Industrial Context: Beggars Group as a brand

 Beggars group:

A British record company that owns and distributes other labels including 4AD, Rough Trade Records, Matador Records, XL Recordings and Young. It mainly distributes indie and alternative music  that is less mainstream. Martin Mills is the Owner and Manager of Beggars group who is a fierce advocate for independent label rights. The Guardian named him ‘22 in their music power ‘100.

4AD

4AD is one of the record labels owned by Beggars Group that is also labelled as ‘independent’. It gained prominence in the 1980s for realising albums from alternative rock, post-punk, gothic rock and dream pop artists. In 1987, the label scored an international hit with the dance music single “Pump up the volume” by MIAIRIRIS.

The label has a ‘code of conduct’ tab in the skybar that outlines the companies policy towards “anti-racism, anti-sexism and equality among staff and artists”. They also mention their contributions towards multiple charities. The fact that 4AD is displaying this information publicly shows that they are proud of their progressive views and car about solving social issues through donations and fighting inequality. This is very appealing to my target demographic of media literate 16-25 year olds as they are likely to be educated on social issues and have strong, positive opinions that will align with their ‘code of conduct’, making them more approving of 4AD and their morals. 

They also make sure to promote a diverse range of artists from different ethnic minority groups and varying sexualities. This reflects their ethos set out in their code of conduct, but also ensures that minority groups in society that are often opposed opportunities, can get their foot in the door of the music industry. 

Matador Records

Matador Records is defined as an Independent record label with a roster of mainly indie rock, punk rock, experimental rock, alternative rock, and electronic music. Their own assessment of their history is available on their website under the tab “revisionist history”, where they give a very chatty and rude statement addressing the audience casually, letting them know that the origins of the company are foggy. This shows to the audience that Matador Records don’t take themselves too seriously, feeding into the conventions of the indie and alternative music that they promote, as it’s often very chill and up and coming, not focussing on traditional values of what music and artists should be like.

The official website is quite plain and simple, but it does include lots of links to other platforms like snapchat, twitter and instagram, and a variety of playlists that navigate users to Spotify. It is clear from Matador’s cross platform digital convergence that they are aiming themselves towards a younger demographic, especially by promoting their signed artists’s music on a streaming platform, as appose to encouraging the audience to by physical copies or see artists live. However, they do promote vinyl copies of new albums, which links to an older form of music playing making a comeback in the new generation. This is a clever marketing scheme as vinyls are very trendy among young people, and promote the audience becoming more involved with artists by owning their own physical copies of their music. 

Rough Trade Recordings

Rough Trade Recordings is a London based independent record label that promotes indie pop, punk rock and post punk artists. The label began in the 1970s as a record shop and became very successful in the 1990s through artists like the Libertines, the Strokes and Antony and the Johnsons, who allowed the brand to become diverse and promote a wide range of music. 

Rough Trade East is one of the few vinyl shops that the record label is known for and it often hosts live events for signed artists and well known celebrities. The audience are able to attend “stripped back” events where artists sing live with authentic instruments, and also involve an element of interaction where the audience can get records and merchandise signed. This record label heavily promotes these events in order to build up lesser known artist’s profiles, and also host celebrities like John Robb and Jeff Goldblum, for more niche events.

XL Recordings

 

XL Recordings is a UK independent record label founded in 1989. They are one of the more mainstream labels within Beggars group as they have worked with popular artists like Adele, Azealia Banks, M.I.A and Tyler the Creator, although these artists are not directly signed with XL Recordings. However, they have signed notable artists like Radiohead and Nines who vary from indie/punk rock to rap and grime. 

Within their website they promote the artists much more then they promote themselves as a record label, the only tabs being “watch” and “buy”, referring to music videos and merchandising. They promote lots of records and cd’s within their home page, pushing the audience to engage and buy the artist’s products (emphasised by the shopping cart in the corner). The approach from XL Recordings isn’t conventionally very indie, and differs from the other labels within Beggars group, due to it’s push on selling as oppose to creating a brand identity with an “about” page or any information about he artists themselves. 

YOUNG Record Label

 

Young is a British Independent record label that was formally a part of XL Recordings, but has recently become it’s own label. It has only signed 11 artists so far ranging from ‘beatmakers’, indie musicians and rappers. 

 They promote a separate section of their record label called “Young then”, which is an archive of the history of the record label, including different collaborations, events and movements that went on behind the scenes, that they now wish to share with their audience. This helps them build a brand identity and show the roots of the company, sharing the impact they’ve had on the music industry. 

 This website contrasts heavily with the previous XL Recordings, as it is pushing a story and history of the record label, instead of focussing too heavily on the artists themselves.  

There’s endless archives, including interviews with social campaigners ‘ClientEarth’ who worked with YOUNG to promote the cause, photo ‘dumps’ from certain events that have a sense of hyper realism and verisimilitude, posters that promoted past live shows, and general information about creative events that YOUNG have been involved with, like their collaboration with the Israeli dance company.