Who runs a record label?
This graph shows what departments and jobs have to be completed in order to have a successful and profitable record label.
Legal Department
Business Affairs
A&R - Artist and Repertoire
Promotion
Artist Development
Marketing
Publicity
New Media
Label Liaison
Sales
Art Department
- The legal department deal with contracts between the artist the record label, and any business that deals with the record label or the artist. Any problems that may arise where legal contracts are concerned.
Business Affairs
- The Business department deal with finance, admin, payrolls, and general business jobs, communicating with the other departments to ensure budgets are kept to, and the record label is making profit and not wasting money.
A&R - Artist and Repertoire
- The artist and repertoire department are in charge of discovering new talent and bringing them to the record label. They work as a link between the artist and the record label, deciding which songs to use, who to produce it, and various other important factors that go into making a song ready for release.
Promotion
- The main aim for this department is to get the artists songs played on radio and Tv. This also includes getting videos played on MTV, Youtube, and other popular social networks. Their goal is to make sure the public know who the artist is, both as a person and as a musician.
Artist Development
- This department is responsible for planning out the careers of the artist. Recently, record labels have started to change the name to 'Product development' as oppose to artist development, as artists are continually being seen as products to the record label, not artists.
Marketing
- Marketing and promotion are similar and somewhat linked together. The marketing department have to set out plans for promotion, for example, how to promote the new album/single for the artist, in order to ensure its target audience listen to the song and purchase it, and maybe then go on to become fans of the artist, to then buy more of their music in the future.
Publicity
- The goal of this department is to get the new artist heard about and well established into the music industry. The department are also encouraged to help create a fan base, which, if large enough, can guarantee large profits and sales for the artists merchandise, singles, and albums.
New Media
- The new media department work with the promotion, marketing, and publicity departments to bring promotion to the new, modern media that are extremely popular today. The new media department are responsible for online promotion, and use new technologies (Youtube/Twitter/Facebook) etc. to also bring a bigger fan base and increase sales and profits.
Label Liaison
- This can be just one person, or a group of people. This department is responsible for communicating with the record labels distribution company, whether they be under the same conglomerate or not. They help decide when the album/single will be released and ensure is doesn't conflict with other artists in the same record label.
Sales
- Sales are responsible for the retail side of the business, monitoring album and single sales, to see the pros and cons of selling in those specific shops. With the new media, downloading songs is now much more popular, however some people still prefer the hard copy, which is monitored by the sales department.
Art Department
- The Art department are in charge of the designing the album artwork, merchandise, posters, promotional material, and establishing a certain style for the artist, usually fitting the conventions of the specific music genre they perform. eg ( Rap/hip hop artist would be associated with black/gold/modern style)