The Music Industry Essay Example for Free

The Music Industry EssayIn this essay I go forth be discussing the quaternity main beas of the euphony industry I hope to gain friendship about them and how they plug in to atomic number 53 an early(a) so I washbowl better myself overall as a medicationian. volume LabelsRecord Labels be brands that argon responsible for marketing the music proveings and music videos of rings/artists in that respect are two types of record labels, study and free-living. There are only 3 major record labels left which are Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group, a record label is classed major when it has to a greater extent than 5% market share. Major Record LabelsThere are many pros to signing to a major record label and the most obvious and perhaps most eventful unrivaled is that these big companies spend a penny a tidy sum of specie, this delegacy they allot be spending more than currency promoting your record, which meaning a higher chance of sales and popularity. Having more cash available as well as means they lead post a attraction in touring, recording and music videos which depart all benefit your career in a traffic circle or as a solo artist. Although the pros of signing a major record deal unplumbeds incredibly rewarding, there is a few downsides which may cause a band/artist to be put gain.Firstly, signing to a major record company wont evermore last as long as the artist compulsions it to if your major label is paying a roofy of money to conjure you they leave not keep you signed if you are not selling records to overstep the output of money backwards into their pockets. A skunk of the time they will sign a lot of acts just to converge what ones are popular and will arrive money, resulting in the unpopular acts being dropped. Furthermore, things care artist unfriendly deals which leave the artist earning a lot less(prenominal) money than the label and not having full productive control o f material are all disadvantages which could leave an artist or band seeking a better deal from in an independent label.1 Independent Record LabelsAn independent record label is a label not associated with the big three major labels, a lot of artists start their career on independent labels. One pro of an independent label is that they love your music this means they will be sk and so ons harder with you, this alike means you will devour close workingrelationships with the label due to smaller staff and a smaller roster which means you mint liaison your label easier and ask them questions. Also independent labels pack artist friendly deals, you will piss more creative control and independent labels are un equivalently to contract you to multi album deals. Independent labels also have a few cons and the main one being money, which was the main pro of a major label.With less money available this will mean you wont have large recording bud seduces, Brobdingnagian promotion dea ls and things like tour support, you will have to support yourself financially which is why a lot of artists would prefer a major record deal. Along with a shortage of money, different cons of indie labels intromit size which means less purchasing power and also disorganisation. 2 Overall I reckon the best type of record label depends on preference, if an artist is seeking fame and fortune a major label deal would be best for them as more money would be available to them and they would be drived and better known. If an artist felt strongly about the music they wrote and wanted to have full creative control an independent label would be best for them.How do I get signed?If you want to get signed to a record label you can start by sending in your demo to the AR department and then things can advance from there if they like what they hear. Record labels have separate department that help find and sign artists which is AR, they help find artists by listening to demos, focussing ou t to gigs and watching recordings of bands to find talent, they would contact the artist and tell them how they would develop them as an artist. Furthermore, they find the right songs for the artist, make authentic they work with the right producer and find the right studio AR are also the department that handles contract negotiations. As an AR someone you must understand what music is current and what can be get popular, this is an primary(prenominal) job and you must have a good ear as this person bridges the gap between record labels and artists and can be the person responsible for signing the future(a) big thing. If you want to get signed to a record label you can start by sending in your demo to the AR department and then things can advance from there if they like what they hear. i What can record labels offer you?Recording studios are also another(prenominal) thing that comes with a signing a recorddeal, perks of a recording studio take ons covert of the range equipment and rooms with glorious acoustics to give your band a better sound when recording, you will also have a well-trained sound engineer to mix and produce your song, however these can be expensive and leave you with less money for things like touring. I believe recording your music in a studio will also give it a better sound which means it will also be more probable to sell. Record labels will also help you distribute your material, Retail is selling your music by somatic sales or through the internet, you can sell songs and albums for digital transfer over the internet on multiple platforms such as iTunes or amazon, once a song is bought a percentage goes to the retail merchant and the rest to the artist and label. Selling your music on CD is distributed slightly different, labels will discuss with the retailer how many copies they want to order and once an amount has been agreed the cds will be shipped then sold. Overall I believe selling your music for digital purchase is bett er as internet sales are be culmination really popular as battalion can download songs straight to their phones, also you make less of a loss if your songs dont sell on iTunes or amazon etc. as you havent had to pay for CD printing.ii Music issueA music publisher or music publishing company is in bear down on of make sure songwriters and composers receive their royalty payments when their compositions are use commercially.3 They will also help distribute and promote music that is workd, license songs to record companies and secure songs and compositions, their job is to promote and protect songs and compositions. Finding songwriters and composers in a music publishing company is also handled by AR, songwriters and composers can be found on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites furthermore there are traditional methods like going to gigs to find songwriters and composers.4 advanceOne of the most principal(prenominal) jobs to a music publisher is promoting s ongs, this means getting the songs to be used in ways that earn money. They can talk to music supervisors to get songs contend in films, TV manoeuvres and advertisements which can bring in a lot of money due to synchronisation rights and royalties. 5 Publishers will have a network of contacts that they canpromote to and then negotiate a license with. They can also make deals with musicians that want to use songs their clients have written/composes. It is very important that a music publisher or music publishing company promotes well because getting your music heard and value can be the forefront to your success.Copyright concernCopyright means protecting material and allowing composers to be paid for their work, if something is copyrighted it means the creators of the material are in intrust of it and can judge who uses their work and what circumstances it is used in. In a song the musical work and lyrics are both protected, to copyright something it has to be original and no t copied it must be recorded on paper or on CD. It is important a music publisher copyrights their songwriters/composers material other it can be copied by other mint and they will not be able to prosecute in court without copyright. 6 execute rightsPerforming rights are the right to perform songs in a public place it is part of copyright law and means the composer/songwriter and publisher will be paid, the royalties would be split 50/50. execution rights mean a group who are not copyright holders are performing a humans of music publicly, mathematical operations are considered public if they are in a public place such as a nightclub, restaurant or at a concert. This is another reason why it is important for a music publishing company to copyright their clients music, so they can claim royalties and money can be made from their material.Live mental processLive performance take ons things like gigs and festivals, I will be discussing some of the roles that make a live performa nce and how they work.Promoting a Live PerformanceThe main thing that completes a live performance is deal, without tribe turning up to your live performance you will fail to create an atmosphere and most importantly not make any money back from the high costs of renting a venue hiring staff etc. So to get people to come along to your pillowcase/performance you contain to promote. Promoting techniques you can useinclude printing off posters and posting them everywhere you can, ask small shops if you can put them in the windows or even posture them to lampposts.However you necessity a good eye catching poster otherwise it will go unnoticed. Other ways to promote include promoting your resultant on social networking like Facebook and Twitter, you can create an event and invite as many people as you like people are in all likelihood to see this as a lot of people have their phones on them all the time and will receive a notification when invited7. Online and physical ways of pr omoting can both be effective when through with(p) right, but if you want a large amount of people to notice your event and consider coming you need to do both online and physical promotion.Setting up a live performanceTo mess up for a live performance you need to start by gathering some equipment. It is best(predicate) you go and take a look at the venue a few weeks before the show day so you can see what equipment ask to be brought along, things to look out for include visual perception if the venue has a PA, if not you may want to hire or invest in one if you are hosting the event at your own venue it is worth buying your own PA to retain money in the long term. Other things include staging space, make sure there is deep floor space for the performers to stand and you may want to bring a gift/drum riser main if there arent any there already. Lighting can also be important in bringing atmosphere to a performance. Finally, you will at least a handful of staff on the night s uch as security, stagehands and a sound engineer. 8When hosting an event you may want to choose for more expensive equipment whilst saving money on staff, good equipment will improve sound and experience nitty-gritty people will want to come again but you can get away with hiring people for not much at all as people are happy to get into a free show and help.Health and safetyHealth and safety aids at a live performance are incredibly important, start by making sure there is a person in charge of first aid as this is also the law people are likely to get hurt in a crowd of people by tripping up or bumping into people. Secondly, when screen and setting up electrical equipment you need to make sure wires are not across the stage in the air as this could cause a trip hazard for performers and also make sure there areno trip hazards in the crowd standing space also. Another precaution to take is making sure staging is secured properly if heavy staging equipment is not put unitedly co rrectly accidents could happen causing big injuries which could mean you not being able to host events again. A final thing to take into consideration is noise level, when hosting a live event you are allow a license with rules of decibel level and if you exceed this level you would not be granted another license so another live performance would not be possible. I believe taking all of these health and safety precautions is fundamental to looking after everyone at a venue and will mean things can run smoothly without any inconvenience.9 Tour and event managementAn event manger means you will be in charge of a number of jobs, firstly youll need to find your venue that is suitable to your event and then you need to book your acts. After you have screen this you need to check health and safety is okay and then make sure the night runs smoothly. An event manager is an important role in making sure a live performance goes to plan, the sense of hearing may not notice the hard work of an event manager but if it wasnt for them there would be no show. A tour manager is slightly different they are in charge of booking venues as well as hotels and what crews are in charge of health and safety, security etc. I believe that tour and event management plays a huge part to live performance and makes things tick, without tour and event managers everything would be unorganised and would not go smoothly.Front of house and Backstage first with front of house, this includes a wide range of jobs such as door staff these can be security or people that accept tickets. People at food stalls or veto are also included, these people are important as they can keep the audience tonic with drinks and food. Front of house staff can be important as they are what the audience see so they need to be calm and relaxed so things run according to plan and not to grief anyone at the venue. Backstage staff covers a few more roles, they include the sound engineer who controls the levels and fi bre of the bands sound to put on a good sounding performance for the crowd, secondly there are instrument technicians for drums, bass, guitar so if any instruments fail in any way they are there to fix it or provide a new instrument e.g. backupguitar/bass.Other roles include a lighting technician to give the performance visual effect and also a pyro-technician who is in charge of any fireworks or fire during the performance. Backstage managers will make sure acts are ready to go on stage at the correct time roadies are in charge of moving and packing equipment away for the end of the set or for the next act. Backstage staffs are just as important as the acts themselves, this job needs to be done effectively and communication is key otherwise things could retrovert apart very quickly.Performance rightsWhen hosting a live performance you need to make sure you are licensed to play music, you must have the correct copyright licenses, having these is a legal requirement. PRS collects royalties for songwriters, publishers and composers and PPL collects royalties for performers and musicians. You also need public liability insurance, and if any DJs are performing they will need a ProDub licence this is needed for when a DJ is transferring music from a vinyl, CD etc. to a digital format. If they do not have this license you may face fines or legal prosecution.Artist managementBusiness and Tour managersBusiness managers are in charge of all the money to do with the artist, they are usually accountants that have experience with musicians, day to day managers can also take care of finance but they usually have a lot more things to do so it is facilitatory to have a business manager for this. A tour manager takes care of booking venues, hotels, flights and things like selecting a tour bus etc. Tour managers are important because they get the artist/band from one place to another and make sure things run smoothly, a good tour manager needs to be organised so the band makes it on time to gigs, interviews and recordings. Having managers can be very helpful to an artist however they will need to be paid so its important to decide what mangers you definitely need.10 Artist and managers rightsIn the music industry artist and managers rights must be abided by, otherwise you could be brought to court artist rights include being paid their royalties due to copyright, these are usually songs played on the radio/television etc. Managers rights are slightly different they includebeing paid fairly and that all contract terms are kept to, if they arent it means the manager can terminate the contract at any time. I believe it is very important managers and artists rights are abided by because you may end up in court if contract terms are breached.SponsorshipSponsorship does not always mean getting free stuff from the company that is sponsoring you, it means when two businesses come together to benefit from the association of one another. Sponsorship deals can be gained by the artists manager, it can mean money is offered to an artist and in the return the artist will wear, promote the brand. This is a very good way for an artist to earn income it also makes artists/bands noticed. Endorsement is slightly different as it means artists can use the companies gear, this is good as it opens the company to a lot of fans and allows the artist to use top of the range equipment. I think sponsorship deals are good as they benefit both parties and can allow a lot of income to the artist and company.MerchandiseMerchandise can include clothing, CDs and stickers. The merchandise should include a creative logo that goes with the name of the band, stickers are useful as they can be stuck anywhere and promote your band. Merchandise can be sold after shows and also online which is useful if people cannot get to them at a show, selling merchandise is a great way to make money as people will pay high prices to own a t shirt with their favourite bands name a nd logo on it. Its also a good promotion technique, if people are walking the streets with your band name on their t shirt soon your bands name will become familiar to people and they will tempted to listen to your music.However, you need to make sure your designs are effective and not offensive because pernicious merchandise may put people off of your music. Merchandising is a very popular and important way of earning money and getting your band noticed, I believe it is a very good way to help an artist/bands success. In this essay I have talked about and explained the four areas of the music industry, I have gained knowledge which will benefit my career as a musician, with this knowledge I now have an understanding about various careers in the music industry also.