If you have a question that does not appear here – please let us know and we will do our best to get an answer for you, and include it in this list. Thank you!

What is the “Music Biz”?
Should I be seriously considering getting into the Music Biz?
How do I become a ‘successful’ Artist?
What other jobs are there?
What does a Manager do?
What is an Agent?
What is an “A&R” person?
What does a Publisher do?
What is a “Demo”?
What is a Record Company?
What about working in Studios?
What is Copyright?
What is a Mechanical Copyright?
What is the Performing Rights Society (PRS)?
Why is there no live music in my local pub?
Why is it that everybody mimes to the record on TV?
Does ‘downloading’ music really have any effect?

What is the “Music Biz”?
The Music Biz is used to describe the organisations that work together to help develop, record, broadcast and sell music to the customer … YOU! It is made up of Managers, Producers, Artists, Record Companies, Recording Studios, Publishers, Agents, Promoters, Broadcasters, Presenters, Music Shops and digital content providers (legal download sites).
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Should I be seriously considering getting into the Music Biz?
The first question you need to ask yourself is ‘what am I capable of doing’? Are you a creative or a technical person? Good with people – understand marketing, contract law, a great organiser? What are you good at and enjoy doing? Are you good enough for people to pay you enough to do it as a living … or would you be better keeping it as a fun hobby?
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How do I become a ‘successful’ Artist?
If you are playing/singing/performing and enjoying doing it – you have already achieved success. If other people around you enjoy what you are doing – you achieved something rather more special. You may go on to be more well-known and wealthier if you are very talented and/or very lucky – but you can never be any more ‘successful’ than you are right now! Fame fades … but talent is forever … enjoy what you have!
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What other jobs are there?
The music industry needs people with a variety of skills at all levels. Why not check out our links page and visit some of the sites to get more information. You will find links to industry organisations, record companies, publishers, as well as other useful sites.
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What does a Manager do?
Basically, he(or she) manages the career of the Artist/band. A manager has a closer relationship with the Artist than any other person or organisation. Artists tend to be very creative and often fairly unmanageable individuals, so the task can be challenging at times … especially when the Record Company is also giving you grief. However, you are in a privileged position, as there would be no music industry without well managed talented Artists. The image of the manager used to be that of some dodgy ‘barrow’ boy or ‘Mr Fixit’ doing deals behind the ticket booth. Sometimes this image was fairly accurate – but these days it is a highly respected profession requiring the same high level of knowledge and skill as lawyers and accountants … in some cases greater! Most professional managers are members of the Music Managers’ Forum (MMF) and benefit from their ongoing training programme and the political clout that the MMF wields in both the music industry and advising government policy.
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What is an Agent?
An Agent (sometimes called a Promoter) is someone who gets you gigs. Most bands can get a gig in their local pub but the ‘big league’ has already been sewn up by Agents. Unless you are represented by the Agent – you don’t get the gig. An Agent is unlikely to want to take you onto his books unless you have a record deal. Therefore it is almost impossible for unsigned bands to get into the decent gig circuits. Some of the large festivals boast an ‘unsigned’ stage – but most of those bands have either paid a significant sum of money to get on it – or they are already attached‘unsigned’ to a record company who have paid, or used their clout to get them in.
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What is an “A&R” person?
In simple terms, an A&R person is a talent scout for a record company or a publisher. “A&R” stands for Artistes and Repertoire and was the old traditional name of the department that was responsible for finding new talent and songs. Large companies have A&R departments with a Head of A&R running a number of junior staff who may be individually responsible for different areas of music. They are often maligned for not knowing what they are talking about, never listening to demos and never bothering to turn up for gigs or showcases. Have a listen to the current Charts and make your own mind up about that.
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What does a Publisher do?
Good question…! They actually collect money. Ok … they collect money that is due to their clients (songwriters) and pass it on to them after removing their commission. They can (but not many actually do) help writers/artists in their early stages by advancing them money in anticipation of future royalties to help them develop their talents and make it easier for them to get a recording deal. Some provide studio time to enable the artists to have a better ‘demo’. They can also ensure your overseas royalties are collected and accounted for.
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What is a “Demo”?
A Demonstration recording was traditionally designed to indicate to a record company or publisher what you were capable of, and to demonstrate your musical potential. It used to be just a rough recording, done quickly and cheaply to arouse the interest of the A&R person – who had a good enough ear to hear beyond the quality of the recording and spot the ‘golden nuggets’ amongst the desperate. This was a skill that A&R people were proud of and were highly respected for. These days, Record Companies expect your ‘Demo’ to be practically good enough to press and broadcast straight away. So what happened to the listening skills of the A&R person? (Hmmmmmmm!)
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What is a Record Company?
It used to be an entrepreneurial run organisation that was particularly gifted at finding new and exciting talent, helping it to develop, before releasing great records that people would want to buy for years and years to come. These days, they are international corporate entities with enormous financial power – run by accountants – and largely releasing records that are forgotten by the following year. Actually, there are still some great ‘independent’ labels that are still run along the lines of those in the 70s and still manage to bring us great new talent – despite their financial disadvantages in the market. It has to be said though, that most of this great new talent is then ‘bought up’ by the international labels. Hurrah for the little guys – who seem to be the true talent spotters.
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What about working in Studios?
A lot of people dream about being the Sound Engineer in a top studio – surrounded by the famous and glamorous – helping to mould the best selling records of the future. The reality is somewhat different. For every Sound Engineer in work – there are probably another 99 who are just as capable – but looking for alternative employment. In addition there are probably another 1000 who are sadly yet to discover that their meagre experience and College certficate doesn’t even put them in the right league. Before you go down this route – call all the Recording Studios in Yellow Pages and count how many job vacancies there are. Then calculate how many local College graduates there are each year finishing a Sound/Pop/Media course (about 500 in Coventry & Warwickshire) – add to them the number of University graduates who are also coming back to their home area to look for work. If you still fancy those odds then you are certainly crazy enough to do the job!
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What is Copyright?
If you have an original idea that can be expressed as words, pictures or music – then it can be termed as Creative Property – of which you are entitled to Creative Ownership. No one is allowed to copy or use that creative property without your permission – and they can usually expect to have to pay a fee for the privilege. Only you – the creator – have the Right to Copy, or use it. In UK Law – you automatically own this right, however, in order to challenge any alleged unauthorised use, there are two things you will need to show the court:

1. You had the idea first.
2. The person who allegedly pinched your idea had the opportunity to see/hear it in order to do that.

The simplest and cheapest way to protect your song is to make a recording of it, Then, before sending it or playing it to anyone else, send a copy of that recording to yourself in a sealed envelope – RECORDED DELIVERY – and DO NOT OPEN it! Put it somewhere safe. (Make sure the title of the song is written on the outside of the envelope as well.)
You can now prove you wrote the song no later than the date of posting. After that, keep a written record of every demo you send out. The rest is up to a court to decide – but you can rest assured that no one will want to go to court until the song has become successful and someone is worth suing.
There is an old rhyme in the music business – “where there’s a hit … there’s a writ!”
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What is a Mechanical Copyright?
This is a copyright that resides with whoever owns the actual recording. That person or organisation is described as the person who has made arrangements for the recording to be made and paid for it. When that recording is broadcast, the station has to pay a royalty to Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) for the privilege of using it. That payment is split between the record company and the Artist. However, in order to sell the recording – the record company must pay a mechanical royalty to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Service (MCPS) for each copy sold (or pressed).
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What is the Performing Rights Society (PRS)?
Members of the PRS are writers who register each song. Whenever that song is broadcast or performed in public (with certain exceptions) a royalty must be paid to the PRS – who pass it on to the writer and performing artist. This includes concerts and juke-box plays in pubs.
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Why is there no live music in my local pub?
There may be many reasons. First of all, the pub must have a music licence. This entails getting permission from the local council. In order to get that, they must pass certain safety and Fire regulations. Also, an annual fee is payable to the PRS if you are playing music of any kind – if your establishment is open to the public. That includes shops that play CDs – or have the radio playing. Not all establishments want to go to the trouble of passing the regulations or paying the licence fee. It’s always worth asking if they’ll put on some live music. If they believe the public demand is there – they may well cater for it. But please don’t moan if you are asked to make a small contribution for live music – how do you think the band gets paid?
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(If you expect to get music for free – don’t expect it to be high quality. Would you impose the same requirements on your hairdresser or local take-away?)

Why is it that everybody mimes to the record on TV?
Not everybody does mime … but most do – most of the time. The reason for this is simple – it’s easy, convenient and requires less technical support as far as the programme makers are concerned … so it’s cheaper! Also – YOU the audience demand a high level of ‘Produced’ sound which is almost impossible to achieve outside the recording studio. So … the band sound great (which keeps the record companies happy because you are more likely to buy the record); there is no danger of the singer ‘going wrong’ or there being a technical fault (which keeps the TV Producers happy because their programme looks better and more people will want to watch it and then they can charge more for the ads in the commercial breaks); and it sounds “just like the record” which is what YOU the public seem to want to hear. In fact, some artists do this at their ‘live’ concerts and appearances as well … which means you probably never get to hear what they really sound like. With policies like this, it becomes less important for some artists to have a great voice talent … as long as they look good on video and remember all their dance moves. In this was – the major record companies decide who is going to be in the charts, because they are the only ones that can afford all the PR and expensive videos that make artists ‘look’ good. Because you never get to decide what you want to buy on pure talent alone – you no longer get a vote! You have become part of an expensive marketing exercise. The only ‘real’ music you can influence are your local bands … so get out there and support them. They may not be brilliant yet – but with your help and encouragement they will get better … and if they get better, the next band that comes along will want to be better still and so on …..crikey!! - we might end up with a thriving UK music industry once again.
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Does ‘downloading’ music really have any effect?
The general attitude seems to be that the “record companies are rolling in money, little old me won’t have any effect, and anyway … everybody else is doing it!” The sad thing is that you are right … lots of people are doing it. I think you know the answer to the question but here are a few statistical and moral arguments.

The latest figures show that over half the CDs purchased in the world are pirated. (Over 1 in 3 in the UK) That means that not one pound/euro/drachma/dollar that you paid in the back of the pub/carboot stall/street vendor for a pirated CD will get back into the music industry. Not only that – but having bought a pirate copy, you will not buy the real copy, and are also likely to copy it for your mates. Over 90% of all music downloads are illegal and do not benefit the artists.

So what is the end result? Record companies are really beginning to struggle and have seen their profits plummet. The first thing they do is ditch every artist on their books who are not selling what their accountants consider to be enough records. Next, they ditch every artist under development who does not look like/sound like their most successful established artists – because they don’t want to risk their money on something new that YOU might not buy. Next, they don’t take risks with the next album of established artists – they don’t try anything new, they cut recording costs where they can and try and cash in on what worked the last time around.

Is this picture starting to look familiar to you? You end up with ‘more of the same’ records and artists that look and sound like they came out of the same mould as the last one. Have you looked at the Charts recently? To try and make more money they release endless compilation albums because they don’t have to pay for any recording costs … just dust off the old master tapes.

Downloading is theft that is seriously affecting the music industry and hurting young struggling artists most of all. Think about it – next time someone pops in to download your stereo – or downloads your mobile phone in the pub.

A warning about illegally downloading mp3s
Because of the vast amounts of money they are losing, the industry are fighting back so be warned. The record companies are allegedly secretly employing hackers to embed nasty viruses in bogus mp3s. (You have to admit – it’s probably the smartest thing they’vce done for a long time!)

These viruses will really ruin your day by doing things such as permanently damaging your hard drive, screwing up your CD writer, or wiping your more important files. Furthermore, when you take your computer back to the shop to be repaired, the shop may impound your machine and report you to the authorities if they discover illegal mp3s (or other stuff) on your drive. Heavy fines of thousands of pounds can be imposed – and tens of thousands if you are using a company computer. They are also embedding tracing ‘trojan horses’ that are invisible to you, but hide themselves in your computer and send back information about what’s on your drive so that you can be traced. The next thing you may experience is an unexpected visit and the seizure of your computer as evidence.
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