Anyone here work in the music industry?

samjam

Just was curious. It is 100% what I want to do with my life. I have such a passion for music, nothing makes me happier than listening to music and going to live shows. To work with it as a career would be pretty much the greatest thing. This semester at school, I got an internship at a local music venue which has been such a terrific experience and has showed me that despite all the craziness, I definitely still want to work in the business! I've applied to a bunch of internships for the summer so far, at labels, magazines, and venues, mostly, and am hoping for the best! I think it would be coolest to work hands on with bands, somehow, but really am open to learning as much as I can about different areas of the business So, if you work in the music industry in any faction, what is it that you do? Are you happy with your career? Any advice for me?

Mamasan23

Hey samjam! My husband works in the music industry - he's been a promoter since he was 16 years old. He started out doing his own small shows at places like the local Knights of Columbus and now works full-time for a promotion company and also has his own business on the side. One thing I've learned from him is that the music industry is all about who you know. He went to college for music, but quickly learned that a degree wasn't going to get him anywhere. It's about making connections and just really putting yourself out there. What exactly do you want to do in the industry? I also have a couple other friends that work for Victory and Bridge 9 records. I'm pretty sure that they got those jobs by starting small and doing grunt work, possibly through internships.

My hubby loves that he's in the music industry, but it is pretty tough sometimes. It's sad to say that there aren't a lot of honest promoters anymore, and many of them get to the top by stepping on other people. So you have to have thick skin. I think you've got a good start though, just keep up with it and don't give up!!

dcfaithful

Best of luck Sam!

I've got a similiar goal to yours, so I enjoyed reading your post. I'm studying audio production, and ideally would like to make a career out of engineering/production some day. I have a couple friends who work on a stage crew for one of SLC's premier venues, and I recently worked my first show. The pay isn't great, but honestly it was a sanity gig for me. The physical work, the environment, the people, everything was wonderful. I felt comfortable and like I belonged, something exteremely contrasting to how I feel at my current day job.

I also have a weekend gig at KUER (which is the University of Utah's public radio station, it's an NPR affiliate).

I'm in pretty early stages as well, but just to echo what Mamasan said, I think it is really about making connections, putting yourself out there, being willing to be the pee-on for a period of time, and just being able to capitalize on the opportunities that are given to you to prove yourself. I do my best to show everyone who is senior to me that I am willing to work my ass off at anything that they want me to do in order to prove that I am competent enough to work by their side.

I would advise riding that gig at the venue as long as possible and just be as outgoing as you can. Meet people, and again, about the thick skin thing... I'm not that seasoned either, but this is definitely true.

Am I happy with what the things involved in music/audio that I am doing? Absolutely. The bitch of it is for me is that it isn't enough to take over my current day job... so I'm stuck in this position where I work somewhere M-F simply because the pay is superior to anything else. But the gigs that pay less give me much, much, MUCH more satisfaction mentally, socially, and spiritually.

Personally, my biggest obstacle is my location. There isn't much going on in Utah and I think it's inevitable that I will need to relocate to find some kind of success that I want, but we'll see...

Best of luck to you, and maybe we can cross paths one day via careers.

samjam

Thanks for the replies! Yep, I keep hearing 'it's all who you know'! Excited about this internship I have currently because now, I know some people! Hopefully maybe they can even help me score an internship for the summer! Sometimes, putting myself out there is a bit challenging for me, but I've been realizing that it's the only way I'm going to get ahead! So, I've been trying to work on that. It does help that I can go on for hours about music, and talking about it is my 'comfort zone'!

For now, I'm not entirely sure where in the music industry would be my best fit, which is why I'm applying to a bunch of different types of internships! But I do think working hands-on with bands is really cool, and I do have a concert addiction, those are two things that are of particular interest within the music industry to me. Excited to see where this takes me!

brianlux

Best of luck, samjam! Working in the music industry sounds like a great idea!

The closest I got to doing so was working on stage crew at my high school. Besides building sets for plays we ran lights for bands that played at our school the best know bands being The Chocolate Watchband and Buffalo Springfield. For that latter show I got to run the main spot on Neil Young. That was totally fun!

juan lester

my brother-in-law is a lighting engineer and he goes on tour everywhere - europe, south america, australia, i think he went to japan - all over the globe. he works with lasers and fog machines and all sorts of fun shit. really cool skillset to have.

dcfaithful

juan lester wrote:

my brother-in-law is a lighting engineer and he goes on tour everywhere - europe, south america, australia, i think he went to japan - all over the globe. he works with lasers and fog machines and all sorts of fun shit. really cool skillset to have.

The lighting engineer at the Umphrey's McGee show I worked two weekends ago was crazy talented. Dude had everything down perfectly.

samjam

dcfaithful wrote:

juan lester wrote:

my brother-in-law is a lighting engineer and he goes on tour everywhere - europe, south america, australia, i think he went to japan - all over the globe. he works with lasers and fog machines and all sorts of fun shit. really cool skillset to have.

The lighting engineer at the Umphrey's McGee show I worked two weekends ago was crazy talented. Dude had everything down perfectly.

That is awesome and definitely a cool area to work in! I'm hopeless when it comes to technical stuff like that

xsmytx

I worked in the industry for 7 years and hung it up about a year ago..I was an engineer, at a well known studio in NYC and did freelance FOH and monitor engineering.It was my dream growing up, so I went to a college down in winter park,fl. I did an intership for 6months n then got hired as a tech and eventually got the engineer position. I worked on everything from major label releases to working with bands that would spend their money on session time rather than eating. It was a great experience but to be sucessful and make a good living doing it you have to sacrifice your personal life..You pretty much have the same chances as winning the lottery as you do to end up succesful. It is a very vicious industry and if your gonna start interning, best of luck. I don't want to hurt your feelings or tell you not to pursue this but just know that the recording industry is pretty much dean existant due to inexpensive professional home studio equiptment and record sales are horrible. Its a DIY era, for every single thing involved with the industry nowadays. The bands do everything themselves or have some friends help

BinauralJam

xsmytx wrote:

I worked in the industry for 7 years and hung it up about a year ago..I was an engineer, at a well known studio in NYC and did freelance FOH and monitor engineering.It was my dream growing up, so I went to a college down in winter park,fl. I did an intership for 6months n then got hired as a tech and eventually got the engineer position. I worked on everything from major label releases to working with bands that would spend their money on session time rather than eating. It was a great experience but to be sucessful and make a good living doing it you have to sacrifice your personal life..You pretty much have the same chances as winning the lottery as you do to end up succesful. It is a very vicious industry and if your gonna start interning, best of luck. I don't want to hurt your feelings or tell you not to pursue this but just know that the recording industry is pretty much dean existant due to inexpensive professional home studio equiptment and record sales are horrible. Its a DIY era, for every single thing involved with the industry nowadays. The bands do everything themselves or have some friends help

This SamJam, the industry is a dinosaur, try to get into some new media field you can then apply to music.

RKCNDY

good luck to you sam!

I had the aspiration of working in promotions (I wanted to create posters or album cover artwork). I also wanted to do so many things, radio DJ, MTV VJ...I had friends that were in bands, I made flyers for them, showed up to all the shows, I took advertising art, and sold a few posters. I went to college, and lost touch with the band friends, and didn't get a lot of support at home, so I gave up my dream.

I still want to create posters, and I got to talk to Mark 5 at a poster show, he gave me some tips, but it really is all about 'who you know'...and judging by the artists that were there, there weren't a lot of females, I think I saw 2. I just gotta keep drawing, and maybe put up my work on FB...right now, I can only hope for someone to see my work on the internet and maybe get noticed. I'm so old now, I don't know if anybody would want to hire me as an intern

I think you have so many more options open to you (compared to what I had when I was your age), I wish you the best of luck!

JOEJOEJOE

I indirectly work in the music biz. I am a cpa, and many of my clients are band members/bands. We do what is called "business management" (not the same as artist management). We do accounting and taxes for our clients, but we also assist them with being properly insured, forming the correct business entities, collecting all monies due to them, and making sure their bills get paid. When a band is going on tour internationally, we do what we can to reduce any possible tax withholdings from the various countries/states they visit. It is often difficult for me to remember that I am not there to actually guide their careers, or have any artistic input!

It is obviously a very competitive business, and there are zillions of people willing to work for free/minimum wage in order to get their feet wet. Internships can really help you, as can meeting as many people as possible. Knowing the right people is definitley very important! Many people aspire to do A&R, so that is a difficult nut to crack.

You will definitley have to pay your dues, so being thick-skinned, and open to any sort of task, is very important.

Thoughts_Arrive

I've been considering a career switch.
I'd love to produce albums.
I have fine attention to detail with music, I reckon I'd do well.
But that means back to school, and I cannot do that with a mortgage. :?

dcfaithful

Thoughts_Arrive wrote:

I've been considering a career switch.
I'd love to produce albums.
I have fine attention to detail with music, I reckon I'd do well.
But that means back to school, and I cannot do that with a mortgage. :?

Don't let that stop you. Learning audio engineering is possible through good text, research, and overall just investing in the right equipment to start recording & mixing. I'm reading a beginner's book right now as I'm just beginning my studying in this, it's been a really informational and understandable read.

To get a start up rig, it would be a smaller investment than a tuition from an accredited university, or something even more like Full Sail.