Institutions Research

Section 1

The music industry involves the production, distribution, and sale of music in a variety of forms as well as the promotion of live musical performance.   Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion, and enforcement of copyright protection of sound recordings and music videos.


There are four major record labels or major institutions that dominate music; these are Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI. Each of these labels consists of many smaller companies which work with different genres of music and are in different regions to help distribute their products more efficiently.

Section 2  

Our Chosen Institution is........

Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group. The label now operates as a division of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the United States (where it is now a largely rock-oriented label, much like in its heyday) and as a standalone label in the United Kingdom (also known as Island Records Group or Universal Island).   The bands signed to this label are commonly rock, indie and pop bands, particularly more the indie rowitck genre throughout its years. Examples of artists and bands signed to this label are;

The Feeling

Fire Avenged

Florence and the Machine

Mumford & Sons

Theory of a Deadman 

 Island Records is a record label that has indie/rock/pop bands signed to it already which gives them knowledge on the genre and also recognition throughout the labels fans for that genre. We have chosen Island Records as we think that it will help us to attract our target audience more successfully. 

Island Records promote and sell their artsist is through new technology.  The bands and artsists that are signed to Island Records have their music videos distributed  on sites such as youtube and on TV music channels to help promote them.  They have an easily accessible website which provides viewers with all the information they need to know about and artist/band.  They also have a facebook page which fans can 'like' , which includes photos, links, information, events and latest updates.  Stereotypically, facebook's main audience is young people, so by having island records as a facebook page helps to attract their target audience.  Not only do they have facebook but they have the latest social networking site 'Twitter', which has become hugely popular in the last year.  The enables a wider audience to become familiar with the record label.  You can listen to Island Records music on Spotify and they also have their own youtube channel, which is frequently updated with new uploads. 

Overall, We thought that Island Records was the most suitable label, because its supports other artists of the same genre in which we are using. 

Generic conventions of the indie rock genre

Indie rock genre