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Over the years, a lot of people have asked me when I thought was the best time to begin looking for an internship in the music industry. My answer has always been, and still remains, the same. The absolute best time to begin looking is right now.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re 15 years old and in high school, or 20 years old and in college. Heck, if you’re 34, or 50 and still think you should be working in music instead of wherever you’re at currently, the time to get that gig, is still right now.
And, really, getting an internship is not all that hard. Of course, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind as you plan your journey, because getting and keeping a music industry internship is not quite the same as snagging and keeping an internship in corporate America.
Hmm…um, well the music industry really is corporate America these days, so there will be some similarities. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
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- You will most assuredly work for free.
- You will most likely do crap work.
- You will undoubtedly end up with a larger music collection than you currently possess.
- You will work weird-ass hours.
- You will have tons of fun.
- You will be on your way to a career in music.
If you’re willing to sacrifice and do the above things, then you’re ready to begin the work it takes to get an internship.
Here are a few things you can do today that will help get you started regardless of your age or position in life with regard to career. I’ll post later on some really specific things you can do if you’re in high school, college or a working adult, so stay tuned for those updates. But for now, the below list will help anyone who wants a career in entertainment and feels themselves in the standard “catch-22″ of “I can’t get the gig without experience”, and “I can’t I get experience without already having had a gig.”
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Hooey. Check out these tips:
Work for free and you get overcome this “catch-22″ problem in a heart beat guaranteed. So here you go, try a few of these things on for size, and let us know what your results are. Also, feel free to suggest away in the comments section if you have your own/better ideas!
- Make a list of every radio station in your town.
- Call up each station and find out who the “program director” is at the station.
- If you find out that all of the stations in your market are run via satellite (very unlikely) then when you call in (and most likely leave a message) ask for the “station engineer”. Reason being, that even if you’re in satellite-land, there’s always, someone there to push buttons and switch hard-drives/reels. That person is usually the station engineer.
- Once you have a contact person, call and leave a message to let them know you’re interested in being an intern.
- If they never call you back, visit the station with the same spiel.
- If you have to resort to visiting, which I would NOT recommend UNLESS they avoid you entirely, then be sure to be polite and ask if you can meet with the program director for the reasons stated above. If the admin won’t let you in, tell her you’ll wait to see if you can catch a minute with them at some point. If you wait in the lobby till the place is ready to close, they’ll know you’re serious.
The best times to call are usually in the morning while the morning show is still on the air, just after 8 or 9am. After the morning show is over, the Program Director (PD) will probably be in meetings with the morning staff, and then in meetings with the promotion folks, or someone else. So mornings are good. Late evenings, aren’t too bad either if you can catch them sometime after 4pm. - Why call the program director? Well, typically they’re the most likely person to be in charge. Sometimes you’ll have an Operations Manager, or a Music Director who calls the shots, but a PD is a good person to start with, and they can always shoot you to the best person to touch base with if it’s not them.
- Okay, so you’ve made the list and the calls, now just be yourself and tell them why you want to work with them as an intern!
There are a few objections you might encounter while giving this task a whirl, I’ll address those in a later post!
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