Music as a profession for the new generation

'Musicians' career paths are as unique as their fingerprints,' said Peter Spellman. A time came when the world stopped purchasing CDs, but it continued to pay for music through digital distribution channels. A few countries, on the other hand, could not entirely sign up for this abrupt change and Bangladesh was one of them. A huge loss was witnessed in the music industry due to piracy with little or no enforcement of Copyright Act, 2000. On the other hand, ringtones and live shows kept paying artists. Artists survived.

Today with the advent of Youtube's revenue sharing model, there is a new spur among artists and labels all over the country who are creating original content and recreating old melodies to get noticed and earn revenue. For example, Arman Alif's 'Oporadhi' is such a track in Bangladesh that appealed to a vast segment and broke many online records bagging a viewership of over 74 million. This can be seen as an indicator that Bangladeshi music industry is advancing and new artists are being recognised.

Like in any other profession, how much money a musician can earn per record, per session or live show depends mostly on the size and loyalty of his/her follower-base. To digitally produce a single musical piece of work, it demands expertise in some fields. An instrumentalist has to play his or her instrument in real-time or map the digital sounds. An audio engineer has to mix the sounds in appropriate proportions so that the right sounds are played in right intensity in speakers. He or she charges around Tk 1,000 to 15,000 per record. The pay of an instrumentalist varies from Tk 1,500 to Tk 0.1 million.

A music director is generally someone who has good access to the studios, has a good knowledge about how the instruments sound when they are played together. He or she puts everything together and presents the final product to the label. The director generally consumes a major portion of the total production cost of the song besides any celebrity instrumentalist or vocalist associated with the song. The director can earn up to Tk 2,000 to 0.2 million. If the music piece involves lyrics, then the lyricist can submit his/her lyrics matching with the tune given to him/her or, he/she can also submit lyrics first which can later be tuned by the composer. The lyricist charges around Tk 5,000 to 12,000. These are the earnings of some of the many artists involved in the production process.

As soon as the director submits the song to the label, the label assigns the work of video-making to a video maker if the video is not already made. Then after the video and audio are put in sync, it is released on label's distribution channels. Streaming apps like GPMusic, Robi Yonder Music etc. receive the songs before the videos of the songs are uploaded to Youtube because the labels can earn a certain amount of revenue from those in-app streams and downloads of those songs. As soon as the videos are uploaded to Youtube, the songs get the most visibility and labels can earn revenue through Youtube's Partner Programme. In Bangladesh, a few channels have received Youtube Silver Play Button which is awarded to channels that have surpassed 0.1 million subscribers. Labels then share their revenue among the stakeholders who have contributed to the music production in promised percentage.

Apart from these record label deals, musicians are making money by doing gigs, by playing instruments on demand. They are teaching music individually or in batches to pay off their bills and to pass the zeal they have for their instruments. Many are making background scores for jingles, films, and video clips, and paving their career that way.

Therefore, demand for good music is increasing in the country. With artists breaking records and setting new ones with views and revenues, it can be expected that producers and consumers can align their tastes and efforts to take the industry to the better position. It can also be hoped that a planned regulation of these online distribution channels can ensure the right remuneration to the artists.

When requested to advise the newcomers of the industry, Golam Sarawar- a famous music composer of Bangladesh- said, 'Be ethically fearless to grab attention; be strictly consistent to hold attention. The money will follow.'

The above mentioned incomes of the professionals in the music industry were collected through a questionnaire. Musicians from a few studios in Bangla Motor area of Dhaka city participated in the survey. The amounts may vary widely.

The writer is a first year student of BBA programme at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. He can be reached at [email protected]