There are two sides to the industry: the creative side and the business side. If you enjoy things like writing, performing and recording music and you would like to be involved in some stage of the creative process of recording music or making music videos, then you fall into the creative side.
If you think you would enjoy working in retail, band management, tour booking, tour promotion, touring crew, venues, publishing or at a record label dealing with music as a product, then the business side is for you.
Further, some of these jobs are easier to access at entry level, but can be used as a stepping stone to other jobs within the industry.
Making music is both a creative and a collaborative process. In this section, we look behind the scenes at the kinds of specialist skills and practical experience needed to do some of the many varied jobs that help musicians and artists attain their vision and get it out to the world.
After reading below and deciding what inspires you, you can check out the attached links and go for it!
Common jobs in the creative sector are: songwriter, performing artist, recording artist, (musicians), audio engineer, mastering engineer, producer and video producer. A musician’s role is obvious but you may not have heard of the rest. These other jobs potentially allow you to be as creative as the musician.
The engineer records the musician’s performances using microphones and recording equipment. This is a job for creative people who love working and experimenting with recording technology to help shape an artist’s sound.
The Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand, SAE Institute and the University of Auckland all offer a variety of certificates, diplomas and degrees in audio engineering. These institutions are a great way for anyone to learn the art of engineering music to help them migrate into the music industry.
Previous qualifications, such as School Certificate and NCEA, are needed for entrance into most of the linked courses. MAINZ and SAE have no strict requirements but Universities through New Zealand follow this convention described here.
A producer creates and moulds the sound of an artist’s entire album during the entire recording process in the studio. A producer is given creative right over the sound of the album. This is a job for creative people who can interpret the music and then produce ideas on how to improve and help shape an artist’s recorded music. The Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand offers a strong focus on producing in their Diploma in Audio Engineering. Of course producing can come naturally by being accustomed to a library of music styles or from the experience of working alongside producers as an audio engineer.
A music video director is similar to a producer but they put a visual narrative to the music. This is a job for creative people who have a passion to express music visually through video.
The University of Auckland and SAE Institute offer diplomas and degrees in film making which would help shape your visual career in the music industry.
Common jobs in the business sector are: retail, artist management, booking tour promotion, PR and Record Company A & R, promotion, marketing and distribution.
Artist management entails dealing with musicians, booking agents, promoters, concert venues, record companies, music publishers, sponsors and the media – basically everybody else in the industry. You are in some cases an invisible member of the band and are in charge of continuing and elevating the success of the band/s you manage.
Experience in artist management can perhaps best be gained by starting off managing a band of friends and developing from there. Marketing, business and management studies can give you a good grounding in general management but there is no real prerequisite other than motivation and commitment.
For a very detailed summary including audio and video of what being artist manager is like click here. The NZ Music Managers Forum is another great place that you can use to talk to other managers and learn the trade.
PR (Public Relations) is a job for an individual who loves to present music and musicians to all types of media. PR involves controlling the media coverage of an artist and promoting and selling the artist, their music and their touring.
The main two skills a PR representative needs are outstanding communication and written language.
For a very detailed summary including audio and video of what being a PR / Promotion rep is like click here.
The retail sector covers all means and methods of selling music, both physical and digital. Working in a physical format record store is a great way to learn about the music business. Its also the easiest way to get a foot in the door of the music industry. All it requires is a love for music.
Music publishers acquire the copyrights for songs and promote them for financial gain through licensing the rights to record companies, advertising agencies, film and TV producers and others. They often act as copyright administrators and implement systems to oversee tracking, licensing and payment collection efficiently. A good publisher is experienced in all areas of the music business and has a good understanding of industry players and dynamics, an ear for a tune and a knowledge of copyright laws.
Putting on a live show or tour requires the input of many behind the scenes people – more often than not, there’s more people “backstage” than on it. The roles include Tour Manager, merchandise, door person (ticket sellers), security, lighting operator, stage Tech (sometimes general, sometimes particular instrument specialists), rigger and driver.
Be aware – most of the backstage jobs involve being first up and last to bed each day!
Lastly, there’s the record companies – the labels that find the artists and music, pay to record the music and then have responsibility of distributing, promoting and marketing the music.
A&R stands for "Artist & Repertoire". The title harks back to the days when a record label's A&R person would find an Artist, sign them to the label and "develop" them by selecting the songs they would record and matching them with the right producer, engineer, studio etc. These days most artists write their own songs and there's a tendency to sign artists that are already at a level where they have a following. A&R reps now mostly concentrate on signing artists and recording with them.
Promotion & Publicity
The publicity department arranges for feature stories, interviews, or album reviews in newspapers, magazines and websites as well as pushing for broadcast opportunities including coverage on radio stations and television.
Marketing
The marketing department creates, develops and implements the overall marketing plan for each of the record label's releases. They also coordinate the promotion, publicity and sales campaigns.
Distribution
Record labels sell records into physical stores and to on line retailers. major labels handle their own distribution. Indie labels either distribute through major labels or through specialist distributors.
A large directory of NZ record labels, publishing companies and recording studios can be found here on the RIANZ website.
