THINGS TO KNOW WHEN STARTING OUT AS AN ARTIST! (#3)

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JUBE’S CORNER (By PAPA JUBE for KOMPA MAGAZINE.COM)

BASIC THINGS TO KNOW WHEN STARTING OUT AS AN ARTIST OR ANYONE INTERESTED IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY


Music is such an integral part of life, that most of us are unaware of our dependency on it. We listen to music in our homes, the car, at work, our walkman, iPods, the gym, at church, on TV and even in Video Games among other places; It is very hard to imagine a world without music.
I find it very interesting sometimes when I walk by the Virgin Mega store in Times Square and see lines of people outside early in the morning, long before store hours, waiting to get a favorite artist’s CD. That passion, devotion, and patience that drives these people out there so early really made me think of “THE POWER OF MUSIC� “THE POWER OF THE ARTIST� and the “Behind the scenes� people who collectively put that CD together for the mass listening audience to enjoy.

Usually, the first person to be promoted and introduced to the mass audience is : “The Artist-The Star� and some would even go as far as calling it “The Commodity�. Although, we may not always know the names of the musicians on a given album or the producers, but one thing for sure, we always know the name of :�THE ARTIST�

So, another word, it can be summed up as “It’s all about the artists� Well…. it’s not. Let’s look at some of these “key� positions in the Music business and briefly define the roles they play in the industry, starting with the support structure of all artists, which is “The Record Label�

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a) What is a “RECORD LABEL�?

A Record label is a music entity comprising of many departments, working together on all levels to develop, market and promote artists and their music. A record label is almost to an artist what a mother is to a child. It is totally responsible for the artist’s career. There are many departments within a record label: Marketing, promotions, legal, A&R (which means Artist and Repertoire) Publishing, and Accounting.

Based on the above Definition of “Record Label� I will let you guys decide if we have a legitimate Record Company in the HMI or not ….From my perceptual view, what we call Record Labels in the HMI are distributors and licensors of music, and the artists would absolutely agree with me, because a Record Company is supposed to take care of the artist or a group from A to Z, just like a mother to a child…and a Record Company has to comprise of all these different departments, as mentioned above, so I let you guys decide, I report the facts, you decide.!!!

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A&R = Artist and Repertoire, refers to the division of a record label that is responsible for scouting and developing talent. The A&R department is the link between the recording artist/act and the record label, to generally help with the artistic and commercial development of the label's artists. An A&R person is often required to handle contractual negotiations, find songwriters and record producers for the act, and schedule recording sessions.

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b) PRODUCERS: There are two types of “Producers�, Executive Producer, and Music Producer. Let’s define both of these terms:

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: is the person or company that takes charge of the financial and administrative expenses relating to a project or an album. ( For example, in the Haitian community, when a certain individual or a company ie:/ Nouvel Generasyon/HARMONY RECORD or AC Records etc…engages a group, and gives them a certain amount of $ to license, market and distribute their products, then, that company or that individual is the “Executive Producer� of that project…not the Music Producer.)

MUSIC PRODUCER: is the individual or company in charge of the artistic and musical direction of an album, that person is usually a musician, or musically inclined and is usually very involve with the musicians and the decision making of the entire album. We can safely say that a music producer has a heavy influence on what the final product of a group will sound like.

However, let’s be clear, in the US and other main stream markets, one does’nt necessarily have to be a musician to be a music producer, ergo P-DIDDY aka Puff Daddy and many others made that clear, when they came out and expressed to the world that they don’t play no instrument, and they have no intentions of playing instruments, but they are still music producers because what they do is, they have musical ideas, and they hire musicians and tell them to play this or that, and hire people on the basis of what ‘s known as “Work For Hire� and get their albums done, and then, they get the credits as “Music Producer� which is totally legal, and ethical in today’s music business.

In our community, most of the people that we call music producers are actually “Executive Producers� and Distributors�
The simple fact that most Haitian bands produce their own music for their albums in the studio collectively as a group, and then, take the finish product to the labels for distribution and promotion, classifies the musicians as “Music Producers� of their albums. However, there may be times when one individual can play both roles, as an executive producer and a music producer.

One such person is Mr. Fred Paul From Mini Records, as a kid, I used to always look at his name on the old Haitian albums, and later on when I became a producer/ musician, I have had few opportunities to work with him, and they were definitely memorable experiences. He was in total control of the studio, he directed the musicians, he contributed in all levels, music, arrangement of horns, which microphones are more suitable for certain parts etc…that’s a “Producer “ who can and do wear both hats.

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PROMOTERS:
A promoter helps organize, develop and finance an event. He or she is the link between the artists and the consumers when it comes to exposure for the artist. These people contact booking agents and other groups managers to make deals and bring the artists to different venues to perform. They are also in charge of attracting as many people as possible to support the events. The Promoters are very important aspect of the music industry, a good promoter can enhance CD sales, and popularity of a given group.

BOOKING AGENT:
This person or company specializes in finding venues and matching promoters and groups musical needs and demands and match it with the appropriate promoters or groups. They also organize tours, and their standard fee for most booking agents is usually between 15% to 30% of artist’s revenues.

There are many more behind the scenes occupations that we will cover, like : Recording Engineers, Mixing Engineers, Mastering Engineers, Tech persons, Roadies, Monitor engineers, lights crews, Street Teams, Disc jockeys and radio personnel are some of them, but we will cover them in our next blob.

Again, Please be advised, I don’t claim to know all the answers, I believe in the concept of “EACH ONE TEACH ONE� which clearly means that I expect for anyone of the KM board members to teach me and each other things, all I do is provide a topic and some key researched information which is totally open for debate….

As I always say “ YOU ARE AS STRONG AS YOUR WEAKEST LINK “ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER….
UNTIL NEXT ONE, LOVE IS THE ANSWER..

JUBE