Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Signing With A Canadian Record Label

By Linda Williams


By definition, a record label is universally known as the brand that does marketing of music recordings and videos for interested artists. Labels also do publishing of the music, they manage brands and trademarks for their artists and they enforce the copyrights of sound recordings and the videos that they have signed. Distribution is another role they play. The above listed duties are what a Canadian record label does for its artists.

Knowing the different categories of record labels is a must do thing for an artist before settling down for a certain company. The different kinds of companies have different term and different way of operating. It is advisable that an artist consults with his or her legal advisers to ensure that the choice will be legally bidding and stable thus ensuring smooth running.

There are different kinds of labels that are in operation in the industry. The major, minor-major and the independent labels are the different types of brands that are functional in the market. A major brand works under or is affiliated to a big recording company that is internationally recognized. These internationally recognized record firms are famously known as the big four. A major can choose to be affiliated to BMG or Universal Music Group. It can also choose to be associated to either SONY or Warner Music Group.

Mini-majors are medium sized companies which are co-owned by the major brands. Mini-majors distribute through the big four and are affiliated to them. Finally independent labels are small types of companies. They do their distribution on their own. They are not affiliated to any of the big international companies nor are they associated with the Mini-majors.

A record label and her artists have been known to have a pretty stressed relationship. Their decisions do not converge in most cases, the brand does what is best in terms of marketing the art and the artist strives to retain originality of the art. An artist does not therefore welcome alterations whereas a company wants to make some changes to meet their desired outcome. That being said, a contract is therefore important, as it shows the terms that both the artist and the label have agreed upon and must adhere to.

The artist signing companies experience quite a number of problems especially during this century where the use of internet has been so prevalent. Artists today are selling their music online which is much cheaper. The use of internet has made business hard for many music firms since some artists are not signing with.

New strategies have been put in place by the labels to ensure that they still have some role in the art industry. The returns or profit obtained by selling online are in most cases very little, thus though the artist can sell online, the profit is never satisfactory. Thus the labels sign the artist with new deals that meet the artists demand to their satisfaction.

An artist is thus required to conduct good research before settling for a given company to handle his or her work. The success of the artist will directly depend on how established and experienced a recording company has been. Past experiences by artists can help when making a decision on which signing company to go with.




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