Big Life Records was formed in 1986 by the partnership of Jazz Summers and Tim Parry.

Summers was previously involved in the development of the group Wham! and Parry was guitarist in the group Blue Zoo. The duo also formed Big Life Management and its publishing arm, Big Life Music, in 1987.

Big Life Records was a creative platform for the late 80's and early 90's 'underground' dance movement. Coldcut were one of the bands with Big Life, featuring guest vocalist Lisa Stansfield, which helped her build her career on this native cult success and sell 11 million records worldwide. Big Life helped establish a diverse stable of talent, such as: Soul II Soul, The Soup Dragons, Yazz, De La Soul, Coldcut, James Taylor Quartet, The Orb and more.

Big Life Records achieved over 50 top 40 UK hits before closing its doors after ten years. However, the self-administered publishing and management work of Big Life Music remains active in the industry, with a wealth of hits from their catalogue appearing in the UK charts. Summers became manager of The Verve and Snow Patrol and has involvement with The Power Amp Music Fund.

Raw TV Products, or Raw TV was a distributor, not a label, and used for catalogue reference - most notably on releases by The Soup Dragons.

Exclusively distributed in the UK by PolyGram Record Operations starting June 1991.