I started my internships about a month ago…finally! I’ve been looking forward to interning since I started at Berklee College of Music. Originally, I was only going to have one internship, but landed a second internship at the very end of the semester – and there was no way I was turning it down.
The two internships are extremely different, I could tell before I even walked in. Position Music, a licensing and publishing company, is run out of a very nice town home in a residential area of West LA. There are six employees, including the owner. Just a couple of miles away is the offices of Career Artist Management (CAM). The office is in a 25-story building with a parking garage, right in the middle of Westwood Village. CAM is just one of the many music companies on the 11th floor including Frontline Management, ReignDeer Entertainment, and Strategic Artist Management. There are even more Frontline Companies on the 10th and 20th floors, including Azoff Music Management Group. Just being in the same building as all of these companies is crazy, exciting, and such an amazing experience.
I found the internship search very stressful. I went into the search with a specific internship site in mind, however I was extremely flexible to see where my search could take me. I ended up applying to about 25 different companies in 4 cities – LA, Chicago, Nashville and New York. I decided I would apply to at least one internship per day. It made me stay up to date, however I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Many of the internships I applied to I found through the OEL database, however I applied to a handful that I found on my own. I searched what companies managed certain artists and made cold calls to see if they had an internship program. I also went to my Music Business teachers and asked for their advice, which was great.