Research into the music industry

Artists require a record label in order to ensure the success of their career. In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark that deals with the marketing and releasing of music recordings and music videos. A record label is the company that manages brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, distribution, marketing and promotion of the music.
Big four major record labels:
EMI
Universal
Song Music entertainment:
· In 1888 Columbia Phonograph Company was formed which was then had by the Columbia Broadcasting system (CBS) In 1987, Sony acquired CBS Records for $2 billion. Sony renamed the label Sony Music Entertainment in 1991.
· Sony re-introduced the Columbia label after it bought the rights to the name from EMI. Epic records is the other major branch of Sony Music. Sony does not have the rights to the Columbia name in Japan.
· In August 2004, Sony Music Entertainment joined with BMG to form Sony BMG Music Entertainment; however, Sony continued to operate its Japanese music business on its own.
Warner music group:
“In recent years, we've grown to become the world's third-largest recorded music business and third-largest music publishing business and, during a time of dramatic industry transition, have established ourselves as one of the music industry's most successful companies. Some recent achievements include: Reaching 21% U.S. Total Album market share in both fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008, our highest full-year album share in a decade, according to Nielsen/SoundScan data”
http://www.wmg.com/
· After Warner Bros. was sold to Seven arts productions in 1967, it bought Atlantic records, WMG's oldest label.
· In 1969, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was sold to the KInney National Company. Kinney sorted the labels into a group called Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, (WEA), or Warner Music Group.
· In the mid-1970s, WEA expanded and continued to do so.
· WEA's labels also distributed a number of independent labels. For example, Warner Bros. distributed Straight Records, DiscReet Records, Bizarre Records, Bearsville Records, and Geffen Records
· On May 3, 2006, WMG reportedly rejected a buyout offer from EMI.
· In 2007, Warner began to sell digital music on Amazon, the third major label to do so. Atlantic records became the first major label to acquire over half its sales in the U.S. from digital products.
· WMG was the first major institution to form a connection with Youtube. This meant that Youtube would pay WMG based on the number of views. However in December 2008, this broke down, and as a result, footage on YouTube with WMG music recordings had its audio blocked completely and replaced with a message saying their was a copyright infringement.

(source of infomation- wikipedia)