5. Record Labels and Permissions

Victoria Rooney

What are record labels?

A record label is a company that markets and distributes music. Sony Music Entertainment, Epic Records and so on are examples of these. Record labels manufacture the artist’s music and pay for them to be recorded, written, music videos to be directed and filmed, and much more. Artists often sign contracts with record labels for an amount of albums to be made and distributed with them. Artists lately have become progressively more dependent on their record labels to expand their consumer base they do this through their star image which I have discussed in another task.

Would your artist be signed to a major or independent label?

Our artist is going to be signed to an independent label. This is because independent record labels are not given money by major companies, and act independently. The majority of artists start on independent record labels. We would be signed to an independent label because they work independently which we are going to and produce the music videos themselves, another thing in which we are going to be doing.

Tell me a brief history of the record label you think your artist is best suited to. What are their origins? What other artists do they have signed? Do they specialize in

certain type of music or do they have a very broad genre base?

Our artist would be appropriate for XL Recordings, which is an independent record label. They have signed many popular artist. XL Recordings was launched in 1989, to produce dance music, but now includes other types of genres.

What is copyright and how are the record labels responsible for this?

Copyright is a name meaning the ownership of something. The person with copyright over something is the only person that can distribute it and make a profit from it. Record labels have this as they must to keep ownership of the music the artists produce so that people cannot make money from their work.

Our Record Labelur record label is named Drum Kit records. Drum Kit records is based in London which is a popular resort. We decided Our label is a outline of a drum kit, with our name in bold clear, dark lettering underneath it. It is an easy recognisable logo. We are a small independent company which started out in the early 2000’s when the pop rock genre was a particular popular genre. Different types of artist we would sign are these can be artists such as; Nickelback, 5SOS, Paramore, Avril Lavigne and so on.Our artist will be best suited to Drum Kit records because our record company specifies in pop-rock which is the genre of our song. and most of the songs on the album.The record label management team will be able to help our artist portray themselves in a icon perfect star image and in order to choose a specific fan base for Ann Lou’s particular style of music. Most of the bands we have signed are well known and have done well know live events. Some of the artists they have signed varies as in some are more popular than others.

What do you need to consider as you are using copyrighted music? What are you not allowed to do with your music video? What can you

do?

We need to bear in mind the fact that the song we are using is owned by the record label. Therefore we cannot distribute it for money, Therefore we will use a disclaimer (specification) saying that we have only used the song for an educational purpose and that the only thing we will gain from it is our grade. We will put the video on our blog with the disclaimer.

How are you going to use what you have learned about record labels and copyright in your productions? E.g. adding the logo to the digipak

and advert. Copyright logos etc.

We are going to use the different styles of production and editing that the record labels use when producing. We are going to add the logo to our digipak and magazine advert because it is our record label in which we have made ourselves for our specific artist. I will add my logo onto the digipak in order to make it look realistic. I cannot use my music video in order to gain income or for promotional features, I am allowed to use it for educational purposes only and the only thing I am going to gain from this is a A2 grade, I’m fully aware of this and know what I am allowed and aren’t allowed to do.

Again will use a disclaimer to say that it is for educational purposes only. This is attached into the blog