Record Labels

There are three major record companies that dominate the market:

EMI used to be the fourth major record company with the four together controlling around 70% of the world music market. However, since 2012 EMI has been divided into the three other major companies.

Each of these three major record labels owns different smaller music groups, and within those are specific record labels. This enables the larger groups to own record labels that can target a large variety of people as well as artists.



Capitol Records is an American record label owned by the Capitol Music Group which is wholly owned by Universal.
It is a major record label in the US, founded in 1942 and producing material for artists including The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Coldplay and Katy Perry.



Often, Larger record companies actually own small record labels that can be mistaken for being independent. For example, Syco Music is owned by Syco Entertainment which in itself is actually a joint venture with the major company Sony Music Entertainment.
This is also an example of a British and American owned record company, founded by Simon Cowell and with offices in both London and Los Angeles.


As well as the major record labels, there are numerous independent record labels which can actually own artists of equal success to the major labels. An example of this is Domino Recording Company.

Domino is an independent label based in London however they also have divisions in America, Germany and France. Despite being an independent company, some of their artists include Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. Arctic Monkeys' latest album AM got to number 1 in ten countries, demonstrating the success of independent record labels.

Another independent label is Rough Trade Records. It is based in London and was formed in 1978. It is a predominantly rock/alternative label with past artists such as Buzzcocks and The Smiths. Current artists include The Strokes, The Libertines and Mystery Jets. It was recently sold to the Beggars Group who own three other small record labels.