PART 6 ( also read : Part 5 | Part 4 | Part 3 | Part 2 | Part 1)

Complementary Careers in the Music Industry

Historically, Music has always had an incredible appeal to people but only a few people have the talent and the staying power to make it as a profession. Sometimes, a temporary success can mislead you into feeling that you have found your calling and misguide you. It is an extremely competitive world out there and it can get quite frustrating. But there is no need to loose heart as there are numerous related professions out here that can use your passion for music to advantage. After all, you may have certain mundane concerns like a need to earn a living!

Song Writing : For those with a flair for writing, song writing is a great art that involves close proximity to the music world and is, in the west, one of the highest paying too. The royalty earnings of a successful songwriter can run into millions of dollars. India however suffers greatly in this area as piracy is a major drain on this income stream. Tax evasion by the record companies also leads to reduced legitimate sales thus robbing the artistes from justified earnings. This leads to the payment of arbitrary lump sum fees to song writers which vary greatly on the "market value" of the lyricist. Also the herd mentality leads to only a few people getting the majority of the work independent of the intrinsic worth of other individuals. However for an aspiring song writer there is no choice but to persist, for success may be just round the corner.

Sound Engineers : Both the Studio and Live Music events need Sound Engineers who can reach music to the public's ears in the best sounding manner.
Live engineering involves the use of mixers, mikes, speakers, hall acoustics, set lists etc. and incredible presence of mind as there are no retakes. It is an exciting and demanding profession as you have the power to make or break the performances of the artistes on stage. You need to have a keen sense of music along with technical skills and it can become highly rewarding too.

The Studio Engineers, on the other hand have to have all the qualities of the live engineers along with a sense of detail and perfection. The recordings that pass through his hands will be heard and reheard a million times by millions of people all over the world and he better get it right. In his hands lies the future of many great musicians and the responsibility of capturing that magic moment. Sound Engineering is a great profession for Music lovers who possess technical qualities. The pay is very good and the opportunities for growth for the true professional are huge.

Music Critic and Journalist : Your love for music and proximity to musicians etc. means that you have far more knowledge of music than the lay man. Coupled with writing skills, you could be a great music critic where you would get to evaluate the latest releases from the recording companies. You could end up with a huge cassette collection and I hope some of them are worthy of you! The music journalist would get to meet the greatest musicians around and discover the secrets of their success.

Impresarios-Agents-Event Managers : Event Management has finally taken off in this country and there is a great requirement of personnel who are proficient with the mechanics of show business. Your artistic desires make you competent to understand fellow artistes better than anybody else and guarantee satisfaction all around. Also your experience as a musician is excellent training for event managers. You also need to have a host of other attributes including good management and public relations skills. Both Artistes and Clients can be very difficult to deal with.

Record Company executives : The Artistes and Repertoire Department of a Record Company is a great place for those of you music lovers who also need to have the security of a corporate structure. It is the job of the A&R dept. to find artistes with potential from the big bad world out there and realise their commercial worth. They have to find the right songs for the right singers, the best lyric writers for the music composer, the best combination of music producer/composer and studio and numerous decisions of this nature that can very often influence the success of a project. They also have to come up with gimmicky commercial ideas that the market needs from time to time which can get rather unmusical but the bottom line is paramount in any business. They need to have the musical pulse of the nation or the world in their hands so that they have the best musical ideas with them and predict the music tastes of the masses in the future so that they can invest in artistes who will bloom in the future. The prime motive of any good A&R Manager should be to develop good repertoire that covers the entire market segment. From the juggie dwellers to the high rises and bungalows and from children to senior citizens. This job calls for a person who is comfortable with both artistes and corporate types. The right chemistry between the artiste and the A&R dept. can very often determine the fate of an album. It is no accident that successful artistes have sometimes married their Music Company managers! Mariah Carey and Celine Dion are prime examples.

Unfortunately in India, this dept. has been given the short end of the stick by the management of Record Companies and thus the companies just serve as CD/Cassette manufacturers and a Music marketing and distribution agency and have no say in the shaping of the musical destiny of the nation. Very few companies have competent A&R Managers who can appreciate artistes and explore their talent effectively. The music scene in India is dominated by the film industry and the music content is determined by producer, director, music composer and stars of the film and the record company has no say in this activity unless they do exercise this by sheer money power. The high price of music rights of a film have forced big record companies to produce their own films and it is no accident that successful films have been produced by those record companies with strong A&R considerations and thus have the pulse of the nation in their hands. It is this creativity that differentiates a true music company from another as the other functions of a record company are almost the same as any other consumer company. It is indeed a sad plight for the artistes of this nation who sometimes have to deal with a music company executive with the sensitivity of a grave digger.

Nandoo Bhende : nandoo@sudeepaudio.com
The author is one of the pioneers of Pop and Rock Music in India.