Record Labels and Sony Music

Record Labels and Sony Music

What is a Record Label?

''A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos.''

In other words, record labels are usually a company that promotes and distribute music to consumers so that they make money. This could include music videos  especially because they help to gain customer awareness of an artist. A record label has multiple objectives and roles in the movie industry. However, the overall objective is usually to make money using artists and their popularity. 

Other roles include ''managing such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos; also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists''. Recruiting and developing anew artist is also called A&R. 

Record labels become well-known to artists and the public as they are printed on music products such as CDs, vinyl and merchandise, etc. 

Types of Record Labels

Major Labels

Major Labels include:

• Warner Music Group
• EMI
• Sony Music Entertainment
• BMG
• Universal Music Group
• and PolyGram.

These types of record labels have the potential to offer deals to the world's most successful musicians. This label owns distribution networks where the artist's music that is signed to the label is released and distributed to the consumers. The label and the artist have to sing several contracts considering licensing and distribution agreements. This will make sure that the label will get a cut of the artist's earning while the artist and his/her music is being promoted by the label.

Major UK Record labels:

Independent Labels

Independent Labels include:

• DFA records
• Fierce Panda Records
• 4AD, Matador Records
• Electric Honey
• and Factory Records

Independent labels also known as 'indie' labels can find it really hard to offer a good deal to an artist, but their objective is usually to let unknown artists become known to the community and let them expand their musical talent in the future. They do this for cheap deals that bring little profit into the business.

Indie labels have smaller distribution networks so there are less efficient ways of getting the name or song of an artist across to the listener. They aim to focus on their target more specifically. This could be a niche audience instead of a mass audience where an artist is likely to appeal to most of the majority. However, the reason why these labels are well-known and have a good reputation is that they are always up to date with what people prefer to listen to as well as they give distinctive artists a chance to become well-known for their talent. Sometimes, these labels pick artists who later become sensational musicians.

Independent UK Record Labels:

Record Label Controls

This is basically about the terms and conditions contracts that the label and the artist sign so that they will know who has more control and over what. Since signing to a label could be a good move for an artist, the label writes the contracts in its favor. For a new artist who just signed a label, he/she has a low level of control over the music being produced. For example, the label decides the type of music being recorded ''which can include everything from the way the music sounds to the song lyrics''. Also, the album cover could be changed. 

Most of the times, a contract between an artist and a label is beneficial for both of them as they are making money out of the deal, there could be contentions times where the artist disagrees with the contract as he/she could be making a lot more money out of it. The more successful an artist becomes, the more relevant it will be for the label to keep him/her so that the label could increase revenue in the future. This also means that an artist will have the ability to renegotiate over the contract since the label wants to stick to the artist. Letting the artist have more control is the best way to make it happen. 

Labels Today

In the 20th century, record labels used to be the driving force behind an artist's reputation. If a label decided to promote an artist then he/she could become much more profitable whereas if a label decided to stop promoting an artist, his/her career was more likely to end shortly afterward.

On the other hand, in the modern days, a lot of artists distribute their own music through the internet, and music streaming platforms such as Sound Cloud and Apple Music. Labels no offer 360 deals which means that the artists get a cut from their album sales, media appearances, and product endorsements.

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-a-record-label-2460614

What is Sony Music?

Columbia is the oldest record label in the recording industry formed in 1887. From this point, Sony music evolved and became the best in the business to create a world-class record label and industry leader. Other labels such as Columbia, RCA, Syco, Commercial Group, Red Essential, Relentless, Black Butter, Ministry of Sound and insanity all make up the Sony music family. Sony has signed several local and international superstars both in the past and the present. The oldest ones Include Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash etc.

On the official website of Sony, viewers could look up the artists who have recently signed to the labels of the record, and the music news such as which one of those artists have released new songs, albums or music videos. Unreleased albums could also be pre-ordered for each upcoming album which is a good example of how Sony Music is trying to expand through increasing revenue and the probability of making a potential customer buy a product.

https://www.sonymusic.co.uk/about

Sony Music Record Labels:

 

 

 

Pitching Music Video Idea

My Music Video

What the song is

The song I chose to do for my music video is called 'Day 'n' Nite'. To be more specific, I chose the Crookers remix version although the song has many other remixes. This song has a disco-like type-beat with several repetitive beats drops similar to the original version from the artist's album 'Man on the Moon'. 

The story behind the the music video/song is that Lil Gems is part of two separate societies one of which lives at daytime and the other that's alive at night time. The context behind these two environments is that the character is constantly under the presence of working hard and not being able to rest for a minute as he's personal space is greatly invaded. More specifically, instead of expanding more about what it's like to work through day and night time, I was thinking that I should build more on just simply staying awake all the time reflecting more on the modern generation. This idea often has connotations of improper use of products consumed by customers underage. In other words, energy drinks or excessive amounts of sugar. Similarly to ''Party Rock Anthem'', its all about loosing control over consciousnesses and a metaphorically sober mind of seeing the difference between what is normal and unnatural. 

In relation to this, younger teenagers are often considered to be lonely so I will link that with the lyrics and the idea of isolation. These themes are usually summarized as a whole because they have a compact effect. This is mostly going to be represented by a limited amount of characters on screen. 

Narrative

Continuing the annotations from ''what the song is'' and going into detail about the narrative, I will surely include constant movements and special effects/colors to entertain the audience in a satisfying way although the overall message is supposed to be about the irritation of non-stop living.

The image above shows I how broke down the lyrics into the types of transitions I'm thinking about using for specific references and words. Also, some of my ideas are not written down on the page for the same lines, as I would most likely apply the same transition effect to retain the overall impact on the audience.

Starting with the first verse, the first line contains quite a lot of verbs implying constant movement. I thought I would take a midshot of the artist in the music video while rotating the camera. This would be quite fast in order to match the pace of the song. Also, the line ends with the repetition of the word 'mind' so, therefore, I would repeat the footage. For the first half of the second line, I was thinking about including a landscape to imply the openness of the artist and in contrast,  when it says ''but see I don't attain'', I could cover the camera to suggest that the potential for 'peace' is not present. The word 'play' keeps repeating at the end of the third line which is where I would apply the same effect as I panned earlier. When it comes to the idea of magnets, I was thinking about zooming in and out of the picture with the lens where it deliberately focuses on the main character in the frame. I could also call this the reverse effect. At the sixth line, the camera is moving at the same pace as the person on the footage, but eventually, the camera overruns the person suggesting that he/she is being too slow. This should take up enough time on the screen so that the first verse finishes with this scene.

In relation to the chorus, every time the lyrics mention 'night', the video will include footage of the moon and other places at nighttime to have the same context in visuals as it has in words. Before the first repetition of the chorus, it will be daytime and it will continually change back at the second verse to show the dividend sides of the song and its multiple atmospheres.

For the second verse, at the first line, when it mentions the 'phone', I will rotate the camera around my hand while holding a phone and then quickly reversing it afterward. Then, as a result of the multiple repetitions of 'lonely', the main character is going to be alone in the dark near a source of heavy lighting such as street lights to compose a shade. This not only builds an image of what is being said but also fits the idea of dreams as people usually dream at nighttime when they are sleeping. For that part, I was thinking about including something abstract looking making the subject of the scene unreal. Moving on, pain is often expressed by the color of red due to the imagery of violence and brutality, so I will use a red background to zoom into a pit somewhere in the woods where everything looks lonely and helpless. This color effect will be applied until the end of the repetition of the word 'peep' where the color flashes the screen twice and after the second time, it disappears. The 8th line is going to zoom in onto the eyes of the character suggesting inner emotions and pain as a result of being rejected. At the end of the verse, the camera is going to keep zooming in and out of the iris of the eye with the scene ending with a blink implying the end of everything.

For the second repetition of the chorus, I will apply the same method I used for the first one, however, because I don't want to make the video look repetitive and therefore boring, I will apply different angles, compositions, and color effects. I could possible include clips of hills, streets, forests etc. Anything that has implications of darkness and iconic references to being lot as the artist in the song often mentions himself as being 'lonely'. 

The third verse and the third repetition of the chorus have been cut from the song to make it shorter, therefore, I will apply some of the methods I was going to use for the third verse to be on the second verse. This makes it more proactive in the video. In other words, there will be more effects applied to make it look better etc.

Why it is suitable?

Since my object is to construct a good pop song music video, my decisions for the narrative section are suitable because my target audience is likely to be the younger generation and the younger adults. Luckily, this pop song has a lot of disco-like features that I could use to make the video much better looking that it would look otherwise for just a pop song as I believe that the more color effects and transitions are applied within a reason, the better the overall outcome is going to be. 

I will include several transition effects each varying from one another but also relatable to the lyrics when the effect is being applied. Therefore, it matches the message of the song and delivers the meaning with a reasonable example making it more suitable for the audience. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this remix version of the song has a disco-like effect which fits very well with additional color effects and flashing lights. However, unlike most typical and iconic disco songs, this remix actually has a fast pace, therefore, I was thinking about making the cuts between each composition and angle change a lot faster than how it would change for a slower song. Whenever the beat drop comes on in the song, I will make the cuts change at the exact same pace as the beat itself while performing an action in a smooth motion. This will therefore be suitable for my audience because it is most likely what they would expect to see.