Music industry offers a wide range of job opportunities
By: Julija Kaselyte
Music business is a competitive yet tempting field to work in.
It opens doors for those who are willing to work hard, and are not afraid to face various challenges sometimes.
Marketing coordinator at Steve LeVine Entertainment, T.J. McCloy, said he first stepped into music back in high school when he was throwing various parties and producing events.
Later, on his first year of college he knew he wanted to work in the music industry, particularly more on the artist management side.
McCloy said he then saw Steve LeVine’s name on flyers and the summer before junior year in college he got an internship and started working in its Talent Department, where he had to handle various different tasks.
“My responsibilities included talent buying, supporting all the DJs and other artists we had, booking their live music, flyer distribution and show promotions,” McCloy said.
Following his internship McCloy was hired to work with talent coordinators.
McCloy said his job did not differ much from what he was doing as an intern except that he had more responsibilities.
Now he handles the marketing for artists, which includes social media, ads, distribution, flyer designing, targeting different events in distribution and managing the promotion team.
McCloy said on his free time he likes finding new music and sampling it in a DJ booth, even though for right now it is just a hobby.
McCloy said organizing college parties, then playing at bars on Mill Avenue helped to work his way to a few different shows in Scottsdale.
Now he plays at Maya Day and Night Club almost every week and sometimes opens for big music acts.
“My main focus is music business, but at the same time a lot of great things have happened to me as a DJ. A bunch of cool people opened up some cool doors for me, especially these past six months or so. I definitely want to see where it goes,” McCloy said.
According to McCloy, even though everyone has their own way of making it in the industry, being sociable is one of the key elements.
“I really enjoy networking and meeting new people, that’s why I think I’m successful in a lot of things that I do,” McCloy said.
Freelance merchandise manager Andre Simoes said growing up in Tucson he used to go to local punk shows, and during the summer right after he graduated from high school, he went on tour with his musician friends.
Simoes started meeting people and got caught up with jobs with other touring bands.
Simoes said that his main duties involve handling product development and design, production, web stores, accounting, inventory and logistics, but sometimes he does tour management or production management assisting.
Simoes said he worked with artists representing all kinds of different genres, such as Miguel, One Republic, Two Door Cinema Club, Michael Bolton, Blake Shelton, Major Lazer and Diplo.
According to Simoes, one of the biggest prerequisites of his job is being ready to leave on tour at any time.
“Sometimes jobs pop up and you have to leave in a few days or hopefully you get to know about it in advance, but a lot of the time they need to fill this position and ask if you can leave on tour in two or three days,” he said.
Simoes said traveling can be a positive and a negative experience.
“It’s great to travel, experience different cities, work with people who sometimes become pretty close, almost like a family, but the negative side of it is that when you are on tour you can’t really disconnect, go home and relax on your days off.”
Simoes also said that being gone on holidays, birthdays and other special occasions is a huge downside.
