What IS the Music Biz?

 

What is the music biz, this big industry which  people are trying to break into? I say ‘trying’ because it is an industry which many people get into by chance, usually by doing what they love and making a success out of it.

The music industry is that field of endeavour which takes the music of creators and puts it into the hands of people around the world. In this mix there are loads of different roles, with new ones being created every day as new technology and new methods of making and distributing music comes onto the market.

To the leisurely listener of music, the industry appears very simple: there are record labels who control artists who appear to make huge sums of money. What they don’t see are the people who play just as an important part in supporting artists and companies, for example lawyers, promoters, designers, photographers, producers, record stores and digital download stores, festivals, venues, managers, trade bodies, journalists, TV and video producers, authors, teachers, DJ’s, equipment manufacturers, music stores – the list is endless and hence the music industry as a whole is massive. There is a role for anyone who wants to be involved, and if there isn’t a role, it is easy enough to create one, in other words, to Define It Yourself.

The music industry is a gem to work in, because experience and initiative count far more than qualifications. It is a social industry and one where the standard 9-5 working day does not apply. It is an industry which loves to hate the major players, whilst at the same time emulating their success. And it is an industry where changes can happen virtually overnight. What is popular today may have died its death tomorrow, as we have seen so many times when new music takes hold. From blues, to country, to rock and roll, soul and jazz, to dance music, reggae , and punk – a style of music can define a time in a person’s history and can even define the mood of the times within a nation.

When music hits a note with its listener, it does not matter what anybody else thinks because an emotional attachment has been made. This is what makes truly great songs, and will continue to make truly great songs. Music joins people together and builds bridges; it gives inspiration to people and guides them through moments of grief and sadness. People will go without food to buy music, and in under developed nations tribal groups can be seen and heard chanting songs which come from the heart.

This is the music industry. It is far reaching and all encompassing. When Ali G asked Donald Trump, the American billionaire, what was the most important product in the world, he replied ‘Music’. Quincy Jones, the renowned song-writer and creative mind behind Thriller (Michael Jackson), the biggest selling album in history, said that man cannot live without music. Music is in one’s soul.

This is the music industry. It is the business of giving music to people so that they may live greater lives, so that they may enjoy and indulge and share their love of music with others. It is the business of giving people something to dance to, to sing to, to cry to, and to make love to. It is the business of showing creativity in all its glory, of speaking the words of those who cannot verbalise what they wish to say, of providing ways of escape from routine lives. This is the music industry.

The Story of Pop, a collectors magazine from 1974, opens its special volume edition with the following introduction:

‘From kids flocking to buy ‘black’ discs in a downtown store and inspiring a disc jockey to break cultural boundaries, to pirated records of the world’s greatest superstars defrauding the industry of millions of dollars; from rough-and-ready basement beginnings with performers earning a few bucks a night to a jet-set coterie of fabulously wealthy, globally acclaimed stars; from the thrill of young people finding a music that was all their own at last, to movies about the nostalgia of small town life and the importance of music growing up……..’

This is the music industry!