unit 14

1. JOB ROLES OF A
RECORD LABEL

2. CEO /
President
• Concentrates on the general direction and genre of the
entire label, the politics of the business, the artists
signed and the different methods of marketing
• Improves financial performance
• Communicates with board members
• Controls that every department works

3. Vice
President
• Directly responsible for delivering the strategy of the
Record Label as finalised by the CEO
• Holds meetings to plan future targets with different
department heads
• Negotiates with distributors
• Purchases media
• Generally keeps the business running

4. Business
Affairs /
Accounting
• Responsible for accounting, banking, taxes and the
royalties of all the artists signed to the label
• Takes care of bookkeeping, payroll and general
finances
• reports directly to the CEO

5. Legal • Group of lawyers to handle all of the label’s legal affairs
• Mainly concentrate on contract negotiations with
artists
• Responsible for contracts between the record label and
other companies
• Work with vendors, and manage all other contractual
needs of the Record Label
• Any legal issues, such as lawsuits between an artist and
the company, go through this department
• In many cases in the USA, CEO's are attorneys
themselves, in the UK the legal departments are not as
powerful and CEO's are more likely to have come from
an operational or marketing background

6. A&R • Artist & Repertoire
• Person who finds new talents
• Recommends to the label to sign them up
• First contact between artist and record label
• Sign artists (artist makes an exclusive contract with
that record label)
• Assist with song selection, choose the people that will
produce the album and decide where the album will be
recorded
• Work as the link between the recording artist and all
the other departments of the record company

7. Artist
Development
• Most Record Labels have stopped providing ‘Artist
Development’ because they now try to sign artists that
are already fully developed into their own genre so that
they do not need to get the artist into the market
• Labels have learned that developing artists is often the
wrong thing to don (for example in programs like
X Factor and American Idol
• Work on the right personality/image and correct stage
presence of the artist
• Help developing the artists careers artistically and
financially
• Smaller labels can give feedback to artists and suggest
professional help (for example image consultant or
voice trainer)

8. Marketing • Focus on StreetTeams, art and design, the image of
the artists and online promotion
• Street teams give out flyers, put up posters, sell tickets
to young people and also ring into radio stations
requesting songs
• Plugger plug DJ’s at radios to play a specific track on
their playlists and try to supply their bands with live
guests and sessions on radio stations
• Design everything from posters and flyers to CD covers
and in-store banners of an artist
• Coordinate the plans of the promotion, sales and
publicity departments

9. Online /
New Media
• Social Networking Staff promote bands in the label
creating and using websites such as Facebook,
Instagram,Tumblr andTwitter
• Social media sites are used to keep fans up to date on
the latest news and releases
• Create banner ads through sites likeVevo onYouTube
and create and update band websites
• Has smaller sub-departments such as SEO (Search
EngineOptimisation), programming and PPC (pay per
click) managers

10. Art
Department
• Works with artists andA&R
• Design album covers, insert art, posters, advertising
and any other design work needed in the marketing
and promotion of the products

11. Publicity /
Promotions
• Responsible for getting their artists coverage in the
media (radio,TV, online or in print)
• Must get new songs of an artist on the radio in order to
ensure the future success of the record company
• Attempt to make any bad press positive and try to get
the most out of all the good news/events that have
been reported
• Want to get their artists invited to parties, events, and
news worthy situations which will increase media
coverage for that artist

12. Sales • Control basically everything the labels artists are
selling (CD’s, DVDs, Merchandise and signature
instruments,…)
• Make deals with the different manufacturing and
distribution businesses
• Sub-department ‘Sales Distribution’, make sure that,
when the artists merchandise/CDs etc. are ready to be
sold, they have all the materials prepared with the
manufacturers to make sure they are produced and
released on time