(Answer: go to school and get an internship then work your ass off to prove you’re the best.
) But a lot of people don’t even know what they want to do, just that they think they want to work in the business.
First off, don’t try to go into the music industry because you think it is going to be cool or fun.
It is a difficult, demanding, and unstable industry and it requires years of sacrifice and endless amounts of hard work.
More likely than not, you’re not going to be rich or famous. Most people in this industry make a modest living after years of eating Top Ramen to make it through the first few years when you’re working for free or minimum wage. So if you’re not in for a hard ride with lots of work, look into another career path.
Make sure you want to get into the industry for the right reasons – the love of music and creativity. If you want to be cool or rich or meet rockstars, you’ll never make it through the first 6 months.
Okay, you down to work hard for little pay just because you love music? All right then let’s talk about some career options that might interest you.
(Note: SOME! I can’t cover it all.
) There are more than I could ever cover here so you may want to mosey over to your local bookstore and pick up some books that will get in depth about the different fields offered to you. And just like any business, every company in a field needs a full team of accountants, lawyers, presidents, CFOs, receptionists, office managers, and the like. So I’m not even going to bother writing about all of that junk because this is already long enough as it is!
Also notable that this article is primarily focused on the American Music Business, as that is what I am familiar with but the basic principles and career options are the same around the world.
Distribution and Retail
Believe it or not, getting a job at Sam Goody or Newbury Comics qualifies as working in the music industry. Retail jobs are fairly easy to get – just apply when they have a ‘Now Hiring’ sign. It may be a little harder to find a warehouse but if there is one in your area, applying is pretty standard. These may not seem like exciting and vital parts of the music industry but if someone didn’t sell records then there would be no industry at all! Even if you’re seeking to be more deeply involved in the creation of music as opposed to just selling it, getting a job in a music store will help familiarize you with the genres, the labels, the big names, the sleeper hits, and other aspects of the music industry all while earning you a nice paycheck you can use with your employee discount to buy more CDs.
Composing and Songwriting
There is no music without, well, music and just because you’re listening to "Popstar of the Month" singing doesn’t mean that he or she wrote anything for the song.
Songwriters write lyrics, music, or both. Some work with co-writers, some work alone. If you’re great a crafting songs but not comfortable performing them then songwriting might be your perfect outlet.
Most songwriters and composers know how to play an instrument or four so they can record a demo of the song they wish to sell. This might be the hardest facet of the music industry to break into because most artists look for established songwriters to buy songs from. Living in an industry-centered town (NYC, LA, or Nashville) is critical for successful songwriters. But don’t let all of that deter you. If you think you’ve got what it takes, put together the best demo you can of two or three soon-to-be-hit-songs then look into taking a trip to one of the entertainment capitals.
Contact a writer relations representative at one of the performing arts societies (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) and ask about upcoming writer workshops, showcases, and other events for aspiring songwriters. Then plan your trip around them and use these events to network. You can also attempt to submit your work to music publishing companies.
There are also lots of contests for young songwriters, like the John Lennon Songwriting competition and the International Songwriting Competition, so even if you can’t travel, you can earn some exposure.
Not all songwriters write for musicians. The swelling violins in your favorite movie and the jingle you can’t get out of your head don’t write themselves. From film scoring to jingle writing, songwriters and composers can find work in any field that needs music.
If you’re interested in Film Scoring, Berklee School of Music has one of the best departments in the country.
Music Publishing
Publishing is probably the least understood side of the industry but it is where the most money stands to be made.
Publishers are the people that sell songs from everyone to record companies, advertisers, artists and more. Publishers do everything from critiquing newly written songs to collecting all the money earned by the songs they’ve sold. They are the bridge between songwriters and artists. Without publishers, no songs would get written and no money would be made. Okay, maybe that isn’t precisely true but its close enough. If you think you have a head for business and good ear for what songs are going to be a hit but lack the technical proficiency of a producer, music publishing might be your field. Music publishing houses oversee acquiring new songs and writers then licensing their songs to film, television, musical acts, and more. Publishers work with a more diverse array of music than a record label because they are dealing with songs, first and foremost, whereas labels deal with specific artists. Music publishers have to be able to hear hundreds of different songs and match them up to potential clients whereas a label rep only has to deal with a handful of whiny bands. Also, publishers deal with songs through out the entertainment industry whereas a label rep only cares about the rest of the industry when their band comes into contact with it.
Music publishing is mildly more stable than most record labels but there are fewer music publishing houses out there. Like most other fields, a degree in music business and an internship at the right company is often the way to break into this field. Make friends with the aspiring songwriters who are reading this article. Together, you can be a powerful team of hit makers.
Record Labels
The much maligned necessary evil of the music industry is the record label. A label signs bands, gives them money to make a record, then sinks even more money into making the screaming masses aware of the new band or record. 9 out of 10 bands on a label never recoup (aka lose money) so they are rather hectic places to work. No one can predict what the Next Big Thing will be (though many think they can) so the old adage ‘you’re only as good as your last hit’ is a determining factor in who will have a job and who won’t come Monday morning. Of all of the starving and suffering music industry, labels have been among the hardest hit. They are the bankroll for the rest of the industry, from touring to recording, so they are more competitive than any other facet of the industry.
(And in an industry where people might kill their own grandmother for a chance to advance, that is saying something.
) But if you want to be the person that gets a band from the basement to touring arenas, this is your field.
The most well-known record label title, besides President, is A&R rep.
If you are a con artist, best friend, and/or punching bag then you’ve found your gig. You have to be able to find bands that will be hits, convince the band to sign to your label, then convince your label they want to fund your project.
(Fact: just because you get signed doesn’t mean a label has to actually fight to get your band noticed or your record in stores. They can actually sign you then never release your record to the public.
) A&R reps oversee every aspect of the band’s life on the record label; from finding songs, studios and producers (and paying the bills) to working with the different departments of the label to get the record out and in stores (and paying the bills). The function everyone knows A&R reps for is, of course, their ability to sign new talent. So if you think you can find the Next Big Thing on a semi-weekly basis, A&R is for you.
Creative Services is the umbrella name for the in-house artsy types. Like designing websites? Are you good at drawing logos? This is where you want to work. If you’re a photographer, hair/makeup artist, or stylist then Creative Services is the department that will hire you for freelance work with their bands. Working closely with creative services is New Technologies, which handles all the online website design, myspace design, etc for artists.
The Promotions department is NOT in charge of promotions, give-aways, and prize packs.
(That is marketing.
) Promotions is the part of the record label that deals with obtaining radio airplay. Promotions managers work with field reps and independent promoters to get radio stations to add, drop, increase, or decrease record rotations on their stations. They have to be very knowledgeable about what songs are getting played when and how much all across the country so there is a lot of reading trade papers and comparing charts. He or she also works closely with sales and marketing to take care of any issues related to promoting the latest singles and getting it the most amount of airplay possible.
The Sales department directs the sales, merchandising, and advertising campaigns for the label. The band wants action figures and more black tshirts? It is the sales department that takes care of getting them in stores, never mind the ads in the magazines to let the public know about all the neat stuff they can now purchase. Working closely with sales is the Production department who oversees the manufacturing of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and all other record company made items.
Marketing is in charge of any marketing of the artists to the public. They tend to oversee the sales, creative services, and other departments in addition to directing their own departments. They have to make sure the image of the artist is consistent with what they are trying to sell and all departments are working together to promote one image. Like any marketing job, the primary concern is getting the most amount of people to buy what the label is selling – be it CDs, concert tickets, or limited edition soup tureens with Pop Star’s face on it. Marketing takes the ability to keep in mind the big picture and direct a variety of different people towards it.
Publicity and Media Relations creates all the biographies, press releases, and press campaigns for a label. They set up press conferences and work with media outlets to get more press coverage for a band. They are somewhere between marketing and journalists.
Independent Promotions/Marketing/Publicity
You don’t have to work in a record label to get music out there. There are companies devoted specifically to catering to outside clients in specific genres. This happens very frequently with promotions. As we discussed above, promotions is concerned with getting more radio airplay for a single and very frequently a label will hire a company based in one area who is familiar with that market to promote the single for them.
This also happens with alternative marketing sources such as artistDIRECT.
These companies provide alternative means to increase an artist’s visibility, be it by creating a database of information or a fanclub not run by the label or whathaveyou. If an artist collaborates with another big artist for a giant tour or works on a big movie or another sizable project, outside PR, marketing, or media relations might be hired to create hype for the project.
Recording/Sound Engineering
Unless you’re lucky enough (or creepy enough) to have your favorite artists in a cage in your backyard, you have to buy their album to be able to hear them play whenever you want. The creation of these records is left to a bunch of tech junkies, gear heads, and studio rats whom inhabit the recording studios of the world. There are many schools, from technical/trade schools to full liberal arts colleges that offer courses in these fields then look for an internship at a recording studio if you want a job in this field. Because this field is so technical, schooling is ideal to orient aspiring engineers to the latest gear but even the most seasoned engineers have to keep their skills up to date by attending various trade shows and demos. The learning never stops.
Producers are the unofficial extra members of the band. They are in charge of crafting the sound of the record and helping a band take their vision from an idea to an album. Producers have the fun job of telling a band ‘no’ or ‘that is a terrible idea.’ People skills are just as essential as a good ear and technical know-how. It is a producer’s job to craft hits and this often involves fighting with the label, the management, and the band themselves to get the best possible songs recorded. It is a producer (with the band’s agreement) who decides when and where an album is recorded, mixed, and mastered. They are in charge of putting together and sticking to a budget and meeting the deadline. A producer must be able to walk the line between the creative, technical, and business world with ease.
There are three stages of recording a record; tracking, mixing, and mastering.
Tracking is when the musicians (or hired hands) come in and physically record their parts. A tracking studio has a large live room that is used to record everything from drums to orchestras. Though any and all music can be ‘overdubbed’ or rerecorded later in the process, the bulk of recording is done in a tracking studio. Tracking engineers must be familiar with a variety of mics and how to set them all up so there is no phasing or interference, the workings of their console and protools setup, and a whole slew of other technical issues and must be able to quickly adjust their gear to capture the perfect take.
Mixing is where the real artistry as an engineer takes place. Once the songs are recorded, a mixer listens to them and slowly adjusts the different elements to create the best sounding song possible. From EQing (adjusting the relationship of the different frequencies of the soundwave) to adding effects like delay or reverb, the mixer polishes the sound and creates the little details that makes a song really ‘pop’. Listen to the demo version of a song and the record version and you can hear the difference. Mixing involves listening to one song (or 5 seconds of one song) over and over and over while you adjust it so a really good ear and extreme patience is necessary.
If a mixer makes sure a song sounds its best, a mastering engineer does the same for a whole album. After the songs are mixed, a masterer makes sure all the songs have the same sonic characteristics and fit together on an album. If you have ever made a CD in iTunes and found that one track is far louder than the one following it so you have to fiddle with your volume knob every time, you’ll understand why mastering is important. There are very few mastering engineers and the bulk of the records put out by the music industry are handled by the same 12 people.
In addition to the engineers and producers, there are also the recording studio staff.
Assistant engineers are employed by the recording studios and intimately know the rooms of that particular studio.
They are there to assist the clients that come into the studio (note: every engineer/producer is ‘freelance’ – that is, they are not employed by a studio or record label and work on a gig-to-gig basis).
An assistant does all of the busy work, from setting up the mics around the drum kit to recalling the console, on their way up to becoming engineers in their own right. They are essential to the process as they are employed by a particular studio and know the room backwards and forwards, where as the producer may work in many studios around town.
Runners are the rung below assistants and they do all the day to day work around the studio, from cleaning the toilets to fetching food for the clients, in the hopes of one day becoming assistants.
Studio Managers are responsible for getting clients into the studios, collecting money from them after, paying all the studios bills and employees, forging new relationships with clients, and generally keeping the studio running.
Some of the bigger studios also employ an in-house tech, to fix any gear that breaks, an accountant (though often times the studio manager does at least part of the accounting), and an assistant manager or booking manager who is solely responsible for bringing in clientele.
The Pro-Audio industry is composed of the fine ladies and gentlemen that develop the hardware and software used in studios or rent it to studios.
Rental companies are usually located in the three entertainment capitals and provide a wide range of gear options to discerning engineers. Companies such as Digidesign and AMS Neve are constantly creating and recreating new toys for use in the studio.
There are also Production companies whom are in charge of overseeing a particularly large album often for an independent investor.
Project coordinators are in charge of keeping albums on track, on schedule, and on budget.
Touring and Live Performance
Other engineers can be found out on the road.
Live Sound engineers come in two breeds; Front of House and Monitor.
FOH engineers are responsible for what the audience hears. They are the people you see standing at the board in the middle of the arena floor or the back of the club, frantically thumbing faders and grabbing pots. Unlike like the studio world, live happens real time so if anything breaks it is a time crisis to figure out what is wrong. Knowing your gear and thinking on your feet is essential to a good live engineer. And like their FOH brethren, monitor engineers are just as frantic about maintaining good sound. Their job is to control what the band hears through their monitors on stage. If band members can’t hear themselves, it effects their ability to play. Many a monitor guy has been hit with a thrown water bottle because he couldn’t get the guitars to sound right on stage.
Local venues usually employ in-house sound engineers (and occasionally merch people) but larger bands often bring their own sound person on the road with them. A good way to get any gig in the live arena is to start working with local bands in your area. See if you can get a band to hire you to do sound for them or start bothering your local venues to take you on. This approach works well for merch too.
Merch is exactly what it sounds like – selling a band’s merchandise at their shows. A merch person is not only a salesman, convincing kids to part with their money for a tshirt, but is responsible for keeping track of all the money made and items sold. Most venues take a cut of merch money so a merch person has to count in and out all the items and give the venue their cut. They also have to be able to report any problems to the tour manager, including damaged merch or when stock is low for reorder. It’s the lowest paying job on a tour but is still a fair bit of hard work.
The person who keeps the band organized on the road is the Tour Manager.
They are responsible for getting the band up and to whatever interviews or other meetings they may have, to sound check, and through the show. They have to ‘advance the date’ by calling the venue and making sure there is a time for load-in and soundcheck. From handling all the money to finding hotels to putting out the bus engine when it catches on fire, the Tour Manager is in charge of every detail of life on the road.
Some larger tours also have a Production Manager who is in charge of the lighting, special effects, dancers, back up singers, traveling monkey carnival, and other aspects of the artist’s performance.
Techs are responsible for setting up each band members equipment. They are primarily employed by larger tours and are very familiar with musical equipment. They need to be able to replace broken guitar strings or busted drum heads faster than the average man, adjust the instruments inner workings to the musician’s desired specifications, and run the newly repaired gear out on stage while the band performs. They also do all the set-up and upkeep of the gear when the band isn’t onstage. Every instrument imaginable can have a tech but even large tours often have a tech that can perform ‘double duty’ and tech guitars and bass or bass and guitars or something to that effect.
Tours employ a legion of other people, depending on the size of the tour. Smaller tours can be just the members of the band and a larger tour can employ a small army.
Jobs include Lighting and Effects operators, dancers, backup singers, security guards, roadies to move the gear, bus drivers, truck drivers, and stage managers.
These are the people with the know-how to make a big production work.
Some tours also have accountants on the road with them, a fleet of assistants to the managers, carpenters, stylists, animal handlers, and more.
It all depends on the size of the tour.
There is also the rehearsal spaces where the band practices before the tour (or before recording) and the storage companies that whole all the gear when the tour is not running. All of these people are critical to a good tour.
Management
Speaking of management, there are several different kinds of managers.
Artist managers are responsible for directing all aspects of an artist’s career. Their most pressing duty is resolving any and all problems that arise for their artists. You have to have the fortitude to withstand a lot of screaming and crying to be a manager. As a manager, you talk to everyone – from the labels to the studios to the radio stations to the fans. You have to be involved in every aspect of the musician’s career. A good grasp of the music industry is more essential for a manager than anyone else because it is the manager that deals with all the different parts at once. At a management company, there is often a big name manager that oversees the general ebb and flow of the company and lesser-known day-to-day managers who handle the daily dealings of an artist. Some management travels with their artists but often they stay in their office to oversee all their clients.
Producer managers do the same sorts of things for the big engineers and producers.
Producer managing is more concerned with finding new gigs for their clients (remember earlier when I said producers and engineers worked gig to gig?) and making sure their clients get paid for their work. Managers of all types are usually crucial in drawing up various contracts so a working knowledge of basic entertainment law is also a necessity.
Management companies may sometimes have departments that deal with publicity, online marketing, or other ways of promoting themselves as a company so smart business types may find their niche in working for a management company. Unlike a label, management companies are usually smaller operations but large powerhouses like The Firm and Nettwerk do exist. Just like the rest of the industry, there has been a lot of merging into larger companies by smaller management groups and several of the big management companies have split up, been sold off, or flat out failed.
Business managers handle all the financial dealings of an artist. They have a little more power than accountants in that they are often given the power to make business decisions for a band. And if a bands manager ever screws them over, they go running to their lawyers.
Entertainment lawyers are a whole new breed of attorney who seem to somehow have the most fun in the entire industry because, while the rest of the industry is uncertain and shaky, we will always need a good lawyer. As I mentioned at the start of this article, almost every aspect of the music business employs a lawyer and accountant in some form. But I single out business managers and entertainment lawyers that work primarily for artists or producers because their jobs often expand past the usual dealings of a lawyer or accountant for a corporation.
(And might often expand the boundaries of what is and isn’t legal.
)
Booking Agent and Venue Staff
Okay, we’ve covered making music and selling music and we’ve talked about the people who work on tours... but what about the people that book the tours? When bands first start out, they often book their own shows.
But if they want to get the good nights at the good clubs around the nation, they hire a booking agent.
These agents don’t just get the gigs but they negotiate to get the best payout for their artist and generate a contract with each venue. Large companies have an agent for each particular region of the country or globe but smaller companies or single person operations do all the work themselves. This is a career that is all about having good relationships, just like promotions. Booking agents with good connections can book large tours for smaller acts they work with. If you’re interested in becoming a booking agent, start making friends with the club owners and promoters in your area now. A few years down the line, these relationships will be your bread and butter.
As mentioned in the tour section, venues often have their own in house merch and sound engineers. But there is more to a venue than just that! Everyone knows venues have security guards, ticket sales people, and often bartenders of some sort but they also have a whole host of other people who keep your local hole in the wall dive or corporate sponsored arena open.
Talent Buyers are the people who work with the booking agents to secure acts for the club. Their job is much like a booking agents, but representing the club.
A promoter may work for the club or may just host his night there and he or she is responsible for creating and hyping up an event and getting as many people there as possible.
And there is usually a manager or four to oversee all the different staff members at a club. As recommended above, even if the live aspect of music isn’t your dream job, it is a very good way to get a lot of experience fast in the music business if you’re not in an entertainment capital. A job at a venue is much harder to get than a retail job because they don’t usually advertise but it never hurts to ask whom the manager is and ask them if the venue is hiring.
Music Journalism
Once upon a time, every kid wanted to be a writer at Rolling Stone thanks in no small part to the writings of Hunter S Thompson. Watch the movie Almost Famous for the particulars.
Music journalism may not be that exciting in real life but you may have the opportunity to ask your favorite artist if they prefer grilled cheese sandwiches with or without tomato soup on the side. Journalists range from music critics and reviewers to staff writers who compose the long and dramatic tales woven around whatever band they managed to nail down for an interview. Those that love photography can often find jobs either at a magazine on their staff or selling their work freelance to several magazines. And every good magazine needs an editor to tie the work together, layout designers to make it look cool, an advertising department to get the ads that pay the bills, and more.
Radio and television
Its not just for Howard Stern. (Besides, he’s on Sirius now.
) From the annoying morning team to the overnight guy who is hip to new music, radio DeeJays are paid to talk – and occasionally play a tune. Before the advent of Internet and satellite radio, DeeJay (or DJ if you don’t like extraneous letters) jobs were scarce and the wait to even get the tedious overnight shift at a station was grueling. But new technology has brought a boom to the radio market and those that want to become DJs have a whole new world of options available to them.
VJs are also benefiting from the ever-expanding world of cable television. As more niche marketing stations are created, such as MTV3 and Fuse, more jobs are created.
Program/Music directors are in charge of selecting the music and generating a playlist for the station. They work with the label and independent promotions teams to add and drop new songs and increase or decrease the frequency of songs played on the station. So if you’ve ever listened to your favorite station and thought they’ve played a song too much, now you know to blame the program director for it.
Station managers oversee the running of the various departments.
Like labels, radio and television stations often have marketing, sales, publicity, and creative services departments in addition to their on-air talent.
They also have a full staff of producers and engineers who do all the technical programming to keep a station on the air. Most radio and television companies are part of larger parent organization so often the staff that runs a particular station will also run several sister stations for the company.
Unions, trade shows, events, organizations, and societies
The list of organizations you can belong to when you work in music and events you can attend is so expansive that I won’t even begin to try and tackle them.
However, these are the organizations that inform and protect the music industry so those that are concerned with the welfare of the business itself may want to explore the possibility of working for a union that protects artists like AFTRA or helping organize an industry-only event like the Grammys (presented by NARAS) or the NAMM trade show.
Education
Once you’ve done it all in the music business, give back to people who want to get started by teaching at a local college or volunteering your time at a high school. Good educators with real world experience are always critical to turning out the best young professionals. So remember, once you’ve made your millions (or lost them), share your knowledge with others.
Related fields
The music industry always works closely with our brethren in other areas of the arts. If your talents lie behind a camera, perhaps photography or music video direction could become your forte. If you are a master at soundtracks, a job as a music supervisor (the person who picks all the music in a film, tv show, commercial, etc) might be in your future. Hair and makeup gurus can always find work with a stylish band and graphic artists can usually find work designing logos, tshirts, and other items. So if what you love to do isn’t listed above but you still have a passion to work in music, don’t get discouraged.
The music business is a HUGE field with many, many different types of jobs and even this article can’t contain them all. But even if your true passion is something so remote that it can’t be applied to working in music, like biochemistry or deep sea salvage recovery, the most crucial part of the music industry is the fans. All of us are full time fans and turning your friends on to your favorite new band or going out and buying their CD is actually the most important part of this whole industry. I hope this gave those of you who are considering a job in the industry some different arenas to cover but remember that it is a really grueling and difficult industry, just like any industry and being an active fan often times accomplishes more than any label owner or big name manager. At the end of the day, this entire industry works for the fans. You are our bosses.
So pursue what will make you happy and best of luck to you in it!
Written By: The Miss E. Originally Posted TheMissEBlog.
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