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

It’s hard to believe that I’m already  a quarter of the way through my internship already! Time has really flown, mainly because I’ve just been to busy to even notice the passing weeks. Before I realize it, I know that I will be on my way down the aisle to get my diploma in May.

The moving process into our new location is still ongoing, as our warehouse and merchandise fulfillment team is still in the process of moving full time over here. I believe the whole team will be here by mid march. Still meeting new members of the Paid team on a daily basis which is cool, and the positive feedback I’ve been getting has been keeping me motivated and hard working.

I’ve been working on some really cool things over the past few week. First, our client managers and our new business head hunters have recently courted rock superstars Motley Crue as a future client. Since all of this came about in such a short period of time, I was elected to book all travel arrangement for 3 people to fly into Las Vegas to meet the band during their residency at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Having only booked travel arrangements for myself, It was a totally different experience, if tedious, and one that will help me in the future. I had to book 3 sets of flights, with each traveler flying from a different city, all set to arrive at the same time and place. If all goes as planned, Motley Crue could be one of our most important clients, as they could lead the way for other higher profile acts to work with us for VIP events. I can’t really say any more in the interest of protecting Paid’s interests. I will surely share more though as our scope of work becomes more apparent.

One other exciting thing I am working on is the New Music Seminar. This seminar is co-produced and owned by Dave, and as his assistant. I contribute quite a bit to the seminar. The New Music Seminar has it’s roots in the late 1980’s, and is responsible for spawning many of the most important music festivals throughout North America, including South By Southwest, Canadian Music Week, and the College Music Journal Music Marathon. What differentiates the New Music Seminar from the others, is the caliber of industry pundits. For example, ALL the performing rights societies will be present, as will Spotify, OurStage, Reverbnation, SoundExchange, Pandora, YouTube, and countless others (Berklee too!). See the website here to get a better idea of who will be involved.

My job with the seminar is to make sure nothing slips through the cracks since Dave is so bogged down already. His goal (in his words) is to make me “his irreplaceable right arm” for the seminar. That’s a pretty cool position to be in as a college intern, having that level of involvement and responsibility in the seminar.

Typically my involvement includes scheduling meetings regarding sponsorship opportunities, sitting in on production meetings to see what is involved in making something like this come to reality, and when the time comes I will be on site in New York City as Dave’s go-to-guy during the seminar. It is an understatement to say I am excited to go to the seminar. I know that I will be mixed right in with all of these upper-echelon executives, serving as my first meet and greet opportunity with some of the people most responsible for innovation in the music industry. NETWORKING GALORE!

Instead of question and answer based meetings, the seminar is structured to have a number of topics to be discussed. For example, there will be a panel on touring, one on online marketing, one on merchandising/branding etc. Within each panel, there are “conductors” that deliver very focused, TED-Talk style lectures.

In addition to the behind the scenes, closed door meetings, there is a large live music component. The seminar coincides with New York City’s New Music Week. This week long music festival integrates the seminar with up and coming music acts, that will play at about 10 different venues across the city, in a sort of high level battle of the bands, called the Artist on the Verge project. Unlike a festival like SXSW, the amount of noise is very low. I don’t mean actual noise, but rather the fact that almost anyone can play at someplace like SXSW. I’m not disparaging something as cool and unique as South By, just commenting that It is still hard as an artist to get your music to those who NEED to hear it at a festival like SXSW where there are over 2,000 acts all vying for valuable ear-space.

The New Music Seminar sifts out much of this “noise” by not taking submission, and instead utilizing metrics from many of our partners, tastemakers, and trends, selecting bands that are close to the ever mystifying point of “making it”. Add to this that the winning Artist on the Verge will take home close to $100,000 in consultation, promotion, and equipment. Lots of exciting stuff, and there will be much more to share as the seminar draws nearer. The New Music Seminar takes place June 17-19. Exciting stuff.

More to come soon!

 

 

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Read Scott’s Other Posts

From Last Minute to Top of the Pack

Snowstorms and Car-chases – All Part of a Day’s Work

A Day in The Life

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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!

Joe
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