Unit 39: Sequencing & Music Industry - Job Roles in Record Labels

Unit 39 - Sound & Music Industry

Task 2 - Job Roles in Record Labels

Record labels are organisations that sign artists, record their material and then promote and distribute it, aiming to gain a substancial fan base for the group, making money for the label and the artist. There are many job roles and departments inside a record label which each contribute to the labels success and profit making. These can contrast massively between a large label and a minor independent one, as in a "Big 3" label like Sony BMG there maybe a team of 10 people working on marketing an album, whereas in a small label one person maybe doing this and other jobs as well, so there can be a vast difference. Here are the different job roles in the record label, how they're important and whether they're done by an employed by the label or freelance.

Artist & Repertoire: The role of an A&R representative is to listen to demos of unsigned artists and go to see live performances of those artists to decide whether they think that artist should be signed to the record label, essentially like a talent scout. Although their decision isn't final, the label will be heavily influenced by the A&R representatives opinion on an act when deciding whether or not to sign them. If they decide that an artist is worth signing, they will unofficially take on a mentoring roll, which means they may offer bands advice in the recording studio, be available for the band to talk to when negotiating any contracts and just to generally help them out. This is a very important roll in the record label, as new acts are responsible for lots of the money the label would make, and eventually the existing acts signed to the label may go out of fashion and lose popularity, so these new acts are crucial to the labels revenue. An A&R representative is an employee of the label as they have to commit to making one label successful by finding acts for them to sign, as after all if the label makes lots of money from the acts the A&R representative discovered, they will make considerably more money for themselves. As it is a responsibility of the A&R representative to go and watch a band live, they would have to work in the evenings when gigs are being played, and in the days they'd have to travel to meet with bands and company bosses, so the hours maybe demanding, but the finding of musical talent and sense of achievement would make this easier.

Distributors: A distribution company can be an independent company that work with smaller recording organisations and get paid one off fees to distribute physical media both domestically and overseas, or a department of a large record label that can afford its own distribution team, and avoid any additional fees incured using independent distributors. The distributors are simply responsible for shipping CDs, LPs and Cassettes to stores around the world to be sold to consumers. They are a crucial part of the industry as a whole, as without distribution there would be no way for fans to buy music, so they would revert to illegal downloads which would stem the flow of cash to the labels and artists.

Marketing: The marketing team is a group of people employed by the record label to promote the latest releases and tours of the artists on that label. Advertisement is often the most useful form of publicity and can be done on many platforms, like the internet, television, radio, music magazines, mail outs, bill boards and posters. Good promotion often correlates with good sales, so the work of the marketing team is very valuable to the label, but advertisement has to be used wisely. For example, spending vast amounts of money creating and airing an extravigant television advert may not be as affective as a free mail out to fans informing them of the same thing. So often smart publicity is what makes the money for the label. The marketing department works with art and design departments to make visual art to coincide with promotion, and it also works with the CEO of the label, to talk about how much money to spend on a marketing campaign and what mediums to use to promote. Often marketing teams will have to work relentlessly for the duration of an advertising campaign and will have lulls of activity between these campaigns, unless there are many artists on the label promoting things throughout the year, in that case the marketing and promotion people will be busy all year round.

Art & Graphic Design: These are responsible for all visual apsects of music, from album artwork and tour posters to music video animation and website design. Things like album art can have a big effect on the success of an album, for example a controvercial album cover like Roxy Music's Country Life LP featuring semi naked models can result in the album being rejected by certain retailers and therefore selling poorly, but also the simplest album covers like The Beatles 1968 White Album can sell in great numbers despite being nothing more than white. So it often takes a creative mind to create a good album cover, which is why acts often choose freelance artists with their own good reputation to design their album cover. A good example of this is The Velvet Underground's self titled debut LP, which is an Andy Warhol print of a banana. Andy Warhol's iconic art helped the success of this album massively, whereas another cover may not have worked so well. Like advertising, art can be cheap or very expensive as there aren't any rules on how the album covers and music videos should be, so it's a decision that would be made by the CEO of the label on how much they're willing to spend on art surrounding an album or tour.

CEO/Manager: The CEO or Chief Executive Officer is the person responsible for everything the record label does, so he or she is essentially the boss. They will be in constant communication with all the departments of the label, overseeing all things from the recordings that will be released to the art and promotion surrounding them, and making final decisions on what will be used in album campaigns, and how much funding artists will be given for projects. This is a position with great responsibility, so they will be held liable for any problems relating to the work done by the record label. For example, if the CEO allowed an album to be released with controversial artwork that recieved complaints, he or she would have to take action to rectify the problem, by re-issuing the album with different artwork and issuing a formal complaint. This job is very important, as without a CEO there would be conflict inside the label and poor organisation would lose money for the label. The CEO would work a usual working day 6 or 7 days a week, and would be payed well as he or she is essentially at the top of the ladder in terms of importance to the record organisation.

Producers: How an album should be produced is open to interpretation, and many people have conflicting opinions on what a band should sound like, so a key element to producing an album is having a vision of a final outcome. This is why bands often choose their own producers to work as freelance producers, as they may be friends of the artist and they may share opinions of the artist and know how to get the best from an artists songs. as they're freelance they can command whatever wage they feel they deserve, so they would negotiate this with the CEO of the label. A key trait of a producer is to be diverse, so they can work in many genres and understand how to accomplish a sound like the one the artist specifies they want, or if an artist has no idea, to mould their songs into a sound they think suits the structure and content of the songs. Critically acclaimed producer Rick Rubin has produced albums for the likes of Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jay Z and Lana Del Rey showing his versatility to work in many genres. Often a producer will stay in the studio way after an artist has finished their recording to piece together and mold the sound of the recordings  with any engineers or even sometimes tape techs present (assuming the album is being recorded in analogue with the use of tape machines). Having a producer with a vision is very important to the quality of and continuity of an album, as without these things an album will recieve poor reviews, which may result in poor sales.

Engineers: Engineers work closely with producers in the studio, so they have an understanding of the producers vision that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. What the engineer brings to the recording process is knowledge of how to record instruments and vocals to achieve the best most accurate reproduction of that sound. They will make sure microphones are positoned correctly, that the room properties are correct and that effects they may be adding aren't overpowering in the mix, and causing problem for the people mixing the master tape. Problems they may encounter could be to do with the properties of the recording studio, but this isn't always related to the record label, because although many labels own their own studios, the artist may choose to record at Abbey Road studios as they feel that the vibe of such a prestigious studio will inspire their performance and shape their sound. An engineer will work similar hours to a producer, but they will usually employed by the label, as using the same engineer or team of engineers on all the labels recordings will ensure a consistant quality across the labels whole catalogue of recordings. The artist can however insist on using a freelance engineer if they feel it will benefit their album.

Business/Legal Affairs: These two departments can be put into the same category as they both go on behind the scenes, but are crucial to the label as they control the artists contracts, their employees contracts and the income and outgoings of the label as a business organisation. A poor legal department can mean songs and compositions mabye stolen from artists when there's no sufficiant evidence to prove that its theirs. An example of the legal side of the music industry is George Harrisons 1970 single My Sweet Lord. Producer Phil Spector took Harrison to court claiming that Harrison had stolen the structure and melodic phrasing of The Chiffons 1963 song He's So Fine, which he coincidentally also produced. It was decided that Harrison has Subliminally copied sections of the song. The defendent and oppoistion would have had legal backing from the legal departments of their record labels, as if either lost the case they may suffer fines and drops in sales that would reduce the profits of the record label. Other things that the business side of the label are responsible for are paying wages, paying corporation tax and genreally ensuring the label stays afloat financially. This is a massive responsibility as most creative employees cannot manage finances of the company. These are always a department of employees as apposed to freelance, but they can vary in size in different organisations, for example Warner Music Group will have a giant legal department with no loop holes at all meaning they're bulletproof to plagerism and can win any court case, whereas a small label may employ one accountant and one lawyer who can help the label tremendously, but couldn't stand up to any large recording organisations.

Contract of Freelance: As I've mentioned when writing about certain job roles, some people in the music industry work under contract and some as freelance workers.  Usually only people with a strong reputation in the music industry can work as a freelance producer or engineer, as without having good relationships with artists and managers in the music industry and without having a creditable back catalogue of work you cannot get work in the industry. Until this stage many people will be under a contract with their record label. For an artist, their contract will be to produce a certain amount of work over a specified time scale, for example three albums in five years and to do neccessary public appearances and TV ect. to promote their work so it sells well. A band that have been in the business for a while and have a bigger following will probably have a more flexible contract and be allowed to experiment more in the studio and indulge while recording, whereas a new small band will not have this freedom.
For the likes of engineers and producers their contribution to the record process may lead a record company to employ them to work on all albums they release on their label as they may feel they want them to shape all the recordings to give their labels work consistancy. They therefore would have a contract with the record label that would dictate how many releases they would work on across a certain amount of time, and they'd have other contractual obligations like market research and studying the band to understand what sound the band and the fans of the band want, to have a positive influence on the recordings and hopefully get commercial success.

Recording contracts for artists will differ drastically between major and independent labels, and often the larger contracts presented by major labels will be riddled with legal clauses and disguised with business jargon, which may lead to an artist signing away more rights to their work than they intended, or entering into a contract that asks far more of them than they are capable of creating. Musicians such as Prince, Neil Young and The Beatles have all faced dilemma's with their recording companies, and found themselves not even owning their music and making nearly as much money as they ought to be doing due to their naivety in signing a contract, or differences between themselves and label bosses who don't like the creative output (most notably in the case of Neil Young being accused by his 80s label Geffen of writing "unrepresentative" albums, or albums not like Neil Young, and is the only artist in history to have been accused of this in a law suit). There are also accusations that the very nature of a recording contract is to exploit an artist for the gain of the label, which is slightly ironic as you'd think that the artist would be more likely to write good music and be successful if they didn't feel they were being exploited. However, when labels are just starting out bands maybe offered very lucrative offers as the label is just looking to get going with a band they really like, in which case the artist may get a very nice deal. 

Contracts for engineers, producers and administrative workers however would be far more professional and like many other regular jobs, as the label doesn't need to exploit people in these positions, simply to have them do a role, and produce work as according to their job description. A record producer or engineer wouldn't be subjected to accusations like Neil Young faced, as they simply facilitate an artists creative ideas, which will have been verified by an A&R rep or label head , giving them the green light to pursue a creative direction, so their contract would simply involve how many projects they expected to work on over a period of time, and what their job would require, for example a producer may be required to produce 5 studio albums in a year long contract, and their job description may involve creative direction in the studio, some occasional playing and also extensions of their role like gaining knowledge in a genre of music to further advance their ability to create a specific sound in the studio on the recording. In summary the artists contracts would be the most complex, and legally binding as they are the key to the labels profits, but the back room staff, and studio workers would have a far more conventional contract. They would most likely be paid a standard wage, and may get commission on projects more successful than expected, but this would all be decided by the label in their contract.