XL recordings case study

The independent record label I chose to study is XL recordings, and was launched in 1989 specifically for rave and dance music. But over the last couple of decades, the label has grown into one of the most successful independent labels in the world. With its increasing success and musical success, with the likes of The Prodigy and SL2, the label widened their genres and signed a mixture of artists with different genres such as freak-folk, alternative rock, hip-hop and UK garage. There are over 30 artists signed to XL, all varying in popularity and style of music. Some of well know, such as; Radiohead, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, Vampire Weekend, Friendly Fires and Basement Jaxx. The new media benefits the label in these areas:
Marketing: the label has benefited by having new media technology to market their music at audiences they think will like the artists. Websites such as facebook and Amazon can recommend other artists under XL recordings if they’re already a fan of one of them.
Distribution: The new media has helped labels distribute their music and CD’s on a wider scale by using online shops and digital retailers like iTunes, to help them sell more, along with buying their vinyl’s and CD’s on the XL website.
Exchange: we’re able to assess music from this label on the internet, MySpace and download from digital retailers like iTunes.
One the Radio One Playlist, both Dizzee Rascal and The XX are features on there, which isn’t too bad, seeing as they’re signed to an independent label. Radio one mainly play a lot of these artists, but they’ve also been featured on Radio 1 extra, Kiss, Heart and many more. Artists from the label are featured on lots of television channels, including MTV, NME and Q. Also, some of these artists are reported to feature in 2010 music festivals, most recently the XX were added to the iTunes line-up.
Ownership
•XL recordings was founded and launched by Tim Palmer, Richard Russell and Nick Halkes and is based in the UK.
Production
•The label produces CD’s and vinyl’s which are sold in music stores and supermarkets, as well as on the internet and their own website.
•XL has its own recording studio for their artists.
•XL recordings don’t produce their own merchandise, but the bands featured on this label do.
Marketing
•XL have produced their own adverts featuring the White Stripes, they also use MySpace and their website to promote current and new bands signed to the label.
•The label has their own MySpace channel which shows all of their artist’s videos.
Distribution and exchange
•HMV and supermarkets all stock CD’s from some of the artists signed to XL. Especially Dizzee Rascal, Vampire Weekend and Radiohead. The CD’s range in price, being no more expensive than £15.
•iTunes also stores tracks and albums from the label.
•XL uses MySpace, their own website, downloading and advertising via internet, which are all embraced by new media technology, along with TV and radio which plays their songs.
•The XL website is good, its new and appealing but I think there needs to be more information about them on the internet, its quite restricted to their website and Wikipedia.

http://www.xlrecordings.com/

Sony Music case study:

Sony music is one of “the big four” major record labels in the world and is completely owned by Sony Corporation of America. They have a wide range of artists and cover lots of music genres. Within this record label, they also own and partner other labels, including Arista and Epic. Using radio one playlist to see how popular and first-rate the artists signed to this label are, 10 out of the 35 artists were signed by either Sony Music, or a label which were partnered or signed by Sony. This shows us, considering all the labels out there, Sony are very successful and produce some of the best and recommended music in the charts and in the industry. The V festival have named part of their line up already for 2010, artists signed by Sony who’re appearing and playing over the V festival weekend are Kings of Leon, Editors, Passion Pit, Scouting for girls, Newton Faulkner, Paloma Faith, Kasabian, Chipmunk, Diana Vickers, Hurts and Calvin Harris. I think music festivals are always going to help artists and their label, when at a festival everyone feels happy because is sunny and live music is playing, even if they’re not familiar with the band. Artists will then be heard by lots of new fans and become a lot more successful through their performances alone.
Sony is a multinational technology company trusted and known worldwide, along with their music production, they also own, produce and distribute electronics (televisions, music players etc.), Video games (the widely popular Playstation), Film and Television production and financial services. In production, the label produces physical CD’s and downloads from the internet.
In the past, Sony has advertised their products and company via television adverts, in magazines and on the internet. Almost all of the artists signed to Sony have a MySpace page, and on their official page it will say they’re signed to Sony or other labels owned by them. There are some online forums made for discussions about Sony music, the label itself and the artists signed to them. Sony has there own YouTube channel which has more than 1700 uploaded videos, which consist of both live and official music videos from the artists. This will help promote the company and label, make them better known, easy to access and fans can then be linked and introduced to more artists signed to the label. Sony Music organises their own artists to have gigs and then lets fans know via their own website, with a full list of upcoming and futures shows. The gigs would also be advertised by many other companies and by the venue themselves.
Artists that are signed to Sony Music have the CD’s sold in a wide variety of stores worldwide, one of the most popular entertainment stores in the UK, HMV stock these CD’s along with most supermarkets. The CD’s usually range from £7-12, but may decrease during sales. You are also able to but the downloads and albums from iTunes however, you can’t download the music directly from Sony’s website but they do give you information about the CD’s on there, including a long description and updates fans on new releases. New Media technology is likely to help all labels, it lets fans share their favourite music and various websites and blogs promote them, making them better known. New Media has helped record labels by making the artists more popular, they’re now widely advertised and recommended across the web, although this has caused people to illegally download music, making the label miss out on money. But on the over hand, its made it easier for people who’re willing to pay for their music because they can now buy CD’s and downloads through lots of different websites and companies, this way sales increase.

Key terms

Distribution:
How does your label distribute music to the fans?
-Physical (CD's)
-Online (hybrid retailers like Amazon)
-Pure digital retailers (iTunes)
-Live streaming (Last FM has a pay function, Spotify)

Consumption and Exchange:
How do we access music?
Do we buy it? Live stream it? Peer to peer?
Is it fair to expect music for free? How can labels then make money from their music? Gigs, festivals and mechandising.
Should the government be tougher on legal downloading?

Major Grammy Winners '10

The Grammy’s are one of the biggest awards ceremonies of the year. They are hosted in America and only the top celebrities and icons attend. Awards are given to those who achieve outstanding musical performances in the past year. The ceremony was first established in 1958, and is now aired on American TV station live from the studio.
Some of the major awards won this year were;

Record of the year: Use Somebody- Kings Of Leon
Album of the year: Fearless- Taylor Swift
Song of the year: Single Ladies- Beyonce Knowles
Best new artist: Zac Brown Band

Some of the stars beat their personal records of last year, such as Beyonce (belongs to record label, Columbia) who went home with six Grammy awards and Taylor Swift (who belongs to record label, Big Machine Records) who took away four. This year the Grammy’s also made a new record with their highest ever viewer ratings, 25.8 million people sat down to watch the artists collect their awards. There were many nominated UK artists who attend the awards in hope of a win such as Coldplay (EMI) and U2 (Mercury record label) along with other European bands like Phoenix who won Best Alternative Music Album (who belongs to one of the big four record labels, EMI). The UK also hosts award ceremonies like the Grammy’s, such as the Brits which is probably the biggest one, and other smaller ceremonies such as the Urban Music Awards.

Tecnnological Convergence

Devices that can now store and play music:
- Phones/iPhones
- mp3 players
- iTunes
- computer
- games consoles
-
What these devices offer:
Phones; most phones offer lots of technology such as a built in mp3, camera, internet, obviously calling and texting, and connection such as Bluetooth.
iPhones take it one step further, by building an iPod into a phone and allowing you to download and select from millions of Apps, letting anything you need to be stored on your phone.
Mp3 players; vary but most will hold a lot of songs on them, some also show videos and will offer various features.
ITunes allows you to download and store music, albums, videos, films and lots more. The only problem is you can only access it if you’re at your computer or have an iPhone.
Computers; will store lots of music, films and photo’s depending on the make and quality. You can access the internet and games by downloading them. The problem is they can’t easily be carried around unless you have a laptop, which also isn’t the easiest.
Games Consoles; such as Xbox and play station 3 will now allow you internet access and to store music, Xbox is creating new ideas all the time and it’s now possible to watch TV on them.

Phones/iPhones and games consoles are all technological convergence, the others are to a certain degree but they’re not possible to access all the time because you cant carry computers around, now that they are making laptops smaller and adding to the list of things phones can do, there’s likely to be more technological convergence in the future.
Most of these devices will allow you to download music with a great selection. iTunes is famous for downloading and holds almost any songs you can think of, any phones with internet are likely to let you download straight to the phone or through phone numbers which advertise on the TV. Most songs and videos are downloaded through computers and laptops though, put straight onto iTunes and then transferred to the device.
There’s a lot of options for listening to music on the internet, you can go straight to the bands MySpace where all the songs will be available, TV websites will supply some music and radio website such as BBC Radio One will let you listen to the show that’s now on, and shows that have been on throughout the last few weeks. YouTube is used famously by a lot of people to watch and listen to music and many other videos.
You are supposed to pay to download music, although a lot of people download the songs illegally for free but using sites such as Limewire. iTunes is used a lot for downloading and song price range, they’re usually about £1.30.
Out of all the devices that have been evaluated, I think the most useful is an iPhone, it has everything you need with easy access, its not as big as a computer or laptop and can easily be carried around. You are able to download straight from the phone and access the internet quickly. I think it’s the most convenient device from the list given.

The "Big Four" record labels

Record Labels

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