2003: indies feed majors with talent: with the four majors involved in merger talks signing fewer acts last year, the indies began filling the gaps, says James Roberts in Music Week's annual guide to the signings of 2003.(Talent)

If you believed all the headlines concerning piracy and downloading in 2003, you could be forgiven for thinking labels were preparing to throw in the towel and shut up shop.

On the contrary, the past 12 months have seen a flurry of A&R activity with record companies signing up the acts that they hope will deliver hit albums in the years to come.

The breadth of signings over the past year is as varied as ever, as highlighted across the next pages in our listing of the key albums-based projects securing deals over the past 12 months. The list is not designed to be definitive, offering a snapshot of signing trends over the past 12 months. It is dominated by the ever-consolidating power of flat majors, although this is increasingly leaving gaps which are being filled by smaller independents.

As the company that consistently claimed the biggest market share in 2003, it is perhaps unsurprising to discover that Universal Music was the corporation to snap up the most new acts in 2003, signing 31 across its various labels. The company's Polydor imprint signed acts ranging from Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Alex Parks, while a rejuvenated Mercury added acts to ranging from Thirteen Senses to Punjabi Hit Squad to its roster.

Other majors--BMG, Sony, EMI and Warner--have all spent much of 2003 in merger talks, a fact which is reflected by our listing, with all signing fewer new artists to their UK companies than in previous years. In an age of consolidation, the role of independents is also becoming increasingly important once again, as the majors look to sign acts that are already tried and tested to some extent.

The Darkness (East West), Keane (Island), The Bees (Virgin) and Jamie Cullum (Universal) are just three of the acts signed to majors in the past 12 months who released their first material on small independent imprints. And increasingly managers and producers are setting up their own imprints to create momentum for acts they are developing with a view to signing them at a later stage.

This trend--together with the wave of acts who have emerged from reality TV pop shows--has resulted in a faster turnaround, as companies bring such artists to market in super-quick time. Lest we forget, The Darkness were unsigned at the start of 2003--their early releases issued independently through Vital on the tiny Must Destroy imprint, and by the end of the year they were a 1m-selling album act. In turn, Cullum is the new young hope of pop-jazz with a double-platinum album to his name.