I chose Sony because if I was ever to sign with a major or rather a subsidiary of a major then I would choose Ministry of Sound or Ultra Music which is part of Sony and specializes in electronic music and particularly EDM. A lot of artists that I like are signed to Ultra and it hosts a number of festivals around the world, the probably most famous one in Miami (Florida).
Sony is the second biggest of the three major labels (Universal, Sony, and Warner in order, biggest first) and has a very extensive artist roster.
Ministry of Sound was founded in 1991 by James Palumbo and started out as a nightclub in London.
Now they are also a Record label company owned by Sony.
The current CEO of Ministry of Sound is Jonathan Bevan and artists like London Grammar, DJ Fresh, Sigala and more are signed to the label. The nightclub was the first London based club dedicated to American house music. The Label and it's subsidiary brand Hed Kandi put on about 1,500 global events a year.
Ultra Music is a very big record label in the EDM scene and it has helped bring many artists to global fame. It is based in North America and the owner and founder of the label is Patrick Moxey. Ultra a lot of the world's most famous EDM producers are or were signed with the label, for example, Steve Aoki, David Guetta, Pitbull, Calvin Harris, Kygo, Benny Benassi and many more. What is very impressive is that a lot of these artists made it out of the niche of their genre and were able to place hits in the top ten charts and thus reach global fame and bring electronic dance music to the mainstream and introduce a very broad audience to it.
Ultra Music is also one of the labels to quickly adapt to the changes in the music industry and the slow takeover of streaming services in the market. Ultra has an extremely strong social media presence and their youtube channel alone currently has 5,476,093,033 views in total and over 7 million subscribers. On Soundcloud they have 296,000 followers, their twitter account has over 655,000 followers and on facebook, their reach is 2,722,275 which is very impressive.
This means that they are able to break artists very easily without even spending a lot of money on promotion campaigns.
But what Ultra is probably most famous for are their numerous festivals hosted around the globe. The biggest and oldest one, Ultra Music Festival Miami which is held annually during March and has a huge lineup of the biggest acts in the dance music scene. It has grown massively since 1999 when it first started off and in 2016 165,000 people attended the festival. The festival has won multiple awards for Best Dance Event, Best International Dance Music Festival, and World's Best Festival. The entire festival is streamed on UMF TV which is the official youtube channel so everyone around is able to experience the festival from their home.
Warner and Universal also have subsidiary EDM labels for example Insomniac and Kontor but I believe that Ultra is one of the most iconic and important labels because it helped expand the audience of EDM to such an extensive level.
Sony is contributing to the EDM scene by investing in labels like Ultra and Ministry of Sound and thus support artists by them gaining popularity and getting airplay on mainstream radio stations.
More and more EDM songs are making it into the charts and this helps the scene grow.
Since Sony is also big in the video game business they have an easier job getting music from their artist roster placed in video game trailers and even the games themselves.
Also the head of video game music of Sony, Chuck Doud said in an interview, that they are looking at talent, not at "names". They are in a good position where they can consider the entire spectrum of composers out there. If it's a younger composer who's just starting out then they can step in and make sure that the music gets produced to a level and caliber of someone who's an Oscar nominee.
This is great news for up and coming video game music composers since it's often hard to land well-paid jobs if you haven't had experience working on an AAA game.
In an interview with the ex-CEO and chairman of Sony Music UK Mr. Gatfield says that the best approach to get signed by a major like Sony is to build a solid fanbase online and play live a lot. He says, quote: "I won't sign an artist who doesn't have a digital footprint". This, he explains, is not just because they want an artist who has already established a fanbase but particularly due to the fact that it proves that they are hard working, driven and will put in the effort and time to make it in the music industry.
Long story short, it doesn't make sense to knock on the door of a major before you don't have a small audience and a portfolio of quality content.
Sources:
- http://www.sonymusic.co.uk/labels/ministry-of-sound
- http://www.sonymusic.co.uk
- http://www.ministryofsound.com/about/ministry-of-sound-recordings
http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/lohan-presencer-becomes-ministry-chairman-steps-aside-as-ceo/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Music_Festival
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Music_Festival
https://www.youtube.com/user/UltraRecords/about
https://www.facebook.com/ultramusic
https://soundcloud.com/ultrarecords
https://twitter.com/ultrarecords
http://www.classicfm.com/discover/video-game-music/chuck-doud-sony/#52lYwUjvdUxdxVGb.97
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQKGe3TDLOw
Sony is the second biggest of the three major labels (Universal, Sony, and Warner in order, biggest first) and has a very extensive artist roster.
Ministry of Sound was founded in 1991 by James Palumbo and started out as a nightclub in London.
Now they are also a Record label company owned by Sony.
The current CEO of Ministry of Sound is Jonathan Bevan and artists like London Grammar, DJ Fresh, Sigala and more are signed to the label. The nightclub was the first London based club dedicated to American house music. The Label and it's subsidiary brand Hed Kandi put on about 1,500 global events a year.
Ultra Music is a very big record label in the EDM scene and it has helped bring many artists to global fame. It is based in North America and the owner and founder of the label is Patrick Moxey. Ultra a lot of the world's most famous EDM producers are or were signed with the label, for example, Steve Aoki, David Guetta, Pitbull, Calvin Harris, Kygo, Benny Benassi and many more. What is very impressive is that a lot of these artists made it out of the niche of their genre and were able to place hits in the top ten charts and thus reach global fame and bring electronic dance music to the mainstream and introduce a very broad audience to it.
Ultra Music is also one of the labels to quickly adapt to the changes in the music industry and the slow takeover of streaming services in the market. Ultra has an extremely strong social media presence and their youtube channel alone currently has 5,476,093,033 views in total and over 7 million subscribers. On Soundcloud they have 296,000 followers, their twitter account has over 655,000 followers and on facebook, their reach is 2,722,275 which is very impressive.
This means that they are able to break artists very easily without even spending a lot of money on promotion campaigns.
But what Ultra is probably most famous for are their numerous festivals hosted around the globe. The biggest and oldest one, Ultra Music Festival Miami which is held annually during March and has a huge lineup of the biggest acts in the dance music scene. It has grown massively since 1999 when it first started off and in 2016 165,000 people attended the festival. The festival has won multiple awards for Best Dance Event, Best International Dance Music Festival, and World's Best Festival. The entire festival is streamed on UMF TV which is the official youtube channel so everyone around is able to experience the festival from their home.
Warner and Universal also have subsidiary EDM labels for example Insomniac and Kontor but I believe that Ultra is one of the most iconic and important labels because it helped expand the audience of EDM to such an extensive level.
Sony is contributing to the EDM scene by investing in labels like Ultra and Ministry of Sound and thus support artists by them gaining popularity and getting airplay on mainstream radio stations.
More and more EDM songs are making it into the charts and this helps the scene grow.
Since Sony is also big in the video game business they have an easier job getting music from their artist roster placed in video game trailers and even the games themselves.
Also the head of video game music of Sony, Chuck Doud said in an interview, that they are looking at talent, not at "names". They are in a good position where they can consider the entire spectrum of composers out there. If it's a younger composer who's just starting out then they can step in and make sure that the music gets produced to a level and caliber of someone who's an Oscar nominee.
This is great news for up and coming video game music composers since it's often hard to land well-paid jobs if you haven't had experience working on an AAA game.
In an interview with the ex-CEO and chairman of Sony Music UK Mr. Gatfield says that the best approach to get signed by a major like Sony is to build a solid fanbase online and play live a lot. He says, quote: "I won't sign an artist who doesn't have a digital footprint". This, he explains, is not just because they want an artist who has already established a fanbase but particularly due to the fact that it proves that they are hard working, driven and will put in the effort and time to make it in the music industry.
Long story short, it doesn't make sense to knock on the door of a major before you don't have a small audience and a portfolio of quality content.
Sources:
- http://www.sonymusic.co.uk/labels/ministry-of-sound
- http://www.sonymusic.co.uk
- http://www.ministryofsound.com/about/ministry-of-sound-recordings
http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/lohan-presencer-becomes-ministry-chairman-steps-aside-as-ceo/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Music_Festival
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Music_Festival
https://www.youtube.com/user/UltraRecords/about
https://www.facebook.com/ultramusic
https://soundcloud.com/ultrarecords
https://twitter.com/ultrarecords
http://www.classicfm.com/discover/video-game-music/chuck-doud-sony/#52lYwUjvdUxdxVGb.97
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQKGe3TDLOw
Comments
Post a Comment