Task 1 - Music Industry
Task 1 - Music Industry
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[Sound Technician]
Job Description:
The role of the sound technician is to come to gigs and use the sound board and the other sound equipment that they may decide to bring to make sure that the sound levels are balanced between instruments and the sounds mixed properly, making sure that the bass doesn't overpower the guitar or the guitar doesn't overpower the vocals. The sound technicians main job is to add any finishing touches to an artists performance, making sure that sounds are nicely levelled so that it isn't overwhelming on the stage for the performers and so that the audience has a nice layer of sound to listen to.
These guys typically get paid around £40,000 every year, ranging from £20,000 to £70,000, but freelance sound technicians get paid per event, this is where the pay can usually start to dip in and out of places depending on how good you are, the venue, and the artists, the difference in prices can be huge.
To become a professional sound technician then you would have to complete a college level course and get a a good grade, attend a university to get a degree, get some real world experience.
[Social Media Manager]
Job Description:
The role of the social media manager is to structure the online representation and getting fan engaged and up to date with events with the bands. This role requires a high standard of knowledge towards social media platforms. Not only that, they need to have a great understanding on the dynamics related to that musical area. Social media managers have to come up with a creative approach in order to connect the artists with their fan bases, build the anticipation for the album releases and tours for the artist. They have to develop a vibrant online community around the artist's band.
These social media managers can expect to make around £60,000. But this can range from $50,000 to £85,000. There are many different income streams. Agency work and freelancing. Another big income stream is by using Affiliate Marketing, this is where the social media managers can suggest an artist leverage
[Composers]
Job Description
The role of the composer is to write and create their own instrumental, this music is often orchestral music or music that is then used in film, advertisements, media and video games. Composers create any sort of visual media music, especially recordings for artists. There are quite a few different variants of composers within the music industry, thus being the following:
Classical composer. This type of composer tends to write. orchestra music for musicians to perform live.
Film composers. Obviously these composers create music for films, but they also do Television and adverts for companies and businesses. Sometimes these sort of composers get paid quite a bit of money from these companies.
Some composers also get hired and paid to compose music or for video games and other areas like that.
Being a composer involves sitting down with their instruments. or at the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and a MIDI controller to be able to write this music. Classical composers tend to stick to using instruments, but Film composers may vary between proper instruments and the DAW. The average salary of composers is around £55,000 but their income can vary between like £20,000 and £120,000.
There is only a slight difference between a composer and songwriter. A composer sticks to writing instrumental pieces, they tend to work on project of a larger-scale. Whereas songwriters write songs that contain proper lyrics and melodies. Obviously there can be cross overs where composers don't write a instrumental piece but they may decide to write a song with lyrics and melodies, and songwriters could attempt to compose some form of instrumental or orchestral piece.
[Income streams]
There are so many income streams within the music industry. I am going talk about a few of them now, these are the following: Touring, Merchandising, Sync Deal.
[Touring]
Selling tickets for a concert/live show is one of the best ways to make money within the music industry, this is the most common way that most artists and performers make their money today. The majority of tickets are sold online on a tiered system, thus meaning that there are more seating and service variants such as VIP or front row seats costing more or further away seats costing less.
Add-ons such as VIP tickets may consist of backstage privileges to meet the band or maybe getting a signed version of the bands album and/or poster.
Once you have gotten a good enough fanbase, you can start pricing your own tickets at what you think they are worth, meaning that you get more profit out of these live performances. Before this stage, these unsigned shows are probably going to have their tickets priced at around £5-£15. This means that you should make sure that your advertisement for these events are done well so that more people buy these tickets, again meaning more profit from these shows.
[Sync Deals]
Sync deals are where artists are given the chance to make money from having there song/songs being used in visual media such as movies or video games. In a sync deal, the artist gives a media business with a music synchronisation license, giving this business permission to use the artists music in a agreed and organised from of visual media. Doing this, artists or bands are able to make thousands, possibly even a couple hundred thousand off of this method.
A music synchronisation license is a license that gives permission for someone to use a piece of music in a visual or audio-visual piece of work. This license MUST be obtained from the artist of who the music belongs to before the business can use it.
The best part about sync deals are that you do not have to be singed to a record label or anything like that. You just need to simply have great music, good enough for someone to want to put it in a piece of media. If you are attempting to make a sync deal with a business, the likely hood is that it either needs to be instrumental, or you will need to have an instrumental version of the piece ready for them to use.
Career Plan Guidance
Start from now. What you're studying. Extra curricular activities. Volunteer work.
What the job/ career is and what it entails. I.E. Head engineer of a recording studio.
What Qualifications would you want to achieve to help you reach your career goal? Where would you study? I.E. Advanced music production at Bath Spa Univerisity to gain a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree. Why would achieving this/ studying here help you to achieve your goal I.E. The course is well reknowned for training people to an exceptionally high level of knowledge and practical skills etc etc. (SOME UNIVERSITIES NOW OFFER A 4th OPTIONAL YEAR IN WORK PLACEMENT TO GAIN REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE WITHIN THE INDUSTRY ETC)
Volunteer work? Internships?
What you could do to further your opportunities? I.E. Starting as a junior studio assistant and working your way up, then moving to a new studio to work and learn under another head engineer.
[Career Plan]
I am currently studying the UAL Level 3 Music Performance Diploma Course at Exeter College, and after this I plan to become a Skilled Sound Technician.
When starting off in this profession, making sure that you know all of the essential skills is so important, if you try to get a job before learning absolutely everything, then people may leave bad reviews on people and let other artists that they shouldn't hire you.
There are many roles and responsibilities that come with being a sound technician. These are as followed:
One of the most important roles as a sound technician is to set up and maintain the audio equipment for live performances or productions. This work consists of a good understanding of the technical side of a number of pieces of equipment such as the different microphones, mixing, amplifiers, and speakers, and ensuring that each of these things are functioning correctly. Regular maintenance tasks such as cleaning the equipment, testing to make sure it works, and repairing any broken equipment are also a major responsibility of being a sound technician. A sound musician must be well skilled in troubleshooting any technical issues that may come up during setup or operations, which usually lead to some quite difficult and stressful situations.
Sound technicians are responsible for the mixing and balancing of the volume levels in a piece to achieve optimal sound quality during events like performing at little gigs, bigger events like a concert, and productions. This involves adjusting the volume levels, EQ settings, and any effects that the artist, or just you yourself could think fit in the piece you're working on, we do this to ensure that each sounds blends in with each other, creating a nice layer of sound to satisfy the brain.
Making sure that you know how to properly set up a microphone is a major priority when becoming a sound technician, making it easy to capture a clear and balanced audio. They must strategically position the correct microphones to capture the nice sound that everybody wants whilst minimizing that amount of background noise and feedback. They need to make sure that all of the microphones are appropriate for recording what they are recording. For example, the singer would want to either use something like the Shure SM57 or the Shure SM58 if they are doing a live performance, whereas if they were doing a recording session in the studio then they may want to use the AT3525.
Sound technicians should be able to work closely with other members of production teams, this includes directors, producers, stage managers, and lighting technicians, although some sound technicians could take the tasks of the lights as well as the sound. Effective communication and collaboration are an essential skill for sound technicians when coordinating audio cues and make sure that the audio element of a production complement any other technical issues seamlessly.
You have got to be able to professionally collaborate with artists and performers. Building up a reputation and reviews from these artists.
In order for me to become a sound technician I could decide to get an apprenticeship working for other sound technicians, learning about all the true aspects of being a sound technician and getting real world experience before actually starting real work. I would have to look at getting either a music production degree or a audio engineering degree in college. Having hands on experience rather than just reading and researching the assets of being a sound technician and learning about the whole production side of music is an essential for learning how to be a good sound technician, so I would want to make sure that program of the course I choose is well equipped with work opportunities, I may even decide to check to see if the teachers are at all currently having a real experience with being a sound technician as well as teaching that course.
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