Record label research.

Sony Music Entertainment (SonyME) and Finders Keepers Records are two record labels of different calibers as a result of their size. An argument could be made that global institutions like Sony dominate the music industry, but smaller companies often can cater to Niche audiences more effectively through the better understanding of their audience than large global institutions have. I will be examining how models of production, distribution and consumption have changed from the past to the present and the implications of future developments. I will argue that technological convergence has had an effect on the music industry and how illegal downloading has put the industry into decline.

Sony ME is a large multinational global corporation, which is part of an oligopoly. There are 3 other major labels that dominate the music industry these being EMI, Universal and Warner. Song ME attaining 22% of the market Share, placing them 2^nd out of the 4. They are a castle industry and a conglomerate with departments in Electronics, Films and Finance. They are an example of a converged multinational media institution as they control the music production and make the technology e.g. mobile phones, MP3 players and Blu-Ray discs. The audiences that Sony appeal to have a broad commercial appeal thus making Sony profit driven. Through the use of subsidiary labels Sony can appeal to their audience, three examples of subsidiary labels RCA, Columbia and EPIC Records. Each caters to a different target audience to the next. RCA appeals to a young R&B/Urban audience with artists like Shakira and Beyonce. Columbia Records appeal to a younger rock audience and have artist like Kings of Leon and Kassabian, and EPIC Record appeals to an older audience with artists like Michael Jackson.

Sony ME can also achieve Synergy to cross promote different products, the most frequently known example of synergy for Sony is Foo Fighters, a band signed to a subsidiary label of Sony ME, appearing on Guitar Hero, a video game designed for the Sony PlayStation. Sony artists also appear in films created by Sony pictures Will Smith, initially signed to Columbia records, was the star actor of the Men in Black trilogy. In the past Sony ME have merged with other subsidiary labels through horizontal integration A.K.A by buying them out.

A negative side of this approach to growing a record label is that Sony ME were recently sued by previously bought labels as a result have combine their subsidiaries into RCA Records.

The music industry as a whole is losing vast sums of money as a result of the increased rates of illegal downloading

Finders Keepers Records is the smaller record label I have learnt about. It has a staff of 3 people based in Manchester, in comparison to Sony who has thousands. Finders keepers have an advantage to Sony as they can cater to a small specific Niche Market that Sony ME will find hard to as Sony mainly care about the profits achieved, which is different to Finders keepers as their reason for being in the music industry is that they have a penchant in music. They are a re-issue label releasing obscure film soundtrack music, and other types of world music. Record collectors and music producers seem to be their target audience. Like Sony, Finders Keepers too have subsidiary labels and like Sony it allows them to cater for different audiences, Twisted Nerve is their leading subsidiary for local Manchurian bands in particular. Finder Keepers methods of obtaining records as they record little themselves is by finding songs out of the copyright laws, very old songs. Finders keepers often find themselves redesigning the album artwork to reinvent artists to best suite their audience. They realize that their audience prefers physical products (records and CD's) with detailed information of the artists and the songs rather than digital downloads from sources like iTunes.