INDEPENDENT LABELS VS MAJOR LABELSStep One

By Cammie Hall

DOMINO RECORDING COMPANYStep 1

WHO ARE THEY?

• The Independent Label that I have looked at is a UK based Label called ‘Domino Recording Company’.

• It was founded in 1993 by Laurence Bell and Jacqui Rice.

• It is known for supporting artists who’s music genre is ‘Indie Rock’ and ‘Indie Pop’.

• It also now has a branch in Brooklyn, New York. As well as divisions in;• Germany, Domino Deutschland• France, Domino France

• As well as a publishing division;• Domino Press

WHAT ARTISTS DOES THE LABEL PROMOTE?

• Domino promotes many artists;

• Archie

• Lou Barlow

• Artic Monkeys

• The Last Shadow Puppets

• Clinic

• Royal Trux

• Sebadoh

• Robert Wyatt

• Juana Molina• Wild Beasts• Matthew E. White• Real Estate• Lightspeed Champion• Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks• Blood Orange• Bonnie Prince Billy• To Rococo Rot• Townes Van Zandt• Franz

AND MANY MORE……

ARE THE ARTISTS WELL KNOWN?

• Some of Dominos artists are well known

• One of the more famous groups that it promotes is Artic Monkeys.

• Artic Monkeys is a famous and is the fastest-selling debut album by a group in the UK.

• The band has released 5 Albums since 2002.

• They have won; 7 Brit awards, twice nominated for Grammies and has one the Mercury Prize (2006)

HOW DOES THE LABEL BENEFIT FROM NEW TECHNOLOGY?

(Marketing, Distribution and Exchange)

MARKETING• With the latest technology it is easier for artists to make top quality music

without a recording studio.

• This gives record companies, like Domino, the opportunity to get a wider range of artists as major details like the quality of their sound that they send off, wouldn’t get in the way anymore, so it is easier to see who are good artists.

• Also for indie record labels using A&R they can search the internet for artists just starting out (on sites like YouTube, Sound cloud etc), and if the artists wish to be more independent than being controlled by a major, the indie labels might be more of their taste meaning the indie label has just signed a deal due to the internet.

• Furthermore with social networking sites if the artists or A&R don’t find the artists word quickly spreads when a new artists are catching peoples eyes.

• So in a way the label benefits greatly from new technology

DISTRIBUTION

• With new technology there is so many more ways that indie labels can promote their artists or even themselves to aspiring artists.

• A website is one of the main ways. The Domino website shows many of their artists as well as song previews etc.

• As almost everything is online now one of the ways to promote artists is through sites like YouTube, SoundCloud, Itunes etc. Artists are advertised through popups, sneak peak of songs, advertisements along the sides of new albums coming out, suggestions, pre orders etc

• Another way is through social networking. Thousand of people use sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr everyday. A tweet from the recording label, the group, friends of the group or even a celebrity could dramatically increase the audience waiting for the latest album or singles release.

EXCHANGE• When the music is finally ready for release there are now hundreds of ways to purchase

singles/albums when they are released.

• You can still buy the classic CD from high street stores or even the internet, but in the case of Domino you can buy the CD’s from there website.

• Furthermore, there are new ways that the internet has adapted to the new internet buyers demands as you can now even buy from YouTube, the record labels site etc.

• Then there is the new music market of iTunes, this allows consumers to buy music more cheaply online, most the payment is only going to one artists/ company in royalties, also there isn’t the added cost of the materials making the whole process more cheaper for the consumer.

• Also, there is the market of downloading the music, for free. Using these sites like YouTube, websites make it so that the music is quickly and cheaply on the consumers portable devices making new technology not so good for consumers

DOES THE LABEL FEATURE ON THE RADIO ONE PLAYLIST?

• No, Domino Recording company does feature of the Radio One Playlist.

• I think this is because the label, although famous, its artists hasn’t reach the charts or markets that radio one requires in order to play it as the genre of domino is indie rock and indie pop.

WHAT RADIO STATIONS PLAY MUSIC FROM YOUR LABEL?

• Domino has its own radio stations that plays various music from all of its artists.

• The wire is a radio app Domino has released to play music from its artists.

• Then there are mixed radio stations like;

• Absolute Radio

• BBC Radio 6

• Kerrang!

• Absolute Radio 00s, 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s

• 106.8 TCR FM

• Nation Radio

• BBC 6 Music

• Cool FM

WHAT TELEVISIONS STATIONS SUPPORT YOUR LABEL?

• Not many television stations support Domino.

• However some do such as;• BBC• VEVO (music station)• Domino publishing• Domino All-In• Domino Publishing

• These, part from BBC, are not the most famous of TV stations however truly dedicated fans would know about the record companied internal sites, then they could spread this news to less dedicated fans so that they can see all the videos etc

WHAT WEBSITES LIVE STREAM MUSIC FROM YOUR LABEL?

• Once again not many websites but most of those are fractions in Domino themselves.

• This is as Domino is one of the only sites that live streams their music from the domino record label.

• Another site would typically be YouTube as they live stream all music.

CHOSE ARTISTS SIGNED TO YOUR LABEL AND RESEARCH?

STEP TWOArctic Monkeys and FRáNçOIS & THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS

THERE PLAYS ON ‘LAST FM’?• Arctic Monkeys• They have had 2,941,774 plays on Last FM, showing how popular

they are

• Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains• These have had 330,578 plays on Last FM, not as many as the AM

but still it show that quite a few people would listen

WHAT SIMILAR ARTISTS DOES LAST FM RECOMMEND AND WHERE

WOULD YOU PLACE THEM ON YOUR ITUNES?

• Artic Monkeys• These are the similar artists

recommended by Last FM;• The Last Shadow Puppets• Alex Turner• The Strokes• Miles Kane• Jake Bugg• The Vaccines

Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains

These are the similar artists recommended by Last FM;

Petit Fantome

Baxter Dury

Lescop

Dominique A

Diagrams

Florent Marchet

DOWNLOADS ON ITUNES?

• Arctic Monkeys• They have had over 6,000,000 downloads from iTunes

• Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains• They have had 2,000,000 downloads

WHERE WOULD YOU PLACE THEM ON YOUR ITUNES LONG

TAIL?• Arctic Monkeys and Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains

• For both of these artists they wouldn’t have a very high spot/play on my iTunes long trail as the genre of music that they produce is not too my taste, however this might not be the same opinion for all the people in my generations

THEIR VIEWS ON YOUTUBE?

• Artic Monkeys• Depending on the video these views can vary.• They have a round about 3,000,000 views on YouTube

• Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains• Seen as they only have one videos they do not have many

views.• The have in total 99,127 views

WHERE WOULD YOU PLACE THEM ON YOUR YOUTUBE LONG

TRAIL?• Arctic Monkeys and Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains

• Once again not very high as there music isn’t too my taste, but this does not mean that others my age wouldn’t place it high as it is popular among our generation or older.

DOES THE LABEL SUPPLY ARTISTS FOR MUSIC FESTIVALS?

• There are a few music festivals that the artists appear in.

• These are;• Firefly Music Festival (2014)• Squamish Music• Leeds Festival• T in the Park Festival• Lollapalooza (2014)• Reading Festival• Glastonbury festivals• Summer sonic festival• Frequency Festival• And many, many more