method of distributing music

Distribution is how albums get into shops. Distribution companies sign deals with record labels (or very rarely, directly with artists) that gives them the right to sell that label's products to record stores that have an account with that distributor. The distributor takes a cut of income from each album sold and then pays the label the remaining balance.

Some distributors expect a record label to provide them with finished product, but sometimes a distributor will do an "M&D" deal with a label. M&D stands for manufacturing and distribution. With this set up, the distributor will pay for all of the manufacturing costs of an album up front, and then keep all of the income from the album until that initial investment is paid off.

music production

A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording (i.e. "production") of an artist's music.

A music producer can, in some cases, be compared to a film director, with noted practitioner Phil Ek himself describing his role as "the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, like a director would a movie. The engineer would be more the cameraman of the movie. The music producer's job is to create, shape, and mold a piece of music. The scope of responsibility may be one or two songs or an artist's entire album – in which case the producer will typically develop an overall vision for the album and how the various songs may interrelate.

failure of independent record stores

Smaller independents are faring no better. Mike Caddick, who has owned Swordfish Records in central Birmingham since 1979, says that a couple of years ago his city had at least seven independent record shops. Now his is one of only two.