Choosing The Record Label

As I am about to begin creating my digi-pack for my artist, I know that I will have to think about the record label she will be signed to. I have the opportunity to create my own record label which my artist could possibly be signed to - however, I have decided not to create my own as I do not have enough time to be creating new features for a new record label as I still have to spend a lot of time editing my music video and also creating the digi-pack and poster. Due to this, I have decided to sign my artist to an already existing record label and at this time I am unsure on whether that record label will be a major label or an independent label - nonetheless, I have done some research on record labels and have found five different labels which my artist could possibly be signed to and have gone into more detail about them below.

Here are the five record labels I have considered my artist being signed to:

I decided to look at all of these record labels because they are all similar in the sense that they all have artists that are signed to them that are from the Pop Punk genre or even just the Punk genre and because of this, I thought that it would be a good idea to sign my artist to one of these record labels. When thinking about which label I could sign my artist to, I firstly decided to do some brief research on each record label and underneath you are able to see that I have created a slideshow and in this you are able to see that I have taken a print screen of the Wikipedia page for each of these record labels, but also I have taken a print screen of the existing artists that are signed to these labels which I think will hopefully help me decide which record label I would like to sign my artist to. 

Here is the slideshow I created:

After looking at these five record labels in some detail, I eventually decided which record label I would to sign my artist to. The record label I have decided to sign my artist to is 'Hopeless Records'. There are a range of different reasons to why I chose this record label over the other ones I had looked at, but the main reason was due to the fact that I personally already know what this record label is like and what they are able to do for an artist. From the images I have presented below you are able to see that 'Hopeless Records' is an independent record label that was founded in 1993 by Louis Posen and is situated in California. Making my artist part of an independent record label could possibly mean that my artist doesn't gain as large of an audience than they could if they were with a major label - however, this record label is specific to the genres; Punk Rock, Pop Punk, Alternative Rock and occasionally Heavy Metal - this means that people who are fans of this these genres will most likely know about this record label, so when someone in the audience may look at something in relation to Hopeless Records, they may see something about my artist and then begin to become a fan of her. This means that my artist will gain a larger mass audience in relation to people who like the Pop Punk genre, rather than individuals who may only sometimes listen to it. Nonetheless, this does not mean to say that other audiences will not notice my artist because she is signed to an independent label because they hopefully will and will also enjoy her music and help her gain a larger mass audience. 

In the image I have presented above, you are able to see that 'Hopeless Records' has its own subsidiary label which is known as 'Sub City Records' and both of these labels combined have produced an annual tour called 'Take Action Tour' which includes all of the artists that are signed to the record label, but also once this tour is over, the record labels then release a CD which includes all of the artists that played on the tour during a certain year, so this means that even when my artist is just beginning her career, she will be able to go straight on tour and get noticed. This is another beneficial feature for my artist as it means she will be able to become more well known by touring as people will see her play live and will hopefully enjoy what she does, but also once the CD is released, more people will hear her songs, even people who may not particularly like the genre and hopefully this will help her gain a larger mass audience and become more well known and popular. Nowadays the Pop Punk genre is not always that popular and people are more into Pop music than anything, so the best thing is to be able to get my artist seen as much as I can to get people to notice her, but also it is more strategic to persuade people that already like the Pop Punk genre to listen to her rather than someone who may not really like the genre or may only listen to it from time to time.

          

In the image I have shown above you are able to see the current artists that are still signed to 'Hopeless Records' at this time. Personally I know the majority of these artists due to the fact that I listen to the genre of music that this record label usually signs. Nonetheless, all of these artists are well known in relation to the genres they are part of and if you ever saw someone that liked this genre of music then they would most likely know the majority of the artists that have been listed as they are well known. On top of that, there is a general style for the record labels logo - however, sometimes it varies when presented to the audience, so when it comes to me adding the record label to my artists digi-pack I will need to think about which logo is best to use. Above you are able to see that I have presented two of the different types of logos that this record label use which could be used on my artists digi-pack.