Major Record Labels

The Majors

Four of the major record labels are:

• Universal
• Sony music
• Warner Brothers
• EMI

These are the majors. The majority are backed by conglomerates, with stakes in other industries, such as film, TV and electronics.

Most of majors own, or license, a series of smaller subsidiary companies in order to reach different kinds of audiences in different kinds of genres.

The Universal Music Group is the largest corporation in the world. An American-based, French-owned multinational music corporation, it currently operates as a subsidiary of Paris-based media conglomerate Vivendi. UMG also owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the second largest music publishing company in the world. Universal Music Group's global corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a record music company, which was a 50–50 joint venture between the Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann AG. The venture’s successor, the again-active Sony Music Entertainment, is 100% owned by the Sony Corporation of America.

EMI Group Limited, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, was a British multinational music recording and publishing company, and electronics device and systems manufacturing company, headquartered in London, England. At the time of its break-up in 2012 it was the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and was one of the big four record companies (now the big three). Its record labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records, and Capitol Records. EMI Group also had a major publishing arm, EMI Music Publishing—also based in London with offices globally.

Warner Music Group, also known as Warner Music, is an American major global record company headquartered in New York City. The largest American-owned music conglomerate worldwide, it is one of the 'big three' recording companies (the third largest in the global music industry). The company operates some of the largest and most successful recording labels in the world, including its flagship labels Warner Bros. Records, Parlophone Records and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music-publishing companies

Major Independents

The Major-Independents are:

• Columbia Records is an American flagship recording label, under the ownership of Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group. 

• Islands Records is a record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group. As of February 2014, three Island label brands exist in the world: Island UK, Island US, and Island Australia. Partially due to the label's significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels, alongside Interscope Records and Republic Records.

• Syco Entertainment, often known simply as Syco, is a global joint venture between Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment focused on the production and marketing of music, television, film and digital content.

• RCA Records is an American flagship recording label  of Sony Music Entertainment. RCA Records is the second-oldest recording company in US history.

• Virgin Records is a record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell and Tom Newman in 1972.

Independents

There are a huge number of small companies with little or no financial connection to the majors.

These companies often concentrate on a small number of acts, within specialised niches  in the industry.

They are called Independents. An example of a highly successful independent is 'Domino Records'.

It is often that record labels start as small independents but are bought by majors and are called Major-Independents.