Q&A: I am looking for a job in the music business. Can anyone give any pointers as to a good place to start?

Question by Ty Lowery: I am looking for a job in the music business. Can anyone give any pointers as to a good place to start?
I’d like to do something within the music industry. I have been thinking about either recording or something inside of a label. Any information about training needed, entry level jobs, or any info in general would be very helpful.

Best answer:

Answer by Man
Its very hard to get ANY job in a record label. Look at all the talented musicians who struggled for years to get their music out there and get known. If it was easy and you could just take a couple courses and get a job at one, Eminem wouldn’t have struggled for like 8 years to get himself known. He would have just taken a few courses, and then gotten a job at one and pushed his music from the inside to the record execs. I took Music Business 101 classes and Music Mixing and Mastering. First, before you try to do the almost-impossible, you need to figure out what EXACTLY it is that you want to do. Its hard enough trying to get in, but its 100 times harder if you dont know what exact position to focus on. They seem to hire people that already have their own businesses or people they personally know. For example, they seem more likely to hire a guy who has already been running his own small recording studio successfully for a few years. I’ve noticed that lots of people go to school for music related things, and want to work in a label, and once they finish school….a lot of them do internships at the label hoping to get a job there. I never see them getting the actual job there though. I think its better to focus on being a contractor in the music industry. Such as a person who doesnt work FOR a label, but works WITH a label. Most big producers and mixing/mastering people do contract work and work with whatever artists want to use their skills that can pay enough. But if you’re really hell bent on doing it, good luck. You’re asking how to do the almost-impossible, so its going to take a lot of creativity to do it and nobody can give you that answer but yourself. Theres not that many people that actually work for record labels, only a small handful. Think about it. Theres not that many record labels out there. Aside from their marketing teams, there isnt that many employees. Look in the credits on any cd to see where it was recorded. Usually they are recorded at private studios owned by people who are not affiliated with the record label, owned by contractors. The recording is not usually done in the record labels building. Same with mixing and mastering and engineering and all that. They only have a few people in the building that do that type of stuff. Most of the people are office type people. The music aspect of it seems to take place outside of the label, in private owned studios and what not.

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