1. SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
(MAJOR RECORD LABEL) &
CENTURY MEDIA (INDEPENDENT
RECORD LABEL)

2. SONY MUSIC
ENTERTAINMENT INFO
It is currently the world’s second largest record company behind
Universal Music Group.
Is the US subsidiary of Japan’s Sony Corporation and was
founded in 1929, called American Record Corporation.
Features local artists and international superstars from labels
such as Columbia, Epic and Sony Classical.
Sony Music Entertainment operates in 43 countries worldwide
and it’s headquarters is based in New York.
Has a partnership with VEVO – an on-demand music video and
entertainment platform.
Also partnered with Syco, a global joint venture with Simon
Cowell which focusses on the production and exploitation of
music, television and digital content.
Artists include Cults, MGMT, and Daft Punk

3. SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT TAXI
ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN (2011)
In September 2011, SME UK launched a taxi advertising campaign for the promotion of
new albums and singles from 11 popular artists from the Columbia record label
(subsidiary of SME) e.g. Foo Fighters, Kasabian, Vaccines, Katy B and Calvin Harris.
100 taxis in Central London showcased the artwork of each artist’s album and once
inside, the passenger gets to hear tracks by the label’s most influential artists.
This Out of Home advertising is recognised most commonly by people who live in cities
and who have the money to spend on entertainment products, therefore taxi advertising
was best aimed at this market.
The taxi advertising creates hype around the artist’s new material and makes the
customers anticipate the release of the new album.
Tourists, locals and commuters would want to get in the taxi purely to hear the music
being played by popular artists. Passengers also have the chance to enter a competition
to win a Columbia Label tote bag. This encourages participation with Columbia, and
generates more people looking at their website.
Out of home advertising helps to drive the success of global brands. It also lets the
public know that the product is available to purchase .
The importance of brand recognition is prolific in the heavily saturated market of music
and entertainment. Columbia will overcome this as the taxis promoting the artwork will
allow visual recall online and in store at the point of sale.

5. ARTISTS
CENTURY MEDIA INFO

6. CENTURY MEDIA INFO
Founded by Robert Kampf in 1988 in Germany. From 1995 to 2007, Marco Barbieri was
the label’s president. The label is now based in the USA.
Today Century Media Records is recognized around the globe as a dominating force
within their specialized market and one of the world's premier labels for metal, hard
rock and hard-core.
In August 2011 Century Media decided to pull all of their acts from Spotify, an online
music streaming service, citing this as "an attempt to protect the interests of their
artists". Metal blog ‘Metal Sucks’ criticized Century Media in a post, which was later
replied to by the label in an email. On July 30, 2012, Century Media Records made their
entire catalog available on Spotify again after "impressive debates and messages from
fans" and discussions with Spotify.
Always at the forefront with an active role in emerging stylistic nuances Century Media
has truly shattered the barriers and exemplified diversity in extremes while remaining
rooted in the underground but giving bands opportunities outside of the normal means
with major league international touring, commercial radio play, and music placement in
high-profile films, TV and commercials. Despite all of the years and breakthroughs the
company maintains their organic, family feel and business is still being conducted by
fans of the music for fans of the music.

7. YOUTUBE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS
I mainly listen to metal music and recently, when I listen to
this kind of music on YouTube, I have noticed ‘Century Media’
adverts before the songs I listen to. The adverts are shown on
videos that are in the same genre of music as bands under
the Century Media record label.
In the advert are different music by different bands in the label
and as someone who likes heavy metal music, I instantly
looked at the label’s website to find out the band names and
songs by these bands because I liked the music played in the
advert.
Therefore I believe this is a very effective way of advertising
because it specifically targets a niche audience by advertising
their Website/YouTube channel on songs within their genre of
music.
The bands whose music the advert plays before include
Motionless in White, Black Veil
Brides, Amaranthe, Nekrogoblikon, Nightwish, and Within
Temptation.