DOMINO - Independent Label
Sony is a conglomerate institution, because it is made up of lots of subsidiary companies.
Sony is 25.61% of the big four institutions.
Sony has its head quarters in Japan, but services worldwide (Globalisation)
5th largest media conglomerate.
Sony Music Entertainment is a good example of horizontal integration because it is made up of lots of subsidiary record labels who are owned by Sony e.g. Columbia records .
Sony is a good example of vertical integration because it has it’s own ‘in house’ companies that deal with and control every stage of the production and distribution process.
Although Sony works with other digital distribution giants, Apple and YouTube, it has it's own companies too:
e.g. VEVO and MyPlay.
Both VEVO and MyPlay provide users with the opportunity to stream music and video, meaning that they don’t necessarily have to buy a track to listen to it.
Being horizontally intergrated and owning a range of labels, each of which represent different artists across a range of genres, catering for niche and mainstream audiences.
e.g. Simon Cowells label which is owned by Sony (Syco) it represents artists that are generated by his reality TV shows i.e Susan Boyle from BGT and leona Lewis from X Factor.
e.g Columbia is Sony's label which represents mainstream alternative artists such as Foo Fighters and MGMT and Kasabian.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is Sony’s presence in the film industry.
DOMINO
Domino Records are an independent label who are based in London.
What makes them ‘independent’ and how they differ from the ‘big 4’ is their ideology – their approach to music. The ‘About Domino’ page of their website explains that: ‘A passion for music, a back to basics approach has long been their creed along with a determination to ensure everything it puts out is ''something home-made that's put together with love'‘, contrastingly sharply with SyCo’s ideology of instantly created reality TV music ‘stars’.
Founded in 1993 by Laurence Bell because he wanted to promote music he “truly believed in” – again, emphasising that the Independent industry is driven by personal agenda rather than the prospect of making tonnes of money.
Domino records, despite being independent are a multi-national label with offices in New York, Berlin and Singapore.
•Domino are horizontally integrated as they ‘look after’ the following subsidiary labels:
-Double Six
-Rekords Rekords
-Geographic
Sometimes the independent music industry and the independent film industry make use of synergy and close working relationships, to keep their productions truly independent
e.g. the actor Paddy Considine is known for his roles in British Independent films, especially for his unique working relationship with director Shane Meadows. He starred in a music video for the Artic Monkeys’ song Leave Before The Lights Come On. The Artic Monkeys then went onto to appear alongside Paddy Considine in the Shane Meadows film Le Donk thus promoting independent music and film simultaneously.
Artists from SONY
- Jimi Hendrix - Micheal Jackson
- Chris brown
- Foo Fighters
- Olly Murs
- One Direction
- Rebecca Ferguson
- Karmin
- Avril Lavigne
Subsidary Labels
- Columbia
-Rocnation
-RCA
-Epic
-Syco
Artists for DOMINO
- Arctic Monkeys
- Franz Ferdinand
- Sons and Daughters
- Hot Chip
Originally a game by Konami, Sony bought the rights to Silent Hill, making the game a Playstation exclusive which sold over 2 million copies. Sony then made a film based on the game, knowing that the game’s existing fanbase would provide a guaranteed audience at the box office. Sony Music Entertainment also released the original soundtrack for the game.
Although Sony caters for its new digital media audiences through the production of new hardware and digital services such as VEVO – there have been concerns from the entire music industry that the move from analogue forms of music to digitalisation would lead to a la carte music buying (fans would download one song rather than an entire album), or even worse, peer to peer illegal file sharing via illegal downloading services or the unlimited copying of iTunes tracks to CD for your friends.
