Getting plugged into the music industry doesn’t mean schlepping drums every night or writing lyrics until your knuckles bleed. There are a number of opportunities connecting music fans to the industry they love that don’t require becoming a weekend warrior or selling out to the man. And thankfully, as the technology continues to expand, the industry responds with more and more opportunities just waiting for industrious grads and seasoned pros to claim their share of the pie.
Looking for an alternative job in the music industry? Take a look at this list and see if anything speaks to you.
Music Copyright Lawyer
You might recall a landmark legal case from last year involving Katy Perry and Marcus Gray, a.k.a. Flame. A federal jury ruled that Perry’s Dr. Luke- and Max Martin-produced banger, “Dark Horse,” infringed upon Flame’s “Joyful Noise”, citing “very similar and, at points, identical-sounding beats.” Amazingly, cases like this are not without precedent. Robin Thicke, Sam Smith, and even Led Zeppelin have been the subjects of similar cases over the last decade. So, if you’re the type of listener who is quick to find similarities in diverse styles of music or one who holds a musicology or music theory degree and can argue your way out of a paper bag, music copyright law could be a profession worthy of your calling.
2020 update: Perry and company have won their appeal against the 2019 jury verdict. Hats off to their music copyright lawyers.
Album Cover Artist
Does hearing a chord or visualizing a lyric evoke synesthetic colors, shapes, and photo-realistic sea creatures? Or — more practically — are you good at telling a story with your art? Album art is a great way to stay connected to the music industry while remaining comfortably out of the public eye. Instagram artist @bandicootdesign is an album artist for hire who has made a name for themselves by creating faux covers for existing artist mixtapes, which, in turn, has generated some real business. It’s a great example of how, in this climate, you don’t need to wait for the business to come to you. It’s the Field of Dreams reality: create a solid public portfolio, and, if you’ve got the eye, the business will come to you.
Product Rep(resentative)
It probably won’t surprise you to learn that many of the in-house product reps that reside at Sweetwater’s Vendor Village actually start out in other departments, far from the companies they go on to represent. But these brand reps all have one thing in common: a tenacity to become experts in their fields and to gain a solid understanding of why their brand’s products outclass/outvalue all the rest. Getting in at the ground level of a relatively new company or product is a great way to grandfather oneself into a lucrative career. Check out the music products springing up on Instagram (use caution) or Shark Tank. Keep close eyes on what your LinkedIn contacts are up to or what’s trending on YouTube. Music lovers with background in marketing tend to be especially equipped for success in the field of product representation — although, a degree isn’t always required, especially for self-starters.
Email Marketer
Is your call to action irresistible? Have you got a knack for spinning a yarn? If so, email marketing for a company like Sweetwater or even for your favorite bands and instrument builders could be calling out to you from the void. At its core, email marketing is about keeping in touch with your target audience and making sure those lines of communication stay open. New tour coming up? Email. Hot sale launching? Email. The challenge comes from planning strategies that are in the Goldilocks zone of being frequent enough and engaging enough without pushing out loyal fans and followers.
Rhythmic Robot and Tone Junkie are two recent examples of small companies with great email marketing. Rhythmic Robot updates are fun — hearing what The Professor and Mongo are cooking up in their spooky lab of forgotten Soviet instruments is always a treat. Tone Junkie, on the other hand, is so generous in handing out sales that you know every time you open a message that you’re getting something good. What these two have in common is that they’re consistent and on-brand every time, which is important in building brand expectations.
Foley Artist
Can you hear in your mind’s ear the approach of a 10-ton tyrannosaur or the hum of a plasma sword? Can you spot bad ADR a from a mile away? Work as a Foley artist could be calling your name. Foley, named after 1920s post-production artist Jack Foley, is the art of imprinting audio on top of a film or TV scene in a way that’s realer than real. Footsteps that crunch and stairs that creak. Punches that connect and jump scares that start. Wind that beats and breakers that crash. These are all fabrications of the Foley world. Foley artists not only have to have killer timing to re-enact scenes in real time; but they also have to have a creative sound imagination and an exhaustive internal library of sounds for keeping the viewer immersed in the world presented on-screen.
Instrument Cartage
Gear lovers with a.) a knowledge of stage setups who b.) possess great organizational skills and who c.) want to be part of the electricity of a live performance might find their niche in music-gear cartage. You’ll find cartage companies in most major music sites across the US: Nashville, Los Angeles, etc. These services take a fee to deliver a band’s gear to a performance space and to set it up ahead of time. Or, in other cases, the cartage company may set up their own gear for turnkey entertainment events and artist fly dates.
Naturally, an ability to work strange hours and perform backbreaking labor is a requirement for most cartage jobs. A friendly disposition helps, too. One thing this job provides is the satisfaction of a grade-A live show, in a very methodical way, without the stress of performing.
Playback Engineer
“It requires someone who is both creative and technical,” says artist and operator Laura Escudé of Electronic Creatives on the role of the playback engineer. “People think we are just pressing Play, [but] there’s so much more to it than that.” Laura and her team have cut their teeth designing live shows for the likes of Kanye West and Jay-Z, preloading MIDI patches for live performers, and triggering tracks and set cues from offstage. Be advised that being in the hot seat in the heat of a performance, as playback engineers often are, is not for the faint of heart; things can and will go wrong, and the job requires someone who is quick on their feet and who stays cool under pressure. That said, if you’re someone who thrives on the spontaneity of a live performance and who likes to keep the technical and creative sides of your brain simmering for hours at a time, then playback engineering could be for you.
Conclusion
Don’t buy into the lie about there being “no plan B” in the music industry. This list is proof that the ever-growing music tech and production fields are extremely diverse and require far more specialized personnel than just artists and arrangers.
Interested in dipping your toes in the alternative side of the music industry? Contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700 and let us know what we can do to help you get started.