time. There are several steps to signing an artist that hads been discovered. Irst the A&R rep will find the talent, then they will offer the artists the contract that they think will best suit that artist and that the record company will benefit from. After all of this will be presented in a document that the artist will then read and sign to if they think that they will benefit or if it w=is the right one for them.