If you like music a lot, you might be dreaming of going into some area of the music industry yourself. Undoubtedly, you will have been told that this is awfully difficult and I am not trying to suggest that it is not, but perhaps most people who are trying to get into the music industry are going for the same jobs.
The list of jobs available in the music industry must include teachers, songwriters, doctors, therapists and many others, not only singers and musicians, so it pays to think laterally if you want to head in this direction, because traffic on the main highway is usually at a stand-still. Anyway, here is a list of other jobs in the music industry and I hope that it is of some help to you.
There are jobs with music and record companies for staff song-writers, that is, for people who write songs for the artists who are contracted to that label. Find a few artists that you respect working for the same label, write some songs for them and apply.
If you cannot find a single label that suits you, you could do the same job as a freelance song-writer. This way you are not hamstrung and can write for all the artists that you like.
If you are good with words but not such a hot musician, you could become a lyricist. A lyricist may or might not team up with a musician to create a song. Like Gilbert & Sullivan or Rogers & Hammerstein.
Jingle-writers are always in demand, at least decent ones are. Jingles need to be short but catchy. Writing jingles pays good money, but it will perhaps not make you famous outside the music industry.
A music publisher searches the market for freelance songs and buys up the copyright or license to distribute those songs or to sell or license them to singers and musicians.
A music editor might work with a composer or song-writer to make sure that the timing and the cues for the musicians and singers are feasible.
Notesetters have to have a good ear for music as their job is to write down in musical form what untrained musicians play for them. There are many, many modern musicians who cannot write a note of music but who can produce very good songs. These songs have to be written down by someone and that someone is a notesetter.
A talent scout in the music industry has the official title of Artist & Repertoire Co-ordinator or A&R Co-ordinator for short. A step up from this position is the A&R Administrator, who co-ordinates the co-ordinators and sets and monitors their budgets – a sort of a musical accountant.
Then there are the jobs in public relations. These people usually work for record labels. They promote the artists who have signed onto a record firm’s label. There are quite a few degrees of responsibility in this department.
An agent or an relations representative, is aperson who promotes his client and finds him or her work. They check the contracts and give business advice. They are well-|known as ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ although in practice it is usually double this unless you are famous.
Campus representatives promote records to students and promotional staffers promote wherever possible – radio channels, stores, musical directors.
Music teachers teach music to groups from pre-school through to college level. Their duties differ with the age of the student and the point of the class.
A music director has the job of supervising policy in school or college or setting the entertainment for a cruise or a holiday camp, hotel or holiday complex.
Then there are organists in churches all over the country, who frequently double in other musical careers.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a range of topics, but is currently involved with Bose new wave radios. If you would like to kcurrently more, please go to our web site at Bose Digital Radio.