Career Launcher: Recording Industry
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Career Launcher Recording Industry CL_Recording_F.indd i 6/16/10 4:26:49 PM Career Launcher series Advertising and Public Relations Computers and Programming Education Energy Fashion Film Finance Food Services Hospitality Internet Health Care Management Health Care Providers Law Law Enforcement and Public Safety Manufacturing Nonprofi t Organizations Performing Arts Professional Sports Organizations Real Estate Recording Industry Television Video Games CL_Recording_F.indd ii 6/16/10 4:26:49 PM Career Launcher Recording Industry By Don Rauf CL_Recording_F.indd iii 6/16/10 4:26:49 PM Career Launcher: Recording Industry Copyright © 2010 by Infobase Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Ferguson An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rauf, Don. Recording industry / by Don Rauf. p. cm. — (Career launcher) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-7955-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8160-7955-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN: 978-1-4381-3415-4 ( e-book) 1. Sound recording industry—Vocational guidance. I. Title. ML3790.R39 2010 781.49023—dc22 2009050611 Ferguson books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Ferguson on the World Wide Web at http://www.fergpubco.com Produced by Print Matters, Inc. Text design by A Good Thing, Inc. Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Cover printed by Art Print Company, Taylor, PA Book printed and bound by Maple Press, York, PA Dated printed: May 2010 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Foreword / vii Acknowledgments / xi Introduction / xiii 1 Industry History / 1 2 State of the Industry / 24 3 On the Job / 52 4 Tips for Success / 81 5 Talk Like a Pro / 102 6 Resources / 120 Index / 135 CL_Recording_F.indd v 6/16/10 4:26:49 PM CL_Recording_F.indd vi 6/16/10 4:26:49 PM Foreword Recently I listened to the morning radio on my commute to Mas- terdisk, and I was knocked off my seat to hear that sound recording engineers were among the hot jobs. I was surprised to hear that because the music industry has become so decentralized. Once, there were only a couple of major recording studios in each city; now there are dozens of home studios in every town, and many of those home studios operate like a commercial studio, recording albums for artists. Masterdisk began in 1973 as the recording, editing, and mastering arm of Mercury Records, and I began as an intern at Masterdisk in 1983. I was hired in 1984 as an assistant. I later became Masterdisk’s chief engineer. I remained there until 1999, when I founded Scott Hull Mastering. Ten years later, I returned as the new owner of Mas- terdisk, combining my independent music mastering business with a series of song writing/production suites and a recording/mix room. Masterdisk has engineered top-selling albums by Bruce Spring- steen, Nirvana, Kid Rock, Steely Dan, Madonna, Whitney Houston, John Mayer, Smashing Pumpkins, The Rolling Stones, Jay-Z, Pearl Jam, The White Stripes, Santana, Phil Collins, Lenny Kravitz, the Beastie Boys, Elvis Costello, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Public Enemy, Prince, The Who, Talking Heads, and David Bowie, to name just a few! The fact is the model for the music industry is changing. The major record labels are not as big as they once were, mostly because CD sales have dropped as digital music downloads have increased. Musi- cians who once sold 100,000 of every album now have to be happy selling 8,000–9,000 copies. The record industry has not quite fi gured out how to make money—or as much money—selling songs down- loaded from the Internet instead of selling albums in stores. The viral networking capability of the Web has made it easy for people to copy and share songs and not pay for them. You have to ask yourself: What kind of business is there if no one is exchanging money for the prod- uct, and how much does the quality of the product suffer if people are not getting paid? The quality of music is going to suffer if artists are not paid for their songs, because there is no fi nancial incentive to make a good music product. I have heard that today some hot singles sell well on the day they are released, but then sales quickly plummet because of illegal fi le sharing on the Internet. vii CL_Recording_F.indd vii 6/16/10 4:26:49 PM viii Foreword On the plus side, fi le sharing has gotten people excited about music again. Everyone is carrying around a portable music device. Nearly everyone is using social networks to fi nd cool new music and share it with their friends. Years ago we did the same with our LPs, but we could not share them with 10 million people simultaneously. We have not seen such widespread interaction with music since the introduction of the Walkman in 1979. This invention allowed people to make their music-listening experience portable. Freed from the confi nes of their homes, they could enjoy music wherever they went: on subways, airplanes, and walks in their neighborhoods. Then the novelty of the Walkman wore off. For a long stretch, people lost the personal, portable connection with music. Compact discs did not travel as well as cassettes and tended to skip when played in Disc- mans, the CD equivalent of the Walkman. Now the new technology of mp3s and iTunes has gotten people excited again about music. The Internet has made it easy for people to explore music online and download the music that interests them most. Digital devices such as iPods are very transportable and can store massive catalogs of music. The recording industry has defi nitely had trouble adjusting to the new technology and the Internet Age. Industry leaders have had to think differently. Apple is a good example of a company that proved the adjustment was possible. With the introduction of iTunes in 2001, Apple said, “This is what will make people excited about music again. Give people a player that is totally cool and easy to use. Make songs that are available at an affordable price so that artists and record labels get paid a little money.” Apple’s iTunes has become a new working model for the changing music technology. I think there are lots of job opportunities out there, but job seek- ers have to think differently, too. You may fi nd work doing sound design on a computer game or audio engineering for a satellite radio station. I know a sound engineer who mixes the live audio feed for Emeril Live! on the Food Network. It is broadcast audio, and since it is a live feed, it is like mixing a concert—warts and all. He records sev- eral episodes of the show in one workday. It is a live band, live audi- ence, and it is mostly unscripted. It is defi nitely a niche job in the recording industry, but if you think creatively, you can fi nd unique positions out there. Because of new technology, the recording industry needs people who are specifi cally trained in archiving digital media. There is a distinct need for individuals who specialize in organizing, archiving, CL_Recording_F.indd viii 6/16/10 4:26:50 PM Foreword ix and accessing large-scale digital storage. I hear over and over from people who have lost creative product because they did not have the backup or the backup they thought they had was not good. Plus, you have to have all your audio tracks documented well or you just can- not fi nd them. It is time to wake up to the need for digital archivists across the industry. People in the industry are also looking for new revenue streams. I was working on a Lou Reed project, and we made him MP3 fi les and higher quality AAC fi les. Reed put both versions of the recordings for sale on his Web site, and the real audiophiles paid a higher price for the higher quality downloads. You can buy the resolution that fi ts your lifestyle, and with a high-speed modem, you can download the songs with the best audio quality in 15 or 20 minutes, as opposed to typical MP3, which may only take a minute to download. While many people want cheap or free digital downloads that are lower in quality, there is defi nitely a market for quality. The recording indus- try just has to fi gure out how to make it available to the consumer. There is a new opportunity for this type of service in today’s record- ing industry. Those with the right technical know-how and business smarts may be fi nding employment in this area. The recording industry will have a lot of opportunities in the future. Each year there are new music applications for cell phones, and television shows feature unique soundtracks that spotlight new artists. The Internet continues to get wider and faster, and personal- ized music delivery services like Pandora [Internet radio] will grow and offer different services.