Hey y'all, welcome back to my channel or
welcome if you're new here. My name is Paige. I've been working in music for
about seven or eight years now. I've been working in marketing, both
digital and front line marketing, social media, I'm an artist manager, I'm a music
writer/blogger... I've pretty much done as many things as I possibly could and
the thing I'm most passionate about is trying to help other people get into
this industry as well, because I know it's daunting. And it's very gatekeep-y so it can be really hard to find the information
you're looking for. So today, I want to talk to you about what skills you
already have that would make you a good fit in the music industry. There are so
many things that are already on your resume, even if they're not music focused,
that would make you a good fit for different jobs. I often have people
asking me "what should I go to school for?" or "what would I be good at?" so that's
what I want to focus on today. If you find this video helpful, be sure to give
it a thumbs up and subscribe. I'm gonna be posting these every week going
forward. And if you would rather read this than listen to it, there is a
written copy on my website. I'm gonna be posting a ton of stuff there as well so
if you want to make sure you're always in the loop on all of it, you can sign up
for my email list so that you always get it sent straight to your inbox.
Let's get into it. There are some skills that will be helpful no matter where you
reside in the industry. I think the main thing is not having a fear of rejection
because it's gonna happen a lot. It's gonna happen more than you're gonna find
successes here unfortunately. There's just a lot of competition and a lot of
saturation, so unfortunately there are a lot of people going for the same
opportunities as you, whether it's as somebody applying for jobs, whether
you're trying to send out emails for a band you manage and you're not getting
any responses, whether you're a band applying to play shows and festivals or
for different opportunities and not getting them... there's just a lot of
different factors that can affect that, whether it's somebody else that's better
connected or just different preferences. These things happen and you just kind of
have to get used to it, unfortunately. But if you can do that and you can stick it
out long enough, the opportunities will start to come, if the music is strong.
Another important set of skills to have is being highly motivated, being
really self-disciplined in keeping yourself on track, and having good time
management skills. A lot of people that work in music have multiple jobs, whether
it's different jobs within the industry, whether it's having things you do in the
industry and then having a day job to actually make you money, there's a lot of
different ways people make it work for themselves but it does involve a
lot of balancing and trying to make sure that nothing slips while you're trying
to do everything. So that's just something important to keep in mind,
being able to make sure you can do everything you need to do in order to do
the things you're passionate about. So into some more specialized skills! If you
are really strong at writing, whether it's creative writing, copywriting,
whatever it may be, you could have a future in publicity. You have to craft
these press releases that people read where they get all the information that they
need, but they also get brought in and want to support the artists and want to
learn more. So if you're strong in that sense, publicity could be a great fit for
you. Another great fit for you could just be
music writing, whether it's for a different outlet or whether you start your
own website. There's a lot of opportunities there online. Not all of
them are paid, but it could lead to something in the future if people read
your writing and enjoy it. That's what happened for me. I had my own website, I
was writing about bands I liked and different theories I had about their
concept albums, and somebody at Billboard reached out to me and asked me to write
for them. It was literally just based off of me writing on my website for zero
dollars and I ended up getting a pretty sick freelance gig for a long time. I guess that's
another thing to keep in mind too, is that even if a gig is not making you
money right now, it could lead you to something better. And that's really
frustrating because not all of us have the time to do things for free while we
wait. It's a problem I have with industry internships that don't pay... a little bit
classist... however, if you do have the time or if it's something that you want to do
in your spare time, you never know where it could lead. It could be something great. If you are highly organized -- like I mean lists, post-it notes, I use Asana just to organize my day... like if you are
organized to a tee, there are a lot of spots in the industry that can really
benefit from having you around. One of them again is publicity, because you're
reaching out to a ton of different websites and different outlets to get
coverage for your artists and you need to keep track of who you've already
contacted, what you contacted them about, when, if they responded... it's a lot to
keep organized. So if you aren't an organized person, that's gonna get out of
control real quick. Trust me. As somebody who gets those requests and is not very
organized in that way, I find it difficult. So if it's something that you
thrive in, that could be a lot easier for you than it is for me. Another job this
could be a good fit for is marketing, because at record labels if you are the
marketing manager for a project, you are kind of the hub for everything. You reach
out to the publicist to see what they're up to, you reach out to sales to see what
they're up to, you get the requests from A&R to say "oh
this is how we have to do this and this" "these are the requests from the artists", you're kind of the person that gets the updates from
everybody. If you are a label that isn't the domestic label for the artist, you're
gonna be the one getting contacted from their domestic signing label telling
you "oh this is what we're doing here, you have to follow our lead" or if you're
the domestic label, the international labels are gonna be reaching out to you
to figure out what they should be doing because they're following your lead. It's
a lot of people to stay on top of and make sure everybody's on the same page.
You're reaching out to make sure that all of the album versions are linked in the
back end so that when it goes up on release day on SoundScan and on the
Billboard charts, no copies of the album are missing from those numbers
because it could be the difference between going number one and not
charting if something's missing. Did I just stress you out? If I didn't,
maybe marketing is for you. Another role that really benefits from being organized is being an artist manager, which I can attest to myself. I've been
told since being in school that being an artist manager is like being a glorified
babysitter and it is 100 percent true. The artists are amazing at creating
music, creating a whole visual around it, just creating what they see in their
minds and bringing it to life. But sometimes it helps to have a manager
that can look at everything else that needs to get done behind the scenes and
instead of making it the artists problem, they get done whatever they can do and
then delegate out to everybody else. It's good to have somebody who's
able to manage all of those things at once without getting too overwhelmed so
that the artist can focus on the part that they're good at that you can't
help with. Also I just want to give a quick shout out to BrittPaperScissors
who made this shirt. They have a ton of really cool merch and photo prints up
right now, and some of the sales are going towards Black Lives Matter charities. I
just want to give a shout out because I've been wearing this shirt all of
quarantine and I'm really loving it. If you want to support a local independent
creator... BrittPaperScissors. I'm gonna leave this link below. Anyway, sorry, back to it.
If you have strong people skills, if you can talk to a total stranger and make
them feel like they've known you their entire life, if you can meet
people with totally different personality types from your own and feel
comfortable working together and not clash, if you don't mind having a lot
of downtime and sitting in a room doing nothing for hours on end
live music might be for you. These jobs involve spending a lot of time in close
quarters with the same people, whether it's in a venue all working together or
whether it's on the road for months at a time. These jobs involve having
personality types where you can work with other people and not make things
difficult by all clashing and not being able to work together easily. That could
make or break a tour. It could really turn a tour from a good time
traveling with friends to an absolute nightmare that you can't wait to get
home from. So those could be good jobs for you, whether it's booking shows,
whether it's being a promoter, whether it's merch management, front of house,
audio engineering, any of these things that keep you in this room. Social skills
are probably pretty important. I know when I worked in marketing, it was a desk job. I didn't really have to talk to that many people. It's a totally different
game when you're working in live music. Totally different. If you have any sort
of digital or creative skills, you can kind of find a place anywhere doing
anything. There are so many ways that this could be helpful. I personally
started my internet career customizing my Neopets page and that is how I
learned how to use HTML. I know a lot of people who learned it from MySpace and
creating MySpace pages back in the day, and then got into web design. It's
kind of insane how our generation was just crafted for this, but whether you're
good at designing merch or logos or music video design or photography, like...
there's so many places for you in this industry. I think I'll have to turn that
one into more of its own video because we'll be here all day. There are
so many jobs for creative types in this industry. We'll come back to that one.
Hold me to that. If you've ever worked in retail... first of
all, I am so sorry for the way people treat you, specifically around the
holidays. It is... not fair. But perhaps it can come in useful with working in
the music industry, whether it is as a merch manager. At shows, I feel like
oftentimes bands just hire a friend to sit at the table or just get them to do
it for free. And it does not have the same effect as
having somebody who actually knows how to sell things and... how to count money,
that's also important, being able to give the right amount of change.
Very embarrassing how often that does not happen the way it should. But you
could be the solution. Also, there's a whole department at record labels called
D2C, which is direct-to-consumer, and they handle all sorts of merch, whether that's setting up online stores or actually figuring out what merch to make,
or how much. That could be something that's great for you as well. Then for
those that have a great ear for music, I know everybody wants to be an A&R -- I've
always wanted to get into it as well -- but it's something that can't be taught. It's
just kind of something you have to prove. Nobody can teach you how to know what
songs are good, you just kind of... do, you know? That's one of those skills that
no amount of training can get you there, you just have to be the
right person for the job essentially. But there are ways to prove it before you
get to a point where you could be hired as an A&R. I found it helpful to have my
own website where I share music that I'm listening to so I can say "hey you guys
signed this artist but I was actually listening to them two years ago so I was
a little bit ahead," it's kind of pretentious and it's kind of annoying to
be like "I was listening to them before you" but if it can prove that you were
ahead of the curve and that you knew what was going to be popping before it
was popping? It could help you get a job. You could also just use that skill to be
an artist manager and to sign with bands before they hit that point. If you can
find artists that you know are going to be huge and work with them and foster
their skills to get to the point where they can get signed, that's amazing too
and that is totally a skill that you can use to build your own career within the
industry. So those are just a few of the skills you might already have on your
resume that would make you a great fit in the music industry. I know we kind of
treat it like this industry is on this pedestal and it's
mysterious and unattainable, but it's really not. It's just an industry like
any other, it's just got some cool perks but it's still just a job. So you can
absolutely find your way in, you can get your foot in the door, and I would like
to help you wedge that foot in the door. So if you have any questions about some
of your skills or where you would fit in the industry, be sure to leave your
questions below and I will respond to all of them. Or if you feel more
comfortable messaging me privately, you can DM me pretty much anywhere I'm @paigebackstage on like every website so you should be able to find me. Links will be
below. And if you would rather have a written version of this to reference
back to in the future, you can find it on my website. I am excited to share
more of these videos with you so be sure to check back next week. I'll see you
soon. Bye.
