• The music industry offers excellent careers for professionals who love music.music image by DXfoto.com from Fotolia.com
  
  The music industry offers a wide range of career opportunities for individuals with various interests and skill sets. These careers typically require excellent written and verbal communication skills and an appreciation for working with people, and often require significant traveling (especially between the nation's four major music industry hubs of Nashville, New York City, Los Angeles and Austin, TX). This article outlines a few of the essential jobs that keep the industry running.
  
  

Artist and Repertoire (A&R)

• A&R representatives (called "reps"), are employed by record labels and are responsible for discovering and signing new talent. Some A&R reps have business degrees, but there is no formal education requirement for the position, which is typically occupied by well-connected industry veterans. Reps are salaried employees who are paid bonuses depending on the success of the artists they sign, meaning that the position's expected income can vary widely. A&R reps attend many live performances and often work on nights and weekends.
  
  

Marketing Agent

• Marketing agents work to discover new and efficient ways to deliver a record label's products (music) to consumers, and they develop plans for expanding an artist's audience. These individuals typically work in offices and have degrees in marketing, although some possess business or advertising degrees. Marketing agents typically earn between $30,000 and $40,000 to start, but can make much more with years of experience.
  
  

Publicist

• Publicists coordinate the publicity elements of an artist's career, scheduling the artist's TV performances and other media appearances. Publicists also write press releases and work to secure concert and album reviews in relevant blogs and newspapers. According to "100 Careers in The Music Business," the publicist's primary goals are to improve the artist's public image and name-recognition, while making sure that the artist is constantly in the public eye.
  
  

Producer

• Music producers coordinate the physical recording of music. They work with the artist and record label to develop a creative direction for the recording project. Producers also manage the recording process by scheduling studio time, hiring studio musicians and ensuring that the project stays on time and on-budget. Producers usually possess excellent technical, compositional and musical arrangement skills, as they must be able to communicate details about the recording process between singers, musicians, engineers and record label personnel. According to Payscale.com, the median income for music producers is around $50,000 per year. However, producers are compensated through royalties, which means that top-performing individuals typically earn well above the average.
  
  

Music Publisher

• Music publishers act as liaisons between songwriters, artists, producers and record labels. In the workflow of the music industry, music publishers are the people responsible for finding quality songs and "pitching" those songs to appropriate artists and projects. Publishers control the copyrights to all of the songs in their "catalog," and share royalties with songwriters when those songs are used in advertisements, TV and movies. Publishers actively seek out these placements, effectively serving as agents on behalf of the song's writer.