Research Into The Industry - Artists and Record Labels

The band that I am planning on using is one that is local to the Nottingham area. They all attend the same college as me, they have already recorded at least one original song and I am good friends with one of the band members. These factors made them perfect candidates for my music video.

The band is called ‘Modern Winter’ and is made up of four members, Stephen Jenkins as the lead vocalist and piano, Stephanie Campbell on bass, Tomas Walker on guitar and Matthew Jenkins on drums. The band has been together for six years, but has only had this line up for about three years.

The music industry in the 21st century is largely focused on Record Companies who usually own all of the rights to the music of the artists. These companies pay for the “recording costs and the cost of promoting and marketing the record.” [Source] As such, all artists need to find a label that are willing to take them on.

Modern Winter mainly focuses on the rock genre and as such would most likely get picked up by a record label which focuses around that niche.

However, the band is too low key to get picked up by the ‘Big Four’:

The Universal Music Group (which accounted for 25.5% of the market in 2005 [Source] )

Sony BMG Music Entertainment (21.5% of the market in 2005 [Source])

EMI (13.4% of the market in 2005[Source])

 And the Warner Music Group (11.3% of the market in 2005 [Source] ).

 These are the companies that deal with global headline acts like Adele, Foo Fighters, Lady Gaga, Cee Lo Green etc. mainly through their subsidiaries.

However, seeing as these ‘Big Four’ control so much of the market, it is inevitable that Modern Winter would get picked up by a subsidiary if they were deemed good enough. One record label that could potentially pick the band up is Fiction Records, who are owned by Polydor which is a subsidiary of UMG.

The label focuses mainly on the rock genre and has artists like Snow Patrol, Elbow, White Lies and Athlete and as such would be a decent fit for Modern Winter.

There are perhaps more likely options, with the independent labels like Aardvark Records who are “one of the rising stars of the UK music industry”. They “are a staunchly independent record label with a growing roster of original, new talent covering a variety of music genres.” [Source] Being a UK independent label, this label would be more likely to sign up a band like Modern Winter as they like original and new talent, something which Modern Winter could provide.