method of distributing music

Distribution is how albums get into shops. Distribution companies sign deals with record labels (or very rarely, directly with artists) that gives them the right to sell that label's products to record stores that have an account with that distributor. The distributor takes a cut of income from each album sold and then pays the label the remaining balance.

Some distributors expect a record label to provide them with finished product, but sometimes a distributor will do an "M&D" deal with a label. M&D stands for manufacturing and distribution. With this set up, the distributor will pay for all of the manufacturing costs of an album up front, and then keep all of the income from the album until that initial investment is paid off.

music production

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording (i.e. "production") of an artist's music.

A music producer can, in some cases, be compared to a film director, with noted practitioner Phil Ek himself describing his role as "the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, like a director would a movie. The engineer would be more the cameraman of the movie. The music producer's job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music. The scope of responsibility may be one or two songs or an artist's entire album – in which case the producer will typically develop an overall vision for the album and how the various songs may interrelate.

failure of independent record stores

Smaller independents are faring no better. Mike Caddick, who has owned Swordfish Records in central Birmingham since 1979, says that a couple of years ago his city had at least seven independent record shops. Now his is one of only two.

contrast between major and independent record labels

There are many differences between the major record labels and the independent labels. One major difference between major and independent labels is the financial aspect. A major record label signs who "they" consider to be the most popular, and the major players of today's music. The major record label has the means to obtaining and using hundreds of millions of dollars, which allows them the ability to fund and promote the artists they sign in a variety of different media aspects. Whereas an independent music label does not have the huge funding that a major label does for promotion. An independent artist must contribute to helping promote their music. While this may not be something every artist would want to do, an independent artist that is hands on with their promotion is able to form a personal and unique bond with their fan base.

Most major record labels artists earn a 10-15% royalty on their music. But before an artist can receive their royalty their label must be clear of any debts relating to their music. Such as touring costs, album and video production and any advances the artists received. Money made from the music will first go to the label until all debts are covered, before the artist will ever start to receive any royalty's. Whereas, independent record labels offer a much higher royalty rate, because independent labels production costs are much lower than those of major labels. An independent label is common to offer the artists 40-75% in royalty's

major music label

Universal Music Group is an American major global music company. It is the largest of the big three music companies.
Universal Music Group owns Universal Music Publishing Group, which is the second largest music publishing company in the world.
The UMG global corporate headquarters are located in Santa Monica, California.

independent record label

Boy Better Know is a grime collective and record label founded by Jamie Adenuga (also known as JME) in late 2005. As a collective they are best recognised for their tracks including "Private Caller", "Duppy (Doin' It Again)" and "Too Many Man".

Recently, popular YouTube youth broadcaster SB.TV celebrated their "100 Million YouTube Views" mark by recording a Boy Better Know Cypher. At the start of the cypher, SBTV was congratulated by a series of celebrity musicians including Mary J. Blige, J. Cole, and Kelly Rowland, as well as YouTube's co-founder and former Chief Executive, Chad Hurley. The video has now reached over 1,000,000 views since its release.

Mark zuckerberg- Founder of Facebook

Born on May 14, 1984 in Dobbs Ferry, New York, Mark Zuckerberg co-founded the social-networking website Facebook out of his college dorm room. He left Harvard after his sophomore year to concentrate on the site, the user base of which has grown to more than 250 million people, making Zuckerberg a billionaire. The birth of Facebook was recently portrayed in the film 'The Social Network'.
Zuckerberg and his friends created a site that allowed users to create their own profiles, upload photos, and communicate with other users.
In 2005, Zuckerberg's enterprise received a huge boost from the venture capital firm Accel Partners. Accel invested $12.7 million into the network, which at the time was open only to ivy league students. Zuckerberg's company then granted access to other colleges, high school and international schools, pushing the site's membership to more than 5.5 million users by December 2005. The site then began attracting the interest of other companies, who wanted to advertize with the popular social hub. Not wanting to sell out, Zuckerberg turned down offers from companies such as Yahoo! and MTV Networks. Instead, he focused on expanding the site, opening up his project to outside developers and adding more features.