Remake, Remodel: The Evolution Of The Record Label

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This pre-draft version is strictly for review purposes only and is not for general dissemination or sharing. albums. Among them, he licenses to Proper Distribution for the UK and Europe. This allows him the freedom to choose the right label and distribution partners, depending on different markets around the world. This arrangement earnt him his first Top 20 record in 2010. Supermarket sweep: Simply Red, Faithless, Nadine Coyle and Chris De Burgh Simply Red left Warner in 1998 and Mick Hucknall and his management set up simplyred.com to release his new recordings. This made the band one of the first major acts out of contract to go it alone in a DIY set up. Releases after that point were handled through various agreements including one with EMI Music Services. In February 2010, Simply Red released the Songs Of Love album in an exclusive retail arrangement with supermarket chain Tesco, with fans also offered priority booking for the band’s farewell tour that autumn. Faithless did a similar deal with Tesco and iTunes (for downloads) for their The Dance album in May 2010. Girls Aloud member Nadine Coyle also signed an exclusive with Tesco for her Insatiable album, put out on her own label, in November 2010 but it failed to have chart success. Asda also became a retail partner for the first time, signing an exclusive deal with Chris De Burgh in October 2010 for his Moonfleet & Other Stories album. Roy Harper and Believe Digital In a deal involving 19 of his albums and a new compilation, Roy Harper made his catalogue available digitally for the first time in an exclusive deal with Believe Digital. The company will distribute the albums to all major online services, starting in June 2011, with four albums being reissued every three months. Previously, Harper had only made his catalogue available online through his own website. Or at the other extreme, the label will not only fully fund all activities, it will provide its own exclusive routes into the market that the artist alone couldn’t possibly access – such as Syco Records and X Factor. This heavier dependence on the label would be reflected in the deals struck between the two parties. It should be stressed though that these deals rarely produce long term catalogue for a label and tend only to only sell in the home territory – Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis being significant exceptions that prove the rule. CHAPTER 3 | MARKETING Contents 12
This pre-draft version is strictly for review purposes only and is not for general dissemination or sharing. New routes for marketing and promotion. From traditional mass scattergun media, to micro-targeted two-way communication and D2C. How digital has changed the media, marketing and promotional landscape As we have said in chapter 1, record labels used to have a monopoly on the supply chain and the routes to market. In 2011, that is no longer the case; so what sets the labels apart in an age when a few clicks of a mouse can result in a piece of music or a video being made available to almost everyone in the world via the internet? John Reid, defines the functions of a label as identifying, developing and magnifying talent. He stresses this is more necessary than ever as there is much more clutter in the digital space than there ever was in the analogue one. Label marketing is there, he says, to give music ‘a platform and an opportunity.’ Clutter, clarity and calm The themes of clutter and complexity came up time and again when discussing the marketing of music in the internet age 6 . Although it is easier than ever to ‘make available’, it seems that ‘cutting through’ with your message requires better and better specialist skills which a record label can provide. ‘The world of simply setting it up at Radio 1 and doing a pre-sell at HMV is gone.’ Shabs Jobanputra, former President of Virgin Records UK Cut-through is made more challenging on various counts: firstly, there are more official releases of commercial music per annum than ever before; over 41,000 in the UK in 2009 alone 7 ; secondly, because of the proliferation of the online world, the volume is boosted by millions of tracks by amateur musicians making the need for a filter more necessary than ever; thirdly, the media landscape is teeming with advertising messages, both offline and online. Clearly, the ability to cut through and gain attention for your music is only partly down to its inherent quality. Traditional media – press, radio and TV – continue to be powerful in bringing an artist to the attention of the music fan and a mass audience that is key to mainstream success. But even here, disaggregation has resulted in a more complex picture than ever, with the dominance of the five terrestrial TV channels being challenged by hundreds of cable and 6 It Started With A Click: How to Spawn A Viral Hit Mar 2011 & Brave New World Nov 2010 – MusicTank – last accessed 09.05.11 7 BPI Statistical Handbook 2010 13
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Remake, Remodel: The Evolution Of The Record Label

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