Common people - Producers, publishers and other persons in music business

So we’ve discussed the most essential themes already: Music market, major & indie labels and A&R persons. These are the points, that, in my humble opinion every self-respecting musician must be aware of in modern days. But, as I’ve already said, there are a lot of other players, some more important, some less. Nonetheless, I’ll try to give you short information about the most important ones, because probably you’ll need their services in the near future, if you intend to prolong your musical  career.

Let’s start with the Record Producers. This people carry the most responsibility for the product which musician creates. They try to convert the creative product and artist’s ideas into a complete recording. They are responsible for hiring the right stuff for a recording, choosing right songs, administration of the rec0rding process, booking and selecting appropriate studios and so on. They also do (or used to do at least) a lot of work on the musical side – arrangement, finding the right sound, right niche, getting new guitar or vocal sounds for the record and all other stuff which identifies the actual “sound” of the product after its release.

 Most of the producers used to be musicians, or people somehow related to music and the word “producer” is often mixed with “manager” - that’s because in the good old times, the musicians could not afford producers services and the managers had to do all the producers work for their artists. Very often, especially in modern times, producer’s influence on the final product is greater then the musicians There are two categories – producers for pop, hip-hop and urban scene, which often are considered more important then the artist which the produce and producers for rock, alternative, indie, experimental music where due to the fact that the music they deal with usually is original and more involves artists ideas and creative views, producers mostly is viewed as an additional musician and record arranger and has to reckon with the artists interests.

What does a Publisher do? – they take care of business while you burn yourself out in the creative process. If you publish your music with a publisher, he’ll find people who will use your songs (for film, radio, media, games, everything) and make sure they pay you (also they find songs for the artist who don’t write their own material). Thus you give part of the copyright (sometimes even whole copyright) to him on the product which you want to publish with him. The standard split is 50/50. In the past, these were the most powerful people in music industry. Today, due to the digital revolution, a lot of musicians do publish themselves without any help, also more artist write their own material, and don’t need a publisher to find a song to them. But they still have major influence and contacts in the biz.

Booking agents are the people that book shows and venues for the artists they represent, or want to represent. They are responsible for making all the arrangements with the heads of the show and present performance agreement to the producers or promoters. They’ll care about the sound, rider, lighting of your show, your accommodation, transportation of stuff and everything that will keep the your show going. For concert buyers, they work to find the right artist that will fit in the need and available budget.

Promoters promote live shows, they also organize shows and book and promote bands & musicians. The main duty of a promoter is not much different from a advertising agent – they must secure the shows and their bands being shown and heard in every possible media and non-media resource. This may start from putting up street posters or buzzing up the mailing list, to making a several hundred thousand media pr action about your next performance.

There are of course dozens of other jobs, but these are the most important and infamous ones. Most of the other  jobs subordinate under the ones we’ve already discussed and are their different branches. But still, in case of further interest, here is the greatest resource I’ve ever seen on this topic http://us.music-jobs.com/jobtypes/job-descriptions.php - There are almost 60 positions discussed here. Though frankly I don’t think it's necessary for a musician to go this deep. But let it be here, just in case of any information worms over there. 

With or without you - Do you NEED a record label?

Well, this was not a question until 2000’s. Record companies always were the key holders of the entrance in the showbiz. You needed someone to manufacture ship your records to the stores, you had to get yourself in media – TV or radio, because there was no other option of being heard by someone. What’s most important – you could not make a proper product without a record company. Recording process was far more complex and involved technologies, which cost several hundred thousand dollars, sometimes more. You couldn’t create anything material without the company.

Well, now the digital revolution changed everything. And it provided more than just the ability to have more songs on mp3 players. You don’t need a studio, producer, mixer and other staff to create a musical product now because there are dozens of sound programs which you can buy (or steal) for a couple hundred dollars, buy an intermediate soundcard and headphones for another couple and you’re all set. You may even record most of the instruments with just one midi keyboard. Well, of course a track recorded in a professional studio will always dominate in quality over the homemade one (doesn’t matter how good you are), but no one expects high-quality songs from a beginning artist. This is a golden rule. The labels don’t worry much about the quality of sound, the most important thing is to show them what are you made of and what do you have boiling in your head.

Even a bigger leap was made in promotion tools and politics. Here also, there are almost no more obstacles to get you music published and heard. Anyone can get their music distributed digitally.  It’s possible to get your music to ITunes, Amazon and other digital retailers. It’s possible to send out your material to music magazines, since every self-respecting one now has a website (many of them are even internet-based). You can send your “CV” to almost every music festival, every community or competition. What’s most important – when you make a deal with a record company (especially with if you sign with a major), you give up control of your recordings and give out a really huge part of your income. Very often from both record and non-record areas also. In fact – artist royalties with a major label are 13-20% in USA and a bit more in Europe. Well in case of do-it-yourself digital distribution, you receive about 70% of each song or album sold. Needles to say, difference is huge. There again, you also have the freedom of building your own image and promoting yourself as you want.

And the digital promotion ways are everything but complicated - you can start being friendly with a top radio DJ and personally sending him your latest track to play on his gig, or emailing up a well-known music blogger to offer her a cut from the proceeds of your latest music package. Some manage to make an ITunes top 10 sale that way, and that’s loads of money for a beginner.

Real paradise eh? But this all makes sense when you are a well-promoted artist/band already. And this is quite tricky, because commercially, if you sell 10 albums each month digitally at 10$ each and receive 70 bucks at the end of the month, maybe it would be better to sign to a tiny indie label, who’ll manage to sell 100 albums per month and to receive 150$ at least. It all depends on the success rate you have, promotion so to say.

And here’s the main catch – when you’re up to yourself, you can never, never match the power of a well balanced indie label on the digital market. Some distributors try to convince you in the opposite, now that’s just bullshit. Sure, someone sings with a major, they put his video next to Coldplay’s new hit single on YouTube, shoot a 200k$ video, book O2 Arena and make all the leading magazines review their artist. And how are you going to catch up, by making a free download of your 6 track album on your Facebook page?

 So the labels still lead the game. Though the digital market increases every moment, showbiz is a mistress who smiles only at the ones who have loads of contacts, power and influence. And in this field, the labels have all the horses yet.

And do not let anyone fool you - there's nothing especially revolutionary in the model of self releasing your record. You're not throwing away the label - you're really just starting a record label yourself.

So, from my point of view, signing with a label is still a best start. You may not need all the services that label provides – for example, you may have an already recorded album and a video, but you’ll need the promotion and contacts that the labels infrastructure allows. This is Essential for a good start. And when you reach the height where you have the fan-base and popularity to do on your own, it’s a good time to revalue your needs and demands and make a choice which suits you best. 

Battle Rages on - Major labels vs Indie labels

So, We’ve discussed the essential differences the Major and Indie labels already right here http://unsignedhelp.blogspot.com/2011/09/thanks-to-wiki-for-diagram-according-to.html (If you missed it, I doubt you’ll understand this topic). But besides invaluable theoretical knowledge, I guess the main thing you want to find out is which one is better to sign a contract with, to begin flooding their mailboxes with your material straight away. Now, this is an age-old argument and as it usually happens with age-old questions, there is no universal solution, but there some are obvious advantages and disadvantages and I’ll try to make them clear for you.

Let’s start with the advantages of a Major label:

No boundaries and limits – If you’re signed with a major and they are really interested in your promotion, then the sky is the limit. The budget and power of a major is far more great than indie’s. They can do whatever they’ll think is commercially profitable. They can launch you in space if they want to.  They can release 30 million your CD-s at a time if they think it’s worth it. They always have the best options for high quality production, packaging, media, tours, etc.

Influence & Contacts – The publishers, managers and A&R working on major are welcome everywhere. For them every door is opened. They can summon best arrangers, video directors, hairdressers. They can influence the best media resources (a middle indie label would dance for the opportunity to have their band reviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine, when major-financed stars shine on its cover), best festivals, most popular TV shows and even the most visited websites.

Less problems to deal with – Another advantage of being signed to a major also is that as an artist all you have to do is to create and perform the music, stand still and look stupid to the photographers and don’t talk shit in interviews. The label handles everything else, especially business & promotion issues.

But not all that glitters is gold. Let’s now discuss the disadvantages of a Major label.

Cold-blooded approach to the artists - Major labels have a reputation for giving artists unfavorable deals and rewarding the business team greater than the artist who created the music.  Very often the artist does not get to keep the rights or even the creative control over the music. And most probably as soon as they’ll suck out all the money-making potential from you, you’ll be fired. Majors always try to offer as low royalties as possible, wine over every cent given to you and most of all make you think that you are kept as a winning horse, which will be sent to a tanner as soon as it shows signs of getting old.

Hard to get noticed – Even when you’re signed. Majors used to sign a lot of artists, but if your product doesn’t fit in immediately, probably you’ll get dropped. So you still have to prove yourself even when you’re signed. But you may be signed for a definite time, but never get real love.

“More business - less music” strategy – One of the main arguments against major labels is that they choose to promote and finance formulaic, unoriginal music, in order to safely sell music that is known to have high demand rates. Their work is based far more upon strategic and business calculations, then music. In other words, they are heartless evil people, who don’t give a shit about music and think only about money. But they are very rich and powerful.

Now about the cons of signing an independent label.

As you guess, every advantage that major labels have is a disadvantage to independent labels. Independent labels mostly lack powerful distribution networks that would promote their products in stores. They don’t posses the capital of major and this has its impact on all of the independent label’s operations, from the product management to the artist promotion. As already stated, independent record labels do not have the same leverage and access to radio and the media as major labels do. Ultimately, these disadvantages make it the responsibility of independent labels to seek out or develop new ways of promoting records, simply in order to survive and compete with the major-backed labels.

But they have their Pros of course.

To overlook the business model, independent record labels are run as small business. In most cases, the label is run only by few people who work closely with each artist they sign. These builds close relationships and removes a lot of obstacles when you want to contact your producer or sales person or whoever you want directly. This is very hard in a major.

Most probably when indie label signs a contract with you, is because it likes your music and thinks that it suits the labels needs. They trust that your music can sell with their help, and work to promote you as an individual, not the suitable image that they often create for you in major labels. As a rule, Indie label contracts, as their relations and politics, are far more artist-friendly and give the artists more royalties and percentages than any major does. Frequently, this concerns artistic rights and copyright issues also. Indie labels often have a particular sound and genre and fans of artists signed to a certain label often trust it to deliver music that they like. This provides artist’s influence over a certain market.

This is it. As you see both sides have their Pros and Cons. Well, as you remember, many indie labels are backed up by majors. You can try to get signed by them and have the best of all possible worlds. But keep in mind that the more the indie label uses majors resources and finance, the more the major interferes in its politics and course. “And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you” – F. Nietzsche.

As you see, there is no definite solution of which way is better. It is a matter of approach, position and circumstances. Well, everyone makes his own choice. I’ll not state here which kind of label I personally support. This is an entirely private decision for a musician and I don’t want to influence it even in the most humble way. 

Men of constant sorrow - the A&R persons

Well, As I’ve already mentioned  I don’t think that a musician looking up for a record deal needs to know all about particular  branches and functions of a record label  in details. It’s enough to be aware of the A&R system. But, it’s vital to be aware of it. Because, to cut in short, these are the people who decide whether you have chance of signing to their company, or not. In other words, it’s up to them to decide if you are cool and talented enough to get a chance.

The A&R job is one of the few jobs on earth, where age doesn’t matter. Mostly because of the many diverse types of music which have listeners from different age zones.  If you are a Cello player  in an orchestra you should not expect an A&R person younger then 35-40 years on your performance. On the other hand, if you are a 18 years old lead singer of a girl band and are performing songs named like  “Mama I’m big enough to pierce my ass”, you must rarely expect an A&R person older then 35. As widely accepted, an A&R of a specific musical style or genre is much alike the listeners of that style. 

There are different levels and types of A&R and all of them have different approach to music business.

Some of them go to shows (are interested in live performance), some of them don’t.

Some of them accept unsolicited material, some of them don’t (Well, in 90% of the cases they don’t).

Some of them accept authorized CD-s, some of them emails, some of them do both.

Some of them stick to one city (not necessarily where their company is), others spend 25 hours in a plane each week.

The biggest problem is that these guys (especially the ones who work on label) are really hard to get in touch with. They receive hundreds of emails and CD-s each day, hear stuff like “Check out, this is the New Nirvana” every day and generally despise people. Especially musicians. But mostly, these people are really busy. In fact, they probably are the busiest branch of the industry business. Reaching them without loads of contacts in the biz must be considered as sheer luck.

We’ll discuss how to get to these punks in another topic.

Well, some say that the days of A&R are numbered because musicians now can create and market their music online. Digital revolution in da Haus!!! Well many people (and me also) consider this point of view as being too simplistic. It’s right that internet took away the necessity of a middleman and musicians can get to their listeners without the help of a record company, but the main problem of a today’s artist is the difficulty of getting heard above billions of other, fighting for listener’s attraction. A&R here is nothing but a filter. Because they decide, which of these million artists have real potential to create unique (or highly commercial) music and who really deserves a chance (or who can bring loads of money).

The Skills and tastes of some A&R persons have greatly influenced the course of music history. Nirvana was signed when Alternative Rock was not favored by labels; Jackson was refused to be signed several times because disco music was going down. We all see the consequences. 

The A&R persons come in two different flavors – The ones who work on a record company and the independent ones.

The hired A&R persons  have the exact advantages that major label has over the independent ones (sorry, we haven’t passed that yet). They are mostly paid really well, have the opportunity to work without limits. Very often they even don’t have to listen to all new material, they just accept solicited CDs. 

But this can be frustrating too. A hired person may discover a unique band, but the president of the label, the head of A&R, or some other big player in the company may just decline the choice, despite the fact that the A&R are paid for one thing – choosing. Frequently they just don’t have the freedom to sign what they want.

Independent A&R persons are free from this burden; they can listen to whatever they want, whenever they want and as much as they want. But they don’t have the power of the record label backing them up. Let’s say, you are an indie A&R and you’ ve met a band which you’re sure will make an explosion in Japan. Or a female singer, who needs a high quality video clip to become another Lady Gaga. But without the infrastructure of the record company, the only thing indie A&R can do is to go back to the company and promote his artist.

Last but not the least – after 1990’s there is a growing tendency of more commercial and business-minded signings. The main factor to blame is that the most powerful names in modern music industry are no longer people with strong background in music, but business people. Traditionally, A&R persons came from music, being composers, producers, etc. In Today’s business, an A&R person with solid musical ability and knowledge has become a rarity. Which of course has its impact on modern music. 

This mess we're in - Music market & Record Labels

Let's start with a brief overview of world music market.

(Thanks to wiki for the diagram)

According to the IFPI more than 95% of the total revenue from music in 2003 was derived from the 30 major countries in the proportions shown above, organized roughly by geographic location. In the industry, it is commonly accepted that the leading 5 major music markets are:                             


             1. USA

                     2. Japan (Yep, that's why old school rock stars tour there, remember Spinal Tap?)
             3. UK
             4. Germany
             5. France

(Btw aren’t you a bit confused about China’s share being so small? Personally I was. I’ve done some research and it seems that mostly for politic reasons in which I’ll now not go into.)

Now about the Major record companies.

Record labels are often under the control of a corporate umbrella organization called a music group. A music group is typically owned by an international conglomerate holding company, which often has non-music divisions as well.

After years of struggle and consolidation, there are only four major distributors left and they are all owned by Major labels. These are:


      1. EMI Group
      2. Sony BMG
      3. Universal Music Group
      4. Warner Music Group 

These are the so called “big four” of the world’s music industry.  Each of them owns a bunch of “smaller” labels (though I doubt that you would think twice about signing a contract with any of them. They are considered “small” just because they are not as almighty as these big four monsters are – but some of them have a budget of a small country) for example Universal owns and distributes Island Def Jem, Geffen, EMI owns Virgin, Capitol) and even some Indie labels as you will see below.

  These four conglomerates are now ultimately powerful. In 2005-06 the “Big four” accounted for 72% of the world music market sales share and about 82% of the US market.

Here’s the diagram.  World music market shares in 2005.

  Impressive huh? And after 2005 due to the bankruptcy of many indie labels (and some got owned by majors. Welcome to the jungle punk), digital revolution and other reasons, the share of the majors has grown even more.

To continue, every self-respecting fully staffed label has several branches – Sales, marketing, A&R, promotion, international, production, media & technology and several more. In some companies/labels, each function is up to a single person or a single department, while in some of them several functions are handled by one. In majors and other well developed labels a number of departments take care of each function.

Well, despite that I myself have a passion for knowing all those things; I don’t think that a musician looking up for a record deal needs to know about all of those branches and functions in details. It’s enough to be aware of the A&R system. But I’ll discuss the A&R a bit later; let’s first finish with the labels.

So we’ve come to independent labels.

By the purest definition, an indie label is a label which is not affiliated with a major in any way, uses it’s own resources and methods and distributes its own product in stores. But they are of two different kinds.

Real independents – which are not owned by a major, use independent distributors to distribute their records and stuff.

Major – based Independents - an independent entity that has little or no staff, but signs artists and contracts with a major label (to perform all functions except recording. The main thing they are good at is the ability to find talent and then become a pain in the ass of the distributing company to make sure their product gets promoted. In total, something like a vassal state in the 12^th century.

Even the real independents despite their welsh rabbit attitude can be (and often are) financed by major labels, their owners or investors. (It’s kinda sad how everything comes to such a trivial thing as money at last isn’t it?)               

We’ll I think it’s enough with the definitions. Let’s move on.

                                                  

So you think you can tell heaven from hell? - Introduction

Well, welcome to earth. The music industry has been through a billion changes in recent 5 years. CD sales are dying. Record labels and companies are in panic, they are losing money, firing people and rearranging their marketing systems. There are only four major labels left and their hesitation rate about singing a new artist increases by each second. Even more – piracy still kicks ass (especially outside UK and USA), the digital sales still aren’t making up the loss from CD’s (or at least that’s what the record companies want us to believe in). Due to Myspace, YouTube and Facebook the number of artists who you can discover by just one click has increased approximately by 17 (!) times in 6 years period.

Perfect. Just the exact time to start promoting your music, right?

But despite all this, it’s not all that black. We’re entering the digital era which opens huge possibilities. Demand for the music on the market is at its highest point, there are several hundred new ways to deliver your music to people who would never go to a CD shop, purchasing music has become more easier than sending an email. And what’s most important, this era opened completely new possibilities for the artists to get directly to their listeners in ways ever possible before.


 Yeah, the tide is turning. And to jump on the very top of it (or at least not to be crushed by it to the bottom) some non-musical skills are needed also. Well, if you are a self-promoting musician (and if you are already well promoted, then i can't see the point of you reading the unsigned help) in modern world and you don't have the elementary knowledge of music industry & business (or a bunch of contacts, which are far more difficult to get)  most probably your chances to succeed are as much as of a blonde with a nosebleed swimming in a sea full of sharks. 

Ever notice how many musicians state that they “hate marketing”, or, “hate business”? Now that's complete and utter bullshit. I am a phlegmatic person myself, but i can't keep laughing my heart out any time I hear one more musician state that they are “an artist”, and that they don’t want to have to pay any attention to the actual business aspects of music. 

Yeah, that sounds great - i'll just sit around and wait for someone to come to the point that i am another David Bowie or Alex Turner. And That’s happens every time, doesn’t it? Retards.

The truth is, musicians have never been so much up-to-themselves, nowadays the rate of your success depends on you a lot more, than it used to. And if there is one golden rule in the unstable world of biz, it's that success comes to people who work their asses off. It's really hard for me to figure out why some musicians aren't learning the marketing skills together with musical skills. Maybe that's because most of them don't quite understand what marketing knowledge combined with musical talent can provide. Well, at another point, if everyone was aware of the advises and help that i offer here and had all the skills which i use to fulfill my goals, my work here would be finished. 

So let's rock'n'roll. I think this is enough for an introduction. 


Oh, and one more. I'll be giving every post an appropriate name of something connected to the music biz. A song, album or something. A ridiculous childish failure, i admit, but I enjoy the process really very much!