Studied by 8 people
Music Tech || MT CA1 - Introduction to Music Technology and the Music Business
What is a composer?
Someone who writes and creates music.
What are composers responsible for?
They are responsible for creating music. However, they are not always the same person as the musical artist.
Many musical artists have them who they work alongside to help them create their music.
What is a songwriter?
Very similar to a composer. The difference being that they will be writing songs that have lyrics.
What are songwriters responsible for?
They are responsible for writing music. However, they may be a separate person to the musical artist.
Many musical artists have them who they work alongside to help them create their music.
What is a lyricist?
A person who writes lyrics or poems that are intended to be used for songs, but doesn’t compose.
What are lyricists responsible for?
They are responsible for writing the words that will be set to music.
What is an arranger?
Someone who takes partially or fully composed pieces of music and changes the way that instruments or parts are played or interact with each other through changes in instrumentation, texture and genre.
What are arrangers responsible for?
Working with composers, songwriters and musical artists to help them arrange their musical ideas.
What is a session musician?
This is someone who plays at least one instrument to a professional standard.
They are hired to perform for recordings or live performances.
What are session musicians responsible for?
They are responsible for learning instrumental parts and performing them correctly.
They may also be involved in the song writing process.
What is a sound designer?
Involved with the production and manipulation of sounds. They usually work within the theater and media industry.
What are sound designers responsible for?
Creating and recording sound effects for films, television, video games, and live theatre.
What is a DJ (disc jockey)?
Before automatic playback, music was played back from a vinyl record.
This required someone to physically set up and cue a song on a second record player so that there were no gaps between songs.
What are DJs responsible for?
The selection, playback, and performance of music in a venue.
What techniques did DJs usually use?
vinyl scratching, looping, and beat matching
What is a producer?
Someone who is in charge of leading and directing a musical project. Their role is similar to that of a film director.
What are producers responsible for?
Overseeing and leading projects
Developing and arranging material
Helping to realize the artists’ vision
Making/creating decisions
What is a mix engineer?
Someone who combines all of the recorded tracks and balances them to produce a final version of a recording where all parts can be heard.
What is a technician?
This is someone whose main area of expertise is with the maintenance of musical equipment.
They may work within a venue, recording studio, or a touring company.
What are technicians responsible for?
Maintaining and repairing equipment.
They may also be involved in making repairs to other equipment such as microphones, smoke machines, and lights.
What is an engineer?
They are in charge of setting up and managing the technical aspects of the recording.
They do not usually make creative decisions; this would be the responsibility of the producer.
What are engineers responsible for?
The set-up of recording hardware and software.
They need to be able to interpret ideas that the artist of producers has and be able to set up microphones and equipment to achieve the desired sound.
What is a manager?
This is a person or team, who are in charge of the business side of an artists career.
Work on commission, this means that they take a percentage of the artists earnings in return for managing them.
What are managers responsible for?
Negotiating contracts
Finding opportunities for clients
Overseeing the career development of clients.
What is a publicist?
This is some who deals will any public relations. They will often be referred to as a PR manager.
What are publicists responsible for?
Creating marketing strategies
Running promotional campaigns
Developing public image of clients
What is an A&R (artist and repertoire)?
People who usually work for a record company and essentially are in charge of searching for new talent to sign to their record label.
What are A&Rs responsible for?
In charge of developing the artists that they sign.
A big part of their job will be attending open mic events, gigs and networking in different music scenes to discover pre-empt what will be the next big hit.
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