Major Record Label Departments Exposed!

Major Record Label Departments Exposed! Transcript

00:00:00 – 00:15:17

What is up Smart Rapper gang? In this video, we are going to talk about major record label departments exposed. Lets talk about this. You are going to love this. I’m Rob Level, you are about to get a little bit smarter because getting into it less is how it usually works. The artist signs a recording contract with a major label, then they send them all of their songs.

00:15:24 – 00:38:08

The company gives your songs to a distributor, which is usually a wholesaler that sells physical copies of your songs to stores. They also distribute music now digitally to all of the major streaming services. Okay. And then the record company then ramps up its advertising, promotion and marketing until you become a superstar, right? Now, what I want to talk about is here are the main parts of a record company with a full staff, a big, large label.

00:38:08 – 00:54:09

Here are the departments so you understand. First off, you’ve already heard these. Get this one out of the way A and R. And these are people who can hear new talent and they help that talent develop and they help it grow. They also work creatively with the artists sales department, and these are salespeople that get your songs into stores to get them on a digital media sites.

00:54:09 – 01:12:04

And this is very important if you, you know, you want to get as is important. You already know that, though. Let’s talk about the other area, which, you know is marketing and advertising, publicity, album cover art, promotional videos, in-store displays, promotional merchandise and more. That is a whole other department which you already needed. You need to learn this stuff yourself.

01:12:04 – 01:34:18

Okay. Promotion is important. The only reason these people live, right, is to get your songs played on the radio and in places that it needs to be actually played at for you to grow. Another department is product management. You are a product. Your music is a product, merchandise, product, product managers are in charge of getting all of the departments like the sales, the marketing and the promotion to work together, to break records, to break the songs.

01:34:18 – 01:51:10

Okay, Now this is to make sure that basically it’s getting everything to work together like a fine tuned engine. Everything’s nice and just running precisely a well-oiled machine. Now you want to make sure that people are all pulling their parts, so everything is not running in different directions, right? And you have another area which is called new media.

01:51:14 – 02:04:27

And here’s where you’ll find people who take charge of everything that has to do with digital, coming up with new ways to get music to people. And it’s interesting because it’s like you would think that the marketing would be that would be part of the promotion and also this would be too. But they’re actually all different departments, right?

02:04:27 – 02:24:04

Because there’s people specifically set on trying to figure out new trends and new things and create new ways of getting you heard, which is different. Right? And you have production. There’s another department big manufacturer, CDs. They send those out distributors, believe it or not, people still do listen to CDs. In some countries. This the worst right? Then, you know, another department of finance and they figure out, are you getting paid your royalties?

02:24:04 – 02:45:14

They’re keeping track how much money is coming in. Right. How much you make, how much you spending. Business matters. Okay. Now, in addition to that, you have to think about the lawyers and all the other legal stuff because you got all of these different business affairs that are happening, negotiating deals with other executives, negotiating deals with anybody, that anything has something to do with making money is going to have a contract in some way, shape or form.

02:45:14 – 02:59:20

The legal department is a whole department that is vital. Like if you start your own label, you need to have a lawyer as well, it’s very powerful. People who deal with the business and with the law are sometimes the same people, right? You have a business manager also does law. Right. Here’s the thing. There’s also an international affairs department.

02:59:20 – 03:16:13

Okay. And they’re in charge of coordinating the releases of your campaigns and your music across the world, especially when you get to that level. There’s a lot of different a lot of different departments. Okay. Excessive. And think about this. If you smaller is an indie label, some if not all of these jobs are done by the same person.

03:16:14 – 03:37:14

Okay. Or the same department they give you example some companies, the same people who work in the A and R department are also in charge of the products. Okay. A bigger label’s advertising publicity, artwork and video might be handled by completely different departments. All right. So what sucks is when you sign to a major label, all these people are getting paid, and that’s why you get such a smaller percentage, because a lot of these people aren’t even really that necessary, depends on how big you are as an artist.

03:37:14 – 03:56:07

If you’re smaller, you not even really utilizing a lot of these different people. They’re not doing as much for you, which is why you got to be bigger. But all the products from the big record companies are sold by big distributors, which are huge networks that move songs really though in many different ways from factories to stores, your merchandise from factories, if you sell them that they can make it that much is crazy.

03:56:07 – 04:23:20

And it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds to do that stuff. Okay? And like any other manufacturing business, you need a big network to do it and it costs a lot to set up and a lot to run. Yeah, warehousing, shipping, inventory controls, sales force. Right. So you have a whole team of people just selling stuff, right? And these are all needed to get the goods into the market for you so you can make money in fact, and a lot of big labels, more people work for the distributor, than for the label itself and their separate. Ridiculous. You just got a little bit smarter, it’s Smart Rapper.

04:23:21 – 04:38:29

Did you know that I have over 100 masterclasses to help musical artists just like you and me get from wherever you are to where you want to be. And this stuff covers every single possible area you can think of, and is free to check out. If you click this video, it’s going to show you all of the different masterclasses that I have. And I know at least one of them is going to be right for you. Right click this video.

04:39:00 – 04:57:17

I’m Rob level from smart rapper 450,000 subscribers, almost 50 million views can’t be wrong. Click this video, check it out and keep hustling. I’ll see you at the top

Major Record Label Departments Exposed!