Industry Task

Sony music began as ARC in 1929. In 1938 ARC was brought by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). The record label had a lot of success in the 1950s. In 1987, Sony bought CBS. In 1991 it was renamed Sony Music Entertainment (SME). They have signed 100’s of artists. They have over 26.87% of the music market, this is a large percentage which means they are the dominant music label in this market. They will be used to having a lot of music artists and will want to dominate the market. Sony will market its artists heavily to audiences, for example, they have just invested about £5.2 billion into marketing to their audience online in the metaverse by getting Travis Scott to do a Fortnite event. This is Sony’s method of attracting new viewers and shows that they feel that the metaverse is where many of the music events will happen.  Sony are investing into the metaverse and online as they already have a large market share and they can incorporate this into their existing marketing strategies. For example, as Sony owns Playstation they are trying to allow as many people as possible to have access to the metaverse to promote their artists. Playstation gives them a platform to get all artists and promotions onto one area thus allowing them more publicity and marketing opportunities. Playstation also appeals to the younger demographic creating opportunities for a loyal customer base from a young age. Because Sony are so large they have more money and so are able to experiment in how they advertise using unconventional methods with low risk.  

Sony will use companies data to determine what people are listening to and then use this within their marketing strategies.  This allows them to understand the listening habits of their target audience, for example the most popular artists, style and genres at any given time.  This can give them a good idea of their target audience and allow them to advertise effectively and promote specific artists which gives them the ability to grow. Sony use algorithms to identify individual preferences and then target individuals using this.  Due to large budgets and the ability to experiment with their advertising campaigns Sony are far better able to promote artists compared to smaller independent labels. 

In 2015 Spotify was paying Sony 42.5 million in royalties for allowing Sony labels to be streamed through the service.  This is a massive source of revenue for this large label and a constant stream of income.  Recently Sony got 750 million from Spotify in equity which will be distributed between the artists which is another reason to sign with a large record label.

Domino is an Independent record label that was established in London in 1993. It was co-founded by Laurence Bell and Jacqui Rice.  Bell set up the record label with a £40 a week enterprise allowance scheme to licence American releases for the UK market. Domino then successfully established a name for itself as being a company interested in creativity rather than a style or a sound. Domino signed Franz Ferdinand, which led to the sales of several million albums worldwide. This got the attention of the music industry as Domino was a small independent music label and not expected to pull of such a successful move. The success of Domino has been attributed to how well the founder, Bell, gets on with bands, his interest in the artists and the independent nature of the label.

Following on from the success of signing Franz Ferdinand, Domino signed Arctic Monkeys who had the fastest selling debut album of all time.  This commercial success led Domino to signing American bands and establishing itself as an international, independent record label for indie rock music.  Domino has a niche audience as they sign and promote indie bands and avoid mainstream pop.  Domino has built up a reputation for finding new artists capable of great success and industry awards.  They put the artists at the heart of their record label. 

In 2024, Domino had a value of about $20 million, compared with Sony of approximately $120 million.

Connor Price is a self promoting music artist on TikTok who makes videos based on his series "Spin the globe" where he spins a globe and whichever country his finger lands on, he will colloborate with an artist from that country and create muisc with them. He himself is independent and isn't associated with any music label or brand. He fully manages himself and creates his own content and promotes himself.  He has been able to do this through his clever use of social media and how he creates engaging content but at a high level. He has gained just under 150 million streams on his most popular song Spinnin which was one of his first songs that he created on his series. He has over 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has been able to create his own succes separate to any record label. He is challenging the conventional structure of the media industries as artist usually depend on the label to create the hype and market for them, but he is fully taking on this job and is doing his own market through TikTok. It very similar to how the Arctic Monkeys used CD burning and the creation of a MySpace page to their advantage. Despite TikTok being a relatively new app he has been able to fully create his own audience and been one of the more successful artists that has been able to achieve this feet which is definitely challenging how the music industry is run. 

My band is an indie rock band, therefore I’d use an independent record label like Domino Recording company to promote it. This would fit with the brand image I aim to construct.  The independent record label fits with the band being authentic, real musicians who would care about the label they are signed to. This in turn fits with the audience profile for the band of young, independent thinking male or females.  The independent record label should allow my band the creativity and freedom they need to establish their own identity, own styling and ideas of promotion that a record label like Sony does not offer.  Sony are more concerned about keeping up with the latest trends in music and making a profit whereas the independent record label are more concerned about their commitment to their artists.  The independent record label appreciates the music their artists produce and this fits with my brand.