8. Record Labels - Institutional research

Sony Music group

Sony Music an American music company owned by Sony that is incorporated as a general partnership of Sony Music Holdings Inc. through Sony Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. The company was first founded in 1929 as American Record Corporation and renamed Columbia Recording Corporation in 1938, following its acquisition by the Columbia Broadcasting System. In 1966, the company was reorganised to become CBS Records. Sony Corporation bought the company in 1987 and renamed it Sony Music Entertainment in 1991.

The logo for Sony music is of a paint brush smear, in the shape of a backwards c. The paint smear is done in red this is because red stands out against the red making the image remember able. The text that has been used is capital letters. This makes the brand name official and easy to read for the viewer. The backwards ‘c’ could also be representing a music note. This links back to the company as it produces music.

Virgin Records

Virgin Records is a former British and current American record label founded by English entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman in 1972.

This is a very simple logo as there is any one colour used which is black. This makes it never cheap for the company to produce as the logo is not in colour or in 3D. Another plus to this logo is that it is easy to read and to remember as this is a very well-known brand. The word virgin is done in upper and lower case letters. The letter V is an upper case and the rest of the word is in lower. However the word record is in capital letters. This is to show the difference in how much importance one has compared to the other.

Island Records

Island Records is a Jamaican/British/American 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 in 1959.

Again this is a black logo. The text saying ISLAND is all in capital letters to stand out. There is no identification that this is a record label company as the logo jet says ISLAND. This could become misleading. The logo is of a silhouette of a palm tree this links back to the name of the company.