2. CEO - chief executive officer
• The CEO of a record label is in charge of the company as a whole, the
decide of the general direction of the marketing for the company , the
music distribution and other matters.
• They are responsible for the success or failure of the company they
have the final say in any of the departments work
3. Vice president
• The vice president often assists the CEO of the label, often with their
own skills set of marketing or business the vice president can help the
CEO or take their place in an absence for example the vice president
can oversee the running's of the label the CEO is busy, away meeting
with clients
• They also are responsible for delivering the strategy of the label
finalised by the CEO and hold meetings with department head to plan
the future of the label
4. Business affairs
• This department is in charge of accounting, banking, taxes and the
general finance of everything to do with the label
• Accounting usually reports back to the CEO as this is vital for the
running of the record label
5. Legal
• Each label has a group of lawyers to deal with the legal affairs of the
company. They negotiate the contracts with artists and manage the
contractual needs of the label. The legal department is one of the
bigger departments in most labels.
• Any legal issues that many occur, for example lawsuits between artists
and the company, will be sorted through the legal department.
6. A&R – artists and repertoire
• Often described as the most glamorous department of a record label
the A&R department is in charge of discovering new talent.
• They are very involved with the artists they sign as they assist with
song selection, choosing who will produce the album and deciding
where the album will be recorded
• The people in the A&R department link between the artist and the
other departments in the label
• It is a very high demanding job and high pressured job as if an album
isn't selling well then the blame is often shared between the A&R
department and the artist
7. Artistic development
• This department is in charge of the look of the album, from the
artwork that goes with the album, CD cover art, advertisements and
displayed at music shops.
• However lot of record labels now stop providing this as they try to
sign artists who already know their genre as they have learnt that this
is the wrong thing to do as we have seen with shows like X-Factor that
change everyday people into celebrities, changing their whole look
and them as a person
8. Marketing
• The marketing department of a lot of record labels tend to focus on
street teams, the image of the person and online promotion. These
people put up posters on the streets, sell tickets and hand out flyers
to people on the street to promote the artist. They also phone radio
stations requesting songs from the artist to get radio plays.
• The marketing department also control the artists whole design, from
the posters and flyers to the CD covers and the displays in shops to
the most sales
9. online
• The online department promote artists signed to the label through
making websites, social media pages (such as Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram) to keep the fans updated on what the artist is doing and
news about new music or tours from the artist. They also create the
online adverts for the artists, these include the banners you see on
websites or YouTube videos, they also make sure they are updating
the artists website.
10. Art department
• The art department is in charge of all product design jobs, CD cover
art, promotional advertising, retail posters and all other print based
media. They make all the aesthetics look good for the other
departments, such as marketing to promote the artist.
11. publicity
• the publicity department are in charge of getting the artist the media
coverage they need through radio tv or print. They try to get rid of
any bad press or out a positive pin on it and they get the best out of
the good press by getting it the best coverage from it. They get the
artists invited to high profile events such as parties or premiers as
they will be reported and get the artist more media exposure.
12. sales
• The sales department is in charge of everything the labels artists are
selling, mainly records and merchandise. The sales department very
important in a record label as they make deals with manufacturers
and distribution businesses to get the products out to be sold. They
also build relationships with large record stores and other mass-
market retailers to get the most sale possible
