5.11.2016

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 types of artist signing companies that are widely known. One is a major, another is a minor-major and the last but not least the independent record label. A major, works in collaborating with the international companies commonly known as the big four since there are four such companies that exist. SONY, BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group are the big four brands that a major is affiliated to and sells their tunes through them.

The second type of brand is the mini-major is associated with the big four labels. They sell their tunes and songs through those international companies. Independent labels on the other hand are small, non-affiliated to either the big four or the mini-major and they do their distribution independently.

The relationship between the artist and his label is often strained. An artist would prefer to keep his or her art intact. Alterations are not supposed to be made by anybody else. Many companies on the other hand find it necessary to make some change to the work, say changing the title in order to increase the chances of selling the art more efficiently. If these changes are not done after good consultation and agreement between the company and artist, conflicts usually arise. It is thus very important to have a bidding contract as you record with a certain brand.

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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