The Music Industry

By George and Kamal

Record Labels• The method that most artists take in order to try and make it in the music

industry is mainly by trying their hardest in order to try and get noticed by a record label. But because this is so widely known as the route to success in this sort of business, the artist(s) would have to try their hardest in order to stand out even more within the record label as only about 1 in 2000 people that are taken on by a record label actually sign for them and make a success. In terms of making the music video for the song that the artist would’ve produced, a record label would help out with this as it would act as the main money source in order to make it as good as possible. They also use their money to do things like help develop the songs, pay for studio times, etc.

• Furthermore the record label will also sort out documentations and contracts with the artists that would determine royalty splits and what percentage of money the artist would make.

Money• The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) is an organisation that pays

out royalty shares on the copies of the songs. This means that the more tracks that you as an artist sell, the greater the amount of royalty shares you would receive. This also means that if the song ends up on things like compilation CDs, or used anywhere externally, it means that the artist will get paid as well. For example, if one of the artist’s songs is used in a compilation CD alongside 19 other songs this means that the artist would receive 5% of the MCPS’ money generated through sales.

Publishing• Publishing links in with money a slight bit. Publishing income can be gained from

a wide number of sources. Recently publishing money is now earned whenever a song is played on a certain medium, for example on the TV or on the radio or maybe a film. Even if the song is performed or covered by another artist or performed live, or even played in a shop publishing money is earned. Basically whenever the song is played in the public you’ll get paid. This system works thanks to collection agencies like PRS in the UK. This company monitors any airings and would collect and distribute money accordingly. In theory, whenever your track is aired in public you'll get paid. This system works thanks to collection agencies such as PRS in the UK or ASCAP in the US, which monitor such airings and collect and distribute the money accordingly.

Consumption of the music in other mediums (TVs, Movies, etc.)

• One of the major ways that link to growth in music publishing, and also quite an important revenue booster for independent artists that are releasing their own songs and material, is by having the tracks synced to things like Movies, TV shows, video games, etc. This is very advantageous because of the fact that you, as the artist, would get paid for the inclusion of the song. Not to mention the fact that the song’s awareness would go a lot higher thus increasing the popularity of the song and also the popularity of the artist. This is all because of the fact that the song would reach a much bigger audience and if this new massive audience likes the song then they would be persuaded to listen to other songs of the album. Of course, this isn’t an easy process but there are specialist companies that act on the artist’s behalf and try to push the artist’s songs further in this particular direction so that the artist can carry on with making more music whilst having their current music being pushed towards big companies that will pay out big for it.

• Another major way that an artist can get their work noticed and increased in popularity is by making the tracks available Music Library Company. Such a company would a percentage of the earnings as the payment. This is good because of the fact that it means that no money has to paid upfront and it also means that they don’t get paid unless the music is being listened to, so they will try and push it as much as they can to their customers.

Distribution• Distributing is where the distributor for an artist would be responsible for

shipping out the music (in the form of a CD for example) from a warehouse to a shop. This is a key weapon that lots of bigger artists have in their arsenal as, for example, if an artist like Tinie Tempah wanted his album to be in every single high street retailer, then his distribution team would make sure that this task is fulfilled. This is because of the fact that Tinie Tempah is a big artist and could easily afford to put his album everywhere. This means that someone that isn’t big and is possibly starting out would need to get a very good deal with a distribution company/team in order for their song to be able to get noticed and be placed in big shops and retailers.

• As technology has improved, it’s no new news that physical music is being overtaken by the likes of digital music. This makes distribution a lot easier, especially for smaller artists. Digital distribution is a lot easier and more highly available and would need to be everywhere that the fan base would expect to find it, like iTunes, Amazon, etc. Additionally uploading the video on websites like YouTube would help as it means more people are likely to hear the music and if they like what they hear can easily find more music and could possibly lead to the purchase of the music in a physical copy (CD).