Independent and Major Record Label Company Research and comparison of a large record company and an independent one.

Virgin Records Virgin records are a major record label company that started a small record shop in 1972. After their initial success with the album Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield in 1973 they found themselves as the host for several platinum performers such as Spice Girls and The Smashing Pumpkins. After this run of success they were brought to the attention of Thorn EMI in 1992 who bought the company, shortly after this Universal Music Group purchased EMI and then absorbed all of its British Operations into Virgin EMI Records; this then absorbed Mercury Records to create a larger company. Today the main operations of Virgin are often in their American counterparts Virgin Records America, Inc. This part of the organisation is still active and is situated in Hollywood. Only some heavily minor artists remain on Virgin Records American counterpart most of which are European like Bastille and Walking on Cars. The only American artists worth note are Rise Against and L’Tric.

TuneCore TuneCore is an online music distribution service that was founded in 2005 making it one of the more recently created companies. This online service distributes small time artists and indie artists via online methods only. What this means is that they will take music created by artists who have become popular or have a lot of talent and then get their music onto online stores and services such as google music, iTunes, Spotify and other online services. Because of this it costs a low less to distribute meaning it is affordable to do both larger artists and small time upcoming artists and still make a profit. The company has been brought to the attention of the media on several occasions and has been the basis for several successful artists. It is believed that they contribute to 4% of all digital sales and also represents 10% of the 20 million songs on itunes.

Virgin Promotional Campaign One of Virgin’s biggest rock bands they currently distribute for ‘Rise Against’ released the album ‘End Game’ in 2011. However before this album release the company made a few strategic promotions in order to gain interest from fans of the band and possible new audiences. The company started by having the album release date mentioned during an interview session with the big sports team the Chicago Blackhawks. It then had Interscope a well known music company announce the release date as well to reach a different audience, following this announcement they also had NBQM a radio broadcast company announce the new single from the album ‘Help Is On The Way’. Releasing the single almost two months before the album meant that there was a large portion of time where the song could be played lots on popular radio stations followed up by constant reminders of the new album. Finally the new album was released but just 5 days afterward featured Rise Against playing the new album live in London in order to help the promotion as well. Several other live concerts followed this in Brazil, South America and Argentina. All of this touring allowed both live shows to promote the new album and reach international audiences and interest.

TuneCore Promotional Campaign Successful artist Approaching Nirvana has had great success with TuneCore’s help with distribution, but promotion for a small indie artist is vastly different than that with a large music company like Virgin. For approaching nirvana all promotion was based on Social Media sites and connections with other famous YouTubers and music makers also trying to make it big in the industry. For example they have worked with big internet stars like TryHardNinja (a well known YouTuber), Captain Sparkles and Sundee by creating music for the content they release on sites like Youtube to their huge fan base. Approaching Nirvana also frequently uses the online streaming service Twitch to showcase other small indie artists music and to announce upcoming albums and tracks of their own creation. This helps to create a consistent online fan base and creates an atmosphere where they are live performing constantly for their audience always attracting international attention while doing so.