Sain in full – Recordiau Sain Cyf (Sound Records Ltd) is a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

, which was in the Welsh folk revival.

Cwmni Sain (Sound Company) was founded in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 in 1969 by singers and songwriters Dafydd Iwan

Dafydd Iwan

Dafydd Iwan , is a Welsh folk singer and politician. He was the president of Plaid Cymru .Dafydd Iwan Jones was born in Brynaman in Carmarthenshire, Wales, and is the elder brother of politician Alun Ffred Jones. He spent most of his youth in Bala in Gwynedd before attending the University of...

 and Huw Jones, and businessman Brian Morgan Edwards

Brian Morgan Edwards

Brian Morgan Edwards was an expert computer salesman, a prominent supporter of Plaid Cymru and a Welsh businessman who sponsored the first Welsh-language recording studio for popular music....

, as a home for Welsh-language rock and folk music, which was otherwise finding it difficult to 'break through' in the UK market. Sain is regarded as being the first Welsh record company to be self-sufficient in terms of independence from other British companies, and laid the foundation for subsequent Welsh labels.
The company released its first single in October 1969, Huw Jones' "Dŵr" (Welsh for Water), a song about the drowning of the Tryweryn Valley, in the north-west of Wales, to form Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn

Llyn Celyn is a large reservoir constructed between 1960 and 1965 in the valley of the River Tryweryn in Gwynedd, North Wales. It measures roughly 2½ miles long by a mile wide, and has a maximum depth of...

 reservoir. Many of the company’s early releases were recorded at the Rockfield Studios

Rockfield Studios

Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in Wales and just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire are where many of British rock music’s most successful recordings have been made.-History:...

 in Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire is a county in south east Wales. The name derives from the historic county of Monmouthshire which covered a much larger area. The largest town is Abergavenny. There are many castles in Monmouthshire .-Historic county:...

. In the early 1970s Sain moved to the Caernarfon

Caernarfon

Caernarfon is a Royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,611. It lies along the A487 road, on the east banks of the Menai Straits, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is to the northeast, while Snowdonia fringes Caernarfon to the east and southeast...

 area, and opened their first recording studio in 1975 near Llandwrog

Llandwrog

Llandwrog is a village and community in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, most notable for the presence of the headquarters of Welsh record label Sain and the site of Caernarfon Airport...

. Musicians who have recorded for the label include Meic Stevens

Meic Stevens

Meic Mortimer Stevens is a Welsh singer-songwriter often referred to as "the Welsh Dylan" and has been compared favourably with musicians like Syd Barrett. Stevens's songs have a mystical, faintly psychedelic flavour, and are mostly sung in his native Welsh language...

 and Geraint Jarman.
Today Sain remains the biggest producer of music of Wales, covering traditional, folk, rock, pop, hip-hop, rap, country and classical music.

The label has several subsidiaries including Crai, which was founded in 1988 and has released music by Yr Anhrefn

Yr Anhrefn

Yr Anhrefn, also known simply as Anhrefn, were an influential Welsh punk rock group of the 1980s and 1990s.-History:Anhrefn formed in 1982, and initially sang only in Welsh...

, Mike Peters

Mike Peters (musician)

Mike Peters is a Welsh musician, best known as the lead singer of The Alarm. He currently lives in Dyserth, North Wales with his family. After The Alarm split up in 1991, Peters wrote and released solo work, which he has been releasing under the name "The Alarm" since 2000...

 and Big Leaves

Big Leaves

Big Leaves were a Welsh rock band formed in 1988, originally named Beganifs. They disbanded in 2003, with two members subsequently forming Sibrydion.-History:...

, as well as a series of Crai Tecno compilations featuring Welsh dance music

Dance music

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...

artists.

Rasal Cyf. is the latest label, and this signs young Welsh bands.

The label's Chief Executive is now Dafydd Roberts.

Branch labels

• Sain – main label
• Crai – mainstream rock label
• Rasal – pop/indie label for young talents
• Slic – library music label