So What Is It You Do?

Let’s put your music industry work into an analogy that the person next to you on the airplane can understand.  Something easy to say to your aunt over the Thanksgiving table. So you can cut down the paragraphs into a couple sentences and get back to your turkey.

For some reason people know more about what goes into movie making than music making.  Perhaps visual stuff is easier to picture--go figure. So picture the set of a movie.

Engineer:  Their job is to operate the camera and decide how to calibrate it to get the best shots.

Mix Engineer:  Their job is to decide what to do with the lighting, the film coloring, the special effects.

Mastering Engineer:  Their job is to edit each scene together and ensure color continuity and that the look will translate well to a variety of screens.

Producer:  They cast vision, direct the film, and hire everyone.

Studio Musician:  They are the supporting actors.

Artist: They are the main character.

Track Guy or Girl:  They can play multiple supporting actor roles at the same time.

Editor:  They are the computer special effects touch up artists

A&R (Artist & Repertoire): They are the movie producer.  They oversee the whole thing and represent the business side of things.

Of course now we who do these jobs are all offended because these are not accurate representations of what we do.  But they’re close enough to satisfy the question or provoke the next question from Aunt Kelly.