So; You wanna get into the recording industry, work at a studio, run a record label, discover artists, and do forth. In this highly competitive business no matter what you are doing, it is hard to get your foot in the door, even if you are an entrepreneur.
In this business, which delicately weighs experience against the "it's all in who you know status" there is one thing that can give you both such as contacts and experience.
Interning is the answer, but what is interning. Lately that work has used to associate a poor girl from California who wound up dead after having an affair with a U.S. senator, those annoying kids on the Dell commercials, and lets not forget a former U.S. president's main squeeze.
But all connotations aside, Interning is important to those who want to enter the recording or entertainment industry, or just about any industry for that matter, especially in today's competitive world. It is a fact that you just can't fill out an application for employment at an entertainment industry job. Trust me, there are never any "want ads" for employees; if someone gets fired or quits, jobs are fulfilled in a half a day. But to raise your chances a great deal, interning is mandatory.
So what is interning?
- You most likely will be working for free (very rarely do internships that pay, they are out there, but for the most part they are for college credit, in which I will discuss later on).
- It is not a job, and does not grantee you getting a job, but it must be treated as a job and you must be on your best work ethic behavior.
- You can be rejected from getting hired at an internship, just like you can get rejected from getting hired at a job.
- It is one of the best things you can do to build up a resume.
- You will see first hand how the record industry works (or any industry, depending on where you are interning).
- It will give you contacts inside the industry.
- You will meet interesting people.
- What you get out of it is entirely up to you
And here is how you can make the most of it and even have a blast
First off you might ask; how do I get an internship in the first place?
For the most part, almost all internships are done for college credit, and if you are not attending college, it can be hard to get one due to the fact that it is illegal for any company to employ someone without some type of compensation. Of course you can sneak your way in to some smaller/independent companies, but you are on your own in that aspect. Your school should have a program that covers all the bases, holding meetings and discussions in regards to interning, and shows a listing of all respected companies to get internships at as well as giving a listing of companies that you might have to choose from.
First things first; get a resume ready, listing all your past jobs, volunteer work, and achievements, as well as any classes you might have had in relevance to the business world or interning interests (I.E. marketing or recording classes).
But how can you find something that you want, such as in the heavy metal industry? The best thing is to look around on the Internet, get addresses and phone numbers of record labels, studios, etc. that you have always admired and start contacting them, NOW!!! The quicker you start your search and contacting, the quicker you might find something decent, and that is important, especially since you will be working for free. Lets assume you have made some contacts, they will want to set up interviews, and you need to treat this interview like your life depends on it. You also need to contact multiple companies, because you could easily be declined for an internship; just like any job, and also, so you have more options and possibly more places to choose from.
When you do finally get interviews, you will need to pay attention to what these people discuss with you, get a vibe from the company and its employees; ask yourself these questions.
- Is this a company you would enjoy working (for free) for?
- Are there possibilities for you to end up getting a job with the company in the future?
- Are there opportunities for getting contacts through this internship that could get you a job at another related company?
- Do the employees of the particular company friendly, and do they seem like they would be a good industry contact after the internship.
- The main question, is this company going to get you involved in regular business activities and give you the hands on experience you need
With that said, don't go to a company just because the name is prestigious, and don't take the first internship that gets offered to you, keep your options opened. Regardless of the fact that as an entry-level candidate, pickers can't be choosers, if you are working for free, you want to be at a place that you are comfortable at, you don't ever want to dread interning.
Well, regardless of how much "hands on" activities you will be involved in, you will be doing grunt work, such as making copies and coffee, keeping supplies stocked, tedious database work, and so on. It can be boring as hell some times; but do your time; you are paying your dues doing this. For the most part many companies need your assistance in one way or another and what you do will be felt throughout the company.
Many companies will tell you that beside school, interning should be your first priority; well you have to eat too, and if you are working a job to make the dough you need to survive, you have to keep a balance between the paying job and your internship. Try not to let them interfere with each other. You also might encounter some personnel that you might not enjoy being around at your internship. There are always going to be music business "burnouts", "has been" managers/producers, and "never was" artists that will point the finger at interns, or just about anybody for that matter; not to mention low level management that are usually seen on a power trip. If you get reprimanded or yelled at, don't retaliate or do anything rash that could fuck things up for you. I know someone who actually punched his internship supervisor who screamed at him. Trust me, both positive and negative words can get out about you, and when you get to be known as a shitty worker, you are screwed. Bad news travels quick and with a high gossip rate in the music industry, this makes "blacklisting" look like a small argument. Again, do your best work you can do, internships don't last forever.
All grunt work aside, you might be asked to do research, make phone calls to magazines and venues. In this case you will need to make your presence known. At this point your only option is to act with the utmost of professional etiquette, because you never know who might be on the other end of the phone, they may become a gateway to a job or even your boss someday. In many cases you might have people from other companies asking to speak to you, due to the fact that you might have been put in charge of a certain project. You might actually get to help set up press kits, interviews, talk to magazines and newspapers about doing a possible spot for an artist, and talk to radio people as well. You might even get to help design advertisements, trust me; they need any type of input and opinions that they can get, especially from you being more of a consumer than the people who work at these companies are. In some cases you may even get to work directly with an artist.
You have to realize after you get an internship that you are now a professional in the industry. Lets say you have an internship at Century Media Records and Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth drops in, don't go berserk. Don't ever ask for an artist's autograph or try to schmooze with them (unless they invite you to), regardless of the fact that the temptation is there, these artists stop by the record companies to discuss important business stuff in the rare time they have to do so, some companies will kick you out the door if you do so.
When you intern you get experience that no class can give you. It gives you real world insight to how the music business world works. For the most part you will learn so much, and the company you work for could easily be a blueprint for one you might want to start someday.
Other frill is that you might get company related swag every once in a while such as CDs and other miscellaneous merchandise. You can get access to concerts and parties. You will also see and hear stuff that you might not supposed to see, but it happens.
You might be asking now, what if I don't live in a music industry city or really can't make the trek to one of those cities? In your city or town that you live in there should be several opportunities for internships, however they might not be related to the music industry. You can however find something close. Look for media type places such as radio and TV stations, newspapers, magazines, and publishers in your area. Although they might not have anything to do with music industry status, when it comes time to move on to a music industry company, the companies that you are interested in interning for will look at that as good experience, every little bit helps. The cities in the U.S. that are the hubs for music business are New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. There are endless opportunities in those cities.
So how long do you have to intern? Well, usually you intern at one place for a quarter/semester and then you move on. If you like the place you are interning at and they ask you if you can intern for another semester, stay there, you may be able to get hooked up with other companies through them. But for the most part it is always good to start early. Most schools will not allow students to intern until they are a junior or even a senior in college, check with your school advisor about that. You also don't need to attend a school with am music business program to intern, most colleges have some type of internship program for any major. When you intern you might be looking at about maybe 10-20 hours a week doing it, maybe more if you wish. Usually about three different internships or three semesters worth is the magic word, on average, but you might hook up with a company that may want to hire you after a few months if they like you enough. Some students have even been known to get jobs before they graduate.
After it is all over with, it is important to keep in contact with your former intern supervisors. Send them e-mails, Christmas cards, and so forth, because they won't forget you if you do, they also might contact you if they hear of any job opening up at that company or another one where they might know somebody. And don't be shy toward the end of your tenure there if you are about to graduate, make sure you ask them if they know of any opening at any company they might know someone at.
All in all, internships can help you get a perspective on what you want to do in the music business. Some people love the experience while others may look back in anger, to each his own. Good luck to anybody who wants to make a go at the recording industry. Feel free to
ask me any questions if interested, I know all about this.
