Music Labels

Who owns the company?
International French media conglomerate Vivendi. A conglomerate is a corporation consisting of several companies in different businesses.


Where is it based? In which countries does it have offices?
Vivendi's headquarters are in Paris, France. The UMG global headquarters are located New York City. Other major offices are located in Universal City and Santa Monica, along with Universal Music Group Nashville in Nashville; in the UK the group has a number of offices in London and Romford, and in Japan the group has a office in Minato, Tokyo.


Facts and figures about the company.
UMG is the world’s leader in recorded music. The group has particularly strong positions in North America and Europe – markets which alone account for close to 70% of total world revenues in the sector. Thanks to their diversity and their locations, both worldwide and local, UMG’s labels complement each other, through their focus on different genres and music segments.

UMG artists include U2, Amy Winehouse, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Jack Johnson, Eminem and Roberto Alagna.

Catalog releases account for a significant and stable part of UMG’s recorded music each year. UMG’s recorded music catalog, the largest in the world, features some of the most popular and influential artists of our time, including ABBA, Louis Armstrong, Alain Bashung, James Brown, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Marley, Nirvana, Luciano Pavarotti, Edith Piaf, Michel Sardou, the Police, The Rolling Stones, Caetano Veloso and Herbert Von Karajan

UMG labels include

Island Def Jam Music Group
Interscope Geffen A&M Records
MCA Nashville
Mercury Nashville
Mercury Records
Polydor
Universal Motown Republic Group
Decca
Deutsche Grammophon
Verve

AS Media Studies Unit G323 - exam

Section B: Institutions and Audiences

For Section B, we shall be studying the music industry. We shall focus on case studies of two record labels within the contemporary music industry which target British audiences, including their patterns of production, distribution, marketing and consumption by audiences. This will be accompanied by study of the strategies used by record labels to counter the practice of file sharing and their impact on music production, marketing and consumption.

Candidates should be prepared to understand and discuss the processes of production, distribution, marketing and exchange as they relate to contemporary media institutions, as well as, the nature of audience consumption and the relationship between audiences and institutions. In addition candidates should be familiar with:

·         the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;

·         the importance of cross media convergence and synergy, in production, distribution and marketing;

·         the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, marketing and exchange;

·         the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;

·         the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;

·         the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international and global institutions;

·         the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.