Marketers & Advertisers
Creating marketing campaigns to promote new releases and study the results.
The Marketing department focuses on creating and making strategies for every album or song that an artist releases. They coordinate and develop creative ad campaigns to boost sales.
This department changes constantly, and they have to find new and innovative ways of getting their message across. They use different platforms of advertising from billboards to social media campaigns or interactive platforms.
Some of their goals are:
In the industry, you can use marketing in different ways to cover all needed aspects of an artist's career.
Those can include:
!! LABEL VS RECORD COMPANY !!
The path of becoming a Marketing Coordinator would start with gaining experience as a Music Intern, Marketing Assistant, or Music Marketing Representative.
As a Campus Representative, you work under a record label's marketing department, and you report to the Marketing Manager and/or Marketing Coordinator. For most College Reps programs, you must have at least two years left in your degree (the majority are college sophomores or juniors), to be able to apply. Generally, the job duties involve marketing and promotion, so it makes sense to move into similar roles at a record label, music venues, or other music organizations after graduation.
They make sure the record has been distributed to DSPs around the world; Spotify, Apple Music but also Gaana and Jioaavn (India), KuGou and QQ (China), etc.
*sometimes the part of the international sales is centralized for all labels under one group* For example, Sony's Global Digital Business & US Sales record division deals with international sales for all Sony Labels (RCA, Arista, Columbia, etc.)
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Your budget is never enough! A good budget spent correctly will deliver amazing results for the artists.
Every day is different - it depends on clients and their campaigns. Right now, I do a lot of work in paid advertising so a good amount of myday is spent setting up new ads, reporting on existing ones, and suggesting new changes/adjustments to the strategy based on the results of previous campaigns.
Former Marketing Assistant @Fame House
Who they work with and what they do
MARKETING
Create campaigns surrounding a new release: defining the vision of the artist, brainstorming ideas on advertising and marketing campaigns to promote the new release
Conduct and apply campaigns: through ads, social media, art (photos, videos, video games, ...)
Monitoring & managing the campaigns: keep track of how the campaign is doing through the analysis of impressions, reach, etc.
CREATIVE
- create and produce the content will be used for campaigns (graphic designs of all sorts: posters, social media posts, ads, …)
TOURING & LIVE EVENTS
- discuss the routing for the US tour (define which cities to tour in, ...)
ARTISTS + A&R
- discuss the vision for the release (new record, new album, …)
- define the branding
- discuss the social media use (which platform, how much, …)
Create campaigns surrounding a new release: defining the vision of the artist, brainstorming ideas on advertising and marketing campaigns to promote the new release
Conduct and apply campaigns: through ads, social media, art (photos, videos, video games, ...)
Monitoring & managing the campaigns: keep track of how the campaign is doing through the analysis of impressions, reach, etc.
CREATIVE
- create and produce the content will be used for campaigns (graphic designs of all sorts: posters, social media posts, ads, …)
TOURING & LIVE EVENTS
- discuss the routing for the US tour (define which cities to tour in, ...)
ARTISTS + A&R
- discuss the vision for the release (new record, new album, …)
- define the branding
- discuss the social media use (which platform, how much, …)
- Distribute artists singles & albums to DSPs on time for the release
- Negotiate business partnerships with DSPs -- Examples:
° Reduced royalties rate per stream for artists of a specific label in exchange for free ad credits
° ‘Artist Social Boost’: DSPs are granted advertising access to an artist's Facebook or Instagram to run
ads offering their followers 3 months free premium. In exchange, the label gets a portion of the profit from the fans signing up through the artist's link
- Partner with DSPs for marketing initiatives such as:
° Billboard in Time Square
° Playlist takeovers
° Example: Olivia Rodrigo's Car Wash with Spotify in LA.
- Licence songs before release
- Make sure the metadata is complete (every detail about the song is filled out - producers, singer, date, title, etc.)
- Curate playlists on streaming platforms to promote their artists
- Establish the number of copies of an album that needs to be produced
- Make sure the production and delivery runs smoothly (with Production Dep)
A music supervisor reaches out to the label with interest in a song. They provide 3 elements for a possible contract and give a scene description and information on the use of the song.
With those elements in mind, the Sync Department defines the licensing fees for the use of that song. The amount usually depends mostly on the artist, scene description and length, and part of the song used.
The label asks for the artist's approval; both on the budget and the use of the song (which project it will be featured on).
Important to know: For a song to be used, it needs the approval of both the master recording (label) and the publisher. This means all songwriters have to approve the use of the song too! And if an artist is also a songwriter they need to approve it twice, once through the label and once through the publisher.
Call to Action (CTA)
An instruction to the audience to do something (click a link, comment, etc.).
Once negotiated, the deal has to be sent to the publishers for approval.
This step is necessary legally to ensure that the Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause is respected.
If a music supervisor confirms the use of a song then the license is created.
On their side, they will have to pay a fee for the use of the composition (copyright to the publisher) and a fee for the master (to the label).
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“For NY and LA, there is always a member of our team at shows to organize business encounters, escort our partners backstage. It’s kind of a concierge service”
- Tour and Special Events @Interscope
"When there is no covid I travel a lot so I am divided between being with the artist on tours and promotion - with visits to my offices for strategy and planning meetings around the world and in London with my team on a day-to-day basis when we are not traveling. My boss travels much more than I do so we are used to working remotely and maintaining constant communication."
Is a degree required?
A degree in Marketing, Advertising, or Communication is recommended.
If you start as a Marketing Representative, you can advance your career by becoming a Regional Marketing Representative or a Marketing Director. You can get promoted to the position of Marketing Director for a distinct genre.
To get a better chance of landing a job as a Marketing Rep, you can start as an Intern or Campus Rep in the department. Having an internship in the marketing department of any record company would be ideal, also volunteer to work in the marketing department to get a feel for the business.
Education & Training
Written by Ixe & Nikita.
Designed by Lou.
Published June 17th 2021
Copyright © 2021 Gen Admission.