Industry Perspective

Remuneration in the Age of Downloads

Much of Richard Burgess’ excellent and well-researched observations apply to the UK music industry as well. Many of the larger producer-managers are adopting the production company model: signing the artist directly and funding at least the initial recordings before raising further finance through licensing on to either a major or, increasingly, independents. Individual tracks can also be licensed in this way—this has been standard practice in the dance world for some years. The key point to aim for is retention of the recording copyright with 2-3 year terms. The advantage of licensing to a larger label, as well as their greater marketing and promotion muscle, is that they tend to be more reliable in royalty accounting—and bigger companies are subject to auditing regulations that allow access to records.

Transcription of Producer and Engineer Wing Event

March 24, 2008 Baird Auditorium – Museum of Natural History Shannon Emamali:  Good evening, I am Shannon Emamali and I am the executive director of the Recording Academy’s Washington, DC Chapter.  Welcome to our first actual Producer and Engineers event we’ve had here for the Chapter.   We’ve had it in other cities but we actually […]

Stephen Street and the Art of Man-Management

Stephen Street began his career in music in the early 1980s at Islands Records’ Fallout Shelter Studio. From the mid 1980s onwards he worked with the Smiths, first as an engineer and later as producer. Since then his production credits have included Blur, The Cranberries and The Kaiser Chiefs.

Interview with Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers is a composer, arranger, guitarist and producer, and co-founding member of Chic. His production credits include Sister Sledge, David Bowie, Madonna, Diana Ross, Duran Duran and many more. In 1998, Rodgers founded the Sumthing Else Music Works label and Sumthing Distribution, focusing on the production and distribution of video game soundtracks.

Music Producers Guild Round Table

Haydn Bendall, Mick Glossop, Mike Howlett and Tony Platt, members of the UK Music Producers Guild, reflect on issues identified by Simon Frith in his editorial piece A Journal on the Art of Record Production.

Striking the wrong note

“I’m only human.” It’s what we say when we make a mistake. Without mistakes, I’d be out of a job. When asked to explain what I do, I tend to describe classical music editing as “joining up the good bits and taking out the wrong notes.” This is, however, at best disingenuous and at worst a lie. Whilst it is a fair description of why the profession exists, it is not, as it turns out, actually what I do. So, what does the job really entail?