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Careers in the Music Business: Doomed or Dazzling?
With double-digit declines in album sales and darkening clouds on the fiscal horizon, the music business might seem a bad place to start a career. Yet a recent poll in the UK revealed that one-fifth of Brits would swap their jobs for one in the music industry. In another Soundcheck Smackdown, we debate the wisdom of planning a career in the recording industry. Joining us in studio are Dan Kennedy, author of the memoir Rock On: An Office Power Ballad, and Jason King, artistic director of NYU's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music.
Tell us: Do you work in the music business? Is the future dazzling or doomed? What advice would you offer young people entering the business?
Soundcheck blog: John Schaefer on careers in the music business
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What do you say when a record exec knocks on your door?
Nothing - You give him the money, and take the pizza.
the music business is only for those people who can't stay out of it. personally, every time i think i'm out they keep PULLIN' ME BACK IN!
The Ultimate Paradigm- ZAPPA ZAPPA ZAPPA
so your "entrepanurial model" is to put your music on myspace and hope that some suit finds it? please. it would be nice if life was that easy.
i worked on a cruiseship as a drummer which pays well, and guess what i played? phil collins! the demographic as mentioned is key. indie music is a youth culture, and success in the music industry takes years--you do the math.
i've taken an office job and am much happier.
I left my job as the Executive Director of Marketing at BMG/Bertelsmann for a new life of music on the artist side 5+ years ago. My band America's Sweetheart, made a record, bought a van and started growing our markets. This week we're featured on Sonicbids as one of he Spotlight bands of the week and we going on a paid & heavily sponsored tour in OCT.
Follow your dream - it's not easy but so worth it!
I work in the accounting department of an insurance company and would much rather work in the accounting department of a record label. At least it's an industry that I am interested in.
Most of the people working in the music business are doing jobs that are very similar to jobs in other industries. Let's say you're an accountant. You could be an accountant that works in the back office of Staples or you could be an accountant at Sony/BMG. Which sounds cooler?
My son is a sound design major at Savannah College of art & design. As a part of the program they do interships at music companies during the summer. His take on at the end of the summer was that working 9-5 in that environment was the last thing he wants to do with his life.
why do i want a record deal? i don't necessarily want atlantic, i just want to eat something other than ramen!
Nice hearing Welcome to the Machine. It is interesting how wildly popular AND wildly experimental Pink Floyd were at the same time. From Dark Side through the Wall, they must have made the record execs a little upset - at least until the results came in.
Question: If success in the music industry means that you're financially stable in making your art, at what point can you expect to get things like health insurance and a 401K? Do medium-sized labels offer this with a record deal?
I graduated from the Music Business program from NYU in 2001, NOT the clive davis program, but rather the program that preceded the Clive Davis program, in the school of education. I currently work in a mechanical licensing job for a major label. I've also played music professionally in late night show bands and various outlets.
I am sitting in a cubicle wondering if I will still have a job in a few months.
I don't think the high priced education I received was worth it. Salaries are not high and the future is uncertain. Not easy to plan a life under these conditions.
Agreed with the poster above. When we’re looking at Ingrid Michaelson (spelling?) being plucked form MySpace obscurity, it sounds to me like it’s still playing into that old music industry notion of a few, few lucky lottery-winner-take-all of success in the music industry.
The amazing part of the democratization effect of the internet on the music industry is that it makes it possible for far more folks like me to ‘make a living’ rather setting the bar at ‘making it rich’.
Having & running a band now is more like owning your own hardware store or something. Not glamorous but very satisfying and seemingly possible at that level for the first time.
That’s for musicians in the music industry though. Where it leaves folks looking to get into solely the business end stumps me…
charles
the wrens
I worked as an assistant in the music industry for about 2 1/2 years, and I can say that there are far more artists who don't make it than do. I now have a day job at an enormous law firm. The hours are better, the work is much less stressful, and I never get yelled at. While working the Biz is widely regarded as "cool", it's not. There are dearths of professionalism and trust, and anyone who doesn't realize that is probably getting ripped off. The Biz sucks. I prefer what I'm doing now, even though some days all I have to listen to is the air coming through vents.
I've worked in both radio and records for nearly two decades (still do), and while I think that now is one of the most exciting times for music, the "biz" part is over. Those who will succeed are seat-of-the-pants entrepreneurial types, but let me ask: for every Jay-Z or Rick Rubin or Bill Gates (pick your favorite self-made entrepreneurial mogul), how many others toiled for years and years, with little to show?
My advice to those looking to get into the "biz:" If you are looking to work for fun (ie: no pay), great....your skills will be put to use. I often tell students who want to work in the music business to hone their Microsoft Office skills (yes, you're gonna need Excel and PowerPoint), study accounting and copyright law. If you know the boring stuff, you have a better shot of succeeding in the biz...albeit it ain't anywhere near as sexy as A&R.
If you're one of the many unwashed who need to eat, pay bills, etc., get a real day job and manage a band. Freelance at a record company during your off hours. Put together a local music fest at your favorite watering hole. Do publicity for a club. Start your own label. Whatever. And keep that day job until you've entrepreneurially dug your way up sufficiently so that you might actually have a bit of side income as well. Then you'll be stylin' it on your own.
Oh - and yes, I'm still "in the biz" working out of my home, where I get to listen to WNYC every day. Can't beat that!
I think there is a lot of potential in the music business if you have the right tools and adapt to this new environment. LiveNation gets the new business model, others do not. The small guy has a much more even playing field. That is what I learned online at
continuing-ed.calpoly.edu/music.html
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