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XL Recordings -Industry Context

XL Recordings - Wikipedia XL recordings is a british independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes.
  • XL release an average of six albums a year, but has worked with artists such as Adele, Dizzee Rascal,  M.I.A., Jungle, Giggs, and  Tyler, the Creator; some of which have grown to be mainstream arstists , performing globally & streaming globally 
  • The label releases albums worldwide and operates across a range of genres.
  • During the early nineties, XL releases were dance oriented ranging from Belgium techno  to breakbeat hardcore  to drum and bass . 
  • In 1993, Halkes left XL to form the EMI-owned commercial dance label Positiva, and subsequently his own independent commercial dance label Incentive. After Palmer retired in 1996, Russell took over the running of the business.
  • Russell later broadened the musical horizons of the label whilst maintaining a credo of working with artists he saw as original and inventive.
  •  In 1994, the label released The Prodigy's second album, Music for the Jilted Generation which debuted in the UK Albums Chart at number one, and in 1997 it released the third album by The Prodigy, The Fat of the Land which entered the British and American charts at number one and went on to be number one in 26 countries.
  • In early 2008, Russell transformed the  garage of the label's Ladbroke Grove headquarters into a small, in-house recording and mixing studio called XL Studio. It served as a makeshift studio space for the label's various artists and his own projects until producer Rodaidh McDonald was assigned in September of that year to manage and properly equip it in preparation for The xx to record their self-titled debut album. 
  • A statement from  McDonald, "before Richard brought me in to be Studio Manager, it was just a bit of a free-for-all. Artists could come in and rehearse, demo or write here and things like that ... but it was good idea and we decided we should be stepping it up and making records here."
  • The history of XL evidently shows that the label came for literally nothing revealing its independent nature, unlike some record labels which start off with a high budget and exclusive studio space and equipment.

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