Video Killed The Radio Star

Video Killed The Radio Star

The music industry has changed drastically throughout the years, before the radio came out people didn't have many ways of listening to music, they had to go either to the store buy the records or go to the actual concert to watch them live, but when the radio came out only people who had music could actually buy it because back then it was luxury and not many people could buy it.

And different from back then, now a days we have so many ways of listening to music because it is everywhere, in adverts, movies, television, video games, people playing inside train station, you can go to iTunes and and download digital copies and music videos legally or going to music shops and buying Cd's but there is also so many ways of download music illegally now a days when back then the only way they had to download illegal music was through Napster when it came out in 1999 but it shutdown in 2001.

But the music industry wasn't the only things that has changed, the music business and technology too. the music industry has changed so much because now, they make so much easier for us to hear new songs of all genres and countries. 

Back then people were worrying more about how the music sounded and making sure it sounded good than exposing it.

in 1877 was invited the Phonograph by Thomas Edison and after his invention that's when it all started out and what I mean by that is, before people couldn't listen to music if they weren't on place where the band/artist was performing but after the Phonograph being invented people started listening to music through a was cylinder, they just put the was cylinder in the phonograph and sound would come out from it but the only problem with the Phonograph was the price of it and not everyone back then could afford it, only the people with a good life style, people with money.

The first instrument where you could actually recording things was wax cylinder which came out after the phonograph being released. The bad thing about the was cylinder is that you couldn't listen to the record too many times or it would melts because it was made of wax.

The first website Napster that was created in 1999, was the first website where people around the world
could listen to songs, share it and download for free but the bad thing about this website is that it wasn't legal because people was listening to music and downloading it for free which is illegal and because of that, the court and shutdown Napster completely.
But now a days, there are so many legal ways where you can listen to music for free without having to pay, for example youtube, bandcamp, soundcloud, etc but there are also so many illegal websites where you can not just listen but also download music for free or convert videos to mp3 etc.
Now a days, the most used and popular legal website to download music is iTunes, and it came out in 2001 by Apple.

Apple did not just created a legal way of download music through the portable music player iTunes, it also created the first iPod months after iTunes being released and with the iPod you could finally listen to digital music and not having to bring a bunch of Cd's, tapes etc with you everywhere because all your music would be in the iPod. 
But Apple wasn't the only one creating portable media players, Sony and Samsung and many other brands also made their version of the iPod with different looks which is called Mp3 player and it does the same things as the iPod.

They way we listen to music now has changed so much from how people used to listen to music back, the technology has created so many advanced products and different way of listening to music. It all started with the Phonograph in 1877 but not everyone could buy it because of how expensive it was, the from Phonograph to radio which was cheaper and people could afford to buy it, then from Walkman (CD player) to iPods and Mp3 players. There are so many question of what is coming, what the technology is bring for us next.

Music & Society - Censorship In Music (Iran)

Censorship In Music

Different from the law in the UK, places in the Middle East such as Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan etc don’t have the freedom the people in the UK have. The level of censorship in these countries are very high, for example, they can’t play western music or listen to it but there are some people in Iran that listen to it anyway but it needs to be in their private cars, or if they have copied tapes or Cd’s or through the Internet but they need to hack to have access to it. 

In Iran they have their own Internet, and they don’t have access to search for anything or access social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, and some other social media like we do and they even have their own websites where they can check their emails and also websites like YouTube where allow them to watch videos. Because of that, they don’t really know what is going on in the outside world

The reason why they don’t have that freedom is because the government running religious law. They are the ones who controls how their Internet and websites are and what use on it or not, and everything needs to be about Iran. 

Like I’ve mention before, if they want to have the same access we have to the normal version of the websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc they need to hack, but if they get caught hacking to check those websites they will be sent straight to jail with no trial.

It wasn't always like this in Iran. Before the revolution in 1979, the Iranian people had the freedom we have for anything, to listen to any style of music at anytime and anywhere, they have the same access to the normal websites as we do. They could do all of that without worrying about the government or being sent to jail for doing stuff like this.

The Censorship is not all about what websites they can access and what they can watch or not, music in general is very effected in Iran. And all begun after the Revolution because since then Western music has been banned in Iran. Again, for them to have access to Western music they will have to hack into the Internet so they can download the album of the artist they like otherwise they won't know any music out there except from Elton John or Queen and that's because of the Iranian strict law on censorship. 
Because the government runs religious laws, the only style of music allowed to be played around Iran at any time and anywhere is religious music.

While the level of Censorship in Iran is very high, not allowing them to watch what they want, or to listen to the music they want, in the UK we are freely allowed to do anything. On the Internet you have access to any website to listen to music, to watch movies, to have social media to communicate with other, or to websites to know what is going on around the world. 
With music we can do anything, we can download the songs or albums you want from the Internet and will take us about 5 minutes, we don't to hack. If we want to play music with friends you can get your instruments and play in your house, in the park, in your garage and you won't be sent to jail doing that. You don't need to be listening to religious music if you don't like, nothing will happen to you.
if you want to buy any instrument, then you just need to go to any music shop in the UK and buy the instruments you want but in Iran is not like that, there are no places where you can find instruments such as guitars, bass, drums, pianos, keyboards etc for sale.

Business Plan (EP)

Business Plan for releasing an EP

Releasing an EP is not like a full album because it does not have the same amount of tracks, an EP has less tracks than an full album and you will spend less money if you decide release an EP instead of a full album, so that's one of the reasons why I wanna release an EP, because it will costs me less money and because I want people to know about me, to know about my music and the songs I write, to know about my style and to know what I am capable of as an musician.

• Like I said before, an EP has less tracks than a full album, it has a total of 5 songs in it. So the first thing I will do is to write more Pop/R&B songs if I need, pick the best ones that I feel like the audience will connect with them, then get into a recording studio and record the 5 songs I wrote. After recording my 5 five songs as MP3 I will upload them onto Bandcamp, because it is a great worldwide website where you can share all your songs and also because you can make money through Bandcamp.

• The 5 songs I will be picking for my EP will have to connect with the audience, it needs to be songs that people like, that people enjoy listening to and they need to be in different tempos, not just slow songs or fast songs, it need to be in different tempos and styles, for example, the songs I would pick for my EP would be fast tempo such as Electro or Pop/Ballad and it would be good time songs, and and the slow tempo ones would be Pop/R&B. Writing songs in difference styles and tempos will call attention to your music because people will see that you are not stuck in just one music genre.

• Even though releasing an EP will costs less money than a full album, you still need to think how much you are going to spend with it, because if you want your EP to contain good quality then you will have to spend a little more money but it is worth though because releasing an EP is one of the best ways to connect you to the public but the public needs to have a good first impression of your work, so it means the quality of the sound of your music needs to be good by doing that you will show the public you're professional and that you work hard to make your music sound good. If you want to release an EP it means you will need money and to have money you will need a job and if you have a job then you can save up to buy the stuff you need, for example, I'm saving up to buy a Mac book pro so then I can buy from apple store Logic Pro 9. It is good if you know how to use software like 'Logic Pro' because you won't have to spend money booking up a recording studio so you can record your music. As it says on the Logic Pro website 'Whether you’re a professional or play in your garage, Logic Pro 9 gives you everything you need to write, record, edit and mix music.' PLUS if you have friends that are producers like me you won't need to spend any money to edit and mix your music.

• After spending all this time writing songs, picking the best ones, and then recording them in a good quality for the public, you will have to think and focus on the artwork. What you will need for this will be a photographer and a digital designer. Making friends with people who works with music will help you a lot because you won't have to spend to much money, for example, I have have friends that are producers, that have music studio and also some friends that are photographers and for this part of the artwork he would definitely help me and because of that I won't spend much money or maybe I won't spend any money at all and all I need to do is contact my photographer friend and hire him to help me with the EPs artwork.

•  I've already chosen the 5 songs I want for my EP, they are already recorded in a good quality, edited and mixed and the artwork is done, so it means that the final step of releasing an EP will be promoting it. After doing all this you can set a official release date so then people know when your EP is going to be released, a good smart thing do to post onto your social networks the release date such as facebook, twitter, instagram or sharing with friends and asking them to share with other people or what you can also do is to upload on soundcloud or youtube a demo of 15 seconds of your some of the 5 songs you've chosen for your EP. Social networking such as Twitter or instagram where you can hashtag can help you to get to know about you, your music and specially you listen to your EP after the release date. Best places to get people to listen to your stuff are in open mics or live performances at gigs, it is also good people will not just listen to your singing they will also see what you are like as a performer as a musician.

• After releasing your EP a great thing to do is to start uploading videos on youtube of your songs, making music videos or working with other artists that plays the same music as you because their fans you will start listening to your music and you will get more audience and it will purchase your work getting more people to listen to it. After performing in open mics or live performances at gigs, start selling your stuff outside the gig so then people can still listen to your music, also, make an official website where you can put all the links for your social networking, where people can listen to your songs, see photos and videos, merch and performance dates with the time and place of where you're going to be performing, you should also show the performance dates on your facebook, twitter and other social network account to get more poeple to see you and your work.

Royalties

 What are Royalties?

Royalties are how most of the Artist, composers and songwriters get most of their money. Royalties are paid when a artist's track or composer's track are played on TV, commercials, films, public performances, played on the radio, broadcast, etc.

There are some people that believe that if you have re-mixed another artist's track you will be paid the same amount as the others but it is not true, what happen is, if you have re-mixed another artist's track you will just be paid a pre-arranged one-off sum.

The only way you find to collect your royalties is by signing up to a collection agency. In the music industry there are three different types of collection agencies and they are called PPL, PRS and MCPS.

Phonographic Performance Limited - PPL

What PPL does is to collect royalties from performances/broadcast of recordings, for example, if you have a guitar/piano/bass session in a song which means you will have to play something on the recording of that song they're working on, will get royalties from the PPL because you had a session player on that recording, but if you do not perform on the recording then you won't get anything from PLL.

If you wan to join PPL, just go on the website http://www.ppluk.com/, you don't need to worry if you have to pay for it because it is free. PPL also collect royalties from other countries in can be in America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Performing Right Society - PRS

What PRS does is to collect royalties from the performance of the music to the writer of music best known as songwriter.

If you perform on a piece of music written by someone else, you won't be paid any royalties by PRS because you only performed on the song you didn't help with the lyrics giving ideas etc, so only the person who wrote the song will get paid because he/she is the actual writer of the song.

Different from PPL, you will have to pay if you want to join PRS and it only costs £10 for life and the money £10 you will spend joinning PRS will be deduced from your first payment.

On this collection agency the payments are made in April, July, October and December but that is only going to happen if you have made a minimum of £30 with PRS and this rule by PRS was introduced in the music industry in October 2006 and that is because they want to save administration costs which lowered payments.

License

If places like concert venues, pubs, clubs, bars, or any other place where live music is played, play live music to get people to come to their place, they'll have to pay the PRS for the license to play the songs they are using.

Mechanical Copyright Protection Society - MCPS

What MCPS does is to collect royalties from the sales of recordings to the owners of the copyright for that recording.

Unpublished composers can also get MCPS royalties.

If you have a publishing deal working for you, your publisher will collect it for you if you only perform on a recording you can't have royalties from MCPS.

What about TV & Films?

When any of your songs are used in a film, or on TV (commercials, novels, adverts etc), it earns you money and you will be paid for that because people are using your stuff.

the publishers will allow the other company which is the company who wants to use your stuff, to license your song for a synchronisation fee.

Bibliography:

• https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8F-sfxQHEyCSTMxczFObnJGbUk/edit?usp=sharing
• http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/499
• http://www.ppluk.com/
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/before-you-start/music-rights

Roles & Contracts (Live Performance - Tour Manager & Booking Agent)

Tour Manager

What do they do?

In the music industry the tour manager is the person who is going to take care of the band or artist, be their mom/dad and take care of everything for them during their tour, be in charge of all the details during the tour. For example, they will have to sort out the transports and hotels, booking crew, make sure the artist is at the venue on time for their performance and spend a lot of time on the phone.

Job Description:

 

Duties

The responsibilities of the tour managers when they are on tour with their artist/band are:

• Deals with promoters, managers, ticket agents
• Look after the band/artist 24 hours when they're on tour.
• Confirm shows
• Make sure the artist is on that for their concerts.
• Sort out the transport for when the band/artist arrives at the venue and for when they leave.
• Prepare band and crew schedule sheets for the next day.

Skills

The skills you will needed to be a tour manager are:

• Speaking skills: That's the most important skill you will need, because you will be contacting and talking to people all the time.
• Listening skills
• Be able to work with other people because in the music industry you can work by yourself there will always be someone you will have to work with and sometimes is someone you don't like, and if you can't then music is not for you.
• Business skills.
• If working abroad, then it's good if you can speak more than just your own language.

Salary/Hours/Working Environment

The salary of a tour manager variates, if you are just starting out on the business then your salary will be around £500 per week, if you are an well-established tour manager you will receive around £1,000 per week and if you are successful then your salary will be £2,000 per week.

Tour manager works 24 hours per day, because he needs to be always available for their artist/band, and also to organise and sort out things.

A tour manager doesn't have a working environment, he/she is always on the road and on the phone managing their artist band stuff.

 

Working conditions/Appearance

Tour managers will deal with long hours of work and need to travel long miles, Periods of time away from home may have an impact on your personal life but that's the tour manager and he/she needs to be physically fit and health because when they're on tour they won't stop, that's the life of an tour manager, and he/she will spend more time working and sleeping in differences hotels.

Tour managers will be in every single show of their artist/band to support them and look smart because there might be people at the venue to talk to about the artist or something.

Pros

If you are a well experienced tour manager then you will get a high salary because of your experience you had working  with other artists.

Tour managers spend most of their time away from home, because they need to take care of the band when they are on tour and because he will be travelling long miles for work but even though  it is tough, who doesn't enjoy travelling to new cities you've never been before, so for the tour manager may be fun visiting new cities all the time.

Cons

One of the disadvantages of being a tour manager is that you will be responsible for everything that happens during the tour and everyone who's part of it, which means if something during the tour or to the artist/band or the performance, the first person to be blamed will be the tour manager. Another disadvantages which was mentioned before, was the tour manager being away from their family for months because they need to travel and be with their artist all the time during their tour taking care of everything for them.

Contract
Tour managers contract are usually freelance or fixed-term contracts, but most of them are freelance (they are self-employed) and work on short-term contracs, and the contracts usually lasts the whole summer season but sometimes tour managers can work all year round.
For the tour manager be working in the summer seasons is great because that's when they just started and they will have work to do, because when the winter season comes they will have much less work to do.
During winter season, tour managers should  maintain a full-time working career such as teach English so they can make some money when they are not on tour with their artists.

 

Booking Agent

 

What do they do?

 Booking Agents are the people who connect the artist/band with their fans by setting the artists or band's date at the appropriate place where they perform which is the venues, they locate gigs for their artists. When a new band or solo artist decides it's their time to go on a tour, they will hire a booking agent to hep them with the schedule shows in the cities they will be visiting/performing.

The booking agents also works with other areas such as promoters and record labels to make sure that the artist or band they are working with are being shown to the public in the correct way so the people will know who the artist is and to listen to their work.

Job Description:

Duties

The responsibilities of the booking agent are:

• Discussing about how much the artist is going to earn from the venue.
• They'll be in the charge of organising and booking press releases.
• They look out for new talents, by going to where they usually perform to see if they're good or not.
• They try get as many bands as they can, to get larger fees and more profits.

Skills

The skills you will needed to be a booking agent are:

• Be able to work under pressure because you will have to be prepared if the gig doesn't work as planned.
• Be able to work for long hours.
• Have excellent communication skills because most of the time you will be on the phone trying to sign one contract.
• Marking abilities, because as a booking agent you will be trying to sell your artist or band.
• Your negotiation skills have to be excellent, specially when you are working with promoters and venues, because you will spend time negotiating to try to get the best deal for paying for your artist's performances.
• Be able to manage well your own imes and the time of others (Bands/Artists).

 

Salary/Hours/Working Environment

The salary of a booking agent per year is between £13,000 to £39,000 but it variates, booking agents can earn more than that, it depends on how many gigs their artist is doing and how well paid they are.

Booking agents working hours would be between 7-9 hours of work, because they spend a lot of time on the phone negotiationg something or out looking for new artist by watching bands or solo artist non stop.

Their working environment is on the office talking on the phone or scouting for new artist/bands.

 

Pros

One of the good things of being a booking agent is that because will be going around, scouting for new talents, you have the opportunity to watch & attending live gigs all the time to see how the artist are and through their music learn about them.

Booking agents don't just work with booking agents, they also work with promoters, managers, the aritsts, and with all of them the booking agent needs to have a good relationship with because all of them has the same goal which is make the artist known worldwide so people know his/her music.

 

Cons

One of the disadvantages of being a booking agent working independently is that you will be working between 7-9 hours and you won't get much money and sometimes you won't receive any more at all but as I said that is only going to happen if you are working independently.

Some people have the courage of starting from the beginning and working independently, but it's best for you if you start working in a large talent agency because the opportunities you will have working in a large talent agency people know is that working hard and focused you can get a big opportunity to start dealing with major artist. 

The Sound & Music Industry

There are areas in the music industry that keep the business running and going and the areas in the business are important. The areas are recording companies, artist management, music publishing and live performance. All of these areas work together to combine working, sell music globally and making profit.

Recording companies

The recording companies are vital in the music industry and It is one of the key aspects of making the music running. There are various recording labels in the world to choose from and each label have the same goal to achieve which is to hunt down new musical talents that will sell working with them, making them sell music world wide, sell albums/Cd's and sell records and they offer new musical talent to musicians and give them the opportunity to become famous in their music career and be globally known as for who they are and for what they do.

After the artist decides he/she wants to make the next step, they will go find a record company to sign them and work with them, but the artist needs a manager because that is the manager’s job to find a good record label that will work with his/her artist and promote them.

The artist or the band needs a record label to sign them, promote them and to record their tracks. Won’t be easy for the artist and for the manager to find a good record label to work with the artist, because it’s not all the record labels that are interested in signing the artist/band.

Artist management

The artist management is very important in the artist’s life because they keep the soul of the band or the artist together. Their job is to control and look after the band, for example, pay for the booking of the flights for the tours, making sure promotion is up and showing, so that people know about the album and making sure that the label it is fine.

If the artist or the band want to be successful in what they do, they need to find for them an artist manager, because the artist manager is very important in the artist’s life because he/she does most of the work for the artist/band and they are the ones that helps the artist to be prepared for what is coming for them (Record their songs with a record label that suits the artist, etc.)

The artists and their artist managers need to have a good and close relationship with each other, they need to be friends and trust each other, because in the music industry there are loads of cases where the artist and their artist manager didn’t get along, didn’t trust each other and because of that they crashed, because the artist manager didn’t do to the artist what they were committed to do.

The artist manager receives most of the money the artist gains, because the artist manager is the one that try to get you somewhere and make your dreams come true, which is to make people listen to your music and for you to get sign with a record label. The things the artist manager does to their client are:

• Find the artist a good record label
• All support the artist and encourage them no matter what.
• Negotiates and secures a record contract
• Book all the artist/band’s meetings
• Pay for the booking of the flights for the artist’s tours/gigs.
• Formulates and markets the artist’s image
• Get them with different people from the industry (Other artists/bands, promoters, etc.)
• Give them the right advices, so they can make the rights choices.

Music publishing

Another thing that is very important in the artist’s life is the ‘Music publishing’, because they are the ones that will help the artist to get more people to listen to their song and know who the artist is. After the artist record his songs and finally his album or just the singles, that where the music publisher will come in in the artist’s life because they will publish the artist’s album. The publisher’s job is:

• Make sure the song writer and the composers get their payment when there are people using their songs, or when it playing in radio, TVs, commercials, etc.

• Try to get their songs to be used in films, commercials.

• Try to get another artist/band to sing one or more of your song.

In the music industry when it is about music publishing all the rights go to the song writers and the composers because they are the person who wrote the song and the have the rights for people to know if it’s their material or not and just because of the doesn’t mean the artist does’t get anything/credits because he/she does get credits for performing the songs, but even though they are the one performing, the song writer and composer gets more credits than the artist/band. If you deicide to be your own publisher you will receive up to 100% of the money which is a great thing with you can write and compose your own songs, but if you prefer to hire a music publisher he/she will receive up to 100% of the money being earned by the composers and song writers.

Live Performance

Live performances are very good for the artist or the bands firstly because that's where the musicians get closer to their fan and also because if you perform more you will gain more confidence and also gain more popularity. Behind all the live performance there is jobs and roles that need to be done for example your band manager will basically do all the financial stuff and sort out all the venue and money. Promotion is very important when organising a live performance because you want people to know about your gig and you want to earn profit by getting a lot of people to come. In the promotion you want to be able to give clear information about the gig, price and venue. At the gig itself and if you are a new artist in the music industry you are actually giving people a sample of what your music is like and showing yourself who you are as an artist.

Bibliography:

• Record company:http://www.mzeus.com/news/2007/06/what_does_a_record_company_do.php
• Artist Management:http://www.myjobsearch.com/careers/artist-manager.html
• Artist Publishing:http://www.tomtmusic.com/what_is_music_publishing.htm
• Live Performance:http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101028170243AAM3vo5