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.