Record lables

Advanced portfolio in media

Major record lables:

• Universal
• Sony music
• Warner brothers
• EMI

Majority of the record labels own or license a lot of smaller companies, so that they can reach different types of genres.


For example:

• Columbia records are an American record label which was founded in 1888, and is under the ownership of Sony Music Entertainment. Many artists are signed to Columbia records from Adele, Beyonce, Celine dion and J.Cole.

• Syco records was founded in 2002 under the trading name Simco Ltd. Syco records can sign on the winners and finalists of the X Factor and Britain got Talent before any other records. For example One Direction, Olly Murs, Leona Lewis and James Arthur.

Virgin records was founded in the 1973 by Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell and Tom Newman, which hen grew to be a world wide phenomenon, as they had many platinum artists such as Janet Jackson and Keith Richards. Now they have Bastille and  Ella Eyre. 

• Island records 

Island Records is a record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group. It was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was formerly based in the United Kingdom for many years until 1998. Blackwell sold the label to PolyGram in 1989.

 Some of there artists are Enrique Iglesias, Jessie J and Disclosure.




RCA records is an American record label with Sony music entertainment. It is the second oldest record company in US history. It has artists such as Miguel, Alicia Keys, Whitney Houston and Chris Brown.  

• Large numbers of small companies have little or no finical connection to the majors. They specialise in the niches in the industry.
• Domino Records are highly successful and are independent as they have no major record label behind them.