This week, we follow one of our newest interns, Michael Lostica, as he begins his internship at World Music/crashARTS. We’ll periodically check in with Michael as he forges new paths in music promotion.

In the midst of final projects, booking shows for my band, and assignments at work, I finally secured my internship. After mentioning my search to my manager, she referred me to a firm with which she had coordinated shows with. She spoke highly of them, and described them as a small promotion team that works at a fast pace, resulting in more responsibility being delegated to interns. Though not on the database, the thought of working with World Music/crashARTS in a demanding environment excited me. Not only this, but it was merely weeks before the deadline to finalize internships: I was not in a position to be picky.

Initially, I thought of doing work for a more established firm in Boston. It would be my last semester studying at Berklee, so a local base was necessary. Having been involved in a small start up, and also currently leading a band, I sought to learn from a company that has its vision and processes yielding success at a large scale, rather than one whose accomplishments are primarily local. My internship coordinator mentioned possible disadvantages to firms like this. Their environments might stifle creativity, unhealthy internal competition can exist, and resistance to change may prevail against experimentation. Start ups, he mentioned, are firms in which people roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. “Mistakes are made, but you really learn from them”.

In the interview for the internship, I found that World Music/crashARTS is a small team that is still refining its processes. I will soon be charged with managing their online content stream, and introducing regular blog posts.

 Though I am excited to start, I must admit that I could have explored more options with better organization and discipline. For most of the semester, I was working obsessively on my band’s EP release: the entire process of pre-production, recording, mixing, mastering, booking, and promotion took place in an unhealthily, short span of time. Because of poor planning with such a large project—one that often took priority over my school assignments—I neglected my search for my internship.

I should have started the search process earlier, getting access to the database as soon as the semester started. I was organized enough to make use of a spreadsheet to help me identify internships I wanted most, yet because of my later start, I was not able to maximize its use. Ultimately, I am very fortunate to have had the help of my manager in both suggesting this opportunity, and also recommending me when called as a reference.

Bio
Mike LosticaMichael Lostica is attending his seventh and final semester at Berklee as a Music Business major. He interns for World Music/CRASHarts in Cambridge. The organization presents traditional and contemporary arts in Boston, as well as organizing educational programs. Michael also supervises promotions for The Red Room @ Cafe 939. After graduating, he will remain in Boston to develop and grow with Noize Tank, the band he shares with other Berklee students.

Learn about Michael, his internship site and his band
http://www.worldmusic.org
http://www.facebook.com/weliveforlivemusic
http://www.facebook.com/noizetankband

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