I’ve recently discovered a lot of friends from a distant past. Everyone keeps asking what I’m up to and what exactly I do for a living. So here’s an explanation.

I am one of those fortunate people that really enjoy his/her job. When I meet new people I eagerly wait for them to ask me what I do so that I can brag about my cool career path. The thing about my industry is that everyone has an opinion and can hold a conversation about music. This can be irritating at times but I usually enjoy a healthy debate.

So my official title is: “Senior Label Manager” at Musketeer Records.
It’s a very vague title that works because I do a diverse range of jobs.

Musketeer Records is an independent South African record company. The company was formed in 2000 by Peter Lacey (Marketing Director) and Brian O’Shea (Creative Director). The first artist signed to Musketeer proved to be the biggest rock success story to come out of this country. Saron Gas was later snatched up by Wind-Up Records and went on to international stardom under the name Seether.

The company’s second signing, Candice, was scooped up by Sony UK. Unfortunately Candice was one of the many new artists dropped in the Sony BMG merger.

Musketeer is currently headed up by the directors Peter Lacey & Brian O’Shea with me and David Elstins running things at ground-level. The artists in our catalogue include (and have included): Seether, Candice, Siamese, Semisane, Fevertree, Soul Proxy, State Far Better, Fahrenheit and Grounded. We also license international artists for South Africa and have been the agents for: Juliette & The Licks, Kevin Martin & The Hiwatts, French Kicks, Viva Voce, The Belles, Clayhill & Vertical Horizon.

My job is divided into a few responsibilities, I’ll try to break it down:

Label Management
* Management of artist/label relationship
* The first point of call for artists’ queries
* Marketing strategy and budget planning
* Electronic Press Kit construction
* Submissions to international labels for licensing opportunities
* Sales reporting to artists
* Royalty statements
* Contracts
* Product management (album recording timelines, artwork approval etc.)
* A&R – Scouting for and researching new artists (online, live music scene, demos, etc.)
* Reporting back to hopeful artists about demo submissions

Marketing & Public Relations
* Management of media relationships
* Radio submissions
* Management of artist interviews and appearances
* Marketing reports (radio play, media coverage)

Online Presence
* Design, development and maintenance of musketeer.co.za
* Management of myspace.com page
* Management of Digital Music Download sites (iTunes, eMusic etc)
* Ringtone sales
* Youtube.com account management
* Online marketing and newsletters
* Creating banner adverts and securing space for them

So there you have it.
As you can see there’s a lot of admin involved so it’s not all high flying and schmoozing (although there’s a fair bit of that). The things I enjoy most about my job are the smallest part of what I do. Things like creating EPKs, PR stuff etc. But I spend more time chasing up on people that never get back to me.

Because we’re a small team things often cross over and we all do bits and pieces of each other’s jobs.