Bose is starting a record label — and thinking about music as a media company

Bose is launching Bose Studios, a new media division that includes Bose Records, a record label. CMO Jim Mollica tells Business Insider the company is moving away from traditional campaign-driven marketing toward building its own media. The idea is to become a media company, not just a speaker company.

The comparison the company is reaching for is Red Bull. The sports drink built an entire media empire around its brand. Bose is trying something similar with sound — but the history books are full of corporate record labels that didn't make it. The Verge points out that Bose has more of a right to try than, say, Build-a-Bear, but that's a thin distinction.

Why this matters for us: when big companies start building media around sound and lifestyle, they're competing for the same attention as the platforms we already use — and the labels they fund often skip over the working-class voices that actually move music forward.