Roles and Contracts

ROLES AND CONTRACTS

Live performance:

Live performance is one of the main attributes with in the music industry its where the artist gets to show what he/she has to offer. its where lots of important jobs come in to place and it also involves a lot of contracts that could make or break a career in this blog. I will be talking about a few of my plans for now and the future and I will also be talking about what is a good contract and what contract could leave you broke if not thought about properly. The three areas that I’m going to be talking about are Artist, Tour manager and stage manager.

Artist: an artist is a key role for live performance and it would be impossible to have the music industry without an artist. Live performance as we know has lots of jobs and there is non-more important than being an artist.
Salary/hours/working environment – An upcoming artist should work 24/7 it’s a job that involves a lot of training to become good at. The type of environment the artist will be working at is not really specific but different. In most causes the artist will be at a recording studio or touring on different stages up and down the country.
Duties – The duty of an artist is simple, rehearse the songs they have and perform it live to hundreds or maybe even thousands of fans. When they rehearse they have to be precise. It has to be timed and they cannot fail, how hard they work will determine how far they’ll get in the industry and it could also make them more active towards performing more events. Things they could do to make sure they are ready to reach that level is to be healthy by exercising and eating healthy and making sure they get regular check-ups from local doctors.
Skills/Education needed – skill is a must for performers and what musicians do to master these goals is practice, they often have private lesson to master their skills. Musicians like to be good at what they do and most musicians in our days need to learn theory. Learning theory is a great way to understand the basics and to have a great knowledge and understanding of what music is, joining courses that teaches the artist how to perform is a great way to boost confidence and also doing other part-time jobs to understand different industries and business. It is also important for an artist to be social and interact with fans to widen their fan base. I’m planning to work in the industry myself both in the studio and in the performance side. What I’m doing now to help me succeed is a level 3 course that teaches me different areas of the industry that is producing sound engineering, djing and theory. What I do on my spare time to help me with the performance is practice at least 2 hours a day and book as many gigs as I can to get my confidence up in performing.
Job satisfaction - it’s a great job to have when everything is well and your touring all over Europe but it can cause anxiety if it’s not going well but overall it’s great.
Type of contract –
360 deal: the 360 deal is where an artist gets an advance that has to cover all of the costs for the production of their album and the costs for tours and events, also recording time. To sign a 360 deal an artist has to often be recognised by an agent or someone that has connections with a major label. The contract has rules and conditions to follow and for some artist it might be too hard to follow or unreasonable so signing a 360 deal might not be recommended for anyone, because with a 360 deal the money gets shared between everyone that works and helps the artist. So the artist can do a lot of work with the performing and producing music but for the artist to get major in the music business people like the manager, publishers, recording studios etc has to do a lot of work to get the artist recognised so the money goes to all these people so that leaves the artist left with only a little bit of money so %5 or %10 of the money with the 360 deal.
Management Contract: A manager is often needed by an artist once the artist has a bit more work. Usually the artist likes to focus on the creative side of music so often they leave all the business to the manager. The manager has lots of different tasks and that means they cannot get a specific budget so often a manager gets 10 – 20 percent of the total income of the artist.With this contract the manager is in control of the artist once the artist signs the certain contract, with the income money the manager in some cases will get more of the money then the artist.
Risks associated with employment/contract type:
360 deal: not having enough control, not getting a specific amount of money, depth is a few of the risks that you take signing a 360 deal. 360 deal can be very attractive at first that’s why its really important to have a lawyer looking for any unexpected deals or hidden charges.Tour manager:A tour manager controls the whole group he is responsible for everything. For example making sure the group is safe and happy, he needs to make sure that everything is up to date. He also needs to make sure he knows the dates for tours. Once the artist is in a different country they are responsible for getting the crew to the country, they are responsible for food accommodations, travel, also extra commands that the crew needs, first aid kit for any injuries and emergencies.

Tour Manager:


Salary/hours/working environment - they work throughout the year without a permanent contract, they work as a freelancer witch means they only get payed for the hours that they work instead of a stable budget. The hours that a tour manager works usually is as long as the tour lasts witch is 24/7. Their working environment can be quite stressful and you would not often see the tour manager hanging around and relaxing because the tour manager has to run around from the hotel to the venue to the car to wherever the artist wants to go in the place of the tour, venues for interviews, photo shoots and video shoots etc, basically every specific place in the tour so the tour manager can do his job and keep an eye on the artist and the crew to make sure things are going to plan.
Duties: the duties for a tour manager is: booking flights, booking events of the tour, booking travel such as buses,planes etc, booking a hotel or somewhere to stay for the whole crew, making sure everything is on time, making sure the crew and the artist is up to date with interviews and shows and shoots. Taking care of everyone and if someone is injured or there is an emergency the tour manager takes care of it. Overall the tour manager is like the father of the artist/band and team, so its absolutely vital to have a tour manager thats friendly and easy to get along with.
Skills/education needed: usually a tour manager has to be all rounded, meaning having a good education in english,maths, and also having an understanding in depth about the music industry or just knowing how the industry works. having good organisation, social skills and responsibility could be enough to get him working in the music industry.
Job Satisfaction: the good thing about being a tour manager is being able to to travel around, learning new skills within the industry, meeting new people, working with different artist's. But Overall its nots a very satisfying job to have because its not creative, it involves long hours, it is a very stressful job with never ending tasks, you often would only choose to work as a tour manager if the money is good. Also its a competitive job because it is not a permanent job there are loads of tour managers out there so you might not be hired for a while and be left with no work throughout the year and not having enough experience could prevent you from getting enough jobs as a tour manager.
Type of contract - short term contract, a short term contract is a job that lasts for a short period of time. With tour managers their job could last for a few days, a week, a month, or in most cases tour managers are found working throughout the summer season. Tour managers work with freelance because they don't work full time and they get hired for short period of times. So because tour managers work for short period of times they usually can only sign the short-term contract. But whats important about working freelance is that they work for themselves so any contracts would only be for a short period of times.
Risk associated with employment: stress is a common aspect in this job due to the long hours and short amount of sleeping and some extreme cases, distress might even turn into depression depending how extreme the hours are and the tasks are.