Music industry - Record companies and Organic/Synthetic music

Record companies

So firstly there are 4 main multi-national corporations within the music industry:

• Universal
• Sony Music
• Warner Brothers
• EMI

These groups are referred to as "The majors" as they dominate the music industry. They are mostly conglomerates due to having connections in other media areas like film. 

Universal music group

Universal music group own many different labels with some of the best being "Republic" some people who are signed to them are use stars like: Ariana Grande, Black Sabbath, Florence + the Machine, Gotye, The Weeknd and Zendaya.


Sony Music

Sony's main music labels include "Columbia" and "RCA" which have huge artist like Kings of Leon, Beyonce, Avril Lavinge, Justin Timberlake, Britany Spears, The Chainsmokers and Fifth Harmony signed to them







Warner Brothers

Some of Warner Brothers labels include "Beluga Heights" and There artists include: Lily Allen, Van Halen, Prince, Red hot chilli peppers, Madonna and Black Sabbath








EMI

EMI is also a conglomerate but was divided up into the other major record companies. This makes the EMI music group a consortium that has different fractions based in other music companies. Before being divided up, EMI was a london based studio. Some of the artist signed to EMI are: Queen, The beatles, Robbie William and The Beach Boys

Major-Independent Companies
Most of these "Majors" own/license a series of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre. Examples of these subsidiary labels include:

• Columbia
• Island
• Syco
• RCA
• Virgin and many more

These companies are known as "Major-independents".

Independent companies

There are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors.These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialised niches in the industry. These are called ‘Independents’. An example of a highly successful independent  is ‘Domino Records’. 
It is often that record labels begin as independents, but then are bought by a major and then become major-independents.

Types of music

There are 2 different types of music:

• Organic 
• Synthetic

Organic

The term ‘Organic’ is used to describe bands where the music comes first, they make the kind of music they want to make and then the record labels (if signed) try and sell this music to the correct market segment. This means that the artist decide what they want to do and what music they want to play. This may mean having to sacrifice some fame and money but the artist gets to enjoy their music. 

 ‘Organic’ music often appeals to a niche, but can appeal to a mass audience too.

The Beatles / Radiohead are a good example of an organic band. The Beatles even played in Hamburg before they had a record deal just because they loved the music so they wanted to entertain using their own style

The Beatles

Radiohead

The Band members knew each other and had a shared love of music. The music came first – then the fame. 

Another artist who is organic is Sia as she doesn't want all the fame she has as she just wants to make good music for her fans. This is why she covers her face at every public appearance so that she can stay un-known. Sia writes her own music and she has control of how she is seen/her personaility.

Sia

Synthetic

The term ‘Synthetic’ refers to ‘manufactured groups ( ‘X Factor’ methodology), and it is the record labels that control what the artists do. Meaning that the artist have very little say as the record company is shaping them to maximise their success. 

A gap in the market is identified, and then it is exploited by the development of music, and often the artist, to suit this gap.

Money is the ultimate goal in this operation. Acts such as “One Direction” and “The Spice Girls” are a good examples of “manufactured” artists. However the best example is "The Monkees" as they were synthetically made to rival The Beatles due to there worldwide success. They were made to be the American version of The Beatles and they even had a TV show to help boost popularity so they can try to rival The Beatles.

The Monkees

In this video we can see that they are very similar to The Beatles in every way

One Direction is also synthetic as they were put together by Simon Cowell. They didn't write their own songs as other singers like Ed Sheeran and they were told what to wear. They were shaped to fit a younger girl audience.

One Direction

In this video we can see how they are shaped to fit a certain audience.

The Spice Girls are very Synthetic as there songs were wrote for them and they were even given new personalities like "Scary spice", "Posh spice", "Ginger spice", "Baby spice" and "Sporty spice". Their style was changed so that they could be unique and different.

The Spice Girls