Working in a record label: jobs guide
So, you’ve decided you want to work in a record label – what jobs are on offer? Here’s a quick guide…
Label management
Label Managers, as their name suggests, are responsible for the day to day running of a record label. This job will vary greatly depending on the size of the record company. In a big company it will involve overseeing the other departments in your label (details on which below) as well as having a more strategic role in the long term development of the label. In a smaller record company the Label Manager may personally undertake some of the following jobs themselves, and in a very small record company they may do pretty much all of it!
Most people get into label management after working in another role in a record company, like A&R, marketing or PR. Some become Label Managers simply by setting up their own record companies.
A&R
A&R, or Artist & Repertoire, is responsible for finding, developing and liaising with artists. The A&R department of a record label is perhaps best known for finding and signing new bands – and the so called ‘scouting’ and ‘signing’ of artists is one of their most important jobs. But it’s not all they do. A&Rs traditionally spent a lot of their time finding songs from an appropriate songwriter’s ‘reportoire’ that they thought would be suitable for their ‘artists’ – hence their name. A&Rs for those artists who do not write their own songs will still be involved in this task today. They also act as a main liaison point between an artist and the label, and help artists develop their music, both artistically and commercially.
A first job in A&R will normally involve more of the artist liaison tasks than the signing of new artists or developing an artist’s sound, though in smaller labels more junior A&R staff will get involved in more parts of the job and, if they can prove they have an eye and ear for good new talent, may be given a junior A&R scout role (though this may involve listening to endless terrible demo tapes – so may be a mixed blessing!). Those who have that eye and ear can rise up to be an A&R Manager and A&R Director quite quickly. The most successful A&Rs are often given their own imprint label within a record company, and then start to take on more of a label management role. While it all sounds quite exciting, remember A&Rs have to deal with artistic egos on a daily basis, and take reponsibility for that signing that bombs and loses the record company hundreds of thousands of pounds – a career in A&R is both creative and exciting, but not without its stresses.
Marketing
The marketing department at a record label develops and implements a ‘marketing plan’ for every single or album that the label releases. Some of the marketing activity is then undertaken by the Marketing Managers (sometimes called Product Managers) themselves, while other tasks will be undertaken by the label’s publicity, promotion and sales departments. Activities often handled by the marketing department include scheduling release dates, purchasing racking in record shops, organising poster and billboard campaigns, and buying advertising in newspapers and magazines, and on TV and radio. Some of this work may be outsourced to an outside marketing agency and/or media buyer, with the label’s marketing manager acting as a coordinator.
In some ways working in a marketing role at a record label is similar to a marketing role at any other company, except the product you are marketing is, arguably, more interesting. Junior marketing roles can be quite administrative and logistical (making sure artists are at the photo shoot on time, keeping track of ad bookings, booking the courier to get a box of flyers across town), though some labels do involve all marketing staff in creative and strategic decision making to a point. As you work your way up the ladder you will be given responsibility for a whole album campaign, while a Marketing Director will oversee all the campaigns that are going on at any one time in a label or label division.
Publicity/PR
A record label’s PR department is charged with the task of generating and monitoring press coverage for each single and album release – ie getting interviews with artists and reviews of releases in newspapers and magazines.
They will normally send copies of CDs to journalists and editors a few weeks before they are released, accompanied by a press release giving information about the artist and record, and trying to convince the reviewer that they should give the CD a listen. They may also hold press events to build interest in releases, or persuade reviewers to come to gigs an artist is doing in the run up to a release, or offer CDs, tickets or merchandise as prizes for media competitions. Experienced publicists get to know key journalists and commissioning editors’ personal music tastes, so know who will most likely give their artists positive coverage.
As well as generating press coverage, a label’s PR department will also have a damage limitation role, and will often issue statements if and when their artists are involved in newsworthy incidents which damage their reputation or record sales. The publicity department will also monitor press coverage and keep clippings of any reviews, features or news items on their artists.
Record labels distinguish very much between national press (the national newspapers and music magazines), regional press (the regional newspapers and listings magazines), college press (student newspapers) and online (music websites), and in bigger labels there will be different PR teams for each of these areas. As with marketing, a label might actually hire the services of an external agency to manage some or all of a PR campaign around an album, and there are numerous music PR agencies, some of which specialise in certain music genres, or handle just national, regional, college or online media.
A job in music PR can be fun and varied, though music PRs are generally less well paid than those working in a PR role in other sectors. As with all PR jobs, you should think about whether you want to work in house at a label or for a PR agency. More details on that decision are in our PR guide here.
Plugging/Promotions
In record labels a big distinction is made between those who have a PR role dealing with print and news media, and those who have a PR role dealing with radio and TV stations. The plugging or promotions department handles the latter. There is a distinction because, if you think about it, the pluggers have a very different role. Rather than getting journalists to write about their artists, a plugger tries to persuade radio and television stations to play their music. This means dealing with anyone at a TV or radio station who has a role in deciding what music gets played – which is the station’s ‘head of music’ and any producers and presenters who get to choose what records feature in their own shows (which isn’t all producers and presenters by any means).
As with marketing and PR, record labels use their own in-house pluggers and hire the services of external plugging agencies. There is an especially good reason for using agencies in this area. At bigger radio stations pluggers actually meet with heads of music and producers to try and persuade them to play or ‘playlist’ their songs. Obviously, it is impossible for radio producers to meet separately with all the many different artists and labels looking for airplay, so instead they will meet with a handful of independent pluggers who are working on the artists and labels’ behalf. Pluggers can then talk about all the releases they are currently representing at one meeting.
Music pluggers, especially radio pluggers, probably need to have a passion for radio as well as music, and know what kinds of music different radio stations and DJs generally play. Again, think about whether you want to work in house or at a plugging agency.
Sales & Distribution
A record label cannot sell any albums if their releases aren’t stocked by record shops. The sales and distribution departments market and distribute music to those shops, persuading retailers to stock their records, and then managing the logistics of getting CDs from their warehouses to the shops.
A sales exec will be armed with notes on all their label’s upcoming releases, which include such things as press reviews, quotes from DJs and evidence of sell-out gigs. The exec talks to or meets with managers or buyers at retail outlets to persuade them to take new CDs. Retailers will decide what they will carry on the basis of these meetings. Depending on the scale and budget of the release, the label may also purchase space within the shop, such as premium racking, posters on the walls and in-store listening posts.
While this area is still dominated by the sale and distribution of physical music products – CD and vinyl – there is still a sales and distribution role in digital music. In particular, persuading download platforms to highlight your music on their home page or genre home pages, and also ‘processing’ tracks so that they are available in all the different file formats different download platforms use (eg MP3, WMA, AAC).
Many labels outsource some or all this activity to a ‘distribution company’, which will sell and distribute music from many different labels. So there are jobs in this area available in both the bigger record companies and at bespoke distribution firms.
Creative
Many labels also have an art or creative department that is responsible for the image of the label and their artists. This department will spend a lot of its time getting together all the artwork that goes along with the production of any album. This can range from supervising product designs such as cover art and record sleeves, to approving advertising, posters, displays at music stores, and any other print media. Again, some or all of this work may be outsourced to an external design agency.
Manufacturing
Record labels have to arrange the manufacturing, pressing and duplication of all the physical formats that recorded music is released in, such as CDs and vinyl, so there will be people in a record company who manage all this (it may be a job in itself, or may be handled by the Label Manager).
The actual manufacturing – the pressing and duplication of CDs and records – will generally be done by an external company, but someone in the record label has to determine what size of a run to press, that is to say how many records to make, get together all the constituent parts the manufacturer needs, eg the master recording, artwork designs etc, and make sure the CDs are ready on schedule. Another important role here is what is known as ‘mechanical rights’. The record label has to pay the publishing company who owns the actual rights to the songs featured on a record (as opposed to the rights to the recordings, which the label itself owns) a royalty fee, and someone at the label needs to ensure this is done.
Obviously there is less work to be done here with digital music, though digital tracks do need to be ‘processed’ so that they are available in all the different file formats different download platforms use (eg MP3, WMA, AAC) and has to provide the download store with what they call metadata – eg track name, artist name, songwriter name, label name, artwork image etc. Much of the processing work is likely to be done out of house by an external agency, but the metadata tasks may be a job in the label.
Licensing
Everytime someone uses a recording of a song – so whenever someone plays a song on the radio, or a song is featured in a film or an advert – the person or company using the song has to pay the record label who owns it a ‘royalty fee’ – ie some money. This will vary from pennies to hundreds of thousands of pounds, depending on who is using it and for what purpose. Each record label, therefore, needs a person or department to manage this process, and make sure they get their money.
Traditionally most royalty monies came from radio stations, so much so a special ‘collecting society’ was set up by the record labels to collect royalty fees from the radio companies on their behalf – PPL – meaning less work needed to be done by the labels themselves.
However, in more recent times so called ‘music synchronisation’ – the use of music in TV shows and trailers, in films, computer games, and advertising – has become an increasingly important revenue stream. This isn’t dealt with by PPL and, while there are agencies who will look after so called ‘sync rights’ on a label’s behalf, an increasing number of labels now have people and departments to handle this area. These people both field enquiries from TV and film producers and ad agencies, and, more proactively, put songs forward to those companies for consideration for sync use. This is a growing area, so one where there will be more jobs available in the future.
This article is part of the unicornjobs.com guide to Working In The Music Business. Click here to go to the guide index.
