KSKS45 BTEC First: the Music Industry by John Kelleher

John Kelleher is a freelance education consultant INTRODUCTION specialising in music and music The Wolf Report has had a wide, sweeping impact on the country’s suite of vocational qualifications. For music technology. He provides advice, teachers, one of the most significant outcomes was the requirement for vocational qualifications to incorporate training and an element of external assessment. As a result, Pearson had to reform its BTEC First for Music, and chose to resources for create an examination on the music industry. music teachers. Before moving into consultancy work, If a vocational music course has to have a compulsory unit, then it makes sense that it should be based around John was part of the the idea of how to make a living from music. For teachers who have never worked in or studied the music senior leadership industry, however, it can be a daunting task to deliver a unit that may seem like something more suited to the team and director of music at a London skills of the business studies department. secondary school. Fortunately, however, the content is far from incomprehensible, and music teachers should feel confident that they can guide students through the learning process. This resource will provide you with the necessary subject knowledge and suggest a few ways in which this content can be delivered.

THE COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Learning aims

There are two learning aims for this unit: Learning aim A: to understand different types of organisations that make up the music industry. Learning aim B: to understand job roles in the music industry.

Learning Aim A is, essentially, the bird’s-eye view of the music industry, and the specification proceeds to break this down into four areas (each with its own collection of sub-topics), which are then linked together by a study of ‘how organisations interrelate and why these relationships are important’. The four areas are: „„ venues „„ production and promotion „„ service companies and agencies „„ unions

If Learning Aim A is the bird’s-eye view, then Learning Aim B is the microscope. A number of job roles will be investigated by the students, and they are divided into three categories: „„ performance/creative roles „„ management and promotion roles „„ media and other roles

Learning Aim B doesn’t leave it at definitions but, instead, seeks to generate some higher-level thinking about the interrelations between roles and their place within the bird’s-eye view of the first learning aim. In particular, your scheme of work will need to cover: „„ how and why workers are employed in the industry „„ getting a break and starting out „„ the importance of individual roles and responsibilities „„ how individual roles and responsibilities interrelate „„ how the industry relies on entrepreneurs, the self-employed and small enterprises „„ how to get paid

1 Music Teacher October 2015 The examination

The examination itself is a 60-minute paper worth 50 marks, and it mostly consists of multiple-choice, short- response and extended writing questions. You can access the sample assessment material from Pearson’s website here.

Since there’s a substantial amount of fact-learning to be achieved here, it’s very tempting to deliver this unit through direct instruction. Pearson’s own materials state that learners are likely to find such an approach ‘uninspiring’ and suggest integrating the learning into the delivery of other units. This could include learning about performance roles through performance tasks, production roles through technology tasks and so on. It is entirely up to you how you deliver this unit. The purpose of this resource is to provide teachers with the necessary subject knowledge, but the examples given will highlight opportunities where learning could be delivered in the board’s preferred, ‘integrated’ method.

Content

With so many terms that students need to learn, it’s worth giving pupils a collection of dictionary templates You may wish for them to complete as they encounter new definitions. While a single dictionary would certainly provide the to provide your necessary information, it may be helpful to give students seven different dictionary templates – one for each candidates with the completed broad area of learning: dictionary resource „„ venues straightaway but, „„ production and promotion as David Didau is fond of highlighting, „„ service companies and agencies learning is achieved „„ unions when we have „„ performance/creative roles to think hard. „„ management and promotion roles Perhaps get pupils to complete the „„ media and other roles dictionary as they go, but provide them Although this will increase the number of documents that students have to administer (and dramatically with the completed version when improve the chances of them losing something!), it should make it easier for pupils to access the higher-level revision time comes thinking skills of how each area interrelates. around.

LEARNING AIM A

Venues and live performance

The specification divides venues into two broad categories: „„ small and medium local venues „„ pubs „„ clubs „„ small theatres „„ large multi-use spaces „„ arenas „„ sports venues „„ outdoor spaces

Some great class trips can be devised around this particular unit. Perhaps start with a lesson in your school’s own performance venue and ensure that pupils understand how everything works – the sound and light system, number of doors, the function of fire exits, etc. Once pupils are familiar with the basics, a daytime visit

Music Teacher October 2015 2 to a local club or theatre will allow learners to see the relationship between the set-up in their school and the professional systems at the venue.

You could even arrange a project where students put on a performance in the school venue and then have to replicate it in the professional environment. If planned carefully, such a project could provide more evidence than just for this unit. There would certainly be the opportunity for students to complete assignments for Unit 3 (Introducing Live Sound) and Unit 5 (Introducing Music Performance).

HEALTH AND SAFETY Teaching health and safety to a classroom full of teenagers could easily become a dull task and one that feels like a necessary evil. Fortunately, music teachers work in an incredibly heavily regulated environment (schools!) and are likely to have easy access to a range of health and safety resources. See if you can arrange for the school’s leader for health and safety to speak about the considerations that went into risk assessments for your performance venue and the control measures that they’ve put in place to minimise risks. Again, this could be followed up with asking the professional venue to deliver a similar presentation to the pupils. The general public can be very dismissive about health and safety, so there’s even a chance that these people will be excited to be asked to share their professional insights.

For the purpose of the BTEC course, be sure that your presenters cover the following topics: „„ venue capacity (and why there are limits) „„ opening hours (and the H&S implications of this) „„ number of employed staff (and any activities that require a minimum number of staff to be present) „„ location of exits and entrances „„ the number of fire exits, their locations and the reasons for this „„ the relationship between capacity and fire exits

A few opportunities to speak to experienced health and safety professionals with a checklist of points such as this should give learners sufficient understanding of both the terminology and thinking processes that are required. If you want to go into more detail, however, then there are plenty of resources available from the Health and Safety Executive that can be used to support learning. Not only can a generic risk-assessment template be downloaded from their website, but there’s also a wide range of guidance dedicated to running events. This guidance even includes exemplar risk assessments, such as this one for a nightclub, which can be used as a real-world example of the learning that they are undertaking.

It’s worth Production and promotion highlighting to students that indie music gained its The production and promotion section of the specification covers an impressively wide range of roles within the name from an early music industry, covering pretty much every conceivable organisation for creating, organising, broadcasting association with independent labels, and marketing music making. Fortunately, these have been broken down into five key areas: but that the style „„ recording companies has since grown „„ music publishing and evolved to the point where indie „„ promoters performers will „„ broadcasting often be signed to a „„ marketing and distribution major label. This can provide pupils with a good insight into RECORDING COMPANIES how musical styles The specification requires that students understand the difference between a major and an independent and their associated recording company (otherwise known as a record company, record label or just label). In essence, the difference subcultures can move from being should be simple to communicate: major recording companies are large, multinational conglomerates while an underground independents (or ‘indies’) are smaller labels that tend to specialise in a particular style of music. You may want and niche market to identify that the independent labels will often have some sort of relationship with the major labels to provide to becoming widespread and packaging and distribution for their records. mainstream. A great resource to point your students towards is the Careers in Music website, which includes some simple definitions and a reasonably diverse list of recording companies and their contact details. You can find this resource here.

3 Music Teacher October 2015 In theory, a very exciting project for the students could be to provide them with the Careers in Music list and get them to approach recording companies for an interview or even a few quotes for their research. Unfortunately, however, record labels tend to be so inundated with requests that an email from a school pupil is unlikely to get responded to and, consequently, any initial enthusiasm could soon be replaced with disappointment (although, admittedly, that may well be excellent preparation for a career in the music industry!). It might be more fruitful for your music department to develop a relationship with a local, independent recording company and ask one of their representatives to come in to deliver a presentation. As an incentive for them to be involved, you could offer them the opportunity to have one of their artists perform at the school and/or give a special offer for the label’s latest album to the school community, providing cheap promotion for the label, as well as a learning opportunity for your students.

Be sure that your students are able to answer at least some of these questions: „„ What is a recording company? „„ What’s the difference between a major and an independent recording company? „„ List three major recording companies. „„ List three independent recording companies.

It can also help students if they are able to associate particular artists with specific recording labels. In the days of physical distribution of recorded music, this was a simple process of asking pupils to look at a few cases from their CD, cassette or vinyl collection, but the age of digital downloads and streaming music has made labels seem much more remote than in previous decades. Perhaps the modern equivalent is to ask pupils to investigate if any labels are missing from particular online services. Many independent recording companies will withhold their music from Spotify, for example. A ‘spot the pattern’ activity, where pupils have to match artists to labels and then labels to streaming services could be leveraged as some healthy competition.

MUSIC PUBLISHING Put simply, music publishing deals with the musical compositions themselves, rather than recordings or performances of them. Separating a song from its performance/recording can be a difficult concept for adolescents to understand, and it can help to look at cover versions as a way in. While each different performance ‘belongs’ to the performer, the song still belongs to the composer. You may even want to drag the concept out further by getting each pupil to write a song for a different pupil to perform, so that each candidate has both written a song he/she did not perform and performed a song that he/she did not compose.

The specification expects learners to be able to differentiate between major companies and self-publishing. Going beyond this, candidates should really understand that the major recording companies will usually have their own publishing division, and that the classic record deal often involves signing both a publishing and a recording contract with the same organisation. Of course, there are many companies that specialise in music publishing and, again, the Careers in Music website provides a valuable resource in the form of a list of publishing companies and their addresses.

A fun activity for teaching students about the various copyrights within a recording can be set up by instructing them to compose a song during lesson time. Since they composed the song during school time and under instruction, technically, the school owns the music publishing copyright. In the following lesson, pupils can create a recording of their song. Again, the school will own the recording copyright (and the jury would be out over who owns the performing copyright) since it was recorded using school equipment. Finally, get the students to do another recording in their own time using their A good interview own equipment (even if it’s just singing it into their smartphones). They now own the recording and with a promoter the performance, but the school still owns the copyright in the recording. can be found in this article from the Independent. This resource from PROMOTERS UK Music Jobs In the real world, the term promoter covers a huge range of roles but, essentially, promoters are the people has a good look at the skills and that make live performances happen. They are the point at which performers, managers, venues, ticket sellers experience needed and audiences meet. If there is a live music performance, then a promoter has been involved in booking the for a freelance venue, booking the performers, setting the price of tickets, advertising the event and managing it on the night. promoter.

One of the most enjoyable ways to communicate the role of a promoter is to give the class that very role in

Music Teacher October 2015 4 putting on their own concert. For this to work, there has to be one golden rule: the pupils in the class may not be the performers, composers or engineers in the concert. They should find other performers from within the school, liaise with your school’s administrative team to book the venue, work with the art department to design tickets and posters, and get the reprographics team to print them. During the performance, they will be responsible for directing both pupils and staff to make sure that the event is run in a safe manner. Once they realise that it took their entire class to put on the concert, they will soon understand the diverse range of functions that a promoter has to undertake.

The specification requires that pupils understand the difference between being a promoter for a „„ concert „„ club „„ festival

The simple answer to this is that it works on degrees of scale. A single concert is very much in line with the project outlined above. For a club, there is a degree of ownership for the venue, and much of the role involves ‘branding’ different performances at the same venue. A festival, on the other hand, is a much larger-scale event requiring numerous act bookings and the rather daunting task of having to create a stage (or stages) suitable for live performance in an outdoor area (and managing the variety of transport and local council issues come into play at this scale).

Although pitched at an American audience, the video resources on Sokanu Careers provide some good examples if you are not able to bring in (or get to) a visiting speaker.

BROADCASTING The world of broadcasting is in the middle of one of the most seismic shifts of any industry impacted upon by the evolution of the internet. Whereas broadcasting once referred to just TV and radio, we now have to think about an abundance of online services and consider whether or not they fall into that category. Does Spotify fall into the same category as radio, or should that be left to more comparable services such as Apple’s Beats 1? Not to mention the impact that this has had on being able to define whether a broadcaster is local, national or international. Once simple definitions are now being muddied in ways that were inconceivable just a few years ago.

Fortunately, while your learners will need to have an understanding that these issues are evolving, the specification only requires that they are aware of the following forms of broadcasting: „„ TV „„ radio „„ internet

For the first two of these, it will help to consider the difference between local and national broadcasting. Similarly, it would be useful for learners to have an understanding of the difference between the BBC and commercially funded broadcasters. Since the licence fee is currently coming under so much scrutiny, this is very topical and there should be no shortage of news articles to support this. A particularly good example is this article from the Radio Times, which discusses a survey showing consumer views about the licence fee, but the most relevant part for the BTEC course must be this video showing how the licence fee is broken down to pay for the various services provided by the BBC. Of particular interest should be the different levels of funding for national and local radio stations.

Funding models for commercial broadcasters should also be looked at, especially the difference between a sponsored show and one that features adverts. Similarly, internet broadcasters who are funded by advertising could be compared to those who provide a balance between sponsored and unsponsored content. It could be particularly interesting for pupils to investigate how Vine (a social media network that allows users to post and view videos that are just six seconds long) stars make their money, and this article from Business Insider discusses the implications of this.

MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION In the specification, this section of Learning Aim A is divided into three sub-sections: „„ online „„ high-street stores „„ social media

5 Music Teacher October 2015 Each of these three aspects can be looked at for both marketing and distribution:

Marketing „„ online marketing – adverts on websites; in-app marketing; featured artists in online stores; websites „„ high-street stores – promotional materials within stores; ‘featured displays’ „„ social media – effective use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram; social media advertising (promoted posts)

Distribution „„ online distribution – digital downloads (iTunes, Amazon, etc); streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, etc); illegal downloads „„ high-street stores – large chains, supermarkets, independent retailers „„ social media – videos on YouTube and Vimeo

As with many of the other topics covered in this unit, one of the most effective ways to learn about marketing and distribution could be from a practical activity where the pupils create their own recording and then take responsibility for marketing and distributing it using each of the three channels.

Pupils could learn about online distribution by making use of services such as TuneCore or CD Baby, both of which offer a service to get recorded music into stores such as iTunes, Amazon and Google Play Music. For the distribution to high-street stores, the class could either arrange to sell the recordings in class or, assuming that a strong enough product exists, they could approach local (probably independent) record stores about When it comes to selling CDs in stores with a dedicated display area (covering both marketing and distribution). social media, there will be some obvious safeguarding It’s tempting to suggest that young people are more familiar with social media than adults and, in many cases, considerations, so this will be true. That doesn’t, however, mean that pupils will already be familiar with advanced marketing be sure to speak to your senior features such as engagement rate tracking, promoted posts and hyperlink tagging. Numerous online resources leadership team exist that will aid pupils in gaining an understanding of these features and their role in any online business. A about the best way particularly useful option is the new Hootsuite Podium, which is a free online social media marketing course. to proceed with this.

Service companies and agencies

The specification states that candidates should understand ‘what equipment might be needed and what might be available from service companies and agencies’ and then requires that they learn about four broad areas, the first two of which involve people and finance, while the second two focus on equipment and logistics: „„ royalty collection agencies „„ artists’ representation „„ hire companies „„ transport companies

ROYALTY COLLECTION AGENCIES Sometimes called ‘collection societies’, there are three main royalty collection agencies in the UK: „„ PRS (Performing Rights Society) „„ MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) „„ PPL (Phonographic Performance Limited)

Although PRS and MCPS have largely merged (into ‘PRS for Music’), the two brands have survived the merger for the purpose of clarifying which specific rights are being collected. Both the PRS and MCPS represent the composer (or songwriter) of a piece of music and collect money on their behalf. The PRS collects money from the live performance of a composition, while the MCPS collects money from the recorded performance of a piece.

The PPL collects an additional fee for the public playing of recorded music. If, for example, you have a recording playing in an office, shop or nightclub, then this generates a royalty in addition to the PRS and MCPS fees.

Collection societies can easily become a minefield to explain to students. Simple questions can quickly lead to confusion for the teacher, and the trick is to keep your focus on the three very distinct roles of the societies. A

Music Teacher October 2015 6 useful diagram to help explain their role and place in the music industry can be found on this page of BeMusic. com, and it even helps to put some of the other organisations into context.

The songwriting/performance activity described in the textbox below ‘music publishing’ can be revisited in order to help pupils understand which royalties are due to which person. Once the concept is at least partially understood, it’s worth revisiting it throughout the BTEC course to consolidate the somewhat abstract concepts. Each time there is a live performance in the school, ask your class which rights collection agency would be involved (the PRS). Whenever you are discussing the sale of mp3s or online streaming, ask the same question (the MCPS). Whenever you play a recording during a lesson, highlight that this is generating a royalty and ask pupils which agency would be collecting the fee (the PPL). Over time, this should become second nature and you can be confident of pupils’ understanding by the time of the exam.

ARTISTS’ REPRESENTATION Similar to promoters, artist representation can cover a huge variety of roles, and the specification acknowledges this by asking candidates to learn about four specific ones: „„ management „„ public relations „„ agents „„ stylists

Some of the previous activities can be revisited (or even initially delivered) with these roles in mind. The previous live performance activity where the entire class functioned as music promoters, for example, could be revisited with half the class taking on the role of artist representation. Managers can ensure that their clients are in the right place at the right time; public relations can craft press releases that emphasise their client’s role in the performance; agents can negotiate (fictional) fees and even ‘throw in’ additional performers from their roster; and stylists can work with the artists to develop their overall image.

Some excellent online resources exist to cover artist management in the CEA booklet for teachers delivering music industry content to GCSE pupils.

Some time should probably be spent exploring the role of public relations in any industry, exploring concepts such as spin and press releases. The research-heavy side of public relations is often easily overlooked, but can be effectively taught by assigning a project to research a musician’s image with a surprising demographic. For example, a lot of fun could be had by asking your class to research the perception of One Direction among men in their fifties. Extending this by creating a plan to ‘rebrand’ the boy band so that they now appeal to this demographic could result in some really useful learning, some amusement for you, and maybe a few shattered dreams for the pupils! Some good resources (again, written from an American perspective) can be accessed here.

HIRE COMPANIES One of the more hidden elements of the music industry is often the hire companies. Many teenagers will never have considered where the microphones, lights or cables come from, so it can be a real eye-opener for them. The specification requires that learners are aware of: „„ hire of sound equipment „„ hire of lighting equipment „„ rehearsal space „„ studio space

Perhaps one of the first things to do is get quotes from local hire companies so that you can show pupils the actual costs involved. When they see the money required to hire equipment and rehearsal spaces, they may soon come to understand the cost of a concert ticket.

Similar to the work completed on recording companies, it should be feasible to arrange for a representative from a hire company to come to the school to deliver a presentation (especially if you are giving them a significant order around the time of your Christmas concert or school musical). Some of the key questions that you will want to ensure pupils ask include: „„ How well do clients treat the equipment? „„ How many times do you have to hire a product before you’ve made back the cost of purchase?

7 Music Teacher October 2015 „„ What safety regulations do you have to adhere to? (PAT testing, etc) „„ To what extent do you have to advise customers about which equipment to choose? „„ What if a customer needs equipment but doesn’t know how to use it?

Rehearsal and studio spaces are perhaps better learnt about with a visit. A trip to a rehearsal space should encourage pupils to consider points such as: „„ What equipment do you have to bring and what ‘house’ equipment is there? „„ What is the fee for an hour of rehearsal time, and how is it paid? „„ What degree of soundproofing is required? „„ Can additional equipment (cables, etc) be hired for the rehearsal session?

A similar set of questions can be asked during a visit to a studio, but you will also want some consideration given to: „„ Can we use our own sound engineers or does the ‘house’ engineer have to be used? „„ What is the rate per hour? „„ How long is a typical booking? „„ What is the typical client like? „„ How long did/will it take to recoup the initial investment in equipment?

A visit to a real recording studio can be a magical experience for pupils, and has the added benefit of producing a high-quality recording that can become the basis for a number of future projects (such as the aforementioned marketing and distribution project).

UNIONS It is, perhaps, telling that unions are listed last in the specification, in that they are not the first organisation typically associated with the music industry. That said, they play a huge role in an industry with an unusually high percentage of freelancers, and their inclusion is very welcome. The three main performing arts unions are required by the specification: „„ The Musicians’ Union (MU) – union for musicians, composers and instrumental teachers „„ Equity – union for actors, dancers and other performers „„ Broadcast Entertainment Cinematograph Theatre Union (BECTU) – union for production/technical roles

The unions can often be very cooperative when asked to visit a school to do a talk, as it can be a great opportunity for them to gain potential future members (of course, the process is smoothed over somewhat if you, or a colleague, are a member yourself). They key questions you would want your students to pose in this situation would include: „„ If a member is mistreated, what can a union do about it? „„ What advice do you give to members about making sure they get paid? „„ How do you support members with their financial arrangements (tax, National Insurance, etc)? „„ How do you negotiate agreed minimum pay standards for your members? „„ What are the most common disputes that you have to mediate? „„ How do you keep members aware of changes in legislation and regulations that will impact on them?

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