Music Business
Getting heard, and then getting paid attention: promoting a release without spamming anyone, a website worth visiting, landing college gigs, and what your audience is really telling you.
23 articles
Career Options in Music
The many ways to make a living in music - producing, engineering, mixing and mastering, songwriting, composing for media, sound design, performing, A&R, management, live sound, education and more - and how most careers combine several.
Read →The Business of Record Production
How producers get paid - fees and advances, producer points and royalties, recoupment, letters of direction, neighbouring rights, songwriting credit, producer agreements and managers - and how to protect your work.
Read →The Music Industry: The Past, the Future and Now
How the music business got here - sheet music, recording, radio, formats, piracy, downloads and streaming - where it stands now, and the forces shaping its future: short-form video, AI, ownership and direct-to-fan.
Read →Artist Recording Contracts
How record deals work - traditional deals, licence and distribution deals, 360 deals; advances, recoupment and royalty rates; term, options and albums; ownership and rights; and the clauses to understand before signing.
Read →Publishing Deals
The main kinds of publishing contract - single-song, exclusive songwriter, co-publishing, administration and full publishing deals - with how advances, recoupment, term, retention and reversion work, and what to look for before signing.
Read →The DIY Artist
Building a career without a label - owning your masters, releasing through distributors, direct-to-fan income, building an audience, assembling a team, budgeting, and knowing when a partner is worth it.
Read →Music in TV, Film, Games and Online Video
Sync for screen - how music is licensed and commissioned for television, film, games and online video, music supervisors, production music libraries, cue sheets and royalties, and YouTube Content ID.
Read →Music Publishing: How Songs Earn
What music publishers do, the writer's share and publisher's share, performance, mechanical, sync and print income, PROs and mechanical societies, publishing administration, and self-publishing.
Read →Record Labels and How They Are Structured
Major labels and independents, label groups and imprints, the departments inside a label - A&R, marketing, promotion, digital, sync, business affairs, finance - and how labels make and spend money.
Read →Music Copyright
What copyright is and how it protects music - what can and cannot be protected, how long it lasts, who owns it, songs versus recordings, co-writing, registration and evidence, infringement, and fair use.
Read →Black Music and the Making of the Modern Music Industry
The foundational role of Black musicians in popular music - from blues, jazz and gospel to rock and roll, soul, funk, disco, hip-hop, house and techno - and the business history of credit, contracts and ownership that every music professional should know.
Read →Music in Advertising
How music gets into adverts - syncing existing songs versus commissioned music and jingles, agencies and music supervisors, how fees and buyouts work, briefs, and how producers break into advertising.
Read →Concert Production and Live Music
How live shows happen - promoters, booking agents, managers and venues, deal types, riders, stage plots and input lists, production roles, tour budgets, and making live performance pay.
Read →Professional Songwriting
Writing songs as a career - how the songwriting industry works, publishers and A&R, writing camps and sessions, pitching, holds and cuts, splits etiquette, demos, and writing for sync.
Read →Music and Radio
How radio works for artists and producers - playlists, pluggers and programme directors, specialist and community radio, what radio pays and to whom, and radio's place alongside streaming.
Read →Music Licensing
The licences that make the music business run - performance, mechanical, sync, master use, print, sampling and blanket licences - who grants each one, who collects, and how money flows back to writers, artists and producers.
Read →Record Label Marketing and Distribution
How records reach listeners - distribution for labels and independent artists, release planning and timelines, playlist pitching, social and short-form video, press and radio, paid campaigns, and measuring what works.
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Things Artists Should Know About Their Fans
Things Artists Should Know About Their Fans It’s vital to know all that you can about your fans so you can properly reach and engage with them. Therefore, it’s vital to have some form of business intelligence to keep track of them. That might seem like a big fancy word, but it’s really not. It’s jus
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How to Get More College Gigs
Colleges are an often overlooked, but they have a very profitable and rewarding fanbase that an artist can tap into. However, many artists write college venues off, because they think colleges just want cover artists or pop DJs. However, they might also think they won’t do well with the college crow
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How To Market but NOT Spam Your Work
Spamming your work just isn’t the way to go. One thing that you want to achieve in promoting your music is having self-confidence. By being calm and in control, you are going to by default appear professional and have more as yourself.
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How to Promote Your Music Video
How to Promote Your Music Video A visual is essential to your brand. This could be a 30-second Instagram video, or a full-out feature music video. Just because music TV may not play videos just doesn’t mean you should! Social media and fans have pretty much conclusively said that a video, in some fo
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Artist Website Tips
Artist Website Tips Your website is incredibly important, even in the age of social media, having a website is essential. While an EPK or social media will get people to know about you, the website is almost the long-form version. It’s where you can go into detail about your career, as well as sell
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How to Get Your Tracks Noticed
Getting your tracks noticed by prominent DJs and record labels is one of the hardest things to do for any aspiring producer. With so much musical competition around these days, times are tough even for the most talented of producers. Sometimes success can be down to complete luck, other times it can
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