I thought for sure that I was destined to be a show biz loser, living a life of “what if?” Everyone tells you that the only way to get into the music business is to know someone or have a chance meeting in a meet cute befitting the cheesiest of romantic comedies. I knew no one. I didn’t do internships in college. I hate using network as a verb. I never stumbled across someone important in a coffee shop.
I was surely screwed. Should I start practicing, “Would you like fries with that?”
Then magically I found a job. I found it through an online job listing which my professors said could never happen. I got a real job where I walked past gold and platinum records everyday and take calls from rock stars.
Did it happen? Did I escape show biz loserdom?
Hardly.
In the music business, as in life, no matter how big you are there is always someone bigger out there. In my job of lowly assistant, everyone is bigger than me. I take orders from everyone and dictate to no one.
I get star struck when the late 90’s two hit wonder calls, when I have a 45 minutes conference call with a 80’s pop star about how to use Facebook, or meet a star client on the second day of work… even though I’m not a big fan of any of them.
Will I ever get over the awe factor? Will this ever be commonplace?
My boss has been in the business close to 30 year and has met practically everyone who’s everyone, so he’s not easily wowed by anyone. That is, until Carly Simon’s manager called. She was interested in working with a client and requested some CD’s. I had the CD’s out of storage, packaged and stamped before he was done writing the note to include. A note, I should point out, that had to be revised and rewritten no less than four times.
So maybe I’m not the only loser? …at that moment anyway.
If you have any questions about what I do, the workings of the music business, or just the perspective of an insider, then please post them in the comment section. I’ll do my best to answer them. On any given day I work with management, labels, booking agents, publicists, venues, marketing people, promoters, radio, web masters, and loads more, so I have plenty of dirt to dish.
