Music Business Hierarchy

A music business company or a record label company is a kind of a business which is into creating music, developing artists and then selling the music that has been produced.  Music businesses can be small scale businesses consisting of just a few artists and manager and also large scale where the parent company may own more than one record label.  A music business is a huge umbrella consisting of many job positions and departments working under it and the company follows a unique hierarchy structure of workers. Let’s look at this hierarchy in detail:

music business hierarchy

Chief Executive Officer(CEO)

The CEO is the highest level executive of a music business and is the one who takes all the major decisions and sets all the goals for the company and its workers to follow.

President

The president comes under the CEP and is also the highest supremacy in a record label company or music business. Most of the major decision making powers lie with the President.

Vice President

The vice president reports to the president but presides over and manages the working of the various different departments of a music company. The hierarchy of all these departments has been presented below.

  • A&R– The (artists and repertoire) department is the most glamorous department of a music label company because it is responsible for finding and discovering new talent. Those working within this department have to do many tasks including assisting with song selection, choosing the people that will produce the album and also deciding where the album will be recorded.
  • Art Department–this department is responsible for handling all artwork that goes into creating an album and its video.
  • Artist Development–this is the department who publicizes the artists and drafts a chart for the career of the artist. This department takes care of the brand development of the artist individually and as associated with the company.
  • Business Affairs–this department takes care of the main business happenings of the company such as the finance related affairs and accounts. This department ensures that all business operations run smoothly.
  • Legal Department– This department is responsible for formulating all the contracts that are made between the company and the artist, as well as contracts between the record label and other companies. It handles all kinds of legal issues that may arise for the company.
  • Marketing Department–it is important for every music business to publicize and market itself and this is the job of the marketing department. This department makes sure that all songs, albums and artists get the right kind of limelight.
  • Publicity–besides marketing, a publicity department is also needed by music business companies because the publicity department takes care of ads and promotions in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV etc.
  • Sales–another very important department of a music business company is the sales department who takes care of the fact that the music created by the company is actually sold and brought to the shelves.