Institutional research

British Record Label

PYE records is a British record label that was founded in 1953. It originally manufactured televisions and radio however it entered the record business when it bought 'Nixa records' in 1953. In 1955, the company acquired Polygon Records, a label that had been established by Petula Clark's father and Alan. A Freeman to control distribution of her recordings, and merged it with Nixa Records to form Pye Nixa Records.

In 1958, PYE international records was started. The company licensed recordings from American and other foreign labels for the UK market, including Chess, A&M, Karma Sutra, 

Colplic, Warner Bros and more. It also released recordings from British artist Labi Siffre which were produced outside the company.  

PYE's best known signed artists were the Kinks, David Bowie, Petula Clark, The Riot Squad and more.  The label changed its name in 1980 but was briefly reactivated in 2006.

One advantage of using PYE records is that it has been a record label in the industry for a long period of time. The advantage of experience and knowledge they would provide is good because it means they would know what to do to make our song good. As well as this, they would have a large audience as people who know the record label and are fans, would be interested in listening to their songs. 

However, a disadvantage of using this record label is that it is very outdated and the artists that are singed to them do not fit in with the genre (R&B soul) that our music video is. This means our song would not fit in with their record label.

Conglomerate record label

Island Records is a major record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica and has been based in the United Kingdom since 1962. Blackwell sold the label to PolyGram in 1989. 

Both Island, and another recent PolyGram acquisition, A&M, were at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island in particular having exerted a major influence on the progressive UK music scene in the early 1970s. The label has been operating as one of Universal Music's standalone labels since 2014, also handling Mercury Records. Signed artists include Disclosure, Ariana grande and Aluna George.

Similar to the previous record label, this one also has been in buisness for a long time. Meaning it has a mass audience and also means we would beable to distribute our song on software such as iTunes and more. This also means our song would more likely go on social media where it can be seen by a larger audience.

However, this record label has artists who are of the alternative R&B genre. Although this is quite similar to R&B, it also means it attracts a different type of audience that does not cohere to our theme and genre (R&B soul).

Independent record label
Boy Better Know is an English grime collective and record label. The collective was founded in North London by Jme alongside his brother Skepta in 2005 as an independent record label and a means to publish their music.

In its early period "Boy Better Know" was well known for its line of eponymous T-shirts. The crew also had a regular show on Rinse FM with DJ Maximum. Jme's debut album 'Famous?'' was released on the label in 2008 "Too Many Man", the first single from the album, was released on 25 May 2009.

Its main artists include Drake, Skepta and more. Because many of Drake's songs are R&B or sometimes R&B soul, we decided that this would be a good fit for our music video as this is the genre that would best fit our theme and song.