Starting point - what makes up the music industry?
Lots of people want to work in music – but probably don’t know what kinds of companies and jobs there are in the music industry. As a starting point, here’s a beginners guide to the various sections of the music business.
By Chris Cooke
Recorded Music
This is the part of the music industry that sends artists into the studio to record albums, and then manufactures CDs and processes downloads, and sells and markets those recordings to consumers. Traditionally recorded music was the most profitable part of the music industry, though that is changing as record sales decline.
The biggest and highest profile companies in the recorded music area are the record companies, or record labels. Most artists, large and small, are ‘signed’ to a record label. This means that, in return for a lump of cash (their ‘advance’) and a commitment from the label to fund the recording, manufacture and marketing of an album (or albums), they agree to exclusively record for that label until a certain number of albums have been released. The label recovers the money it has invested through the sale of records and downloads. Once that investment has been repaid (the artist has ‘recouped’) any future profits are split between the label and the artist. There is more about record companies here and an outline on the kinds of jobs available in them here.
The record labels are not the only companies involved in the recorded music area.
Music Production
Firstly, there is the whole area of music production – the studios where albums are recorded and the people who are involved in that process. While some of the major record companies own their own studios, many albums are recorded in independent studios, and most people working in music production do not work for record companies. There is more on music production here.
Music PR
Secondly, while the record companies are responsible for marketing and publicising the albums they release, they actually often hire the services of independent publicity or promotion agencies – ie music PR companies – to do this work. There is more information on what music PR involves – in house or in an agency – in the record labels jobs guide here
Music retail
Thirdly, there is the whole music retail area – the companies and people involved in getting CDs into record shops, and digital tracks onto download platforms, and then the companies and people involved in running those shops and download stores.
Live Music
This is the part of the music industry that puts on gigs and concerts and tours and festivals. Generally the recorded music industry and live music industry are quite separate, and most people will work in one or the other, though over a career you might move between the two. While the recorded music industry is not as profitable as it once was, the live music sector has boomed in recent years because, while people are buying fewer records now than before, more and more people are buying tickets for live music shows and events.
The equivalent of the record companies in live music are probably the ‘concert promoters’. These are the companies who organise tours and festivals. They put up the money, book the venues and artists, coordinate the logistics of staging an event, and do all the marketing. Many artists will work with the same promoters for long periods of their career, though in live music there are fewer long term exclusivity contracts, meaning artists could work with a different promoter on each tour if they so wished.
Other companies in the live sector include: the booking agents, who are the link between an artist and a promoter – when a promoter books an artist they will normally do so via their agent; the venues; the ticket sellers; and the engineers and technicians who actually do the work in the venue or on the tour to make an event happen. There is more on working in the live sector here.
Publishing
This is the bit you probably aren’t aware of. If you think about it, there are two sets of ‘creative people’ involved in every record – the people who record the song (play the music, sing the words) and the people who write the song (the notes and the lyrics). Sometimes it’s the same person – so Alex Turner wrote ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ and then sang it with his band Arctic Monkeys. But sometimes it’s not – Girls Aloud don’t write their own songs, most of them are written by a songwriting team called Xenomania.
The record companies work with the musicians and artists who record songs. The music publishers work with the songwriters and composers who write them. So, if you are a singer-songwriter you will have a record deal with a record company relating to your recordings, and a publishing deal with a publishing company relating to your songs. Which means your record company will have to pay your publishing company for permission to release recordings of your own songs! The publishing company will also pay you an advance and commit to market your work, an investment it will make back [a] from the money record labels pay it and [b] from the money paid by radio and TV stations everytime they play any version of any of your songs. Not all songwriters are also recording artists, of course, and if you are a songwriter first and foremost your publishing deal will be the most important.
The publishing sector is also doing very well at the moment, which makes what was previously seen as a less interesting part of the music business a more attractive place to pursue a career.
Management
Many people assume that the only ‘company’ an artist has a relationship with is their record label. But this clearly isn’t true. As we have already seen, any artist who records music, performs music live and writes their own songs (which is many artists) will have relationships with at least three companies – a record label, a promoter and a publisher. But how do artists, who are often not the most business-savvy of people, cope with so many business relationships? That is where management comes in.
Every established artist will have a manager – which may be a specific individual, or a number of people who work for one ‘management company’. The manager is the primary link between the artist and all the other business people involved in their careers, and the one person who will concern themselves with every part of an artist’s professional life – from recordings to gigs to selling songs to endorsing products to opening supermarkets. Most artists will get a manager before signing any deals with labels or promoters or publishers – and one of a manager’s first jobs will be to find the right label, promoter and publisher and negotiate the best deal for the artist.
Many of today’s leading artists managers got into management by initially managing one specific band – who they may have met by working in a record label, or simply because they were school friends with the band members. However, as the number of established management companies grows opportunities to have a more formal career path in this area increase.
Merchandising, sync rights and brand partnerships
There are other ways artists can make money other than selling songs, records and gig tickets. This includes selling t-shirts and posters and the like with the band’s name, logo or image on them (merchandising), giving advertisers permission to use your songs in their adverts (sync rights) and endorsing products or having relationships with certain consumer brands (brand partnerships). These are examples of three areas that are becoming increasingly profitable for artists, and are therefore real growth areas in the music industry, meaning they are offering an increasing number of job opportunities – someone has to organise the t-shirts, negotiate the sync rights and manage the brand partnerships.
Business & Legal
With all these business deals going on, artists and all the other companies involved need the same kind of business support people and companies in all other sectors need – banking, insurance, accountancy, business advice. Which means there are jobs in all those areas which specialise in music.
Perhaps most important of all in this area are the lawyers. While lawyers have a bad reputation in the music business (as the men in suits who cause problems for artists), they are important for two reasons. Firstly, as we just said, there are a lot of deals to be done between artists and various businesses – somebody has to write the contracts for these deals, and ensure they’ll stand up in court should there be a dispute. Secondly, the music business is an intellectual property industry. A lot of the money made in music is based on the so called ‘IP rights’ that exist in songs and recordings and images and names (copyright and trademarks etc). IP rights only exist because the law says they do, which makes the whole thing a very tricky area. Hence all the lawyers. And hence the opportunities for people with legal training to specialise in music.
Playing music
And, finally, let’s not forget that some people in the music business play music. There are the global rock stars and award winning songwriters, but also many thousands of other musicians who manage to make a living out of their musical skills.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, the music business is much more wide ranging, and complicated, than you probably realised. If you want to work in music you should spend a little time getting your head around all this, and think about which bit of the industry interests you most. The good news is that by simply reading this introduction you’re already some way there. Next, click on the links for those areas that interest you most.
This article is part of the unicornjobs.com guide to Working In The Music Business. Click here to go to the guide index.
