Boy Better Know:
Was founded by the UK grime artist Skepta (Joseph Adenuga Jr.) from Tottenham, however the group was also formed by JME (Jamie Adenuga) Skepta's younger brother.
In doing this, it was a way for independent artists to receive 100% profits of record sales. Boy Better Know is mainly associated with grime music collective Roll Deep.
The label produced records from various artists including Wiley, ERS MAN and Kieran.
Main Artists involved
Skepta
JME
Tinchy Stryder
Wiley
Jay Sean
What kind of Music do Boy Better Know Produce?
The particular genre of this label is Grime (despite it officially being registered as indie as it is independent), as the two artists who founded the label are from the UK Grime scene themselves. However because of the artists involved with the label are now collaborating with other artists from other genre's -e.g Tinchy Stryder (A Grime artist) resonantly done the single "Take me back" with Taio Cruz who is evidently, due to his tracks, more of a classic R&B slow jam artist.
What Strategies do Boy Better Know use to promote?
The most common technique Boy Better Know use to publicise their name is (in songs alone) to have a standard "Boy Better Know" chat at the beginning and end of their tracks.
The other technique used it combined with a marketing technique used, this is having the name on T-shirts and Sweats in music videos, as it not only allows the viewer to see that the particular song is produced by them, it also allows fans of the song to get involved with the "cult status" created.
Other strategies used are mainly on web + web 2.0
-e.g myspace- http://www.myspace.com/jmeserious
-http://www.myspace.com/boybetterknow
-http://www.ukrecordshop.com/category/boy-better-know/
-http://www.last.fm/music/JME/_/Boy+Better+Know
Merchandise
Merchandise is also on the web
-http://www.2-funky.co.uk/genre/Merchandise/Clothing/B
Advertising
The Advertising strategies are different to other labels as not only do they use Myspace, Youtube is a major player in this particular labels growth as the audience they are appealing to are the most common users of this site
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5iBPQ_mkVc
Place In The Industry.
Boy Better knows' place in the industry has started to increase with the burst of music that has hit the UK in the last year, however comparing them to the big four, they would still be considered as a small independent Label. However this is mainly because of both the small amount of investment, and also the size of the audience...
Audience.
The audience for this particular label is defiantly niche and exclusive as there is such a small number of people listening and involved in the UK grime scene compared to the bigger labels, however it is growing due to the increase in technology and also talent.
The main audience comes from the more run down areas of big cities, London, Manchester, Birmingham because the artists involved are from the same areas themselves; and also a small percentage of the audience are from all social backgrounds. Mainly because they enjoy the music but also those who "think their bad".
Distribution
Boy Better Knows music is sold in:
iTunes store,
Cd stores (HMV),
and also online stores e.g-http://www.ukrecordshop.com/category/boy-better-know/
Relationship between Boy Better Know and music industry.
- Despite being independent, they do rely on the music industry's patterns and changes
- They have not needed to adapt to the web phase of advertising and distributing as they were almost immediately in this situation
- However it is hard to say whether or not Boy Better Know are in competition with the big 4 as, they do have a very niche audience which means the top 4 have not needed to get involved with the UK grime scene, however, due to the collaborations between grime artists and others, including Calvin Harris, Daniel Merryweather, Taio Cruz, Craig David etc, the labels that own these artists are bigger and will be in slight competition with them.
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