Jobs In The Music Industry Most People Don’t Know About
If you like music a great deal, you may be hoping of going into some area of the music industry yourself. Doubtlessly, you will have been told that this is awfully difficult and I am not trying to insinuate that it is not, but perhaps most people who are trying to get into the music industry are applying for the same jobs.
The list of jobs available in the music industry must include teachers, songwriters, doctors, therapists and many others, not only singers and musicians, so it pays to think laterally if you want to go in this direction, because traffic on the main highway is normally at a stand-still. Anyway, here is a list of alternative jobs in the music industry and I hope that it is of some benefit to you.
There are jobs with music and record firms for staff song-writers, that is, for people who compose songs for the artists who are contracted to that label. Find a couple of artists that you respect working for the same label, compose some songs for them and apply.
If you cannot uncover a single label that suits you, you could do the same job as a freelance song-writer. This way you are not hamstrung and can compose for all the artists that you like.
If you are good with words but not such a great musician, you could become a lyricist. A lyricist might or may not team up with a musician to produce a song. Like Gilbert & Sullivan or Rogers & Hammerstein.
Jingle-writers are always in demand, at least decent ones are. Jingles need to be short but catchy. Writing jingles pays good money, but it will perhaps not make you famous outside the music industry.
A music publisher scours the market for freelance songs and buys up the copyright or license to distribute those songs or to sell or license them to singers and musicians.
A music editor might work with a composer or song-writer to make sure that the timing and the cues for the musicians and singers are feasible.
Notesetters have to have a good ear for music as their job is to write down in musical form what untrained musicians play for them. There are many, many contemporary musicians who cannot write a note of music but who can create very good songs. These songs have to be written down by someone and that someone is a notesetter.
A talent scout in the music industry has the official title of Artist & Repertoire Co-ordinator or A&R Co-ordinator for short. A step up from this rank is the A&R Administrator, who co-ordinates the co-ordinators and sets and monitors their budgets – a type of a musical accountant.
Then there are the jobs in public relations. These people usually work for record labels. They promote the artists who have signed onto a record company’s label. There are quite a few degrees of responsibility in this department.
An agent or an relations representative, is aperson who promotes his client and finds him or her work. They check the contracts and give business advice. They are well-|known as ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ although in practice it is usually double this unless you are famous.
Campus representatives advertise records to students and promotional staffers promote wherever they can – radio channels, shops, musical directors.
Music teachers teach music to classes from pre-school through to college level. Their responsibilities differ with the age of the student and the purpose of the class.
A music director has the job of supervising policy in school or college or setting the entertainment for a cruise or a holiday camp, hotel or holiday complex.
Then there are organists in churches all over the country, who frequently double in other musical careers.
Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a range of topics, but is currently involved with Bose new wave radios. If you would like to kcurrently more, please go to our web site at Bose Digital Radio.
Satellite Radio: Is It Expensive?
Satellite radio is highly popular these days and it is increasing in popularity more and more every day. If you are not sure what satellite radio is, you can look at it like cable or satellite TV. In essence, satellite radio is a subscription only service. It has a huge assortment of radio stations that are not available on the ordinary AM or FM services.
If you are wondering about how much satellite radio costs, then the answer is the maddening one: it depends. It depends, because there are several variables, such as the apparatus itself, installation fees and monthly fees. Equipment from the countless manufacturers varies a lot as well.
For example, Bose is more expensive than a Chinese device from Walmart. Installation charges vary depending on where you live and who you use and the monthly fee will depend on which package or bundle you select. So, unfortunately, the answer is: it depends.
There is also a one-off ‘activation fee’. This costs about $15 if you do it by phone and about $5 if you it over the Internet. However, the race is on to get you signed up, so there are often promotions on doing away with this ridiculous rip-off fee. As if you will not be paying enough in monthly fees for the remainder of your life!
If you want to install satellite radio in your car, you have two alternatives, if your existing radio is not ‘satellite ready’. You can either purchase a new car stereo that is ‘satellite ready’ or you can buy a satellite signal receiver and decoder unit and plug it into your present radio. This decoder can be hidden away under the driver’s seat or stashed in the trunk of the car. You will also need a new aerial on the roof.
Costs differ outrageously, but let’s average it out at $600 for a good, new, satellite-enabled, ready to go stereo fitted and working or $350 for a cheap system using your own radio, but also ready to receive satellite broadcasts. So, you could say, on average, for about $500 you can be listening to satellite broadcasts.
However, just as with laptop computer prices, demand causes downward pressure on prices and by the time you read this article, the price could have halved. Let’s hope so.
Portable satellite radio receivers can be a little cheaper, mostly because there are no installation fees and come out at about $400.
Then there are the monthly subscription fees. As I said above, this depends on the package you choose. The average charge is $10-$15 a month, but specialized channels can be extra. For example, you could receive the Playboy channel for free at one time, but the normal cost is $2.95 per month.
Sport can cost more, particularly for a finals match. Sometimes, you can get a discount for paying annually and Sirius even has a one-off, lifetime option at $500. Perhaps the best thing to do is keep an eye on the promotional deals and be ready to move quickly when a fitting one crops up.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a range of topics, but is currently involved with Bose alarm clocks. If you would like to kcurrently more, please visit our web site at Bose Digital Radio.
Should You Have A Weather Radio?
There are radios that are especially for tracking the weather. Not everybody needs one of these dedicated devices, although we are all fascinated by the weather. However, the amount of information given out by most radio stations is sufficient for the majority of us. So what sort of people would profit from a so-called weather radio?
Weather radios are most appropriate for people living in regions where extremes of weather can and do take place on fairly a regular basis. If the area where you live is subject to hurricanes, tornadoes and flash floods or even severe storms, you are a likely candidate for a dedicated weather radio. Especially if you have to travel away from home when an extreme weather event might take place.
All radio stations give weather news and weather warnings, but not all radio stations will interrupt a programme to give ‘stop press’ updates on impending severe weather conditions. It is the same with television stations, not all of them will suspend the highlight film of the evening to report on an approaching storm. Some of the smaller stations are not even subscribed to these types of weather tracking services.
However, it is not only people who live in regions of possible extreme weather who might benefit from these weather radios. People who carry out specialist activities and certain jobs require more specialized weather reports as well. For example, deep sea fishermen, sailors, farmers, mountaineers, hikers and backwoodsmen have to know if severe weather is on the way.
A lot of weather radios are not only capable of broadcasting news about the weather. Many of them have a built-in AM/FM radio as well and some will even act as alarm clocks. Some are mains only, while others are battery powered, wind-up or solar powered.
Some are large, but most are designed to be carried easily in an ordinary backpack and may have earphones as well so that you can listen to a transmission during a howling gale.
If you are just sitting at home, you may feel safe enough with the local TV or radio station on, but if you have to venture outside whilst there is a risk of severe weather, a weather radio is very comforting.
There are loads of types and styles of weather radio to suit all has, but a battery or wind up radio are the safest if you are away from a mains power source such as at sea or in the forest.
You will be able to find weather radios in a good number adventure or camping shops and in many chandlers. It is also straightforward to find these dedicated radios on line particularly on eBay or Amazon.
Weather radios are not dear to buy, but some models can eat up batteries so always take a couple of extra sets of batteries if you are going off the trodden track.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a range of subjects, but is currently involved with Bose Radioss. If you would like to kcurrently more, please visit our website at Bose Digital Radio.
Surround Sound Speaker Systems
The generations alive now, especially in the Developed world, are all au fait with speaker technology to a certain level. Most individuals began purchasing music centres in the Seventies if they were old enough and that trend has carried on and the technology has got better and better.
Acoustic reproduction has come on in leaps and bounds since the Fifties and Sixties when most people were content with a mono Dansette record player. My father was still listening to his favourite 78′s on a wind-up record player with a pin for a needle and a trumpet for a loudspeaker in the early Sixties. Then he bought a Dansette later in the Sixties.
I purchased a Sanyo music centre in the Seventies and he followed suit. The quality of audio reproduction on those systems was laughable in comparison with what is on the market nowadays.
The latest development is surround sound, which was just available in the cinema twenty years ago, but surround sound speakers are far better now than they were then and you can install them at home without needing a bank loan.
Frequently surround sound speakers are connected with film scores, so a surround sound speaker system could be attached to the outline jacks on your TV or home theatre system.
Home theatres are very much in fashion now that many individuals are having to stay in more frequently to save money. A small family that likes to go to the pictures once a week can recoup the costs of a good home theatre system within a year.
When looking at surround sound speakers, you may think that the cost is high, but do not forget that it is the surround sound speakers that transform a film into a cinematographic experience. They also last forever if not abused.
Two tips: buy the best that you can afford and buy speakers that will stand on the floor or can be hung on the wall.
Buy quality rather than quantity. If you can only afford two speakers of fantastic quality, so be it, You can buy a new one later. With surround sound, the rule is: the more speakers the better.
Three is the absolute minimum, seven is fine, but eight is much better. The more speakers that you have, the less volume you will have to drive through them so the longer they will last.
The above configurations will be written as: 2:1 (stereo plus a sub-woofer); 6:1 (front and back stereo speakers, a front central speaker and a rear sub-woofer); 7:1 will add a rear central channel.
The best thing about this sort of surround speaker system is that you can easily upgrade it, but you have to begin right by buying a recognized marque that will permit you to add speakers over the years.
One of the best speaker systems you can buy are Bose, but they are expensive, but they are also the envy of any sound enthusiast too. If you would like the best, but do not have the capital take your time creating a system of Bose surround sound speakers.
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on numerous subjects, but is now involved with Bose IE2 Headphones. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Bose Digital Radio.