Production, Promotion, Performing: 10 Careers in The Music Industry.

The music industry is forever shifting and changing the ways that it functions both internally and how the public engage with it. Whether that be the dawn of the streaming revolution, the introduction of label services or how social media has changed the barrier for entry for new musicians. There's also been the small issue of a global pandemic to vastly upset the functionality of the industry. One thing that will thankfully never change is the vast number of opportunities for careers in music. Have you always wanted to work in music but thought there weren’t any access points relevant to your skillset? We’re going to take a look at 10 jobs with the hope of showing how your skills might just be transferable to a job in a sector that you have a genuine passion and interest in. There will, of course, be some roles that require further education, training and experience, but by reading this handy little list you might be inspired to make a change.

Producer

Being a music producer, or record producer, can mean a few things today. You might spend your nights sitting in your bedroom slaving over a beat on Fruity Loops, you might listen to your mate’s new album and give overly detailed feedback on every track or you might just be a top tier communicator who knows how to make things happen. All of these, and many more, skills and traits feed into what it means to be a producer.

Before becoming the next deadmau5, Mark Ronson, Brian Eno or DJ Khaled you’re going to need to put in the miles to build a broad skillset and develop your own sound. Perhaps most importantly you need an ear for music and what, in your opinion, makes it have its intended impact. You should know how music can make you feel a certain way and how to go about achieving that. Why does hi-hat rhythm A make you want to move way more than hi-hat rhythm B? Why does the reverb on a vocal part give you the shivers? Why does dropping that melody line down an octave make such a difference to the bridge? If you are a trusted voice for what makes music sound “good” then chances are you’d make a great producer.

Having an understanding of “the vibe” is essential but equally you need a strong knowledge about how the sounds are actually made. You should be able to take an artist’s ideas, including your own, and turn them into a reality. All producers will have a different set of abilities and techniques but just be sure that you are able to physically put your sound or your vibe into practice. That might include knowing Ableton inside and out for EDM production, having a vast knowledge of amps and pedals for rock music production or being a classically trained violinist with a desire to create orchestral hip hop. The limitless possibilities for finding your own niche could be a daunting task but just by dedicating as much time as possible to creating music, in whatever form possible, you'll be on strong footing for your first steps.

Songwriter

Chord sequences, melodies and lyrics - the songwriter’s lifeblood. Similarly to producers, songwriters are feel merchants (I just made that up); the authorities when it comes to conveying messages in a listenable and coherent way. Having said that you don’t necessarily have to have the full package to be a successful songwriter - writing poetic lyrics could be enough or just having the ability to consistently come up with an ear-wormy hook. The best place to start is to just build up a catalogue of material that you’d be confident enough to share with fellow musicians. Whether it’s rough demos that you’ve recorded on your phone or some digital documents with lyrics or sheet music, collate all of your work in one place and approach a musician that you think would do your songs justice. Alternatively, you can just perform and release the songs yourself if you’re into that sort of thing.

Songwriting duos or teams have existed for decades but the idea of numerous individual songwriters coming together to work on a solitary track has become much more prevalent. If you take a look at the songwriting credits for a particular pop track or across a whole album in 2021 you are likely to be met with a lengthy list of names. That’s why it’s important to stress that you don’t necessarily have to tick every single box - what you have to offer might just be enough to solve a musician’s songwriting woes. If you're lacking confidence on your own, team up with another fellow musician and become the next Robbie Williams and Guy Chambers. Yes, that is the example I've chosen and I'm sticking with it.

Session Musician

Session musicians are the virtuoso instrumentalists and vocalists of the world who can charge for their services as a hired helping hand. While obviously needing to be highly talented at whatever part you are being hired for, whether that be lead guitarist, pianist or backing vocals, a large benefit is that you needn’t have to carry any of the creative weight of the project: turn up, play your part (figuratively and literally) and go home.

The best session musicians of the world are happy to jump between genres and styles. If you’re a classical guitarist it might benefit you to learn some bar chords for an electric guitar part and vice versa. This way you can open yourself up to more projects and build a reputation for being a jack of all trades. Push yourself; the more instruments and styles you are familiar with, the more work you can get! Be sure to have some proof of your abilities out there: on social media, a website or videos of you playing on YouTube.

Booking

Agents are responsible for procuring gigs for artists, creating tour schedules and communicating with venues and promoter; one for the fearless negotiators out there. While being fond of music can help, being an agent or a ‘talent agent’ more so requires that you have a knack for communication. You need to be able to sell an act and their show to a venue, making them out to be the best thing since the band ‘Bread’ and ensure that there will be promotion for that show. You’ll also be charged with the progression of an act - making sure that they are on an upwards trajectory when it comes to venue and audience sizes.

Before you’ve even been hired by an artist you need to be able to sell yourself in the same confident manner that you can sell an act to a venue. It’s going to be tough doing so if you’ve got no proof of being a trustworthy pair of hands. From the moment you get your mates that gig playing Christmas songs at the local shopping centre you need to be honing your brand: business cards, a website, social media, an online portfolio of artists that can attest to your work. The more you can do to show that you’re a success when it comes to getting work for musicians the more likely you are to be hired by a bigger name at the next opportunity.

A booking agency doesn’t just need the 'gift of the gab' types though. As with other sectors of the industry there is room for accountants, social media coordinators and many other categories of job to be filled at music agencies. If you have learnt skills that would benefit a business it’s likely that you can transfer those skills to the music industry somehow.

Promotion

Promo can come in various forms -  press releases, paid advertisements, social media, newsletters, interviews, posters, events - the ways in which a musician can be promoted are limitless. It is the job of a promoter or publicist to put those methods into practice and ensure that the artist receives as much exposure as possible. Often a PR company is hired for specific events or releases as opposed to a long term contract. For example it might be your job to manage a promotional campaign for an album launch, ensuring that journalists are notified with a press release to write reviews, teaser videos are posted across social media accounts, physical promotion such as posters and flyers are circulating the right places etc.

Promotion tends to come in the form of an agency these days as opposed to hiring just a single person to do the job. This means that you might not necessarily need experience specifically in the music industry to get a job - many will need social media coordination, graphic designers or other more logistical roles. Any form of background in marketing is bound to help but more than anything being a personable, great communicator will get you far. If you fancy it - start local. Try some interesting and original strategies for promoting local gigs and venues and your skills might just get noticed.

Audio Engineer / Recording Engineer

For those of you who are less inclined to make the music but are instead focused on how it is made. It is the job of an audio engineer to ensure that the intended sound of a creator is recreated in the best possible fashion. This role can differ depending on the context. For example there’s a practical difference between what an audio engineer will be doing for a live performance versus their role in a recording studio. Regardless, the core sentiment is ensuring that musicians can sound as good as possible.

While there is no such thing as an objectively “good sound”, the engineer must do what they can to arrive at what they think the artists deem "good" to be. (Yeah I had to re-read that too.) In the recording studio that’s ensuring that all equipment is set up correctly, recording software is ready to go and primed for multiple tracks of recording (extra points for colour coding) and keeping an eye out for any problems that might arise in the process. The live performance setup can vary much more depending on the type of act you're dealing with but when it comes to the performance you’ll have some key responsibilities. You’ll need to ensure that the act is mixed well during sound check with levels optimised for the venue, adjusting the mix between songs in the set list, utilising audio effects when necessary and ensure that any problems with audio are handled by yourself or the larger sound team... when they exist. It also helps to know the band’s sound and to have a good understanding of their songbook.

Across all situations it is key for an audio engineer to understand the ways in which sound can be produced: from the functionality of gear and software to the science of frequencies and how to manipulate sound. This understanding is often best learned via music technology courses and/or first-hand experience. The skills between sound engineer roles are definitely transferable but it’ll be very difficult to land that first role without the training, knowledge and experience necessary. However there is enough out there on YouTube and in ‘How To…’ articles to teach yourself much of the intricacies of sound engineering. See if any local venues will take you on as a trainee, volunteer or apprentice to help further your career.

Management

Here’s yet another role for all of you folks that think they have ‘the chat’. The role of a manager, or management company, varies hugely between the managers themselves and the artists that they represent. Where Epstein was cleaning up The Beatles’ look back in the 60s by putting them all in suits, a modern manager might be much more hands off in terms of the creative side of things and purely focus on pulling strings behind the scenes to advance the career of their acts. A manager will build relationships with booking agents, publicists, labels and lawyers. They’ll also, hopefully, be making sure that contracts are negotiated with the bands best interests at heart.

Management needs to be decisive and unafraid to give constructive criticism where necessary. You need to be confident enough in your negotiation skills to be able to secure an extra few grand on top of the initially proposed performance fee. You need to have the backbone to be able to tell your artist that they should 100% not be doing that "potentially career ruining thing". Above all though you need to appear to all parties as a trustworthy, hardworking individual - you’ll never get far in management if you can’t be taken seriously.

As I said there are plenty of management companies out there. Have a look around and try approaching one that might be interested in you helping out. Experience in logistics, people management and a passion for music could be the traits that set you on the path to music management.

Music Law

Got a law education? Fancy working in the music industry? Music Law!

Okay so there’s more to it than that. The music industry is a messy place when it comes to contracts, rights and royalties - scrolling past the terms and conditions is not something you want to be doing when signing any music industry contracts. A music lawyer will not only help draft and negotiate a contract that suits an artist best but also go through incoming contracts from labels, publishers and agents to ensure that you aren’t being absolutely shafted financially, creatively or morally. As we see all the more frequently today, musicians can easily write a song that either intentionally or accidentally sounds a lot like someone else’s work - a music lawyer would be vital in this situation.

The barriers for entry to be a music lawyer are obviously quite high. While the intricacies of music law could be an interest or hobby - albeit a particularly heavy one - you won’t be able to start practising until you are a certified lawyer. If you’ve got an undergraduate degree in something like English, History, Politics or Philosophy then you’d be perfectly set up to take a conversion course in Law. Once set up with a law degree, (I know... easy right?), you’ll still likely need some hands on experience in contract law in whatever industry you can get work in. Just keep an eye out for any openings or internships at an entertainment law firm.

Music Teacher

Whether it’s at a school, online via videos or personal private tutoring, there will always be a requirement for music teachers (at least until the AI uprising). You might have the urge to inspire the next generation of rockstars or you might just want to make a bit of money doing something you enjoy; either way teaching music or just an instrument could be your calling.

The salary, working conditions and hours of work will vary between private tutorship and being a fully fledged school music teacher. You’ll need more wide spread, general music knowledge to be a school teacher (and a tolerance of children) but you’ll have the benefit of those sweet school holidays. As a personal music tutor you can have a much more narrow and specialised skillset and you can dictate your own working week by only booking in sessions when it suits you. You won’t be able to guarantee how much money you’ll be making across the year though and it could take a while to gain recognition in your local community.

If you have the means to do so you could start by making tutorial videos on the internet as a way of dipping your toes into the career. If you get a good response you could continue to be a “digital tutor”, finding ways to monetise your work, or move on to teaching in person.

Tech Developer

Technological solutions to existing problems or outdated practices in the music industry are continually being discovered and developed. Take label services like Absolute or Distrokid, music discovery apps like Soundhound or Shazam, or exceptional music sharing and collaboration platforms like the wondrous Aux.app. The point is that if you have a passion for tech, as an entrepreneur or as a developer, then there is plenty to be done in the music space.

This is another career path that definitely requires a specific skillset - being a software developer needs to be learnt. If you do have the required education though there are plenty of places to start, whether that be at a small start-up or large streaming platform. Music software is constantly being updated and will always need teams of developers to make changes to UI and code.

If you have an idea, like a new platform or service, there's nothing to stop you gathering a team with the right skills and know-how to make that happen. Keep a look out for future Connects where we’ll meet some of the members of our very own dev team here at Aux, getting some insight into how they ended up building our platform.

I hope that list provided some insight into how you might consider taking your first steps into the music industry. I realise that it's by no means exhaustive so I'm keen to delve into more career paths, and in more detail, in the future.