In contrast the independent record label being Domino Records founded by Lawrence Bell in 1993, based in London, UK. Domino specialises in a niche market with artists signed such as Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. It is now one of the longest running and most successful independent record labels in the UK. the major difference between major record labels and independent record labels is the difference of money. Whilst Sony have lots of money to invest in new or big artists, and pay for expensive music videos etc, independent record labels prefer passion over music, they may not have the biggest budget but the owner is more likely to have a lot more knowledge on their genre being more passionate towards their music.
The biggest impact on media ownership in the past two decades has been the digital revolution and the increase in peer to peer file sharing and illegal downloading. Napster, the first illegal peer to peer file sharing website was set up by Shaun Fanning. He started it because him and his friends were fed up with the high prices of music. Many independent record labels like Domino Records suffered as people weren't buying their music, they were illegal downloading it instead. And when record labels managed to put digital locks on their music so it couldn't be illegally downloaded, audiences stopped buying many of its products and went to other sources instead. To this day, many people are still illegally downloading using programmes like UTorrent and websites that have Youtube URL link to MP3 file converters. When the iPod arrived digital downloading started and since has become one of the main sources how people consume music, using programmes and websites such as iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and Bandcamp. People like digital downloading as they can have all their music stored in one place, and can listen to whatever artist, whatever song, when they like rather than changing the CD. Creating software like iTunes and hardware like iPod, people started to prefer Apple's use of vertical integration because it was legal and cheap. iTunes users liked that they could pay for the songs they like, rather than paying for a whole album just for 2 songs they may of liked.
However independents like Domino Records lost profit as they make more profit from physical sales, luckily Domino Records still have a high demand for physical sales as a lot of their niche market like using CDs and Vinyls as well as digital downloads to consume and listen to music.
Marketing music really affects the record labels, as it needs to be appropriate for their target audience. A good source of marketing is using the record label's websites. Sony Music Entertainment's website includes a link to a page of all their artists. On the artists page, when clicked on an particular artist, you are directed to the artist's official website. On Domino Record's official website, they too also have a link of all their artists. When you click on a particular artist information about the artist and a discography of their albums appear on the screen. Below each album and single there is a price list for its CD, Vinyl and Digital download. This way they can advertise the artist and give people the opportunity to buy their music. Both websites have their own merchandise page too. Domino Record's target audience tend to go to a lot of gigs, therefore there is a 'Live' link, when clicked there is a calendar of each date and what artist is playing where, this is a good way of earning money through gigs and marketing artists. Sony has a labels page so you can see what labels are signed with Sony, underneath each label is a link to their official website too. This is an effective way of marketing the subsidiary labels and showing how much ownership Sony have over subsidiary labels.
by
JessicaaMaeiiOx (student)
