Music Internships – Music Internship Article

Music Internship – New Music Article

Do’s and Don’ts For Audio and Other Music Oriented Interns: Or, How to Impress Your Internship Employer and Become Successful in the Recording Industry.

Today, anyone who wants a career working in the music business with a label of some kind, or is looking into producing, engineering, or working in one of the many music-oriented jobs in the recording industry has many choices when it comes to educating themselves about the business. In addition to the many schools, programs, books, websites, and other informational tools at their disposal, the chance to do a good old-fashioned internship still exists.

In fact, more than ever many companies will not consider hiring someone unless they have had some ‘real world’ experience in a studio, post-production facility, record label, distributor, store, live performance venue, or other businesses related to recorded audio products.

For example, you may think you are qualified to work in a recording studio just because you have some training in Pro Tools, or have helped setup a school-related recording project. You may also have taken courses where you aced all the written projects, and marketing classes, and think you have what it takes to work for a recording facility or record label. Well, that is all great experience, but it isn’t enough!

Nothing is more impressive than having done some work as an intern. Businesses that offer internships may demand a lot of you. They may (and will) test your patience by having you do what you think are mundane, boring, or menial tasks…Stick it out. Most likely you are being given a form of initiation. Most people in the recording industry started out doing menial tasks and when given the chance to express their skills…did so, and were rewarded with jobs, job-leads, promotions or recognition of some kind.

I can only do so much to encourage you to get yourself an internship. You have to bug your music industry contacts: teachers, producers and engineers you have met or just heard about. Also, go out and pound the pavement. Talk to guys who are working your favorite club or live venue. Bug the retail clerk at your favorite record store. Hang out in the music scene of your choice. Be pro-active. Ask everyone if they know of any internship openings in their field.Think about any website design work or blogs and or podcasts you have put together for a favoriite band or artist….ANY kind of experience you may have had, can help you get some kind of an internship.

Do research on the types of audio-related businesses in your city. Use the Internet. Go to the library and look up the many directories, and read the weekly and monthly recording industry trade magazines and journals. Get on the phone, and do some informational interviews with the recording industry business you would most like to work for. Even knock on people’s doors. Do whatever you have to do to get an internship. Internship opportunities do not come knocking on your door. You have to motivate yourself to get involved with this industry.

This technique has a tradition attached to it. It is called “The School of Hard Knocks”. It means that everyone worth anything in this business had to push themselves forward and find a way to get noticed. Producers have to do this. Engineers have to do this. Certainly recording studio, and record label have to do this. And, artists need to do this. So, while being laid back and mellow is a great way to relax, it will get you nowhere in the whirlwind world of the recording industry. “Get Up, Stand Up!” Do something!

This industry is nothing but competition. Not just for jobs, but competition that finds one company fending of another company for clients and deals. So, businesses are looking for the most highly motivated employees they can find. Are you up for the challenge?

Once you say “Yes, I’m ready to show the world how good I am” and you have found your first internship, learn how to work that opportunity. You will have to take the good with the bad. Interns may start out as the low men and women on the ladder, but those that impress with their positive attitudes and dedication to their work, whatever it may be…will reap rewards. So, read the following suggestions on how to work with your internship employer for the mutual benefit of your career and their increased business.

DO….

Be on time, and better yet, be the first one in, and the last to leave.

Be hungry to learn.

Be friendly. Introduce yourself to co-workers, even if you have not been introduced to everyone during orientation…and network often.

Complete the tasks given to you before taking on other work.

Make yourself invaluable to the company. (Look for things to do.)

Make friends with co-workers, and offer to do some of their grunt work.

Volunteer to take on the responsibilities of a worker who is ill, or going on vacation.

Be willing to do the most menial of tasks. Even the most boring and repetitive work should be eagerly undertaken.

Cover phones while co-workers are on break or at lunch.

Ask permission to use any equipment, software or computer programs.

Offer to help prepare for any studio-setup or tear-down, or to prepare any business reports.

Organize the information you need to know to carry out your work.

Create your own databases of any staff members, and their job titles.

Know that as an intern you are not being trained to take a manager’s or executive’s job, so do everything you can to learn the jobs that lead to those positions..

Feel free to take the initiative when you the time is right.

Make things easier for your employer or supervisor, they will remember you for that.

Offer your help when you notice help is needed.

Keep in touch once you are gone. Stop by and say hello!

Get a letter of recommendation, and send the company a thank you note for hiring you and giving you the opportunity to work for them

Phone your boss or supervisor first, if you aren’t going to show up.

Say thank you when any promo CDs or concert tickets, or free studio time are offered

Attend as many concerts and events that are not your favorite music. (You will learn a lot by doing this.)

DON’T….

Ask for free things like CDs, tickets or studio time right away

Look like you are lost. Avoid standing around.

Get involved in long conversations during work hours with co-workers, or celebrity guests who may be conducting business in your workplace.

Offer your opinion on how you would run things if you were in charge

Cop an attitude of any non-professional kind, even if you’re being paid.

Make any personal phone calls in front of co-workers during your shift

Cruise the internet on your company’s time

Get caught reading magazines or sloughing off on the job in any way.

Ask at any time “NOW, what should I do?”

Be offended if someone snaps at you. (Everyone has bad hair days)

Talk dirt about any recording artists, producers, or other companies while in the presence of co-workers, or at any networking functions. (It’s a small world and you never know who your co-workers, boss, or supervisor knows, has dated, has worked with etc.)

Christopher Knab is an independent music business consultant based in Seattle, Washington. www.fourfrontmusic.com or email at: Chris@Knab.com

 

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Music Marketing Ideas on the Cutting Edge – Sell Music Online

 

Sell Music Online

1) Give your music away, hell…if you are a new act, you are unknown anyway, so by giving your music away in either analog or digital ways you can help create a ‘Buzz’ and stand out from the other 75,000 other releases that came out last year. (That is a FACT, by the way). Then, pay attention to how your popularity grows, and as it does, give-a-way less and begin to sell your music at affordable prices for your fan base.

 

2) Every record is a new release…if people haven’t heard it. Remember to put ANY and ALL past recordings up at your website as MP3 downloads, and on sale at all your live shows. As your fan base grows your fans will want anything you ever did, and this will expand as you attract more fans over the months and years ahead.

 

3) If you lent out ‘promo’ copies to various gatekeepers in retail, radio, the print media, and at live venues, and one day you see them for sale in used record stores, don’t get angry about it…BUY THEM back, no matter if you initially gave them away for free….then on your website have a special USED CD sale.

 

4) Another tip from Chris Anderson’s book ‘The Long Tail’… reduce the price of your music, and then cut 50 percent off all your recordings. (Do this for analog AND digital product)

 

5) Don’t laugh!…come up with some kind of coupon sale. Think up a marketing idea where your fans have to enter a coupon or promotional code at your website to get a discount on one or more of your recordings.(You can do this for digital downloads or for CDs.) and/or for ticket discounts for upcoming shows.

 

6) Offer to “include” the sales tax in your CDs sales, maybe even “for a limited time only” or for loyal repeat customers…or offer free shipping and handling.

 

7) Remember this golden thought. “If you are not out there promoting your music, someone else is out there promoting their music”. There is a tremendous amount of competition out there. THINK….what can you do that no one else has done, or better yet…steal a creative idea from someone else…hell, every advertiser in the world does this, why not you?!

 

Offer a free CD for every 3 CDs bought. You can do this at your live sales booth when you do concerts, or on your website…or BOTH! This way your fans can help you get the word out in an inexpensive way, and all fans LOVE to help their favorite band or artist.

 

9) Arrange to record a special ‘LIVE’ CD and invite only the fans who signed your email list to attend. You could do this in multiple markets, close to your home base. Charge them $25 for the live recording experience, (feed them spaghetti and salad as part of the deal), THEN tell them if they buy a copy of the LIVE CD that night, in advance, you will autograph the CD and remind them that they can hear themselves applaud and whistle on the recording….everybody wants to FEEL SPECIAL.

 

10) Never forget WHO your fan is. Study your fans at live shows…what kind of clothing do they wear? Where did they buy it? Where do eat before or after your gig?

 

Learn their lifestyle habits…and then use YOUR IMAGINATION to think up a clever co-promotion with an appropriate local merchant, restaurant, or coffee shop.

 

11) Get a local record store to help you with a sale promotion…If a customer buys one, they get another one free. (This is different than the buy one-get 2 free idea listed earlier. You have to be understanding of the records store’s needs…they don’t want to be giving a lot of your product away, in fact they would only do this if they felt that your promotion idea would help THEM sell more of the other CDs they carry.)

 

12) When your catalogue of recordings grow to multiple CDs etc. offer your fans price/packages, i.e. 1 CD at a given price, 2 for a slightly discounted price, and 3 for a more generous discount price, and ALL your back catalogue for a super discounted price. You can do this for live concert sales, as well as offering the deal online at your website.

 

13) Invest in a CD duplicator, and at your gigs, offer fans a CD of ‘tonight’s concert’ for $15, and tell them it will be ready for them either within a few days of the concert by mail, or if you can afford a more elaborate duplicator, make it available to them RIGHT AWAY after the show. (And of course, YOU will be there to autograph that recording of the show you just performed.)

 

14) NEVER forget to have your email sign up list handy wherever you perform. AND have a place for them to write down not just their email address, but their birthday as well. The point is …. never forget that your fans appreciate being remembered, anyone does who has been a loyal customer, so email them a special song you wrote where you can drop in their name somewhere in the lyric, and send them a link to the song on their birthday….they will remember your kind gesture forever!

 

15) THIS IS AN EXERCISE!  DO IT! Go back over this list and wherever you see the word ‘fan’ or ‘customer’ substitute the phrase “tribal member”….that’s right…I have been using traditional words used in traditional marketing, but really…in the music world today, the niche, or part of the greater music community you have as your fans….they are really like tribal members. In fact think of it this way. Your fan base belongs to a unique group of individuals who not only like YOUR MUSIC, but music similar to your music. And if you DO STUDY your fans you will see they truly act like TRIBES, where the clothes they wear, the haircuts and body-wear they choose reflect a way of living….So, tap into that phrase “tribal member’. It is much more intimate, and will reveal many secrets to making your fans, LOYAL fans. DO IT!!

 

Chris Knab is available for private consultations on promoting and marketing independent music, and can be by email at: Chris@Knab.com. Visit Chris’s website at www.fourfrontmusic.com. 

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Sell Music – 25 Things to Know About Distributors

Sell Music - Music Distributors

1)  Distributors will usually only work with labels that have been in business for at least 3 years and/or have at least 3 previous releases that have sold several thousand copies each. (Please remember that this information  concerns traditional distribution channels only, NOT online distribution which is an entirely different type of distribution.

 

2)  Distributors get records into retail stores, and record labels get customers into retail stores through promotion and marketing tactics.

 

3)  Make sure there is a market for your style of music. Prove it to distributors by showing them how many records you have sold through live sales, internet sales, and any other alternative methods.

 

4)  Be prepared to sign a written contract with your distributor because there are no ‘handshake deals’ anymore

 

5)  Distributors want ‘exclusive’ agreements with the labels they choose to work with. They usually want to represent you exclusively.

 

6)  You will sell your product to a label for close to 50% of the retail list price.

 

7)  When searching for a distributor find out what labels they represent, and talk to some of those labels to find out how well the distributor did getting records into retailers.

 

  Investigate the distributor’s financial status. Many label have closed down in recent years, and you cannot afford to get attached to a distributor that may not be able to pay its invoices.

 

9)  Find out if the distributor has a sales staff and how large it is. Then get to know the sales reps.

 

10)  What commitment will the distributor make to help get your records into stores.

 

11)  Is the distributor truly a national distributor, or only a regional distributor with ambitions to be an national distributor. Many large chain stores will only work with national distributors.

 

12)  Expect the distributor to request that you remove any product you have on consignment in stores so that they can be the one to service retailers.

 

13)  Make sure that your distributor has the ability to help you setup various retail promotions such as: coop advertising (where you must be prepared to pay the costs of media ads for select retailers), in-store artist appearances, in-store listening station programs, and furnishing POP’s (point of purchase posters and other graphics).

 

14)  Be aware that as a new label you will have to offer a distributor 100% on returns of your product.

 

15)  You must bear all the costs of any distribution and retail promotions.

 

16)  Be able to furnish the distributor with hundreds of ‘Distributor One Sheets’ (Attractively designed summary sheets describing your promotion and marketing commitments. Include barcodes, list price, picture of the album cover, and catalog numbers of your product too).

 

17)  Distributors may ask for hundreds of free promotional copies of your release to give to the buyers at the retail stores.

 

18)  Make sure all promotional copies have a hole punched in the barcode, and that they are not shrink-wrapped. This will prevent any unnecessary returns of your product.

 

19)  Don’t expect a distributor to pay your invoices in full or on time. You will always be owed something by the distributor because of the delay between orders sent, invoices received, time payment schedules (50-120 days per invoice) and whether or not your product has sold through, or returns are pending.

 

20)  Create a relationship that is a true partnership between your label and the distributor.

 

21)  Keep the distributor updated on any and all promotion and marketing plans and results, as they develop.

 

22)  Be well financed. Trying to work with distributors without a realistic budget to participate in promotional opportunities would be a big mistake.

 

23)  Your distributor will only be as good as your marketing plans to sell the record. Don’t expect them to do your work for you, remember all they do is get records into the stores.

 

24)  Read the trades, especially Billboard for weekly news on the health of the industry, and/or the status of your distributor.

 

25)  Work your product relentlessly on as many fronts as possible…commercial and non commercial airplay, internet airplay and sales campaigns, on and offline publicity ideas, and touring…eternally touring! .

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Christopher Knab is an independent music business consultant based in Seattle, Washington. email at: Chris@Knab.com  website: www.fourfrontmusic.com

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