Institutional research

Conglomerate Record Label: Island Records

Island Records is a major record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong in Jamaica and has been based in the UK since 1962. Their artists include Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Disclosure etc. The artists vary in genre so this could be a potential record label to chose for our artist of the alternative R&B genre. They have artists in both America and UK and have a huge target audience with those artists. However I don't think we will choose this record label as we feel a conglomerate label wouldn't be the best choice for our independent artist to be signed to.

British Record Label: Parlophone

Parlophone records is a British record company founded in 1896. Parlophone started out as a jazz label but has slowly formed into a pop based record label however, they have signed indie bands such as Two Door Cinema Club and Rat Boy. This isn't the best choice for our record label as the artists are mainly of the rock and pop genre which therefore doesn't fit into our alternative R&B genre.

Independent Record Label: Odd Future Records

Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, normally shortened to Odd Future and abbreviated to OFWGKTA (stylized OFWGK†Δ), is an American hip hop collective formed in Los Angeles in 2007. The collective was formed and is led by rapper and producer Tyler, The Creator, and includes rappers Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis, and Mike G, singer, songwriter and rapper Frank Ocean, producers Left Brain, Syd tha Kyd, Matt Martians, Pyramid Vritra and other non-musical members, notably Jasper Dolphin, Taco Bennett, L-Boy and Lucas Vercetti. There were also smaller groups inside the collective. Three of these smaller groups that are still active are The Internet, MellowHigh, and The Jet Age of Tomorrow. Odd Future is an individual record label. The reason for choosing this record label would primarily be due to The Internet being connected to this record label. The Internet are an alternative RnB/neosoul music group therefore very similar to our artist. They have an alternative/individual look again very similar to our artist due to her individual look throughout her whole album and Ice Moon. Their videos have similiaries these include: a slow beat, the alternative clothing and the use of different colours. However the differences would be that they have more performance in their videos and as they're a band.

 

Independent: Boy Better Know

 Boy Better Know record label, better known as BBK is an English grime record label. It was founded by JME and Skepta in North London. The genres involved with this record label are Grime, Eskibeat and minimal R&B. It was created in 2005 and is still active now. Roll Deep Crew and Meridian Crew are both acts associated with BBK. The current artists involved with BBK are Jme, Skepta, Wiley, Jammer, Frisco, Shorty, Solo and Drake. The crew had a regular show on Rinse FM with DJ Maximum. Jme's debut album 'Famous?' was released on BBK's label in 2008. A well known song "Too many man" was the first song on the album. In 2005 the crew disappeared after members were convicted on attempted murder charges. After this event JME founded BBK with Skepta and the group reformed with other members. An advantage of using this record label is that it is fairly well known especially amongst teenagers and that is the age group we are going for for our target audience. Aswell as it having a lot of interesting history behind it it is a very modern/up to date record label and this helps it appeal to our audience. This record label is similar to what we want ours to be as it involves an R&B style genre with in it much like our song choice. The reason it isn't similar is because BBK just involves male artists and our artist is female so the criteria of the two doesn't match. Another disadvantage to using this record label is that it mainly focuses on Grime and we are looking at the alternative R&B genre so we will have to look for a record label with R&B as its main focus.

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Overall, we have decided to go with Odd Future records as our record label as we felt an independent record label would be best suited for our artist and song. This record label also has urban/alternative styled artists which is what our artist would be about.