Unit-PROJECT

INTRODUCTION

Particularly, I find music industry quite competitive and challenging place for the young generation for doing different careers in it. There are many opportunities to take part as a music career in music industry like in TV commercial, singer, DJ, dancer and lots more. It depends on which kind of talent you have and what you will be available to do in front many viewers. Basically in this generation young people are more eager to work in music industry like in theaters, TV, recording studios etc which is more interesting to see young people showing their talent and their inner confidence to the people over the world.
I am doing a project on my two different careers relating to music industry. This project is about their skills, qualifications and experience needed for the person who is doing a career as a music promoter and a record producer. For the project, I am going to find the answer to my question in choosing this two music careers. “Why did you choose music promoter and a record producer as your upcoming options for working in the music industry ?” In the beginning part of the course I did these careers just to complete my work but later I thought there are always reasons to do the things. While I was doing further researching information on these two jobs related to music industry, I got really interested. In my view, these two jobs are quite competitive in the music industry as they are one of the basic things for a person to promote music to other people and expand the music genres and style to different countries or within the country.
The most reflective part for this project is to improve my research skills. Knowing how to communicate with people, carry out a survey, going to a library and researching on it could be a great experience for me to be interested and able to find skills and confidence which could lead me to find work or whether I end up working in these two particular jobs in the music industry in the future.
The main purpose in experiencing different jobs in the music industry could be like understanding the values and improving it. Researching these two jobs normally I need to do a lot of finding the information on both of the careers normally about its qualifications, experience and skills needed which could have more details in pursuing to get a job in the music industry.

RESEARCH

In my secondary sources, I prepared my research from an internet. When I was researching the background details I needed it was quite important for me to choose good sources and links to gather reliable information so that others who are reading want find it fake and wrong.
I used www.wikipedia.co.uk site which I found that many people count on this website because there are lot of definitions and links but in some cases the meanings and words are difficult to understand and some of the details are fake so I prefer to check some of the sources whether it is correct or not. I even used the dictionary.reference.com site to find the meanings of the difficult words so that I could understand what it means. While finding different careers of the music industry I found another site www.wisegeek.com site which I find it quite intersting because I have never seen this site and it was quite useful for working out of my difficulties. I think ‘wisegeek’ site is quite understable than ‘wikipedia’ because this website helped me to gather more information on different careers of the music industry with its roles and skills and the words and meanings were quite easy to understand than wikipedia where there are lot of information but difficult meanings. I even used www.answers.com to find simple question like the qualification and salary amount for these particular jobs in the music industry. When I didn’t find the reliable answer for the salary information in the www.answers.com I found this www.collegecrunch.com website where I could find the good source of the two chosen music jobs and normally I am using is the college resource online site where you find many colleges details and jobs which is quite helpful for the people who want to find the resouces about the colleges and jobs they want.

For my primary research, I did a survey to find their different views and opinions regarding the careers from the music industry. The questionnaire survey done by the subject tutor gave us a hint to create our own questionnaires. We all chose to same like the tutor’s but made some changes in questionnaires to make alot easier for the people to understand and answer the questions. The title for the survey was “Questionnaries on careers in the music industry”. Basically, the sub-heading was “What are the skills, qualifications and experience neccessary to create a successful career in music teaching and/or performing in a group?” The questions were related to the sub-heading containing the questions about skills, qualification and experience whether/if they were interested to work in the music industry or not. After making the survey I handed out the questionnaire to my classmates from my media and creative diploma class and a helping resources tutor.

Here are the survey questions with people’s views and opinions:

In this question 1, everyone I gave my survey to told me that they don’t work in the music industry. As I gave my questionnaire to just students this is not a reliable question for them.
In this question 2, I gave 5 options which are: songwriter, singer, record producer, other and none. This is a good question because there are different options to choose and give their own views.
In this question 3, they were asked to say which skills were necessary ‘an ear for music’, singing talent or writing skills. This means whether they need to have talent for singing or just hearing the music or have writing skills needed for both the careers. I think this question is useful because most of the people asked are interested in music and listen to different types of artists.
In this question 4, I gave 4 options which are: GCSEs, Diploma or GNVQ, Degree in music and No qualifications necessary. I would say this is a practical question as its not quite good because the answer for this question is not known by many people and probably guessed it in their own views.
Regarding the question 5, everyone suggested that its very important for a music promoter or record producer to have an experience in the music industry. I would say this question is practically good because they know that without having an experience none would would be able to get in the industry. They suggested that more experience the more the person will get a job which could lead to have better reputation even they have a life with difficulties in their path in the big music industry.


REPORT

“Why did you choose music promoter and a record producer as your upcoming options for working in the music industry ?”

In my primary research, I did a question survey where I asked people if they are interested in doing a job in the music industry or not.
Basically, out of the five people asked, two of them chose songwriter, two of them chose singer and other(A&R) respectively and none were done by one person. As for record producer none chose this career. Basically, the majority of them chose songwriters than other job careers of the music industry.
In regards of the other people’s opinions the skills used by the singers or songwriters’ views were varied. The majority of them said singing talent and writing skills were neccessary to be a singer or songwriter.
When I looked at some of the question surveys of other people I found it really interesting because many of them suggested that in the music industry there are no qualifications required, as work experience or training in the industry is really important. The survey also suggested that getting more experience could lead to higher ranks in the music industry and I particularly agree with their answers.
In my opinion, I would say agree in their answers because the way each of them told about how its important and wrote their own views about the people how they work in the music industry.
In my secondary sources basically, I did a lot of researching in an internet to find the details about different careers in the music industry from different sites. It was difficult to find its basic things ] like skills, qualifications, salary and its role for each of the particular jobs of the industry.
I looked up in an internet where different kinds of jobs were involved. Out of range of jobs in the Music Technology Industry I chose Record Producer and Music Promoters.
Record Producer
Normlly for my internet research, I found that Record producer is one of the most important person in the music industry. It describes a record producer as one of the music industry professional who works with artists to produce records much like film producers, record producers plays a role in shaping the artistic direction of the projects they work on, and even also controls the quality and generating a project which may be successful. Producers are a very important part of the team which gets an album from the minds of the musicians to the shelves of retail stores.

Record producer's roles are:-
-plays a key role in recording sessions, controlling the schedule and working with the sound engineer to get the desired sound,
-Gathering and directing the ideas of the project,
-Getting into the songwriting process and learning about songwriting and sequencing,
-Being able to work with musicians and artist and get the best out of them,
-Working with a recording engineer and other studio owners,
-Using sound effects, samples and other techniques to make song sound different and unique,
-Mixing and editing the song, and finally
-Mastering the song.

Being a record producer can vary, depending on the type of music being recorded and the preference of the musicians' style of music. Record producers from a hip hop labels are often quite famous than the musicians they work with, and can make or break the success. In contrast the record producers working with classical musicians often have less involved artistically which only may focused on getting a good, clean recording. Basically, in this present generation many record producers are involved in being as a songwriter, a musician and recording engineering.

Salary Information:
While researching about the salary information I found out that the normal salary of a record producer range from over $30,000 up to more than $50,000 on a yearly basis which I find it quite alot but basically it depends on the sales of the music.

Qualifications:
More often the people who are interested in becoming a record producer in a music industry don’t have an entry qualification as its not quite needed but instead look for skills. As, i looked up in an internet most record producers have certificates in any of the following like in songwriting, composition, music production, sound engineering, musical history and theory, etc. People who often plan to be record producers may have to spend most of their time focusing on their piano skills as they say ‘instrument is usually the main composition tool of songwriters and producers’. Nowadays, record producers need to have skills on digital technology in producing music as you all know today’s generation has become quite dependent on computer software.
Having this job could be easier for the people who have dreams to be a record producer but there are times in struggling with singers and bands who insists to give ideas for their Cd album. Record producers should understand what they need in their songs and styles for the concept for the music.

Do you want to get involve in working in the music industry?
If you agree.....it will be your great opportunity to enter and will be able get training, audition and get many options for you to part of it.

Music Promoter
For my internet research, music promoter is also one of the most important job in the music industry because the person or a group of peole who works as a music promoters focus in marketing and promoting concerts, live events and manages publicity and advertising the music in the country and outside the different countries in the world. They are normally invloved as a business person in the music industry to work out the financial problems occuring in the industry and settling matters for the musicians' concerts and events.

Promoters have a good feedback about them because they are the one to create the advertising and making a publicity for the new musicians to attract many people of the world. Nowadays, most of the promoters are helding as plastering posters on outdoor walls,flyposting, and distributing handbills on windows of cars parked in entertainment district. At present, many promoters have started doing online technology such as online social networks and event listing sites to handle publicity, invitations, mailing lists, and so on. Recently, many promoters are one of the leaders in SMS text message advertising to their own lists. Music promoters often build their own personalities and the parties they host, marketing the events under a consistent name, style, type of program, and social experience to brand out an artist successfully.

Working as a music promoter for a record company or solo artist, the main objectives are:
-writing press releases to publicise your client's music or tour.
-organising publicity events such as media interviews and personal appearances.
-going to publicity events with clients.
-getting airtime on radio and TV shows.
-networking with contacts in the music industry.
-organising tours.
-dealing with designers, printers and marketing staff.
-negotiating contracts.
-listening to new acts and deciding whether to offer them a contract.
-work as a promoter for a live music venue.

Salary Information:
According to my research, the salary of a music promoter range from over £35000 - £45000/annum plus bonus which depends on its sales and expanding of the music of a singer or a band. The salary is really good for being a music promoter in the music industry.

Qualification:
Basically, the qualifications are not importantl in the music industry but some people do have relevant foundation degrees, BTEC HNDs and degrees to get this job to enter the music industry. There is no set career path into working as a music promoter as the main key to get this job is have experience and develop a connection in the industry. Having this job is to establish your own experience like taking interest and taking responsibility in sales and marketing, public relations, event organisation or advertising. So, it is really important and need to have experience for working as a music promter. Getting more experience as a music promoter,he/she could take a course in music industry management to be more confidence but there is no guarantee to get a job as it is usually according to how much they can handle the job and take responsible for all the things.


CONCLUSION/EVALUATION

Doing this project work, it was really difficult to research and jot down its basic things about the two careers of the music industry. The ideas were normally from an internet which had so many things about these particular jobs of the music industry. At first, I didn’t had any idea what to write about these music careers but due to the help of an internet I found many informations about it. While doing researching of different careers in the music industry I found five to six careers and gave short information for each of thees music careers I found. Then, out of all I chose my best two careers which are record producer and music promoter. The decision I made to give full informations about these two jobs was that I felt it was quite interesting and furtherall, both were one of the busiest and important careers in the music industry.

Basically, when I was doing secondary research on both of these two careers the most confusing part was the qualifications because many of the other jobs from different industry request for the qualifications and only were given to do the job but in the music industry it is not essential but instead skills and experience were more important if not they are given training and job experience. But some people who want to work as a record producer or music promoter study getting degrees to enter the music industry as basically its easier for them to know about the job they want because they have experienced a lot and have more practical skills.

The thing I didn’t like about my project is doing a research which was quite hard because I could not remember few websites and links I found for these two music careers and I didn’t do researching in books which is quite helpful if you do so. If I have to change or fully prepared a new one I would like to normally write some of the important websites and hyperlinks for research beforehand and prepared a final draft for it and even read some books related to music where I could find different jobs and important details about it for my project.
Overall, I would say my project is fine and would grade satisfactory just to say its not quite understable in some cases but I feel its average for the readers.