# Towerbell Records

> UK record label

**Wikidata**: [Q104165632](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q104165632)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/towerbell-records

## Summary
Towerbell Records is a UK record label founded in 1980 by Natasha England as co-founder. It operates as a brand and trademark within the phonographic industry, specializing in the marketing of music recordings and music videos.

## Key Facts
- **Founded**: 1980 in the United Kingdom
- **Founder**: Natasha England (co-founder)
- **Entity Type**: Record label (instance of)
- **Geographic Base**: United Kingdom, an island country in north-west Europe
- **Discogs Identifier**: 36545 (verified as "Towerbell Records" on 2020-12-13)
- **MusicBrainz Identifier**: 78c6f343-75e9-48cd-845e-f1a446f63a27 (verified as "Towerbell Records" on 2020-12-13)
- **Rate Your Music Identifier**: towerbell_records (verified as "Towerbell Records" on 2020-12-13)
- **Wikidata Classification**: UK record label
- **Discography**: Maintains Towerbell Records catalog
- **Industry Sector**: Phonographic industry, functioning as a commercial name and imprint distinct from operational record companies

## FAQs
**What is Towerbell Records?**
Towerbell Records is a British record label established in 1980. It functions as a brand and trademark for marketing music recordings and videos, operating within the UK's phonographic industry infrastructure.

**When was Towerbell Records founded and who started it?**
The label launched in 1980 with Natasha England serving as co-founder, indicating direct artist involvement in its creation.

**Where is Towerbell Records located?**
Towerbell Records is based in the United Kingdom, an island country in north-west Europe consisting of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

**How is Towerbell Records classified in music databases?**
The label holds standardized identifiers across major platforms: Discogs ID 36545, MusicBrainz ID 78c6f343-75e9-48cd-845e-f1a446f63a27, and Rate Your Music slug towerbell_records, each verified with the canonical name "Towerbell Records."

**What type of business entity is Towerbell Records?**
As a record label, it is a subclass of trade name, brand, trademark, and commercial name—distinct from a record company, which handles operational business functions.

## Why It Matters
Towerbell Records represents a specific node in the 1980s British independent music ecosystem, founded by artist Natasha England rather than corporate entities. Its 1980 inception places it at a pivotal moment when the UK music industry was diversifying beyond major label dominance. The label's systematic cataloging across Discogs, MusicBrainz, and Rate Your Music demonstrates its enduring presence in music metadata systems, ensuring historical recordings remain discoverable. As a UK-based imprint, it contributes to Britain's documented phonographic heritage, which spans 63 Wikipedia languages and maintains Library of Congress classification ML3792.A-ML3792.Z for individual record companies and labels. The label's existence underscores how artists have directly shaped music distribution infrastructure, bypassing traditional corporate pathways to create specialized marketing identities for their recordings.

## Notable For
- **Artist-Driven Origins**: Co-founded by Natasha England, reflecting musician-led entrepreneurship in the early 1980s UK scene
- **Precise Inception**: Established in 1980, providing a clear timestamp for cataloging British independent label evolution
- **Multi-Platform Documentation**: Uniquely identified across Discogs, MusicBrainz, and Rate Your Music with verified name consistency
- **Geographic Specificity**: Explicitly designated as a UK record label in Wikidata, anchoring it to the British phonographic tradition
- **Metadata Integrity**: All database entries include qualifier P1810 confirming the canonical name "Towerbell Records" with references dated 2020-12-13

## Body

### History and Founding
Towerbell Records emerged in 1980 as a UK record label with Natasha England serving as co-founder. This founding configuration signals direct artist involvement in the label's creation, a characteristic that distinguishes many independent imprints from corporate-owned subsidiaries. The 1980 inception date positions Towerbell Records within a transformative period of British music history, when post-punk and new wave movements were establishing alternative distribution networks.

### Classification and Industry Identity
As an instance of "record label," Towerbell Records operates as a brand and trademark associated with marketing music recordings and music videos. This classification places it within the phonographic industry as a commercial name and imprint, fundamentally distinct from operational record companies that handle production logistics and business administration. The label inherits the formal properties of its class: it is a subclass of trade name, brand, trademark, and music organization, functioning as a public-facing identity for music distribution.

### Geographic and National Context
The label's location in the United Kingdom situates it within an island country in north-west Europe comprising four constituent nations: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK maintains a constitutional monarchy with parliamentary democracy, covering 242,495 square kilometres with a population of approximately 67 million. This national framework provides Towerbell Records with access to London's global financial infrastructure, the British Library's music archiving systems, and the UK's extensive network of 388 Wikipedia sitelinks documenting its cultural institutions.

### Digital Archiving and Metadata Integration
Towerbell Records maintains verified presence across critical music databases. Discogs assigns identifier 36545 with qualifier P1810 confirming the name "Towerbell Records," referenced to Q504063 on 2020-12-13. MusicBrainz provides UUID 78c6f343-75e9-48cd-845e-f1a446f63a27, similarly qualified and referenced to Q14005. Rate Your Music uses the slug towerbell_records with identical verification parameters. These identifiers enable linked-data queries across platforms, ensuring the label's releases remain discoverable in digital music ecosystems.

### Catalog and Documentation
The label's discography is organized under the "Towerbell Records catalog," a distinct collection within broader music documentation systems. This catalog benefits from the label's Wikidata entry, which describes it as a "UK record label" and connects it to property P264 (record label) for artist discographies. The catalog's existence in digital repositories aligns with the Library of Congress Authority ID sh87003409 and classification ML3792.A-ML3792.Z, which categorize literature on individual record companies and labels.

### Ontological and Semantic Web Positioning
Towerbell Records maps to multiple ontological frameworks: DBpedia's RecordLabel class, MusicBrainz's MusicLabel concept, and the Music Ontology's mo:Label. This semantic integration positions the label within machine-readable knowledge graphs, facilitating interoperability across cultural heritage databases. The label's metadata supports WikiProject Music's standardization efforts, utilizing the Template:Infobox record label for structured data fields.

### Industry Infrastructure and Relationships
Operating within the UK's phonographic industry, Towerbell Records participates in a sector documented across 63 Wikipedia languages and maintained by specialized library authorities. The German National Library assigns GND ID 7860465-5 to the broader "record label" concept, while BabelNet ID 00049558n provides lexical-semantic disambiguation. These systems collectively ensure Towerbell Records occupies a documented position in global music commerce, distinct from operational record companies yet integral to the distribution chain that transforms recordings into marketable assets.

## References

1. MusicBrainz
2. Discogs
3. Rate Your Music