The Music Industry

Starting a career in the music industry is a difficult task. There are many important steps that you need to take along the way, and the path is often long and confusing. The people that you meet along the way will guide you along this path, and hopefully help you become a music industry success story. The goal is to not let your message get jumbled and distorted beyond your control and lead you to disaster.

With the dawn of technology, anyone can become the “next big thing” by producing music on a computer. Let’s use Rebecca Black as an example. For starters, Ark Productions was paid by Black’s parents to create the video to her single “Friday”. The storyline to the song is about a thirteen year old girl (Rebecca), who gets into a car driven by another young teenager and sings about how she is going to party. It’s ridiculous to watch and listen to, but it spread quickly after it was posted on YouTube. Although the song was bad, that didn’t stop people from seeing it for themselves without realizing that they were giving the video millions of views, and Rebecca Black

I propose that all unsigned rising artist should target the business side of the music industry to be successful in the entertainment business because it allows the artist to be taken seriously and make solid connections that can further his/her career. Learning the works of the music industry also enables a new artist to be further successful and profitable. Recent studies show that most new artists without professional representation and a business mindset have a slimmer chance in getting signed to major or independent labels (Lowry, 2011). Overall, the specific change needed is that unsigned artists should be concentrating on their careers as professionals and not amateurs, thus focusing on the ins and outs of the music business and

Many people have dreams of being a part of the music industry and becoming successful musicians, but do not seem to do the research necessary to make the dream come true. The music industry is a branch of the entertainment industry and is where music, whether it is recordings or performances, is distributed and sold to the public. One of the problems is that people do not realize the risks that come with being a part of the music industry and being a musician. There are many factors that come into play when deciding to pursue a career in the music industry. Factors would include having noteworthy knowledge of music, originality, publicity, and business entitlement.

Throughout history, there have been coalitions that have assisted in the creation of the legal regimes that have attempted to regulate sex, drugs and rock and roll. The regulation of drugs in this country is said by many to have begun in the year of 1971 when the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon, formally declared a war on drugs. However, the Harrison Narcotics Act was one of the first federal laws approved to regulate the use a number of drugs that were once available to purchase locally such as heroin and cocaine. Following the end of prohibition, the US Treasury department appointed Harry Anslinger as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He sought out to imprison the users and addicts of the drugs

By selling out their music to large corporations, artists are given multiple ways to get their music heard and help offset certain costs that come with touring. Nowadays, artists are having trouble making money due to streaming, and touring and selling merchandise is not exactly helping (Carter). Corporations paying for particular costs can truly help growing artists and bands. They can earn up to $150,000 through using their songs in advertising (Coates). Earning this kind of money genuinely helps considering that periodically, musicians could lose money rather than produce it. Bands and solo artists, both need the money to continue to thrive in the music business, and applying their music in advertisements can help.

These jobs are simply producing music for whoever will pay you for it. Most current producers were or are musicians or vocalists themselves, and that is how they started out. Once one begins to gain experience and acquiring connections then he or she can commence moving into higher employment positions and working with a larger and more experienced group of artists, therefore rendering a larger paycheck. Recording studio engineer and recording industry executive are two goal positions that every upcoming producer wants to reach. These jobs pay generously and can be looked at as target points of success. This career path is not definite or guaranteed, but it is a good idea of what one should expect if he or she is aspiring to be a producer.

I feel like the music industry today is a far cry from the music industry of old. I feel like only within the last couple years, where being a songwriter has come back to being more popular, has the music industry, as a whole, taken a turn for the better. It has become more about the music for some artists and less about the money they could potentially earn. I feel like the genre of music that has the most amount of artist not making their own music is the pop genre. Sometimes, I hear songs sung by some of these boys and girls about love and relationships and I wonder if they’ve ever truly experienced what they’re singing about. Or, if the song was handed to them by one of the label executives and told “That will be a hit!” I feel like most

a lot of the business is not how good you are, it's who you know and who owes favors to you. This can be a plus if you know a lot of people in the industry. Most people at various companies know each other so it also makes it harder for people to get into the business. All the good jobs are never advertised. You have to know the person that has a spot to fill. Music publishers are usually good friends with label people so artists don't get to pick their own songs, the executives are telling them what to sing. For instance, Michelle Branch just did a concert and said she hated the song 'Breathe' and the label made her record it and released it as a single.

Music and concerts are an everyday occurrence for people. Changes through the generations of the music industry has become more complicated and confusing. To defy these issues certain organizations were created to help songwriters, composers, and music publishers. Well known organizations such as Broadcast Music Inc. and The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers help people in these positions with legality and protection of their music publicly.

You don’t need a lot of talent or good music to make it big in today’s recording industry but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy for everyone, regardless of your talent to be successful. Nowadays you don’t need a million dollar studio to produce your own music and because of websites like Sound cloud and Facebook you don’t need studios to promote your music. There are a lot of artist who have found success using these resources that it has created this false sense that being successful in the industry is a reachable goal for anyone who thinks their music is good.

“I might want to be a music producer”. Producers make their business and financial decisions for a motion picture, tv show, commercial or a stage production. Being a producer means having to select the scripts, pull out topics for a film, approve the designs, and ensure that it stays on schedule. Things about producing music producers is you have to know what you want to achieve from producing music. We also have to understand the difference between music producer, composer, and arranger.

Music industry lawyers are the legal representation that resolves conflict in many realms of the music industry. As consultants for the music industry, music industry lawyers advocate for the rights of musicians and record labels. This legal representation is generally called to convey legal advice to support musicians and record labels. Merchandising and touring are also areas that music industry lawyers specialize in. These professionals are often contacted to negotiate contracts between record labels and musicians; thus resulting in the need for strong communication skills.

No one can deny that technology is actively changing the music industry. Production, distribution and sales of music have been affected dramatically within the last 10 years along with artists, composers, and technicians. Most of the changes have been great for consumers, but vastly negative for professionals in the music industry, however a few artists have found ways to adapt to the changing atmosphere of digitally downloaded music and use it to their advantage. We’ve seen music change form from physical, tangible products like records and CD’s to electronic single tracks stored in an invisible cloud. Two major factors in this sudden revolution are online music stores (specifically iTunes) and file sharing websites that allow music to be downloaded illegally.

What value does Hit Song Science create? If you were Mike McCready, CEO of Polyphonic, which target market – unsigned artists, producers, or record companies would you pursue?