Roles & Contracts

Live Performance

Role 1: Tour Manager

A Tour Manager acts as the 'Mum' or 'Dad' on a concert tour to make sure everything runs smoothly.

They are in charge of the business side of a tour, Their duties include confirming show times, managing finances, managing the venues, dealing with promoters and making sure everyone is where they need to be and making sure they're on time.

In terms of salary, a tour manager will receive a salary depending on the size of the tour, roughly about £15,000 to £20,000 a year to start off with.

Normally, the fee structure is a normal base salary + expenses + a.p.d (an a.p.d is a daily allowance for things like food etc.)

When a tour manager is first starting out as a tour manager, trying to build a reputation for themselves, they will be in charge of smaller tours, mainly for the expenses. When a tour manager has a lot of experience, they will be in charge of tours on a much larger scale that are most likely for more famous artists, they will be earning a much larger salary.

The basic skills needed to become a tour manager is to be able to work well with other people, experience of working abroad and an additional skill would be the ability to speak foreign languages if working abroad.

A Tour manager is responsible for the whole group that he's on tour with, he/she could be working from early morning to late at night, including weekends. Sometimes a tour manager can work 24 hours a day.

Tour managers usually have a short-term contract when on tour with an artist although some contracts can last quite a long time.

The pros of being a tour manager is the fact that its definitely a good job for people who like live music, also it give them a chance to help book the artists to show and even help put the shows together.

The biggest con would probably be the fact that once the tour is over, the tour manager would be on call.

Contract of a tour manager:
Tour managers are self-employed freelance workers who work on short term contracts. 

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Role 2: Artist Promoter

The main job of an artist promoter is to publicise the concert that the artist is performing at, their more or less in charge of putting on the show because its their job to get the word out about the artist so that there will be a larger audience to see them perform. Their promotional methods include; organising tours, negotiating contracts, organising publicity events such as interviews and getting airtime on radio and TV shows.

On average, starting salaries for an artist promoter will be roughly £12,000-£18,000, then as the promoter becomes more experienced, he/she can earn £20,000-£40,000, Top salaries can reach up to £100,000 if the job is done perfectly.

For an artist promoter, their working hours vary a lot because they might go to concerts at night and then deal with promotional events during the day which can involve travelling overseas to different countries.

The skills a good artist promoter should have would be good sales and negotiation skills, good spoken and written communication skills, drive, motivation and the ability to work well under pressure.

The pros of being an artist promoter would be that you get to work with the bands you love, its the perfect job if you like live music and the pay can be very good depending on the shows your doing. On the other hand, the cons would be that if your working by yourself, in a small venue and with a small band, if can cost the promoter a lot of money. 

Probably the biggest con would be that promoting a show is extremely difficult because the promoter make someone write about the show or make them come to the show so promoting the show is probably the hardest job they have and can all be for nothing if no one turns up to the show.

Technician/Sound Engineer:

The sound engineer's main job is to control the sound at live events like music concerts and performances.

Their duties include things like doing sound checks before the performance or concerts, positioning the microphones and setting up and taking down equipment at every venue when on tour.

In terms of salary, normally an experienced sound engineer can earn about £20,000 - £40,000 but a sound designer can earn about £40,000 a year or more.

A sound engineer would need to be very flexible about when they can work because the hours they work can vary from a sound check and a concert to whole day of work with no rest. 

A lot of the time, sound engineers are required to work weekends and evenings because most performances and concerts are in the evening.

The skills a sound engineer would need to have would be good hearing, for judging the sound quality during a sound check, good practical skills, good communication skills and an interest in music and sound.

The pros of being a sound engineer would be that they get to take part in the excitement and the build up to the live concerts, its a good experience for people who like the technical side of music.

The cons of being a sound engineer would be that they get to use the best and the worst of sound desks and still be expected to make them sound good. 

Much like an artist promoter, a sound engineer won't get much credit if the concert was good, but if the concert is bad the band may blame the sound engineer.

Contracts - Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages of freelance work:

Being a freelancer, a tour manager can work whatever hours they want, if they want to sleep in on weekdays they can, they are able to work their most productive hours without falling behind on any work.

Another advantage to being a freelancer would be that they can work wherever they want as well, whether its at the local Internet cafe or the person is on holiday in Greece, they are not forced to be stuck in the office or at home.

Another advantage would be that they get to keep all of the profits from their projects, the money they get allows them to expand their business.

One last advantage would be that you are your own boss and if you don't agree with something or something doesn't go your way, you don't have to agree with it.

Disadvantages of freelance work:

Although being your own boss sounds like the best thing ever, being your own boss means that you have to be responsible enough to distinguish your business hours with your personal life and leisure time.

A common disadvantage of being a freelancer would be that there is a risk of not getting paid, although there are ways to avoid non-paying clients, sometimes you could realise too late when being at risk.

Since you are now your own boss, that means that your in charge of your own clients and projects, which means that you are the only person responsible so there is a lot of legwork which means you would have to take on many roles such as; marketing, advertising and sales.

Royalties

Royalties are the most preferred method of payment for writers, musicians and performers for their work on a track or at a live gig. A lot of musicians use the royalties that they'd receive after a gig as their main source of income, especially since most musicians are self-employed and don't rely on a monthly salary.
Writers' royalties are slightly different. Every time a writers' song is played live, recorded or broadcasted, the writer is entitled to a royalty.

Copyright is the exclusive legal right given to an owner or the person who originally came up with an idea of something to sell, reproduce or license creative work, in other words, 'the right to copy' quoted by copyrighthouse.co.uk's definition of the term copyright.

The reason why copyright is so important is because if there were no copyright laws, any artist or writer could literally steal another artist/writers' original work and claim it to be theirs and probably get away with it.
Especially in this day and age where a lot of artists' voices or 'flow' sounds the same. But because there are copyright laws, if that situation was to occur, the person attempting to steal the creative work from the original writer may suffer very harsh consequences including;
Large monetary fines
Loss of employment
Loss of property
Loss of freedom
Another very common example of violating the copyright laws would be people illegally downloading music and videos from the Internet.
Although its a big problem, a large number of people do it everyday and get away with it but it can have a massive effect on the artist or songwriter who wrote or performed the song.

The reason for this is because from the artist' point of view, (for example a band) although a lot of people may want to listen to and enjoy their music, they're still illegally downloading the music and getting it for free which can harm the band and could even cause them to split up because of sales and support.

"There are different royalties for different uses of a song." Quoted by venturenavigator.co.uk, there is a royalty called the 'Performers' Right', this is the right to be paid if the song is performed.

"The Performing Right Society (PRS) collects and distributes royalties due for public performances of songs in clubs, pubs, concert venues, cruise ships, and anywhere else that uses live music to attract customers." - the definition of the PRS and what their purpose is in the music industry from venturenavigator.co.uk 's website.

Businesses pay the PRS for a licence for the song and then the PRS respond by giving the writers/publishers/artist their 'royalties' for their song being played on the radio, TV and film etc.

Although the writers receive their royalties for their song, the musicians that recorded on the track also get a royalty known as Performers Rights, not to be mixed up with performing rights.

People who own places that focus on music, for example, clubs, bars etc. have to pay for a licence to use the tracks that the musicians were recorded on, also TV and radio stations have to pay for a licence as well.

After that "A company called Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) collects the license money and then passes a share on to the musicians. Royalties Reunited is the simple way for you to claim airplay royalties that are owed to you." - venturenavigator.co.uk' definition of PPL and their purpose in the music industry.

Bibliography:
http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/499
http://www.ehow.co.uk/list_5969732_consequences-violations-copyright-laws.html

The Four Areas of the Music Industry

4 Areas of the Music Industry

Live Performance

Live performances are where you can really make your mark as a musician, Since being a musician has a lot to do with social networking, its good for a band to meet other musicians and listen to them perform live as well as creating their own popular fan base.
When a band has their own fan base, this can boost their reputation up a lot because that way, the band knows what their target audience is and then they can make music that the audience will enjoy and its much easier when the band creates their fan base from people in their local area because that way, fans in the area can spread the news about this band to others. For example, the band Little Comets are from Newcastle so they started their fan base in Newcastle.
A big part of live performances for a band would be for someone to video their performance and put it on a social networking like Facebook, Twitter or Youtube,  because for example if someone was to ask about a band performing somewhere, they could then search for one of the live performances on Youtube and find it.
'Gig Swaps' are another example of building a big fan base, for example, two bands could play a gig at each others hometown and gain more fans.

Record Companies

Record companies are the investors and developers of musical talent all over the world,
Record companies play a big role to help artists promote their music, for example, creating promotional ads and marketing campaigns to help get the artist's new music out there (e.g. putting an advert on a social networking site like Facebook or Youtube since almost everyone is using one of those sites.

One of the biggest pros of being signed to a record company is the money, record companies normally pay for the albums to be recorded and when the company that the artist is signed to has a lot of money, they can spend a lot of money promoting the artists music and what they would want for their career.
Another pro would be connections, again, if the company has a lot of money and have a big reputation, they're going to have some strong connections with some famous producers or promoters so the artist can their music out there a lot quicker.
 Probably the biggest con would be that a lot of artists get signed to large record companies so a lot of their gets thrown out, the reason it would be really bad for the artist is that they would almost be fighting for attetion from the company, and sooner or later the artist's music and popularity would probably fade away.. 


Music Publishing

The business of music publishing is concerned with developing, protecting and valuing music.

Music publishers play a big role in the development of new music and they take care of the business side of all of it, and then this gives the artists and songwriters space to concentrate on their own music.
Music publishing jobs can vary in a number of categories, the majority of them require musical knowledge.

Artist Management

An artist manager, also known as a "band manager", is in charge of the business side of being in a band.
The artist manager plays a big role because, even though the band members might be very good at writing lyrics, and being creative in the song, they aren't very good at promoting themselves and booking their own gigs, so that's where the artist manager comes in, their job is more or less to do what the band members can't do, which is to promote them and build their reputation by booking their gigs.

But if there is a band that's just starting out, then it wouldn't be a very good idea to treat them like they've getting gigs all the time and like they are used to that lifestyle, it would be best to start them out slowly and then build them up. 



Bibliography:
http://bpi.co.uk/category/music-business.aspx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/advice/
http://musicians.about.com/od/beingamusician/a/majorlabelpandc.htm
http://musicians.about.com/od/otherindustrycareers/p/artistmanager.htm