XL Recordings

XL Recordings is a British independent record label founded in 1989 by Tim Palmer and Nick Halkes. It has been run and co-owned by Richard Russell since 1996. It forms part of the Beggars Group.

It releases an average of six albums a year. The label releases albums worldwide and operates across a range of genres.

Originally launched in 1989 to release rave and dance music, the label began as an imprint of Beggars Banquet's more commercial dance label Citybeat, which was known for records by acts such as Freeez, Rob Base & EZ Rock, Starlight, Dream Frequency and the Ultramagnetic MCs. However, with the success of acts such as the Prodigy and SL2, XL superseded Citybeat in its lineup.

During the early 1990s, XL releases were dance-oriented, ranging from Belgian techno (T99's "Anasthasia") to breakbeat hardcore (SL2's "On a Ragga Tip") to drum and bass (Jonny L's "I'm Leavin'"). This period of XL's history has been recorded on the XL Recordings Chapters compilation series. 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 business.

Russell later broadened the label's musical horizons, 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 atop the UK Albums Chart, and in 1997 it released the group's third album, The Fat of the Land which entered atop the British and American charts and went on to be number one in 26 countries.

June 2000 saw the release of Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast which won the 2000 Mercury Music Prize. The next year, the White Stripes' third album White Blood Cells was released together with reissues of the band's previous albums, The White Stripes and De Stijl. In 2003, XL Recordings won the Music Week A&R award, and also released the White Stripes' fourth album Elephant which was their first UK number one album and eventually reached double platinum certification in Britain. That same year, XL released Dizzee Rascal's first solo album, Boy in da Corner for which Dizzee was awarded the Mercury Prize for the best album of 2003.

In March 2005, M.I.A.'s debut album Arular was released after several months' delay. Thom Yorke, from Radiohead, released his first solo record, The Eraser, on the label in July 2006. In October 2007, Radiohead completed negotiations to sign with XL for physical release of their seventh studio album, In Rainbows. Radiohead subsequently went on to release through XL, and have so far released everything since their eighth studio album The King of Limbs on the label. As director of XL Recordings, Richard Russell was included in a 2007 Evening Standard list of the most influential people in London, and in August of that year M.I.A.'s second album Kala was released—Rolling Stone named it the ninth best album of the decade.

In March 2008, XL added Friendly Fires and the Horrors. In 2009 the label won the "Music Week" Best Independent Label award; Adele won the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, and at the same ceremony Radiohead won Best Alternative Album for In Rainbows as well as Best Boxed or Special Edition Album. Also in 2009, the xx's debut album xx was released on XL Recordings partner label Young, and in September Giggs was signed.