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TASK 1: 

Hopeless Records:

A) Ownership

Hopeless Records is a independent Music production company that sign bands into their company. They give them freedom to create whatever music, merch they like. The company was founded by Louis Posen in 1993. The labels artists are generally considered to fall under genres of punk rock, pop punk or alternative rock. 

 B) Operating Model

The way that hopeless records works is through the bands that they sign. They stay close to the bands and give them advice and options on what to do with music and tours. They get a certain amount of profit from what the band gets from either tours, merch, DVD's or CD's. In their company they have different departments, some of them work with merchandise, while there are departments to help with label managing, They will work as part of a small team who is responsible for managing and administrating the label ensuring that all international releases are delivered and done smoothly. For hopeless they are based in the EU, UK, Australia and Canada. 

C) Products

Hopeless Records are famously known for music CD's released through bands signed onto them, such as albums like Future Hearts by: All Time low, and Waves: Story Untold. However they release other merch such as DVD's for bands: All time low have released two DVD's called Straight to DVD 1 and 2. Hopeless also have their own merch that they sell on their website that is not linked to bands but is linked to their company. Hopeless will also release music videos through youtube to promote albums for bands, one of the most recent releases they have had is the music video for With Confidence's song ' That something'
D) Market position

Currently Hopeless records have 38 bands signed with them so they are one of the well known record companies out there. They have big bands such as yellowcard, Neck deep and Previously All time low, because they have such big named bands they become more known to the fans. Hopeless Records has an annual revenue of $10-$50 million and 10-100 employees. It is classified as operating in the Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods industry. They are similar to other music companies such as Fueled By Ramen and Capitol, who will earn roughly the same amount of money as them. 

E) Competitors

Some of the competitors of Hopeless are some of the companies that release the same sort of materials as them such as : Fueled by Ramen, Sony Music and Warner music group A lot of people will got to these different companies because they will have different bands signed onto them that they like and need to go through that record company to find their work. Due to this there is a lot of competition for each record company to be doing well for each band otherwise they could leave and re sign with someone else.

TASK 2:

Record Company: Hopeless Records

Success of the company: Throughout the 18 year history of the label, Hopeless has released over 200 albums and launched the careers of such artist as Avenged Sevenfold, All Time Low and Thrice. The label is consistently in the Top 20 record labels in the world by sales and last year celebrated 9 of their 11 releases charting in the Billboard Top 200.

The record label is also known well for its charitable side, the Hopeless Records Sub City arm of the label hosts an annual benefit tour called the Take Action Tour, which produces a compilation album Take Action! To date, the effort has raised more than $2 million for more than 50 non-profit organisations.

Key Competitors: Other record labels such as Fueled by Ramen and Capitol will be some of the main competitors of Hopeless due to them having bands signed to them that are fan favourites and them having to find the artists work through them instead of hopeless. Due to this it will cause a lot of competition for hopeless to keep up with them all creating good content with the bands.

Who Owns The company: Louis Posen was the person who founded the company in 1993. Ian Harrison is the general manager of the company working alongside Louis. Each department of the company ( eg: merch, digital operations, marketing ) will have different head of them.  

Success compared to other companies: Hopeless has come to be regarded as one of the most iconic and longest standing independent record labels.Compared to other labels, Hopeless has a non-profit arm, Sub City, works to raise awareness for various non-profit organisations by connecting artists, fans and causes they are passionate about, has also raised over 2.5 million dollars for more than 50 non-profit organisations including: Living the Dream, It Gets Better Project, A Place Called Home.

How the company makes money: Hopeless makes a little of it's money from selling merch off their own website. However a large amount of their money comes from the bands that are signed with them. They will get a certain of profit from a bands total that they have made after a album being released or money from tours.