music industry
PVRIS (pronounced Paris) is an American rock band from Lowell, Massachusetts formed by members Lyndsey Gunnulfsen, Alex Babinski, and Brian MacDonald. The band formed originally under the name Paris but later changed it to PVRIS in the summer of 2013 citing legal reasons.
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Within the music industry, there are many different record labels.
the big 3
Within the music industry, three large conglomerates dominate the industry. The big three consist of Warner, Sony and Universal.
These labels represent the majority of the music sold, making up as much as 80% of the music market or more depending on the year.
Artists who are signed to a major record label are either signed to the central label or signed to a subsidiary of the label. For instance, a band may be signed to Sony, or they may be signed to the Sony subsidiary label Columbia Records. These subsidiary labels have their own staff, sign their own artists and make most of their own financial decisions. However, they are answerable to the "main" company, who sets their overall budget and makes decisions like reducing staff at the subsidiary. A poor performance can close the subsidiary and lead its artists to be distributed among the other subsidiaries under the major label.
VS.
Independant
An independent label, also known as a indie label, is a record label that is independently funded and not connected to one of the Big Three major labels. Indie labels range from home based hobby labels to highly profitable, large businesses. In the 1990s, the line between indie labels and major labels began to blur somewhat, and now some large indie labels are actually distributed by the Big Three major labels.
Indie labels often face an uphill battle trying to get their music heard, as they typically have far fewer financial resources to promote their music than major labels do. Despite the struggle, many labels have survived, and thrived, for years, and many other indie labels may not have lasted forever but had a tremendous impact on music both creatively and in terms of business.
By looking at this graph, we can see that the big three (Warner EMI, Sony and Universal) take up 81.87% of the music industry in terms of ownership of artists leaving only 18.13% for Independent record labels. This shows that the Big 3 have a massive influence on the music industry and dominate the majority.
PVRIS are signed to Rise Records who are a subsidiary of a larger record label called BMG Rights Management.
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BMG Rights Management have signed many big names such as: Kylie Minogue, Westlife, The Black Eyed Peas and Jessica Simpson. However the subsidiary, Rise Record, have a niche range of music, all in the Rock/Alternative genre, of which PVRIS are part of. Other artists signed by Rise Records include:
- Sleeping With Sirens
- blink-182
- Hands like Houses
- Crown The Empire
- Of Mice And Men
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The reason PVRIS had decided to go with a subsidiary instead of one of the Big 3, is because usually subsidiaries focus more on the particular band and have their interests at heart. As well as this, subsidiaries have interest in promoting the bands music. Although in the Big 3, they have enough money to fund albums and expensive music videos, they may not focus on smaller bands as much as their most selling artists e.g. Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Madonna.
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