Essential Dictionary of the Music Industry (PRO Glossary)

The music industry is a constantly evolving ecosystem that encompasses everything from the creation and production of music to its distribution and promotion. In this new article From our music creation blog, we present this dictionary of all the key terms in this industry, designed both for those just starting out in the music world and for those with experience in composition, studio recording, live performance, or music project marketing. Our goal is to demystify the jargon associated with the music business and, above all, provide clarity about key terms and concepts that are commonly heard or read in relation to record labels, live performance, copyrights, and music production.

Music Industry: What Is It?

The music industry includes the entire process that takes music from artists to listeners, covering the creation, production, and sale of songs. Historically, record labels and managers have played a central role in this process, financing recordings, promoting, distributing, and managing artists’ careers. With the advent of the digital age, the industry has expanded to include streaming platforms and social networks, adapting and offering artists the possibility of having a more direct communication line with the audience.

Music Industry Dictionary

We explore various common concepts within the commercial music industry, focusing on the role of record labels, intellectual property rights management, and adaptation to the digital age. Understanding these terms will provide you with a foundation to better navigate and professionally engage with the current music industry.

What Are Royalties?

Payments received by creators, artists, or producers for the use or sale of their music. These traditionally came from CD and vinyl sales but now mostly derive from streaming and are managed by the record label or master/phonogram owners.

What Is A&R (Artists and Repertoire)?

The department of a record label responsible for discovering, signing, and developing new talent.

What Does a Manager Do?

A person or company that guides an artist’s career, making strategic decisions, negotiating contracts, and generating collaboration or strategic opportunities for the medium and long term.

What Is Booking?

The process of organizing live performances for an artist or band. Previously always associated with management, it is now often handled by a dedicated office or department managing the tour schedule and production.

What Is Intellectual Property?

The registration of legal rights granted to creators over the ownership of their creations or works.

What Is a Music Publishing Company?

A company that manages the rights of songs and musical works, working to promote and license music to generate more royalties from its use in streaming, radio, film, TV, or video games.

What Are Publishing Rights?

Rights related to the publication and use of musical compositions across various media. Typically, these represent a percentage of copyright royalties (up to 50%).

How Do Copyrights Work?

Legal rights, managed through collecting societies (e.g., in Spain, SGAE), that protect creative works and provide control and economic compensation to creators of a song’s lyrics and music.

What Are Performance Rights?

Rights that allow artists, musicians, or contributing performers (whether or not they are composers) to receive compensation through performer management societies (in Spain, AIE) for the public reproduction and sale or streaming of media featuring their musical performances.

What Is the Role of a Music Producer?

The person who oversees all phases of recording a song or album, guiding the process from studio recording, creating instrumental arrangements (or beats), vocal recording and production, to audio mixing and mastering.

What Does an Executive Producer Do?

The person responsible for financing and supervising the financial and administrative aspects of music production. This individual is typically the owner of the master or phonogram.

What Is a Split Sheet?

A document that details the percentage distribution of authorship rights among all contributors to composing a song.

What Is a Featuring (Guest Collaboration)?

A collaboration where one artist is invited to perform on another’s track. When uploading your music to Spotify, you can list collaborators as either ‘Primary Artists’ or ‘Featured Artists’ (Ft.). This distinction is crucial, as it dictates whether the song is displayed in the ‘Releases’ section or the ‘Appears On’ section of your Spotify profiles.

What Is a 360 Deal in Music?

A 360 deal in music is an agreement between an artist and a record label or management where the company receives a percentage of the artist’s income from all activities, not just music sales or streaming, but also concerts, merchandising, sponsorships, and more.

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Music Distribution Dictionary

Here are some of the main terms to help you understand the details of digital music distribution to streaming platforms. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most critical phases in any independently managed music project today.

What Is a DSP in the Music Industry?

A DSP (Digital Service Provider) in the music industry is a platform that provides access to (or streaming of) music in digital format, such as Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music, enabling global distribution, promotion, and monetization for artists.

How Does Digital Distribution Work?

Music distributors or aggregators are companies that help artists manage their music to be available on all digital platforms and streaming services (like Spotify, Apple Music, etc.). They are also responsible for paying the royalties generated by the streams.

What Is ISRC?

A unique code that identifies each recording or track internationally. It is usually generated by the music distributor when a song is first published.

What Is UPC?

A universal barcode used to identify products in the market, including music releases.

How Does YouTube Content ID Work?

A system that allows the owners of a recording or master to control the use of their music content on YouTube. After managing the Content ID (usually through a music distributor), any video from another account that uses your song will generate income for you, and the user will not be able to monetize it.

What Is Split Share?

Split Share (Revenue Splits): The percentage-based agreement for distributing income generated by a musical work among its collaborators. Many distributors now offer tools to manage this royalty splitting automatically between artists and producers. Unlike the division of a song’s copyrights
(publishing), distribution splits are typically focused on the revenue generated by the master recording.

What Does Explicit Content Mean?

A warning about lyrical or thematic content that may be considered offensive or inappropriate for some listeners.

What is a Spotify pitch?

The process of submitting an unreleased track to the platform’s playlist editors using the Spotify for Artists tool. It allows artists to be considered for editorial placements, significantly increasing their visibility, reach, and global discovery. Check out here: how to pitch your music on Spotify.

What Is a Phonogram?

A recording of a musical performance that can be reproduced.

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Music Promotion Dictionary

This section covers the promotional materials and strategies that artists or bands use to enhance their visibility, including press kits, content plans, and marketing techniques tailored to music launches.

What Is a Press Kit?

A package of promotional materials that an artist or band sends to media outlets, promoters, and industry professionals.

What Is a Promo Sheet?

A document that highlights essential information about a music release, designed to grab the attention of the press and radio.

What Does a Content Plan Involve?

A detailed strategy that defines how and when promotional content will be published to support the launch of a music project.

What Is Music Marketing?

A set of strategies and techniques used to promote a music release, ranging from promoting a song on Spotify and other streaming platforms to planning and maintaining a social media presence and artistic proposal for a project launch.

What Is an Editorial Playlist?

An editorial playlist is a curated selection of songs, typically organized by genre, mood, or trend, created by collaborators of streaming platforms. Being featured in these playlists is a key goal for any current music project.

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Recording Studio Dictionary

This section focuses on the vocabulary and terms commonly used professionally during recording studio sessions, covering topics such as acoustic treatment, tracking, mixing, and mastering a song.

What Does Acoustic Treatment Entail?

The process of adapting a space to improve sound quality by reducing reverberation, echo, and noise.

What Is Soundproofing?

A technique used to prevent sound from escaping a space or entering it from the outside.

What Are Recordings?

Sessions in which musical performances are recorded.

What Is Tracking?

The process of recording each instrument or voice on separate tracks for later editing and mixing.

What Is a Studio Monitor?

Reference speakers used in recording studios with a flat frequency response to monitor the recording, mixing, and mastering stages.

What Are Closed-Back Headphones Used For?

Closed-back studio headphones are used to prevent the sound being monitored from leaking into the microphone during a recording session.

What Does Musical Arrangement Involve?

The process of orchestrating a song and adding melodic lines to the music for a specific production or performance.

What Is a Song’s Harmony?

Musical harmony is the combination of notes played simultaneously to produce chords in a song.

What Is a Control Room?

A room where the sound engineer controls the recording, editing, and mixing process. It typically houses the mixing desk and studio monitors.

How Does Talkback Work?

A system that allows sound engineers or a music producer to communicate with artists in the recording booth from the control room.

What Is Outboard?

External equipment used in professional recording studios, such as compressors, preamps in racks, equalizers, and effects.

What Is a Rack?

A rack is a standard 19-inch structure used to mount various electronic devices, such as effects processors, commonly found in recording studios and live sound setups.

What Is a Microphone Preamp?

A preamp is a device that amplifies the weak signal of a microphone for music production, converting it into a line-level signal for recording in a DAW or further signal routing. Mixing consoles and sound cards typically have one for each XLR or Canon input.

What Is Phantom Power?

Electric power supplied by a mixing console, DI box, or microphone preamp, required to operate condenser microphones.

What Is Composite or Comping?

An editing technique that combines the best parts of multiple takes into a single perfect track. This method is commonly used for professional vocal recordings.

What Is Hi-Z (Instrument Input)?

A high-impedance input on a sound card for home studios or dedicated preamps in professional studios, designed for connecting instruments with this type of output, such as guitars or basses. It is often used for direct recording and bass simulation with software amplifiers.

What Is Auto-Tune?

Auto-Tune is a software tool (usually in plugin form) that automatically corrects and modifies the pitch of vocals or instruments in recordings and live performances. It is known for its ability to create both natural corrections and distinctive vocal effects.

What Is Melodyne?

A software used for manually editing the pitch, tempo, and timbre of audio recordings, typically for vocals and harmonies. Unlike Auto-Tune (or other free plugins for pitch correction), it is used to edit pitch without noticeable effects.

What Is a Beat?

An instrumental base of a song, often associated with electronic or hip-hop production that artists or singers use to compose lyrics and melodies. It is increasingly common in pop, indie, and rock music.

What Is a Lead Sheet in Music?

A simplified score that outlines the structure and chords of a song, often using chord notation without written notes or adding only key fragments. It is commonly used by session musicians in live and studio settings.

What Are Ad Libs?

Improvised vocal lines performed over a song’s structure, often used with filtered effects (like a radio effect) to accompany or respond to the main vocal during the track.

What Is a Drop?

A moment in a song’s structure, typically in electronic or dance music, where tension is built up and then released with intensity, often accompanied by a heavy bass and full rhythmic section.

What Is a Hook?

The catchy and memorable part of a song, often a riff or phrase that is repeated.

What Is a Chorus?

The section of a song that repeats multiple times, containing the main theme or message.

What Is a Rough Mix?

A rough mix, premix, or pre-mix is a quick and basic mix where audio track volumes are adjusted to provide a general preview of the song’s sound and instrumentation before the final mix is created.

What Is Mixing?

The process of combining multiple recorded audio tracks into a production, applying dynamics, equalization, volume adjustments, and effects to individual tracks to create a final audio mix.

What Is Mastering?

The final stage of music production where the completed mix is processed for final equalization, compression, limiting, and stereo field adjustment, preparing the master file for digital distribution or manufacturing.

What Is a DDP?

A DDP is a file format used for audio mastering intended for CD manufacturing. It includes the order and silences between songs, ISRC codes, and authorship metadata.

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Live Music Dictionary

Dedicated to live performances, this section of the music industry dictionary covers topics ranging from live sound technology to the personnel involved in event planning, highlighting the importance of stage preparation and logistics. Don’t step onto a stage without mastering these terms!

What Is a Monitor (Live)?

A speaker directed at the musicians from the stage floor to provide them with a personalized audio mix, helping them monitor their performance and that of the rest of the group.

What Is a Set List?

A set list is a predefined list of songs that an artist or band plans to perform during a live show. It serves as a guide for both the musicians and the technical team.

What Causes Feedback?

Unwanted feedback caused by the interaction between a microphone and a speaker.

What Is a Backing Track?

Pre-recorded audio tracks played during a concert to complement the live performance.

What Is a Click Track?

An audible metronome used in studios and some live performances to maintain the tempo of each song (bpm). It is essential for bands or artists performing with pre-recorded backing tracks.

What Are In-Ears?

In-ear monitors that allow musicians to hear a personalized audio mix during a live performance.

What Is a Rider or Stage Plot?

A document specifying the technical requirements of an artist or band for a live performance, detailing the number of channels, power outlets, audio lines needed, and the position of each musician on stage.

What Does a Road Manager Do?

The person responsible for the logistics of tours and concerts for an artist or band.

What Is the Role of a Stage Manager?

The person who oversees and coordinates all aspects of a production on stage.

What Does a Monitor Engineer Do?

A technician responsible for operating and mixing the personalized monitoring systems for the musicians.

What Is PA (Public Address)?

A sound amplification system used to project sound to the audience at a live event.

What Does a PA Technician Do?

A professional responsible for mixing the audio at an event and operating the public sound system or PA.

Who Is a Backliner?

A technician responsible for transporting, setting up, adjusting, and maintaining musical instruments and equipment on tour. They also handle any issues with the instruments or equipment during a performance.

What Does Cache Mean for a Concert?

Cache refers to the fee paid to artists or bands for their performance, a key element in negotiations between artists and event organizers.

What Is a Line Check?

A quick check conducted before a concert to ensure that all audio lines (microphones, instruments) are correctly connected and functioning.

What Is a Curfew?

Curfew refers to the time limit set by a venue for an event or concert to end, including live performances and teardown. It is often imposed by local regulations or other activities at the venue.

What Is a Runner?

An assistant who performs various tasks (typically transportation-related) to ensure the smooth operation of a live event.

What Does Transfer Mean in a Concert Context?

Transfer refers to the transportation of artists, technical staff, and production equipment to the event venue, ensuring everything arrives on time and safely. This usually covers trips between the hotel and the stage or the hotel and the airport.