Place in the industry:XL recordings although being independent they are also a well known record label, so there is none of this stay at home job, everything will be done professionally with the likes of radiohead and the white stripes behind them they have high expectations. A lot of money is spent to sell these records and it’s the numbers that pay off. There are so many different genres within XL recordings that they cannot be pin pointed to one specific, for example from bigger bands like radiohead to emerging solo artists like M.I.A to smaller bands like the cool kids. So their place in the industry covers such a wide audience that it cannot be said exactly.
Marketing:With such huge bands behind them, marketing for XL recordings will be much easier, although they advertise each artist separately they don’t advertise as a whole, because with such a variety of artists it can’t be guaranteed that it will reach to each audience. With the likes of radiohead, gigs and with the mysterious way of selling their latest album in rainbows is advertising in itself, they let the buyer choose what price they would pay for the album, they can obviously financially afford this, it also caused a lot of talk in magazines and newspapers as it was the first to ever be done, so that was advertisement in itself. The average price was £4 and alot of people paid nothing, however this album on download alone topped all their previous albums, the fact that people actually paid shows that there are still loyal fans that want to see radiohead carry on and also that 67 people paid over £10 shows they are true dedicated fans and want to see them sell With some of the bands receiving nominations at the brits and other awards ceremonies, and doing collaborations with bigger artists is pushing themselves out there, and friendly fires on the NME tour is getting themselves out there making them more known around the country, this is self-advertising yet making XL recordings more known as well. it’s the little things like this that get that little bit more publicity and popular which in the end all comes back to XL recordings. Another huge boost would have been the jack white and Alicia keys collaboration, as this was the song for the James Bond movie and also the coca cola advert it really would have increased their popularity and is advertising in itself. So marketing isn't really a problem for Xl recordings it's just getting the smaller bands out there.
http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/40444Distribution:The majority of the artists in XL recordings can be found in music shops such as HMV. However for the smaller bands that are hoping to make it bigger are more likely to be on social networking sites to get there music out there for free so people can listen to them, this is then hoping more will go to there gigs and the more likely they will have success when it comes to releasing CD’s and DVD’s. Also on XL recordings website people are able to see when bands have released this or that and are able to go and buy it. Also all artists can be bought on the website itself so its saving the audience time to go out there looking for the CD when it might not actually be sold in the larger music stores. So promoting them on their website is helping get their CD’s sold. Also there has obviously been a del between XL recordings and itunes as some of the bands can be downloaded on itunes, which again is getting more people to listen to them, especially on itunes which is the bggest online store at the minute.
Production:A lot of thought and effort will be put into each stage of production from the amount of CD’s produced to the artwork, each needs a lot of time spent on it to make it the best of each member of staff’s ability. The amount of CD’s produced will vary as if the artists aren’t as big they may not make as many or however many have been ordered from the music stores however for the bigger artists as many as possible are more likely to be made as more people are aware of them and know of them therefore more likely to buy there CD’s. With downloading taking over they are more likely not to make as many CD’s which will save them more money rather than making loads and only selling half this would just be a waste. So downloading will be more of an advantage to the production of there music as its much easier to create a song to be downloaded rather than physically bought. with the smaller emerging bands downloading is heaven as they may not have the sufficient funds to produce loads of CD's so downloading is beneficial to them.
The online age:I think that the physical releases is what XL recordings advertise more, however still benefit the downloading side of the market as it is still making them a lot of money and means that all of the artists are accessible even if they haven’t released an album. But due to them only selling physical copies on there website means they are trying to keep that side of the market level with the downloading side. But I don’t think that they heavily rely on either and use both to there advantage. With such opposite bands behind them, with larger and smaller bands they can't specifically rely on one side of the market and are better covering both but in some cases downloading is what they heavily rely on, such as the smaller bands as they may not even have enough songs for a whole album so randomly releasing tracks on social networking sites, lets the company know which ones the audience prefer and gets the out there.
i rang up the company and spoke to a man who said he has no information but he did give me the email to a man who i could get the information from and he would answer all my questions. So i emailed the man but i have not yet recieved a reply.
