Record labels and permission
- 1. Record Labels and permission By Jamie Tilsley
- 2. What is a record label? • A record label refers to the companies that take control of various aspects associated with musical artists. They usually vogue for multiple artists and handle things such as; marketing, distribution and production of records. An example could be Top Dawg Entertainment, who have multiple artists from the rap genre, including Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab soul and Jay Rock- all big names in the rap genre.
- 3. Would my artist be signed to an independent or major record label? • I feel it would be more appropriate for my artist to be signed to a major record company, as it is generally a convention that rappers get signed to major labels as money is an ideology of rap and is more achievable when signed to a big record label who can put out more publicity to the songs and records through better and well funded marketing. A record label such as ‘Top Dawg Entertainment’ would be a good suit for my artist as they often scout young/upcoming talent but also are well funded as they are a major record label.
- 4. History of Top Dawg Entertainment • 1997 marked the beginning of the record label, receiving its name from the founder: Anthony “ Top Dawg” Tiffith. The record label had started with large names such as “The Game”. However the record label hit a goldmine when they caught the rapper “Kendrick Lamar” at the age of 15 in 2003. Later, in 2005, the record label had some more success with one of their other signed rappers; Jay Rock. With all these relatively young rappers being a part of the record label, this allowed Top Dawg Entertainment to build up young talent and create future stars. This is a big reason for the recognition and success of the label.
- 5. Copyright • Copyright meaning: “The exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material.” • Within the music industry, it is the job of the record label to get the songs of their artists copyrighted as to prevent other artists from stealing lyrics, melodies and beats from their songs and profiting off the success of a catchy song. Its also the labels job to make sure their artists use any previously copyrighted material, as they could be sued for using another labels copyrighted music.
- 6. What we are/not allowed to do • As we are using a copyrighted song: Untitled 03 by Kendrick Lamar, there are certain things we must uphold when creating our music video. The most important part of using the music video is that we cannot use the song to get any type of revenue and can only use it for educational purposes. This means when we upload our video to YouTube to put it on a viewing platform for our blog, we mustn't monetize the video in order to get money from it.
- 7. Our Record label Our group has chosen to make a record label to be placed in various places within our project. These places include, our DIGIPAK, our poster for our artist and in our music video. We have chosen the name: Crew Records. This will represent our record label and will link to the logo we have planned. We plan to create a rounded logo with the C and R being present to represent the “Crew” and “Records”.
- 8. Our Record label Logo
- 9. What I have learned • Through my research of record labels and permission, I have realised what conventional record company logos look like in the rap genre, allowing me to create a fitting logo to accompany our record label. I have also learned that there are repercussions if we don’t handle the use of the copyrighted song properly. This research will allow me to stay out of legal trouble in regards to the companies song and will let me use it for educational purposes only.