Pathways Into Music has developed a taxonomy for organising all the people and companies that make up the music industry.

This taxonomy can be used to navigate and understand the music industry in general, and also to map the music industry in any one country or region. Mapping the music industry in this way can help educators, and those embarking on a career in music, to identify possible experts and mentors in their local area.

Policy-makers in any one area can also undertake ‘mapping and gapping’, identifying where there are gaps in the local industry that might disadvantage people pursuing a career in music, and which might result in professional music-makers relocating to other regions.

Where local authorities are looking to grow their local music and/or creative industries, ‘mapping and gapping’ can help identify where training, investment and support is most needed. Entrepreneurs could also use the outcome of the ‘mapping and gapping’ work to identify opportunities to enter the local market.

The taxonomy has three levels, each providing a different level of detail.

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LEVEL ONE
At Level One we split the music industry into six core strands.

MUSIC CREATION includes the people and companies involved in creating, releasing, publishing, marketing, promoting and monetising songs and recordings. This side of the industry has copyright at its core, and administers and manages the rights in the music that music-makers create.

LIVE PERFORMANCE includes the people and companies involved in staging, promoting, producing and marketing live shows, including gigs, concerts, tours and festivals.

FANBASE BUILDING + MANAGEMENT includes the people and companies involved in building and managing a fanbase for each frontline artist, and managing and monetising each artist’s fan relationship.

MUSIC EDUCATION + PARTICIPATION includes the people and institutions involved in music education, and the groups and organisations that bring together people to perform music for personal enjoyment, to pursue a passion rather than a career.

MUSIC TOURISM + HERITAGE includes music venues, events and festivals that generate tourism in any one region, and institutions and initiatives that capitalise on a region’s musical heritage.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES includes all the people and companies that provide legal, accountancy and other professional services, both to music companies and to individual music-makers.

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LEVEL TWO
At Level Two we break down each of the six core strands into smaller groups of people and companies that perform a more specific role.

This helps music-makers better understand the people and companies they may partner and work with as their careers progress, and also the different kinds of companies that those embarking on an industry career might work for and with.

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LEVEL THREE
At Level Three we list key company types and key roles in each of the groups identified in Level Two. There are two approaches you can take here.

You can focus on music businesses, mainly listing key company types, but also key roles in those scenarios where practitioners often work on a freelance basis rather than for companies.

So within creating music, record labels and music publishers are key company types, but record producers and sound engineers are often freelancers, so you would also list these key roles.

Or you could focus on music practitioners, so mainly list key roles. That would include the freelancer roles like producers and engineers, but also the key roles within music companies, such as A&R, marketing, promotions and business affairs within a label.

When mapping music businesses, you might also take scale into account, and further organise companies of the same type based on size.

This is most important when mapping venues, as knowing the size of a venue is important for understanding what role it plays in the local music economy. You can organise venues based on capacity or by identifying different categories of venues.

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