Berklee Blogs follows Scott Beardsworth, Music Business Major, as he begins his internship at PAID, Inc.– a celebrity services organization focused on VIP ticketing events, merch, and other direct-to-fan marketing initiatives. We’ll follow Scott as he navigates the waters of his first internship and teaches us his lessons learned on the job. Stay tuned!   

I started my internship at PAID Inc. on Wednesday (1/4). Paid (Professional Alliance of Innovation and Development) is a celebrity services organization with an emphasis on VIP ticketing events, merchandise fulfillment, website and content management, video production, and direct-to-fan marketing initiatives.

My role here is Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Artist Relations, Dave Lory. As stated on my first day “If you keep me [Dave] organized, you will have a job.” That said, my day to day responsibilities include: Scheduling meetings, answering Dave’s phone while unavailable, keeping Dave on track and reminded of key events (i.e.- meetings, scheduling travel arrangements on Dave’s behalf, attending meetings and taking notes for distribution, and really, whatever Dave needs to have done).

I’m starting at Paid at a unique time, since there have been many internal readjustments including new mangement, and positions, all orchestrated out of the need for more manpower for the bigger clients we have, and those we hope to work with in the coming months. Our client base is quite diverse, with a large number of very successful brands, be they musicians, non-profit organizations, or anyone else looking for our services. For example, Aerosmith, Slash, Alice Copper, Slayer, and a host of other acts at the top of their game. Being thrown into an environment where these kind of contacts are being made is a huge step forward for me from my Berklee schooling career.

That said, I can already see where my understanding of the music industry (albeit in a classroom setting) will aid me in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. Having this core skill and knowledge set puts me in a unique place here, as the only intern, who also happens to have gone through 4 years of instrument training, as well as a business primer. Not trying to pat myself on the back, but it does feel good to be using my knowledge and skills, and it’s very cool being the only intern here. I feel that it’s me, and then the professionals, and I don’t think it will be all that long before the Intern image fades, and I become a more integral member here. Dave has already seen that I can handle my own, and has started to delegate bigger projects to me, which is not only keeping my busy, but also is  rewarding my hard work with more work. (which contrary to popular belief is good!) This set of internal reorganizations spells great opportunity for me here, and Dave has already mentioned to me that I am in a “primo position” since they want me to get the ropes so to speak, and fast track me to a position that is has more direct involvement with client management.

Working directly under Dave has been an almost surreal experience in that within the first week of my tenure here, I have already sat in on conference calls and meetings with members of the music industry who prior to my “professional” career, I thought were out of reach. Dave himself has a long and varied career, and again being mixed in with these types of people is a surreal, humbling, and most of all exciting experience! Having had experience from everything from performance, to management, and live event production, Dave’s list of contacts in the industry is exhaustive. I won’t bore you with listing all of the people and places but I would check out his Bio here.

My internship search started on the frustrating side, with upwards of ten applications and resumes sent out to various companies (Atlantic Records, A&M Octone, Rightsflow, Verve Records, among others) across the country, with NO ONE getting back to me. The only piece of advice I can give here is BE PERSISTENT. It was already coming up to the last week of the fall semester, and I had no internship lined up for my last semester at school! I collected my thoughts, went back to the OEL web database, and found that Paid had just put up a listing, and was happy to see that it was a local Boston company. I promptly sent them my cover letter and resume, and they got back to me the same day looking for an interview! I interviewed, and it seemed like a good fit, and it was as simple as that! The interview hinged upon my availability.

Here comes my second piece of advice… I suppose it’s largely subjective, but for me it worked: I structured my schooling around the fact I knew I needed to do an internship. Once I knew this, I moved around my schedule to accommodate that I wanted to do my Internship during my last semester of school. During my interview, Dave asked how often I would be available. Once I told him I was only doing my internship credits, and that I was available pretty much all week, he took me on fulltime on the spot! Yes, things were crazy between finalizing my internship, finding an apartment, getting my car up to Boston, spending Christmas with my family (all in about a 1.5 week time frame) but the pros certainly outweigh the cons. Here I am, still in school, on track to having a paid internship, and a full time job after, in an industry where that is certainly not the norm… I am very happy thus far with the way things worked out.

A little luck, and a whole lot of persistence and looking is all you need, so get searching!

Any questions feel free to ask!

 

 

 

BIO

Scott Beardsworth has been studying music in some way, shape, or form, for the past 17 years. Starting on Piano and moving to electric guitar and tuba, until finding his true instrumental calling of Electric Bass. Upon acceptance into Berklee, Scott chose to pursue the Music Business major.

With an equal love for all things business and music, this major was a perfect fit, allowing him to learn the business ropes, in an exciting field, close to his heart. Most exciting to Scott was his required MB-495 internship. He remembers sitting at the first internship meeting in his sophomore year, thinking about how exciting it will be to get real experience in the field he loves. Two years later, Scott has started his internship at a dynamic company located in the Boston area. PAID inc. is a turnkey celebrity services outfit, specializing in VIP events, merchandising, online marketing promotion, video production and more. The company serves industry A-listers such as Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and many more.

In his free time, Scott loves playing music with people of all walks of life and disciplines, especially with his two bands Goliath in Transit and Skylab. If anyone has questions or wants to reach out to Scott, feel free to do so on his personal Facebook, or by email at sbeardsworth@paid.com. Check out his band Goliath in Transit on Facebook!

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