The Sound and Music Industry

There are four main areas in the music industry; live performance, record companies, music publishing company and artist management. These all are very important aspects and play a very major role in the Sound and Music Industry.

Artist management involves the following roles business management, sponsorship, tour management, artists’ and managers’ rights, merchandising, production management and technical management. Artist management is the core organisation for the artist who they are managing for. It is very important to have since they are the reason the events are organised and the tours go ahead.

Artist management, as known as the ‘band managers’ are the reason the band is promoted and people know about it. They help the band ‘get out’ there and help them create their fan base. They arrange the gigs and maintain the schedule. This allows the band to focus on the creative side of things while the manager handles the paper work. 

Live performance involves the following roles: setting up and promoting live performances, health and safety, tour management, event management, retailing, backstage, front of house and performing rights. This involves in having the contract set up for the managers and artists, so they have an idea of what roles are expected from both the parties.

When the live performance is being arranged risk assessments should be done to ensure health and safety. And the following things should be taken into consideration:  how the artist is being paid, the price of the tickets, the name of the artist and venue, the date, place, time of performance, the type of billing the artist gets, the order of appearance and food and refreshments.

Record companies involve the following jobs; major and independents, finding and signing artists, recording studios, retail, distribution and internet sales. Record labels are important as they are in charge of the copyright issues. They need to be there to make sure that the production of the music is protected and not stolen by others; to protect the sound and music videos. They also scout for talent develop new artists, who they take under their company and help promote. They are the core of the artist and maintain the contracts made with the manager of the artists, the artists and themselves. The record labels enforce the rules and term and regulations. 

Music publishing companies involve the following jobs; finding songwriters/composers and A&R promotion. This is an important role as some artists do not compose their own songs, and for big record companies where there are many artists, composers and songwriters are needed. They are the core reason music can be made in the first place to be manufactured and distributed out there.

The music publisher is responsible for the payments to these songwriters and composers. They maintain the contracts made to them, which are referred to as the ‘publishing’ contracts. When the song writer assigns the copyright of a composition to a company, in return the company licenses that piece of composition and distributes royalties collected to the composers. They are another form of promoting the music to get it ‘out there’ on things like TV, radio and films. They create contracts to give permission for the artists and the compositions made to perform at many venues.

Artist management is quite similar to music publishing companies and record companies as they do some form of promoting to expand the artists audience. They work together towards distribution and manufacturing. They also help promote via TV, radio and physical displays. Record companies, music publishing companies and live performance are similar as they work on contracts and copyright issues. They focus more on the humans rights act and try to maintain a healthy relationship between the artists, managers, songwriters and composers. They all collaborate together to achieve a specific environment in the sound and music industry.

These separate roles do many different things to achieve similar outcomes in the end. There are a lot of contracts, terms and conditions, rules and regulations set to make sure that everyone gets paid for what they are doing and how they are contributing towards the company. All these jobs play an essential part in the sound and music company, and if any of these were not doing what they are meant to then that would affect the whole production and leave a big dent in the whole process.

Afsheen Butt