I'm on my last month of interning! Well, kind of. Full time until the end of July and part time for August while I also (hopefully) earn some actual money. The sooner I find a job the better. I can't do maths and will be trouble with bank balances unless I start receiving a paycheck.
I met with a recruitment agent who specializes in helping Finns find jobs. Apparently we have a good reputation and the Brits have a bad reputation when it comes to employment so she's now marketing us as the amazing, intelligent super worker bees that we are. Fair enough, I'll take advantage of that if I can ;) Hire me, I'm Scandinavian! True Aryan as well, if that's something you value. I can't really pull the minority card though, so that's an obstacle. Or maybe I'll convert to lesbianism for the sake of getting a job. (Disclaimer: I do think it's a bit silly to use my nationality - or any other unrelated issue - for advantage in the job market.)
Then the interesting stuff: Indie Con, a "unique new conference devised for independent labels and artists", kicked off Thursday and went on until Friday lunch time. So, simply put, a day and a half little thingy.
Thursday was really useful and interesting for me as I'm leaning towards marketing and PR with my career aspirations. I can't really say any of it was really new, but I got some ideas that I hadn't thought of yet and got good reminders of things I know but have neglected lately. But as they say, repetition is the mother of learning. It was also great to get some validation as the things they'd done with their campaigns were very similar to ours. Builds confidence.
The first panel was about online marketing and fan engagement. We heard from five marketing professionals about their campaigns that they've recently done for their artists and how it worked. Most of them were quite new up and coming acts with small budgets which was great since that's where we're at. One presentation was about Prodigy's campaign around this year's Download festival and while interesting, I have a feeling I won't be doing promotions for bands that caliber any time soon.
Later in the day we got to hear from music journalists and how they wish to be approached by PR. No surprises here but nice reminders that we shouldn't be dazzled by shiny, pretty newsletters that are easy to send to entire lists of email addresses but to keep it simple and personal. I've always known that but have been ignoring it because it just is so much easier and more fun to create a pretty newsletter with beautiful colors and pictures than manually send normal emails.
Friday I went to listen to a more political discussion about US visa issues (which is incredibly unfair!) and quick visit to Google and illegal download sites. I never thought it'd be as interesting as it was. Touring in the USA is currently pretty much impossible unless you have a lot of money and influential friends where American bands can just trot over and do a tour. Going to the States to play requires months of paperwork; to first apply for a permission to apply for a visa, then apply for the actual visa which costs substantial amount of money. Then you need letters from respected members of the industry proving that you're a significant artist (this caused Adele some problems as she was such an overnight success that she didn't have a great back catalogue of achievements and press coverage). You might have convinced some journalists to feature you and your music, media might even love you but when you ask them to write a letter of recommendation as a favour to you, they probably don't have the time. It's a nightmare.
I really enjoyed these day and a half! I'll definitely go again next year. You should too.
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