Music Glossary - Music Definitions - Music Industry Terms

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A compendium of terms relating to music and the music industry that frequently appear throughout Billboard.com.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

AC: Abbreviation for the adult contemporary radio format.

Academy of Country Music (ACM): The Academy of Country Music, headquartered in Burbank, Calif., was formed to "support, promote, and enhance the advancement of the country music industry worldwide." The ACM annually stages the Academy Of Country Music Awards. http://www.acmcountry.com

AIMS: Alliance of Independent Media Stores. A national coalition of independent record stores. http://www.thealliancerocks.com

ASCAP: The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. A membership association of United States composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers. It licenses and distributes royalties its members' copyrighted works. http://www.ascap.com

ARIA: Australian Record Industry Association. ARIA operates much like the RIAA, in that it represents the interests of various music industry members, largely including labels. They have been closely affiliated with the fight against copyright violations in illegal filesharing. http://www.aria.com.au

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B

B2B: Business-to-business. Intended as a resource for one business to another, inter- or intra-industry.

BMI: American performing rights organization who collects license fees on behalf of those American creators it represents and disperses royalties. http://www.bmi.com

Broadband: A data transmission where multiple pieces of data are sent simultaneously to increase the effective rate of transmission. Most commonly refers to high-speed Internet.

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C

Call letters: Most often, a four-letter combination identifying a particular radio station. Stations with "K" letters (ex. KEXP) are located in the western half of the United States, while "W" stations (ex. WKRX) are in the east.

CHR: Abbreviation for the contemporary hits radio format, also known as popular, top 40 or pop music radio.

CMJ: College Music Journal. A weekly magazine of and for the music industry and college radio stations in the United States and Canada. It publishes top 10 lists submitted by stations. Also known for it's monthly consumer magazine and the CMJ Music Marathon, held annually in New York. http://www.cmj.com

CD: Compact disc. An optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. Most common medium in audio world today.

Concert Promoter: An agent or agency in charge of promoting a concert events with duties including booking, ticketing and public relations and marketing around said event.

CMA: Country Music Association. An organization of country music industry professionals, intended to guide and enhance the development of country music throughout the world and to demonstrate it as a viable medium to advertisers, consumers and media. Annually stages the CMA Awards. http://www.cmaworld.com

CMT: Country Music Television. A country music oriented cable television channel with programming that includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, and biographies. Owned by MTV parent company, Viacom. http://www.cmt.com

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D

Digital Download: Music encoded file obtained via the Internet from digital music stores, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, artists' Web sites and other medium.

Distributor (distribution): Agents or agencies that are responsible for getting records into the retail marketplace.

DRM: Digital rights management. A term referring to methods used to control or restrict the use of digital media content on electronic devices, such as CDs.

Dual-Disc: A two-sided compact disc with a audio (CD) side and a video (DVD) side.

DVD: Digital Versatile Disc. An optical storage disc that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. Similar to a CD, only for audio and visual components.

DVD-Audio: A DVD encoded with very high quality, surround sound audio files.

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E

Eurochart: Charts tracking the airplay, sales and popularity of various European countries.

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F

FCC: The Federal Communications Commission. An independent United States government agency, established to oversee and regulate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. http://www.fcc.gov

FTC: Federal Trade Commission. A government agency designed to ensure that markets remain vigorous, efficient and free of restrictions that harm consumers. The FTC also enforces federal consumer protection laws that prevent fraud, deception and unfair business practices, as well as enforce federal antitrust laws. http://www.ftc.gov

File-sharing: The activity of making files available to other users for download over the Internet and smaller networks. Usually file sharing follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model.

Friend-of-the-court brief: Also known as Amicus curiae. A legal opinion volunteered to a court by a party uninvolved in the case.

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G

Grammy Awards: Awards ceremony presented by the Recording Academy for outstanding achievements in the recording industry covering all genres of music. Winners are not determined by popularity but by voting members of the organization. http://www.grammy.com

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I

IFPI: International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers. European-based international recording industry organization whose aim to implement strategies in anti-piracy enforcement, technology and lobbying of governments. http://www.ifpi.org

IBMA: International Bluegrass Music Association. An industry association formed intending to promote bluegrass music, most noteably through its World of Bluegrass convention and awards ceremony. http://www.ibma.org

Indie: Independent. Not immediately affiliated to a larger corporate umbrella or ownership.

Intellectual property: Refers to a legal entitlement to the expressed form of an idea or to some other intangible subject matter, which include copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.

iPod: A portable digital audio player created by Apple Computer. Used for playing audio files away from the computer.

iTunes: A digital media player computer program created by Apple Computer. Used for playing and organizing digital music and video files.

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M

Master Tone: Also known as a true tone. A compressed snippet of actual recorded song, used as a mobile phone ringtone.

MP3: A popular digital audio file format, designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent audio.

MTV: A cable television network originally devoted to music videos, later to include general entertainment programming for young adults. MTV2, an MTV spinoff, is the new home for music videos. Digital cable channel MTV Jams concentrates on R&B; and hip-hop music. MTV Desi is intended for South-Asian Americans. mtvU is for its college audiences.

MD: Music director. Creates playlists and controls song rotations at a radio station.

Music Row: An area just to the southwest of Downtown Nashville, Tenn. Home to hundreds of businesses related to the country music, gospel music, and Christian music industries.

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N

NARM: National Association of Recording Merchandisers. Non-for-profit trade association serving the music retailing community in the areas of networking, advocacy, information, education and promotion. Members operate almost 85% of the music sold in the U.S. music market. http://www.narm.com

Nielsen BDS: Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. Collects and detects song airplay data with a digital "fingerprinting" technology. The data informs many Billboard charts. http://www.bdsonline.com

Nielsen SoundScan: An information system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of music and music videos. Its data is the source for many Billboard charts. http://www.soundscan.com

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P

Peer-to-peer (P2P): Term for sharing digital files stored on personal computers.

Piracy: The illegal duplication and distribution of sound recordings. This includes: unauthorized uploading of a copyrighted sound recording and making it available to the public; mix tapes; CD copying and selling material without authorization.

Pre-sale: Items on sale before the general public sale date. Most often albums or concert tickets.

PD: Program director. In charge of all audio output of a radio station and its personnel. Works closely with the music director.

Pro-Tools: Computer audio mixing software, widely used by amateurs and professional musicians and producers.

Publisher: An agent or agency whose primary job is to link up songs by songwriters with suitable recording artists to record them. Song promoters.

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R

Rackjobber: Sub-distributor or middle man between retail stores and large music and video product distributors.

The Recording Academy: Formerly the National Association of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), the Recording Academy is a music industry trade group that annually stages the Grammy Awards. The group is devoted to celebrating the artistic achievements of musicians and behind-the-scenes contributors like producers and engineers. http://www.grammy.com/academy

RIAA: Recording Industry Association of America. A music industry trade intended to protect and shape intellectual property rights for its members. It represents the interests of the commercial music publishing industry and is popularly associated with the fight against music piracy. The RIAA also evaluates United States music shipments through its gold, platinum and diamond certification program. http://www.riaa.com

Release date: The day a piece of music is made available for purchase in any form (ie. CD, digital download). In the United States, Tuesday is the typical release date for most discs.

Ringback: A personalization service for mobile phones. When a caller dials a ringback user, a song replaces the typical ringing noise before the user picks up.

Ringtone: The sound (or song) made by a mobile phone indicating an incoming call.

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S

SESAC: Society of European Stage Authors and Composers. Performing rights organization designed to represent songwriters and publishers and their right to royalties for having their music performed in public. http://www.sesac.com

SPBGMA: Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America. Organization created to preserve the "spirit" of bluegrass music, offering management services, competitions and encouragement to performers. SPBGMA music events are to be performed on traditional acoustic instruments, with no electric instruments allowed. http://www.spbgma.com

SGMA: Southern Gospel Music Guild. Organization that maintains a Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame and museum for the historic preservation of the accomplishments in Southern Gospel Music. http://www.sgma.org

SXSW: South By Southwest. An annual music conference that showcases musical acts over a four-day period in Austin, Texas. Conference registrants also can attend panel and convention events during the day. Also incorporates film and interactive events. http://www.sxsw.com

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T

Triple-A: Also known as Adult Album Alternative or AAA. Radio format with a musical selection at the fringe of mainstream popular and rock music, as well as other music genres such as alternative rock, alternative country, jazz, folk and world music. Also tends to play lesser-known tracks from popular artists.

Truetones: See "Master Tones."

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V

VH1: Adult-oriented cable television channel that concentrates on music entertainment and videos, spun off of MTV's popularity. Aims to appeal to audiences older than the MTV demographic. Focuses on rock and adult contemporary. http://www.vh1.com

VNU: A global marketing, media measurement and business information company. Publishes several B2B publications. Parent company to Billboard, Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS. http://www.vnu.com

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