Small Labels

Institutions 

Record Companies; 

Vertigo Records:

Now part of the Universal Music Group, Vertigo is a division of Mercury Music Group (UK), which in turn is a frontline music group operation of Universal Music UK. It distributes Metallica (outside the US and Canada), Razorlight, Rush (Europe) and Dire Straits (except the US). More recent signings include The Rapture, The Killers (UK/Éire), One Night Only, Amy Macdonald, Noisettes and Thee Unstrung2004-2005 and Kassidy in 2009. - wikipedia

Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene. They are often credited with taking the first steps toward popularizing grunge music, and have continued to achieve critical and commercial success in the new millennium, with popular bands such as Fleet Foxes, Foals, Beach House, The Postal Service, Flight of the Conchords, No Age, Wolf Parade and The Shins on their roster. In 1995 the owners of Sub Pop sold a 49% stake of the label to the Warner Music Group. In 2009, they signed their first hip-hop group - Seattle-based Shabazz Palaces.- wikipedia
Cooking Vinyl 

Cooking Vinyl is a UK-based independent record company, founded in 1986. Its original orientation was toward contemporary folk music—notably Billy Bragg, and Michelle Shocked's Texas Campfire Tapes, recorded on a Sony Walkman, one of its first releases. Since then the label has grown and diversified into releasing rock (The Lemonheads, The Donnas, Killing Joke, The Mission), indie (The Charlatans, Art Brut, Idlewild), punk (Dropkick Murphys, Less Than Jake, The Buzzcocks, The Undertones and Blondie), electronica (The Prodigy, Nitin Sawhney, The Orb) and eclectic records such as Mexican Institute Of Sound. They appointed the7stars as their media planning and buying agency in 2008.- Wikipedia