Essentially, a ‘record label’ is a brand and/ or a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. The term ‘record label’ originated from the circular label in the centre of a vinyl record

which displayed the manufacturers name as well as additional information. A record label also tends to be a publishing company that coordinates the

production, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, promotion and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos

There are three major record labels which are: Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment & Warner Music Group.

As much as 75% of the music sold on the market is presented by these three major record labels. Artists who are signed to one of these labels are either signed to the central label or signed to a subsidiary of the label. An example of a subsidiary label would be Columbia Records which is owned by Sony. Although these subsidiary labels have their own staff who have the ability to sign artists and make financial decisions, they must always

answer to the main company.

“The Island Def Jam Music Group is hometo a diverse and unparalleled family ofartists - from today's icons to tomorrow'srising stars - and is recognized as one ofthe most successful labels in the industry.It is comprised of Island Records, Def JamRecordings, and Mercury Records.” Therecord label was formed in 1999 whenUMG decided to merge together two ofits companies which were IslandRecords and Def Jam Recordings(hence the title of the record label).

SIGNED ARTISTS INCLUDE:Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Rick Ross,

Chrisette Michelle, Fabolous, Ne-yo and Rihanna

Def Jam Recordings focuses predominantly of Hip Hop & Urban music. The label distributes various record labels including: Roc-A-Fella Records, GOOD

Music, Disturbing Tha Peace And No ID’s ARTium Recordings. Essentially, Def Jam Recordings would be an appropriate record label to choose because it is owned by one of the major record labels. This is beneficial because R&B is a

mainstream genre and will therefore need to be widely distributed in order to reach it’s largest possible target audience.

An independent record label (commonly known as a Indie record label) is a record label which is independently funded and has no connection to the big three major labels. Indie labels can range from home based hobby labels to

highly profitable, large businesses. During the 1990’s the blur between major and independent record labels began to blur. Now, some large

independent labels are actually distributed by the Big three major labels. Since Indie labels are self funded, they tend to face an uphill battle trying to

get their music heard. This is because they usually have fewer financial resources to promote their music in comparison to major record labels.

Top Dawg Entertainment is an American independent record label founded in 2004, by chief executive officer (CEO) Anthony ‘Top Dawg’ Tiffith and president Terrence ‘Punch’ Henderson. Top Dawg also have their own production team named ‘Digi+Phonics’ which is composed of music

producers Dave Free, Willie B, Tae Beast and Sounwave. They have formed the majority of the production on many of the TDE releases.

Essentially, TDE would be a good record label to market my CD if I were to take the independent route because they specialise in mainly Hip Hop but also R&B.