John1034

See Attachment Below...

I'm am doing a study on the overall body structure of the music business from the songwriter/artist's perspective and would appreciate some feedback from any experts, executives, college majors, etc. This is a very rough draft that I've put together in the last few days citing Passman's book and Wikipedia mostly. If you have knowledge of the industry please post any changes I should make and/or any major players I might have missed. I think I got most of them in there. I'm still trying to figure out where the unions fit in (SAG-AFTRA and AFM).

Basically what I'm trying to do here is plot a person who is both songwriter and artist as the center of the universe. From their angle, I'm graphing the relationship between them and the rest of the players in the industry as the product moves from creator to consumer. Thank you all very much for your help.

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wiggums

I'm not an expert on anything like this, but what you're doing sounds very interesting.

Once done, it might be interesting to make another one for the music industry before the digital age. Before, artists made all their money from record sales, and the tours were more of an advert for the record. Now it's switched, and the record is just an encouragement for the tour and the artists make their salary on that. Seeing those contrast might make for a more comprehensive work to look at once your finished. Good luck!

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John1034

Amen brother. Gracias...

Trollheart

If you can find him, speak to Mr Dave, whose father was in the business. He may be able to help you. Also try posting (not the same thread, that's against the rules) in the songwriters' section and the musical instruments section, you may get more feedback there. Best of luck.

And Happy Christmas!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

John1034

After further research I've made some modifications. I've included trade unions and trade associations and made some other corrections. I'm not sure the hierarchical style tree chart can accurately capture the business but that's the one I'm using because I just want a very simple view, the simplest. Anyone's two cents would be appreciated.

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John1034

Bump. Anyone?

Face

Is it right that everything always goes through a manager/lawyer first?

John1034

Well, I think it is if the songwriter/artist is very successful... that's the model I'm going for. The songwriter/artist would have his lawyer look over each contract before establishing a relationship with the rest.

mr dave

If you want to do it for a living and don't want to be contractually screwed out of everything you've created you better believe it all goes through a manager / lawyer first.

As for the diagram itself it seems solid enough but I was always under the impression the whole studio production side of things was connected to the label. The labels are the ones who chose the studio and production experts (or if a band is successful enough they'll get a list of names they can chose from - but still based on label preferences).

But the organism itself is changing. The other thing that seems to be missing is government grants or other funding for the Arts. Interesting project nonetheless.

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i am the universe

John1034

Yes you are right about production and the label. Sorry I've been on other forums... here's the updated chart. I inverted it too, I think this more accurately demonstrates the songwriter/artist's place of humility in the business...

Oh and as for gov grants... this chart is modeled after a successful artist in his prime, so...

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