Pro Tips
The best careers in the music industry
What better place for music-lovers to work than in the music industry itself? Whether you’re more interested in music production, setting up live performances, curating music in movies, promoting artists in the media or helping them meet their full artistic potential, there’s something for everyone in this field. Let’s take a look at some of the most fascinating jobs in the music industry to see which one suits you best.
Music Producer
What does a music producer do?
Music producers work closely with artists to shape the overall direction, arrangement, and sonic quality of their song or album. This involves helping to develop song ideas, selecting appropriate instruments and sounds, and providing feedback on performances to ensure the best possible outcome.
In addition to their creative input, music producers often handle the technical aspects of recording, such as operating recording equipment, setting up microphones, and mixing and mastering tracks to achieve a polished final product. They often also collaborate with a team of recording engineers and other studio personnel to achieve the desired sound.
Globally speaking, music producers are central pillars in the music industry that breathe life into the songs written by composers and songwriters and make them radio-ready.
How to become a music producer
In order to be a reputable music producer in high-demand, you first need to cultivate a very particular set of skills including:
Musical knowledge: A music producer must have a good ear, a strong understanding of music theory and a good awareness of the intricacies within each genre. In the end, it’s this vast musical knowledge that will enable music producers to make interesting artistic decisions.
Technical Proficiency: Music production is often just as much of a technical job as it is a creative one. Indeed, music producers are usually required to work with a digital audio workstation (DAW) like Pro Tools, Logic Pro or Ableton Live, and they must be able to use recording equipment, microphones and plugins effectively.
Critical Listening: A good music producer knows how to understand the artist and songwriter’s vision and turn it into a concrete reality. This often involves being able to translate these needs in ways sound engineers will understand, and occasionally challenging the artist when they think the song would benefit from going in another direction.
Creativity: The best music producers are often compelled to craft unique sounds, create creative arrangements and use production techniques that give their tracks a distinctive, recognizable character.
Until you’re able to make a name for yourself, being a music producer involves a great deal of networking to find clients for whom you’ll get to make music. Sometimes the best way to start is to produce yourself as well as artists in your friend circle. Once you have a decent portfolio to show for yourself, you can use that as evidence of your competence and branch out to bigger artists in your genre of choice.
Resources for aspiring music producers
Check out our Bridge Connect interview with Chassol to find out more about this type of role. Chassol is a french music producer known for his work on Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Endless and Solange’s When I Get Home from 2019.
Want to share your demos, stems and works in progress with collaborators on one centralized platform with personalized and trackable links? Check out Bridge.audio smart workspaces
A&R Manager
What does an A&R manager do?
An A&R (Artists and Repertoire) manager plays a vital role in the music industry by discovering, signing, and nurturing musical talent. Their primary responsibility is to identify promising new artists and guide them through their artistic development over their careers. Day to day, an A&R manager listens to demos, attends live performances, and scouts for talent across various platforms, including social media and music streaming services. Once they’ve found artists with potential, A&R managers work closely with them to refine their sound, find their voice, select songs for recording, and shape their overall artistic direction.
Additionally, A&R managers act as a liaison between artists and record labels, facilitating communication and ensuring that both parties’ goals are aligned. They also collaborate with producers, songwriters, and marketing teams to develop strategies for their artists’ success, overseeing the recording process, and helping to plan promotional activities. Through their keen ear for talent and industry knowledge, A&R managers play a crucial role in shaping the musical landscape we know today and introducing the world to new talent.
How to become an A&R manager
If you’re interested in becoming an A&R manager, here are some skills you need to cultivate:
Talent recognition: A good A&R is someone who has refined their ability to identify potential hit artists and songs by listening to a wide range of music and staying up to date with the latest industry trends.
Industry knowledge: Since an A&R gets involved at many different points of an artist’s development, they need to have a deep understanding of the music industry at large, including the workings of record labels, the music production process as well as market trends and audience preferences.
Strong relational skills: Being an A&R means being in constant collaboration with others. Not only are they in constant dialogue with their artists, but they’re often the point of contact between artist and label. It’s not uncommon for the former and the latter to disagree on the direction of a project, so the A&R must be able to mediate in a way that leaves everyone happy.
Long-term vision: Working as an A&R rarely leads to immediate gratification. Indeed, it’s usually only after investing a fair amount of time into an artist that they start to find their sound, now factor in the time it takes to record and release a full body of work. To become an A&R, you must first and foremost have patience, and faith that all your work will pay off in the long run.
Resources for aspiring A&R managers
Listen to our Bridge Connect interview with Jon Coombs, A&R at Secretly Group to hear more from an A&R Manager working in the music industry today.
Want a better way to receive demos from artists and find your next star? Simplify your workflow and amplify your productivity with Bridge.audio’s inbox feature.
Music Publisher
What does a Music Publisher do?
A music publisher manages and promotes the work of songwriters and composers. They must first acquire the rights to songs, then ensure these songs are properly registered with the appropriate performance rights organizations (PROs), and finally they must collect and re-distribute the royalties on behalf of the creators. In order to generate royalties, music publishers actively seek out opportunities to license songs for use in various media, such as films, television, commercials, and video games. The goal is to generate revenue through music synchronization (click here to find out how Sync is reshaping the music industry), and to expand the reach of the artists and creators behind the song, helping them reach new audiences.
Additionally, music publishers often provide valuable support to artists in the form of marketing, legal advice, and career development. By facilitating these processes, music publishers help artists focus on their creative endeavors while ensuring they receive fair compensation for their work.
How to become a Music Publisher
If you’re interested in becoming a music publishers, here are some skills you’ll be expected to have:
Knowledge of copyright laws: Needless to say, music publishers must have a strong understanding of all the legal aspects of the music industry if they are to appropriately protect the work of their artists, and generate a maximum amount of royalties. This includes knowledge of copyright, licensing and intellectual property rights. This is a job that requires quite a bit of paperwork!
Networking and relationship building: Music publishers are often the point of connection between many different music industry professionals, often needing to connect songwriters to composers, artists, record labels and music supervisors, to name a few. Therefore, a big part of the music publisher job is cultivating relationships and putting yourself in environments where you’re more likely to make new connections.
Adaptability and innovation: The music industry is a rapidly evolving field, highly influenced by the latest technological advances. Music publishers must stay aware of how things are evolving in order to take advantage of new opportunities to promote the songwriters and composers they represent and generate royalties.
Resources for aspiring music publishers
Find out how Bridge.audio enables you to store and share all the metadata, publishing and master split details of your entire catalog. Edit these details at any time and watch them change in real-time for all your collaborators.
Sync Manager
What does a Sync Manager do?
A sync manager, or synchronization manager, is responsible for securing the placement of songs in various forms of media, including films, television shows, commercials, video games, and online content. They often work within music publishing houses or agencies and dedicate themselves entirely to finding sync opportunities for the artists they represent. Their end goal is centered around generating royalties specifically through sync placements. Similarly to the music publisher, they must be capable of negotiating licensing agreements and ensuring that the terms of the contract align with the rights holders’ interests.
Sync managers work closely with music supervisors, directors, advertising agencies, and production companies to match songs with specific scenes or campaigns, enhancing the emotional and narrative impact of the visual media. Additionally, they oversee the legal and financial aspects of synchronization deals, ensuring proper compensation and credit for the artists. By effectively managing these elements, sync managers help expand the reach and revenue streams of the music they represent, contributing significantly to the artists’ exposure and financial success.
How to become a Sync Manager
Here are some of the key skills that would make you a successful sync manager:
Strong interest in and knowledge of audiovisual industries: Good sync managers have a strong passion for both music and media. Whether in film, TV, advertising or gaming, sync managers must be keenly aware of the trends within these industries so as to pitch the right music from their catalog, for the right projects, at the right time.
Legal and contractual knowledge: Sync managers are usually required to draft and review contracts relating to the copyright and intellectual property rights of the songs being synced. This requires a firm understanding of such legal principles, as well as a strong capacity for negotiation.
Creative thinking & a keen eye: In order for their sync pitches to even be considered by production teams and music supervisors, sync managers must have done their research beforehand. Indeed, they must ensure that the song they are pitching would truly enhance the emotional and narrative impact of the visual project at hand. This requires having a keen eye and ear, and a strong ability to communicate their creative vision to whoever they are pitching to.
Resources for aspiring sync managers
Check out how Allo Floride Publishing uses Bridge.audio to facilitate their pitching process to music supervisors and increase their chances of getting sync licensing deals.
Learn more about how synchronization is reshaping the music industry and becoming a highly profitable source of revenue for artists, labels and publishers.
Discover how these 10 artists found success in the music industry through sync licensing deals.
Music Supervisor
What does a music supervisor do?
The music supervisor is the person responsible for selecting and integrating music within various media projects, including films, TV, commercials, and video games. They collaborate closely with directors, producers, and editors to understand the creative vision and ensure that the chosen music enhances the narrative, mood, and emotional tone of the project. They’re essentially the ones talking to sync managers (seen above) and considering their pitches. Their duties include identifying and licensing existing tracks, commissioning original compositions, and negotiating deals with artists, record labels, and music publishers.
Music supervisors must possess a keen ear for music, deep knowledge of music rights and licensing, and strong industry connections. By skillfully blending music with visual media, they elevate the overall impact of the content, contributing significantly to its artistic and commercial success.
How to become a music supervisor
The skills a music supervisor requires are very similar to those elaborated in our exploration of the Sync manager role. Indeed, these two roles sit face-to-face on opposite sides of the same coin. That said, let’s revisit how some of these skills might apply to the music supervisor role:
Strong musical knowledge & culture: Music supervisors are usually sought after for their refined musical taste. This is usually cultivated through a strong understanding of music history, musical genres and general trends within the music industry.
Creativity and artistic vision: In order to find the most impactful musical pieces to integrate into a visual project, music supervisors must have a deep artistic sensibility and a proclivity for storytelling. Only such qualities can lead them to know when they’ve found a piece of music that would truly enhance the emotional impact of the visual project they are supervising.
Project management: Music supervisors are usually in touch with directors, production teams, composers, technicians, sync managers, publishers and more. It is a role that requires a great deal of organization, and people management skills in order to have things run smoothly.
Legal knowledge: Similarly to music publishers and sync managers, music supervisors are also often involved in negotiating licensing contracts, and must therefore have a strong understanding of all the related legal components.
Resources for aspiring music supervisors
Check out our Bridge Connect interview with Alex Jaffray, founder of music production agency Start Rec, which is responsible for developing the sonic identity of major brands like Renault, SNCF, and the Atelier des Lumières.
Need a more effective and precise way to search for new music to elevate your films, TV shows, advertisements or video games? Discover our Sync Hub and use the power of our descriptive AI to find the human-made music you’re looking for, faster than ever before.
Public Relations Manager
The role
A public relations (PR) manager plays a crucial role in shaping and maintaining the public image of artists, bands, record labels, and music events. They’re the ones responsible for crafting and sharing press releases, coordinating media interviews, and managing social media presence to generate positive publicity and enhance visibility.
PR managers work closely with artists and their management teams to develop strategic communication plans that align with career goals and promotional activities, such as album releases, tours, and award campaigns. They also handle crisis management, addressing any negative publicity swiftly and effectively to protect their clients’ reputations. By building strong relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers, PR managers ensure that their clients receive ample media coverage, helping to increase fan engagement and drive commercial success.
Skills required
Here are some of the skills and qualities that would make for a successful PR manager in the music industry:
Excellent communication skills: Seeing as PR managers are so often led to speak on behalf of artists in an effort to promote their work, one of the primary skills they need is strong verbal and written communication. Indeed, this is an essential skill for crafting compelling press releases, media pitches, and social media content.
Media knowledge: To effectively do their job, PR managers must have a clear sense of the media landscape, its general trends and the way in which it is evolving, both locally and globally. If there are new forms of media on the rise, they must be among the first to use it to their artists’ advantage.
Strong networking skills: Building and maintaining strong relationships with journalists, bloggers, influencers, and industry professionals is crucial for securing media coverage and promotional opportunities.
Resources for aspiring PR managers
Check out how French PR agency Phunk (MGMT, Björk, Justice, Daft Punk) uses Bridge.audio to create electronic press kits (EPKs) for the artists they represent and promote them to media outlets.
Want to make your own personalized electronic press kit for free using Bridge.audio? Here’s a tutorial to show you how
Music Marketing Director
What does a Music Marketing Director do?
The Music Marketing Director is in many ways the one operating behind the scenes, meticulously cultivating a devoted community around the artist. Of course, it’s ultimately the artist’s work and personality that compel audiences to stick around, but getting new audiences to listen to an artist for the first time is one of the major challenges music marketing directors have to take on.
This is a particularly demanding task today, considering that we live in an attention economy with an infinite supply of content grappling for people’s attention, and 120,000 songs uploaded to streaming platforms every day. Music Marketing Directors must therefore strategize creative and memorable ways to promote their artists, and all their subsequent albums, tours, and related merchandise. Ultimately, a Music Marketing Director aims to maximize an artist’s visibility, engagement, and commercial success while adapting to the fast-evolving landscape of the music industry. As you can imagine, this involves wearing many hats.
How to become a Music Marketing Director
Now let’s take a closer look at the skills necessary to become a successful Music Marketing Director:
Strong creative vision: Though music marketing is quite a technical job, a good music marketer must be a good storyteller if they are to successfully create a compelling creative universe around their artist. This implies that they must have a keen artistic vision that aligns with the artist’s desires, and they must know how to surround themselves with the right people in order to bring this vision to fruition. Of course, the challenge is to do all this within certain budgetary limitations.
Industry knowledge: Music marketers must be acutely aware of industry trends, able to determine an artist’s target audience, what other artists they listen to, what genres they consume the most of, what countries they live in and on what platforms these individuals are spending most of their time on.
Strategic thinking: Once all the aforementioned information is known, the music marketer must strategically make the most of their budget to advertise to the right audience through the right mediums, without compromising on the artistic integrity of the creative work.
Resources for aspiring Music Marketing Directors
Use Bridge.audio’s smart workspaces to create a project for your artist including their final masters, their pictures, pdf files, music videos, their bio and their social media links, and share it with your collaborators using personalized links that notify you when it’s been clicked and when files have been opened.
Concert Promoter
What does a Concert Promoter do?
A concert promoter plays a crucial role in the music industry by organizing and coordinating live music events, ensuring they run smoothly and that they are ultimately profitable. Their primary responsibility is to book venues and artists, negotiating contracts to secure performances.
Day-to-day, concert promoters manage a wide array of tasks, including marketing and promoting events through various channels, such as social media, radio, and print, to maximize ticket sales. They coordinate with booking agents, artist managers, and venue operators to take care of logistics like sound, lighting, security, and accommodations. Additionally, they oversee ticket pricing, sales strategies, and budgeting to ensure the financial viability of the show. Concert promoters also handle the on-ground execution of events, ensuring everything runs on schedule and resolving any issues that arise.
As we’ve seen in our article about how to monetize your music in today’s music industry, live performance is one of the key ways to generate revenue from your music. That’s why concert promoters are considered key players in the field.
Through their efforts, concert promoters create memorable live music experiences and contribute significantly to an artist’s career growth and the overall music industry.
How to become a Concert Promoter
Here are some skills to hone in on if you’re interested in becoming a concert promoter:
Strong negotiation abilities: Being a good negotiator is practically synonymous with being a concert promoter as these are music industry professionals who must know how to effectively advertise events within a certain budget, maximize ticket sales all while respecting the artists’ creative vision.
Financial management: As the previous point would suggest, strong financial acumen to budget accurately is an essential part of the concert promoter’s job. Much of this position involves crunching numbers in a way that keeps everyone happy.
Adaptability and resourcefulness: The music industry is known for its volatility, and a good concert promoter is someone who must be able to think fast and adapt to changing circumstances.
Schedule flexibility: A concert promoter rarely works traditional hours and often needs to be available on-hand during shows. For those who have a calling to this profession, the spontaneity inherent in this role can be exciting! But it remains something to be mindful of going in.
Marketing skills: A good concert promoter knows how to create buzz around a concert and target the right audience through various marketing campaigns, whether using digital or traditional advertising mediums.
Resources for aspiring Concert Promoters
Looking for a simple tool to help you promote the artist playing at your show? Create your very own Bridge project with some sample tracks from the artist, pictures of the venue and all relevant information on the event in the description.
Conclusion
As you can see, the music industry is rich in opportunity and offers a wide array of different roles that can meet everyone’s different skill sets. Now that we’ve explored some of the best careers in the music industry, which one do you think speaks to you the most?
