In the meantime the marketing people prepare artwork and budgets for the displays at the base of each row of records, or “endcaps,”...

Once everyone has signed off on the recording, the A&R department hands it off to the product manager and the production department. At...

For the sake of this series, we’re going to assume our artist’s sales and story are convincing, else our Sherpa won’t have very much...

A brief tour of a fictitious record company WELCOME TO FUN with flowcharts. In this episode, we play Sherpa following a piece of music...

In the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, before the corporate reports spotlighted the cash laid out for the practice, record companies had the...

PUBLIC LOSSES were not all that visible if the company didn’t want them to be. Even the I gonifs knew enough to hire clever accountants....

Ahmet Ertegun, son of a Turkish ambassador, formed Atlantic Records in 1947 with his friend Herb Abramson, funded by a loan from their...

This series and subsequent ones will seek to lay out in very specific terms, how the system that turned music into a commodity ultimately...

It is worth looking at a few comments made by Mr Bell. He was, after all, one of the world’s most renowned music managers for over forty...

In the traditional music industry model, artists would generally sign three broad contracts with three different individual/companies....

Crowd-funding, also known as fan-funding, is a relatively new international business model that deserves some discussion. My Major...

There's a growing culture of 'doing it yourself' in South Africa than overseas, quite simply because of the apathy of the majors in...

It used to be that the 'short-form' music video was simply a marketing tool designed to promote album sales. No more - today the music...

A vital and crucial point for the South African Music industry to note is that the majority of South African (and African) internet users...

Internet radio (also known as streaming radio and webcasting) is an audio service transmitted via the internet similar to what we are...

AAC file: An Advanced Audio Coding file used by Apple for its iTunes andiPod technologies. AAC is an audio compression technology that is...

Going it alone means being prepared to take full responsibility for production, marketing, sales, promotion, music composition and...

My view in a nutshell is that new artists who cannot get a (favourable) record deal should go it alone because now he can. Musicians...

At this point, I must note that it would be remiss if I were simply to offer the advice that young upcoming bands should only use new...

Of course - it is possible today. This is the concept of 'self-release', and many artists are doing it. But it is difficult, and it...