Tag Archives: Artist management

Naiquisia Hensey: Veteran Tips for Internships

Berklee Blogs checks in with Naiquisia Hensey,  a music business major wrapping up her internship at Velour Music Group, an artist management company based out of Brooklyn, New York. In the coming weeks, Naiquisia lets us in on a few tips she’s learned that make an intern’s life a lot easier.

When I started at Berklee in the Fall of 2007 I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do in the music industry. I loved singing and performing, but I felt there were so many aspects of the industry that I knew nothing about. How does it run, who operates it, and how do we change it were my main questions.  I declared my Music Business major in the summer of 2008 and upon seeing the requirements, I immediately became excited about the MB-495 internship. Finally in the fall of 2011 after walking in the commencement ceremonies in May, I began my MB495 internship at Velour Music Group.
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The Marketing Dance: Doing The Jerk part Two

David Greenberg shares monthly tips from his experience as Director of Marketing for Ted Kurland Associates, a boutique booking and management agency where Berklee interns gain insight into a successful career in music and business.

Last week we dissected the wrong way to get anyone to be interested about you and your stuff on social networks. Like those cheap commercials on Late Night TeeVee with the announcer yelling at you…wait, there’s more.

Let’s drop on over to the message boards of LinkedIn. This could be a great place for real professionals to discuss real life situations amongst themselves or rearrange the brain cells of the newbies so they get the complex issues. Instead, there’s the bands with the demos who want to be signed. There’s the wedding videographers who want to do music videos. Which is too bad, this kind of hanky panky, just demeans the site, and the members, and drops it, and them, down a notch from being Professional.

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Video Interview: Sonicbids’ Tess Cychosz

Last week, Sonicbids’ Tess Cychosz blogged about what it takes to succeed as a newbie at the startup that pioneered online booking and empowers the artistic middle class of musicians. This week, Tess sat down for a video interview to discuss why internships are crucial in the changing music industry, intern roles at Sonicbids and how an ideal student succeeds in both environments.

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The Marketing Dance: Doing The Jerk

David Greenberg shares monthly tips from his experience as Director of Marketing for Ted Kurland Associates, a boutique booking and management agency where Berklee interns gain insight into a successful career in music and business.

Selling me crap in an email is justified, because I can label you junk and, hopefully depending on the reliability of my MacMail, never see you again. On TeeVee, that’s a little different as I revel in a good advertisement, having been in that world for a bit back in the ’80s where I was even tapped to look at, and judge, animated commercials for the Cleos. But sell me stuff on Facebook and LinkedIn, man, that’s like tossing a leaflet at my front door and having it end up on my lawn. I then have to throw it out. Is that anyway to get me to buy your stuff? I don’t think you’ll find that in any Dale Carnegie course. Continue reading

Employer Spotlight: Sonicbids

Tess here – I’m the Community Manager at Sonicbids. Sonicbids is the leading matchmaking site for bands and music promoters. Our community includes more than 300,000 bands and 25,000 promoters and licensors from all around the world – and we’re growing every day. The company was founded in 2001 by Panos Panay (a Berklee grad himself!) and continues to focus on its core mission of empowering emerging artists in the worldwide music community.

Ok, prepare for some name dropping. We help bands get on stages for festivals like SXSW and Bonnaroo, get their music played in outlets like MTV and Universal Pictures, and even find sponsorship from cool brands like Diesel, Converse, and GAP. And we don’t just work with the big guys; we provide opportunities with local venues, bloggers and online radio stations, too. Our goal is to help every musician get a gig, and every promoter find new, amazing talent. Continue reading