Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Dear D4 demand,

Your dream is admirable and I wish you well.

But do you really think you’re going to learn everything you
need to know bout the music industry in a few weeks?

Taking this approach to your career might sound fine and dandy now, but what happens once you’re in, (if you get in) and your boss and colleagues find out that you know next to nothing?

Then what?

You’ll be on your own and “umming” and “arghing” and looking a little embarrassed. Or not. You might just get lucky.

But first, you matey have got some work to do.

So how badly do you want this?

Right now, margins in entertainment are incredibly slim. You’ll be up against people who DO know what the hell they’re doing and you’ll at least need to know the ins and outs of, in no particular order:

A&R
Recording technology
Digital delivery in a world of declining CD sales
CD duplication and fulfillment
Packaging print, publicity, and marketing
PR for artists/record company
Touring schedules/insurance, transportation, hotels, expenses, payment, staff, equipment hire, venue rental, PA hire, technical back up
Promotion of pretty much everything!
Production schedules for studio, tour, appearances
Special appearances on TV, radio, and web shows
Radio play lists
Copyright
Performance Rights Society connections
Royalties payment
Play list security
Number of mentions on air at peak times
Artistic management
Contractual obligations
Artist payment
Transportation of tangible goods
Sales to bulk buyers of CDs and margins
Design of promotional items for sale (t-shirts, caps, posters, buttons)
Sign off of same “ “
Production of same “ “

I hope these are enough of a start to get you thinking. Good luck.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

here are a few links to the info you're looing for. hope they help.


https://tinyurl.com/26lsar

https://futureofmusic.org/issues/articles

https://musicbizhacks.com/30-essential-music-industry-resources-links

https://www.bspcn.com/2009/02/27/how-to-kill-the-music-industry/

https://news.cnet.com/2010-1027_3-6167346.html

https://tinyurl.com/kne5pe

I personally know very little about the music distribution business. If I were personally interviewing for the position you describe, I think I might go about it a bit differently.

The first thing that I would do would be to spend a day or two with Google, looking at the websites of various industry players. For example, you could search monster.com and search for job postings for similar positions. You can visit websites of music distributors, and music producers, and so forth, and bookmark the pages which have a lot of information.

After several days of searching, go back and print out the most informative pages from your searching. Turn off your computer. Grab a highlighter, or better yet, grab a bunch of different colored highlighters, go through your printouts, and identify important elements: each page of your print out.

Next, open up Microsoft Excel and transport each data element you highlighted into a question. For example, a certain company might say they have been in business since such and such a year. You could write down a question, how long have you been in business?

In your first meeting with your potential new bosses, rather than going in with all the answers, you could ask them a series of questions based on your research, promising to come back to them after you have reviewed all the information. In this way, you can gather information you need about their efforts so far, and you can learn a bit about their goals and expectations. By asking intelligent questions, and through diligent research, I think you can create a very good first impression, and I would bet the company will enthusiastically invite you back for a second interview.

Good luck. I have done these projects before, and I am not too busy right now. I would be happy to help you develop your list of questions (no charge). Send me an e-mail if you would like to discuss further.

I would do research on a number of fronts:

* Start with a list of music distributors (such as: https://www.business.com/directory/media_and_entertainment/music/distributo... ) to build up info about the competition. Look at their websites to familiarize yourself with their terminology recent press releases.
* Next, see how children's music is being sold online and the trends to sales (iTunes, etc.)
* Talk to your local children's and music stores. Where do they purchase music from? Why? What do they know about your potential employer or their catalog?
* Look at the leaders in the field: The Wiggles and Disney. What are their numbers? What are their distribution successes? Failures?
* I'd read some books on the topic, such as the following. They'll give you some historical background of "the way it's done"
https://www.amazon.com/Need-Know-About-Music-Business/dp/0743293185/ref=sr_...
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Marketing-Promotion-Revised-Updated/dp/0823...
https://www.amazon.com/Plain-Simple-Guide-Music-Publishing/dp/0634090542/re...
https://www.amazon.com/This-Business-Music-William-Krasilovsky/dp/082307723...