Major and Independent record label

Although there are many successful record labels the music industry is dominated by four majors, these are Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and EMI. These four are known as 'The Majors' in the music indusrty. These majors are also backed by conglomerates with stakes in other industries such as Film, TV and electronics.

Sony

Warner Brothers

Most of these Majors own or license a series of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genre. These companies are known as major independents; Columbia, Island, Syco, RCA and Virgin.

Although the music industry is dominate by these 'majors' there are also a large number of small companies which are also known to produce good music without the link to any of the majors, An example of on is Domino Records. Due to the lack of money these companies will tend to only concentrate on a small amount of artists/genre. It is often the case that many of these record labels begin as independents, but then are bought by a major and then become major-independents.