The big four Record Labels

A record label is a brand and trademark associated with the marketing(distribution, promotion, product, place, price etc...) of music, recordings videos and so on.
Record labels have a large influence on how music videos turn out for the artist. Every label has its own budget (this involves the amount spent on lighting editing locations, artists costumes, cast crew and so on), and its own way of representing each artist which reflects its' production.

UNIVERSAL
Universal is an American multinational music company. The universal music group sell more music than any other major label. They are accounted for 25.5% of the market in 2005.
Worldwide artists such as Rihanna belong to this record label.

SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Sony BMG Music Entertainment was a recorded 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.  Sony is the second biggest major recording label in music sales. They are accounted for 21.5% of the market in 2005. Worldwide artists like Beyonce belong to this record label.

WARNER MUSIC GROUP
Warner Music Group is a US based business group and family of record labels. The largest American- owned music corporation. it is the third largest in the recording industry, and one of the big four record companies. In 2011, WMG announced its sale for US $3.3billion. Worldwide artist like Madonna belong to this record label.

EMI GROUP
EMI, is a multinational music company head quartered in London United Kingdom. It was the third biggest major record label in music sales, until in 2011 where they were financially troubled because of a $4 billion debt, however now it is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and was one of the "big four" record companies.
Worldwide artists like The Beatles and Coldplay belong to this record label.

These big four labels represent the majority of the music sold in the market, making up as much as 75% of the music market or more depending on the year. Artists who are signed to a Big Four record label are either signed to the central label or signed to a subsidiary of the label. For instance, an artists may be signed to Sony, or they may be signed to the Sony subsidiary label Columbia Records. Beyonce is a perfect example; she is signed to Columbia Records, however is also a part of Sony records.

I have decided to not select an Artists song whom belongs to one of the Four largest leading record label in the world, because they are most likely to be very well known by practically the  whole world (as all four labels target a mass audience collectively), so therefore it may make it a lot more difficult for me to reject the usual codes and conventions of the artist themselves for their brand image is so strong also, it makes it harder to reach out to an audience who are already familiar with their music.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Music_Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Music_Group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Music_Entertainment