WHO IS WHO IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY...AND HOW DO I KNOW WHEN I NEED THEM?
Record label, producer, manager, promoter, booking agent, distributor, publisher, DSP’s, PRO’s…..
You only need to peek behind the curtain of the music business for about 10 seconds to realize that you are walking into the most confusing mess of an infrastructure possible. Yet, you need to have an understanding of terms and titles in order to properly navigate it.
Most of the people (and people who started companies) discussed below have chosen their particular line of work because they love music. They also need to earn a living. If a manager is interested in signing you, they must see the potential for earning money. This is not a bad thing. But you should always remember this reality. You might only want to see and hear that someone thinks you are amazing and that someone believes in you. Yay! How great! Let’s celebrate! But the reality is the manager, producer, publisher, agent or whomever needs to earn money and are interested in you because they see potential earnings from you. Remembering that money is the spokes in the wheel that keep the music business turning will help keep your feet on the ground and your head out of the clouds, which will in turn help you make better decisions.
Manager - A close and trusted individual who acts on behalf of the artist. The scope of responsibilities can be widely varied. It can range from managing specific details such as events, performances, and press to negotiating contracts, deals, partnerships, etc. It can also include artistic contributions and brand awareness strategies. Some artists have more than one manager. One that manages their financial side; negotiating fees for performances or licenses or brand deals and one that books their producer and press meetings.
When should I hire one? Most music managers will only be willing to jump on board if the artist is already earning an income of some sort OR if they are passionate about the artist and believe they have the potential for success, then they are betting on the fact that they will be monetarily rewarded someday down the road. Could you find a manager who is passionate about you and only wants to help because they believe in you? Maybe but don’t sit around waiting for that to happen. It’s unlikely. Furthermore, because this is such an intimate relationship with the artist, it usually happens organically. I once heard the artist/manager relationship compared to finding your life partner. You could go out on the sidewalk and yell “Hey everyone! I’m looking for someone to marry me! Please be good looking and nice!” But will you really find that one person that will love you through thick and thin, good times and bad? A manager and artist commonly connect in other ways and the relationship builds over time.
Producer - Another title that can have a variety of meanings. Most often these days, a producer is the person who creates the music with the artist. They may be involved with the songwriting, the actual producing of the instrumentation as well as the recording process and perhaps the final mix. They may even be involved in artistic development, or perhaps the promotion of your music - or all of it! Just be aware that the term “producer” will mean different things to different people so before choosing your team of producers to work with, discuss the scope of their involvement so you know what to expect from them. There’s a chance you will need more than one person to take a song from inception, demo, pre-mix production, final mix, final master, promotion, distribution, etc. Communication and written agreements ahead of time are a good rule to follow.
When should I hire one? This fully depends on that producer’s scope of involvement. For example, you have some songs that are written but might need some help getting them to “hit song potential”. The producer you have selected to work with is great but does not write songs. The best approach is to take a snapshot of where you are right at this moment. If you need more coaching, more development, better songs, then be sure you find a producer that can help tweak and perhaps re-write the songs to reach their greatest potential. Otherwise, work with a mentor or coach to get further along in your development.
Promoter - A promoter can be someone who locates and hires talent for a specific event or venue. It can also be….YOU! There are promoters who are independent and oversee specific events all over the world or there are promoters or “talent buyers” who might work for the venue itself and will seek out talent to book for their venue.
When should I hire one? More than likely, you will be contacted by a promoter or talent buyer who is interested in booking you for an event rather than you reaching out to them. The promoter is most likely paying attention to online buzz, especially in cities where they might have an upcoming event to promote. The promoter may also find lesser known artists for potential opening act slots by researching headlining artist’s fans and what other artists or bands those fans are following.
Booking Agent - A booking agent connects performers, artists and acts with venues, event planners and companies that need entertainment.
When should I hire one? Booking shows as an original artist or band verses a cover artist or band are vastly different. A cover band can play regularly and make really good money because they are hired by venues and/or companies who are interested in entertaining their crowd who just wants to dance, party and hear songs they know and love. An original band or artist is oftentimes begging venues to book them. At the very least, they play for free but if they are lucky, they might get a percentage of the door, at least until this band or artist has built a following and has some clout. The other problem is that it largely depends on the music scene of the town you are in. As an original artist or band, you are better to book tours yourself or with a tour manager so that you are performing in towns where you have fans. This will certainly come with time so build the audience online before adding the expense of touring. Once you have an online community of fans, you can analyze the data to see where it makes sense to tour.
PRO or Performing Rights Organization - A PRO is a collection agency for songwriters and publishers of performance royalties for the underlying composition. They also act as advocates for songwriters and publishers.
When should I hire one? - The right question to ask is actually, when should I join a PRO? As soon as you have written a song that is going to be released into the world in any form, you need to sign up with a PRO. There are only 3 PRO’s in the US and they are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. SESAC is an “invite only” so I’ll just mention one thing about the other two. Most artists will ask “which is better” and the answers will vary. The truth is, they are relatively the same. You can go to their website and get a sense of who they are, what songwriters are affiliated with them and read some of their articles about what they are doing to help songwriters. Some will say that you should belong to a PRO where you can find an ally. The biggest difference I have found in my research is this; BMI does not require you to establish a Publishing Company in order to collect the publishing share of your performance royalties, ASCAP does. ASCAP charges $50 to join as a songwriter and $50 to join as a publishing entity, BMI charges $0 to affiliate as a songwriter and last I checked $150 to affiliate as a publisher.
Publisher - A Music Publisher is usually a business but can be one individual or even a partnership. Think of a publisher as a sort of broker for the songs and not necessarily for the artist.
When should I hire one? If you understand copyright and what music publishing is then you will know that whoever wrote the song is automatically the publisher on the song. It is up to the songwriter(s) whether or not to assign the publishing portion to another publishing entity. If you have strong songwriting skills, finding a publisher who believes in one or more of your songs can be a step in the right direction. But remember, they are generally only interested in the song and not the artist. If you are confused about copyright and publishing in general, register for this webinar by Songtrust that explains music publishing quite well. https://www.songtrust.com/music-publishing-sessions
Administrative Publisher - Speaking of Songtrust, there are Admin Publishers who, for a percentage of your publishing income or flat fee, focus on collecting all of your performance and mechanical publishing royalties worldwide. While PRO’s mentioned above only collect performance royalties and only in the US (though they do coordinate with other collection agencies around the world but there are no guarantees) Songtrust makes sure that all of those royalties are being collected. Tunecore Publishing and CD Baby Pro are also admin publishing companies but from the research I’ve conducted, they are mostly a headache and entangle your publishing rights enough as to scare other sync agents or publishing companies away. Be sure to consult an attorney before making those decisions. Here’s an article from Songtrust explaining what they do: https://blog.songtrust.com/top-ten-reasons-you-need-songtrust
When do I need to hire one - As soon as you have written and released an original song, it is time to focus on registering with a PRO and also an admin publishing company such as Songtrust. You also need to register with SoundExchange for collection of an entirely different type of royalty.
SoundExchange - SoundExchange collects the performance royalties earned from master recordings played on non-interactive digital platforms such as Pandora and Sirius XM Radio for record labels (or whoever owns the master recordings) and performing artists.
When should I hire them? - As soon as you release a song or songs where you own the masters and/or you are the performing artist, then you are entitled to these royalties. You will most likely need to sign up and register the songs yourself but there are labels, managers, producers and others that sometimes handle this for you. Make sure you have a clear understanding of who is doing what so that the royalties you should be earning with your music is not falling through the cracks. This is an easy one to forget about.
Harry Fox Agency - Harry Fox Agency is a mechanical licensing agent. This means that they issue licenses and collect mechanical royalties in the US on the behalf of music publishers only for the recording and reproduction of CD’s, ringtones, and downloads.
https://help.songtrust.com/knowledge/what-is-the-difference-between-a-pro-and-the-harry-fox-agency
When should I hire them? - As soon as you establish your own publishing entity and need to collect mechanical royalties or issue mechanical licenses.
Social Media Manager - Individuals and companies both are available for hire to manage social media pages. This could include tasks such as creating a content calendar, composing and scheduling posts, engaging with comments and messages.
When should I hire one? You will probably be doing this yourself at first. As soon as it begins to feel like it is taking too much of your time, you can pass this on. Search for college students or even friends or family members that might be interested in managing your socials for a competitive hourly wage. There are also small companies that do this as a paid monthly service. I’d recommend finding one that specializes in music promotion and engagement since it is a unique market.
Entertainment Lawyer - A Lawyer who specializes in Music Business to negotiate contracts, review contracts, draft agreements and at times, connect artists with labels, managers or producers.
When should I hire one? As soon as someone has sent you a contract because you are seriously considering hiring or otherwise conducting business with this person or business, you need to bring one on to your team. Yes, they are expensive but the cost that can come from signing a bad deal could be catastrophic. You don’t need to keep one on retainer in the early stages of your music career. However, to review a simple agreement can be at least a few hundred dollars. To negotiate a contract with a record label can be much more. So be prepared but think of it as protection and insurance against future damages. And for crying out loud don’t ask your uncle who is a family law attorney.
Record Label or Record Company - I’ll go into much more detail about this “who” than the others simply because there is a lot of confusion around the name Record Label. There is also a myth that “signing a record deal” means an artist has “made it.”
The confusion comes because, like nearly everything in the music industry, what we call a “record label” has changed shape dramatically over the past decade, spawning off a variety of new business models, all of which call themselves record labels yet function quite differently.
Traditional record label models are much more rare but they do still exist. This business model has a staff of A&R reps who seek out talent to “sign”. Once signed, you are now a “borrower” of funds to pay for every expenditure accrued for the artist. The label will facilitate the process of branding and marketing the artist as well as creating the albums. Often, a recording contract will have a number of albums attached to it within a certain amount of time. The artist is assigned a staff to handle all areas of their career including choosing artwork, graphics, clothing, photographers, producers, studios, songs and/or songwriters, etc. Wouldn’t that be nice to have a team to handle all of that? This luxury comes with a price. The deal the record label extends to you will most likely seek at least one or more of these points; to 1) own your masters 2) take your publishing or assign a portion of it to their subsidiary publishing company 3) require the artist pay back the money used to create and promote the album(s) and still not give the ownership of the masters back to the artist (imagine having the bank tell you after paying your huge 30 year mortgage that you still don’t own the house) 4) try to negotiate a 360 deal which means they are entitled to a percentage of all income streams created by the artist, including touring revenue, merchandise and more.
Other spin-off record label models may look like;
An Artist Development company that, for a large sum of money upfront, will help the artist with branding, creating the album, promoting the album and possibly handling some of the press or booking. They may or may not seek a portion of back end royalties as “points” or a percentage of the publishing.
An Artist Management company or agency that, for a monthly fee, will help the artist build their brand and brand awareness, manage their social media sites, create content for social media and may perhaps help or facilitate the creation of singles, EP’s or albums drawn out over a longer period of time. Again, backend royalty splits and points may be on the bargaining table.
Or a mix and match of any of these models. It is very easy to create a record label so just be cautious and aware that just because someone says they are with so & so record label, it can mean pretty much nothing when it comes to the success of your music career.
Perhaps I just painted a bleak picture. This is also grossly generalized! Not all record deals look like this. Even if the first contract you are given does look like this, your awesome entertainment lawyer will redline the heck out of it and could potentially get you a great record deal. But these are typically the main terms that need negotiating, among many others. Hopefully, this illustrates the importance of having a very good entertainment lawyer in your corner before agreeing to anything. Don’t let the phrase “record deal” blind you of the reality of the music business. Remember, the record company wants to make money.
Education is your best protection as well as a good entertainment lawyer.
A&R - Stands for “Artists and Repertoire”. As mentioned above, A&R execs are often seen as the gatekeepers and talent scouts for the record companies they work for. The title is used rather loosely these days to usually refer to someone who seeks out and develops talent. For example, I have added A&R to my own title with VoxFox Productions since I focus on developing the artists that I produce music for now.
When do I need to hire one? Don’t worry…they’ll let you know when you are ready.
Agent or Entertainment Agency - An Agency usually represents a variety of entertainers; actors, dancers, models, musicians, bands, artists, trapeze artists or jugglers. The agency receives calls or audition notices for a variety of events and will submit the entertainers on their roster that might be a right fit for that particular event. Typically, an agency has a specialized roster but a much larger roster than say a manager does. The agency receives a percentage of what they book for the artists on their roster.
When should I hire one? - If you are interested in other areas of entertainment such as modeling or acting, seek out reputable talent agencies in your area. There are large talent agencies that are known for breaking big talent in Hollywood, especially in the acting world. Get some experience working with an agent first before reaching out to those big agencies. Also, beware of the large “showcase” scams usually hosted by these large agencies. You could be scouted to participate in a showcase in front of big record label execs. There may in fact be a winner but for all the losers, you will be convinced that you need to spend thousands of dollars on modeling, acting, singing, performing, etc. classes.
PR Agent or Agency - PR stands for “public relations”. PR Firms will prepare press releases, write biographies and other copy for your website, create hype and can create content for radio promotions or other online promotions.
When should I hire one? - The need for PR comes as soon as you have an event happening. The event could be a music video release or an EP release. For the absolute best resource for doing your own PR, you have to subscribe to Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR. She has been doing digital PR for musicians and artists since digital PR was first invented! She has tons of free resources for artists so I would take full advantage of that. I watched a free webinar she did called “Creating your own PR” and it was full of valuable strategies and information. https://www.cyberprmusic.com/
Radio Promoter - This seems self explanatory but the reality is most people don’t realize how difficult AND expensive it is to get on radio. There are legitimate radio promoters out there as well as shady ones but even legit radio promotion is expensive. Promoters will usually start with a “test market” where they put the song out on a few stations in a few “markets” (aka demographic areas) to see what the response is. If the response is great then they will “spin the record” (play the song) more frequently and put you into more markets.
When should I hire one? - The first question to ask is, is your listening demographic listening and discovering music on the radio? If your music is aimed at teens and younger, there’s a good chance the answer is “no”. Where is your demographic discovering and playing music? YouTube? TikTok? Spotify? Apple Music? Once you have a large enough following, an indie label, a promoter, a manager or other will most likely approach YOU and will want to invest in promotion that is more expensive, such as radio promotion. But when you are doing this on your own and have a smaller budget, focus on finding your super fans and engaging with them. It’s better to have 1,000 super fans than 100,000 casual listeners who are never interested in hearing anything more from you.
Music Library - Music Libraries are the resource Music Supervisors go to when they need music for their movies, television shows, or series.
When should I hire one? - The term “hire” does not apply in the case of a music library. You may sign a synchronization and master use license with a music library for one or more songs. They generally sign agreements based on the “song” and it’s potential for sync placements. You may have 20 amazing songs but maybe only one of them is something that may be called “syncable”. All this means is it’s the type of song that has the right feel and vibe for a movie or TV show and lyrically doesn’t have anything too specific in it that makes it difficult to use in a variety of scenes. Connecting with libraries is about establishing relationships. For more information about writing “syncable songs”, check out Robing Frederick’s book “Shortcuts to Songwriting for Film & TV: 114 Tips for Writing, Recording, & Pitching in Today’s Hottest Market”. https://g.co/kgs/Q1hvcs
Distribution Company - Distribution companies deliver your music to all of the streaming platforms and digital download stores. Unless you are a record label, you need these guys to do it. There are quite a few to choose from, all with unique sets of “pros and cons”. For a great comparison of the different distributors, check out Ari’s Take blog https://aristake.com/digital-distribution-comparison
When should I hire one? - As soon as you have a song, an EP or an album to release, you will need to choose a distribution company. You can switch from one to another but it’s a pain so best to choose carefully.
Other titles may come across your radar as the industry continues to change. The most important advice I have for you is to not let titles and fancy business names throw you. Do some research, ask questions, and never sign a contract without having your entertainment lawyer review it ;-)
**A note about contacting and corresponding with people in the industry; It can depend on who exactly you are communicating with but general rules of thumb for cold emails are these;
Do not attach mp3’s (link to streaming like soundcloud or disco is fine
Do not send more than one follow up email. If you haven’t heard anything back after the second email, you can assume they are not interested at all or they have just not had a chance to get back with you but absolutely will if they are interested in discussing anything.
Be very brief and professional. No more than just a few sentences with all of your contact information in the email signature
Do not send mass emails or group emails.
Do not say “hey” as the salutation.
If they do get back to you and ask for more information, ask you to attach an mp3 or whatever, continue the conversation professionally and promptly.
