Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood? (Part 2)

In the last Indieology entry, I described the list of entities that are “closest” and most visible to you, the “consumer”. The artist, media, venues, and then the stores - all these elements are in a very close relationship brought in front of us by record labels in the hope that we would in turn, if we like the music of the artists, buy the CD or download their music at the end of the day.

II. The Middle Men

Before an artist makes that sale, his/her music has to be plugged first somewhere. Media does that via airplay, online streaming, press releases, album reviews, charts, etc. When the song picks up, a tour follows to promote the album and venues take centerstage. People are then expected to buy or download the music from the stores. Easy isn’t it?

But who are the people working behind the scenes? In this chapter, I will attempt to define the roles of the ones responsible for giving that necessary push for the artist in the music business. I classify them as the “middle men”. I’d like to start with the labels and work my way down to the liaison that makes the deals in the business.

1) Record Labels

I did mention that the record companies are usually the most visible entities in the music trading business as they are often seen as “key players” in bringing that artist the success he or she rightfully deserve. In fact, you can find the logos of the record companies printed on the inlays of CDs of your favorite artists.

The truth is, and as I mentioned this in another article, labels are actually just investors on the premise that they believe in an artist’s potential. The trade that they do for artists is somewhat similar to how banks approve loans to qualified applicants. These loans are called advanced royalties in this industry lingo.

Bands use that money to hire and pay fees to producers, sound engineers, recording studio time, management, themselves (of course), and sometimes even lawyers for legal advice on contracts.

After all the recording and mastering is done (usually for professional sessions, it takes about 5 to 9 months), the master harddrive is sent back to the record company for mass production and distribution. Again, the label spends for this.

The advance payment and all other costs must be recoupable. That means it is deductible from the artists initial sales of albums, and in some cases ticket sales, before any actual royalty is made and given back to the artist (assuming that the artist writes or co-writes the songs in the album).

Today, some successful managers of globally established bands think about advanced royalties differently. One manager commented that advanced royalties that are “loaned” to artists look more attractive to newer bands given the fact that record labels also help on the manufacturing, marketing and promotions, distribution, and even accounting which all of these things new bands know practically nothing about.

These managers are now opting to release the albums themselves independently, working directly with music publishers and their entertainment lawyers rather than signing a new five-year contract with a major label. It actually makes sense.

2) Distributors

The distribution department is probably one of the busiest people in all of the record company’s departments. Everyday their staff would make and receive calls, keep track of sales, forward sales reports to other departments such as accounting, etc.

Yet contrary to what most people who are in this business (but not entirely in the business) believe, distributors may not necessarily be run by the record company themselves. There are also companies that specialize on the business of distribution.

In fact, with the growing entrepreneurial spirit of the internet, many websites do a similar distribution service to an online store say iTunes or Amazon.com. Up Dharma Down’s album is, as of last note from their indie label manager, had their CDs distributed under a distribution company – not a record label in Manila outlets.

At this point, the first relationship between the four frontliners of the music scene and the label/distributor is established. I have intended to separate the label from the distributor to simply emphasize this point.

3) Promoters

Of course, just like any product, promotion must be integral in the marketing plans of an artist’s music and career. Who are the promoter’s prospects? Generally it’s media. Although sometimes the promoter’s task may extend up to concert venues and sometimes they would act as the booking agent.

Some labels may have an in-house agent to do the task for them. Lately, they even attempted to merge the tasks of a promoter, artist management, and booking agent. I know a couple of labels in Manila who practices this method.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it works to the label’s advantage. Not only does this save cost on salary, it also gives the company an assurance that everything is kept “within their reach”.

4) Booking Agents

The booking agent’s general scope of work is usually to assist the artist’s management on getting gigs – from interviews to concerts and the in betweens. They coordinate the schedules and get paid for the service.

Booking agents may not be common in the Philippines because the job of the manager and an agent tend to overlap most often. However, these people become significantly important for bands doing worldwide tours.

My observation is that some bands in this country call the person who is taking care of their career as booking agents. There were also instances when a band's extended member does bookings only and they call him/her the "manager". I didn’t care to ask why.

5) The Managers

Many bands in Cebu don’t have managers and that is a fact. If there are, I can only count them with one hand. Perhaps it’s because Cebu is a “big small town” and hiring a manager may not be practical plus it can only reduce the income of the artist (if there is any decent income at all to speak of).

However, a manager’s job can help a lot in an artist’s career because aside from developing an artist, he/she can do most, if not all of the tasks I mentioned above.

I’m not saying that the funding, distribution, marketing and promotion, and booking gigs would come from one person alone. Of course not. That would be suicide. A manager taps and coordinates with people or companies outside of his band zone to get things running for his talent. He/she must also be “well connected”.

It will always be an advantage if the person managing an artist’s career has business skills. But beware, there are also managers who cannot be trusted. Take it from me.

At this point, we have established a link between the front end and the middle men in the music scene. The labels and distributors bring the merchandise out front to the stores (TuneCore.com is a digital distributor that directly deals with artists or its representative). The promoters sell the “image of the artist” to the media. The agents and managers ensure of the artist’s schedules and activities.


In the next Indieology, I will be describing what happens at the back end and who are those involved in getting these middle men motivated to work.

At the moment, I’d like to note that to succeed, start your band small.

Get a “good” manager who knows and understands the music business. Someone who knows someone in the media, the copyright law, music publishing companies, business itself, and most importantly, someone you can really really trust.

The music indusrty is not just about business, it’s also about relationships.