Needle in a Haystack? Searching For Music Industry Jobs

by Storm Gloor

Finding a full-time job is daunting enough. Finding one within a transforming industry during challenging times is another thing altogether. At the same time, many recognize that this a time of great opportunity for music business hopefuls. Whether the glass is seen as half-full or half-empty, there is no doubt that achieving one’s career goals requires not only the best preparation for the work, but also the ability to best find and obtain it. This would be true for anyone, regardless of his or her education or the industry involved, but even more important for those who aspire to a career in the music industry.

There’s plenty of information available from academic counselors, industry professionals, professors and web sites regarding career planning and employment searches. Entire books have been written about the best strategies and tips for job hunters. Within this article we’ll focus more on some useful resources and that could support one particular aspect of the search: where to find the available jobs, with a specific focus on the music industry. Moreover, we’ll focus on the less obvious destinations, rather than dwell on the more well-known sources; newspapers, trade magazines, and the more familiar web sites for job hunters (Monster.com, HotJobs, etc.)

It might go without saying that the earlier you start your job hunt the better. At the very least you’ll be familiar with where the best opportunities are posted and/or announced. If there are particular employers of interest to you, they may have particular pages on their company website where they post job openings. For example, ASCAP posts their available positions at http://www.ascap.com/jobline/, where you’ll find internships as well. Some companies even have separate links to each of their regional offices. Openings at BMI’s Nashville location, for instance, can be found here. Keeping tabs on these various links can be simplified by putting all of the links into one comprehensive spreadsheet as a list, so that you can easily click through to each of them from one document page (Excel users should be sure to use Insert/Hyperlink commands to format the URL so that web pages open upon clicking).

Along with links to targeted employer pages, it might be helpful to include connections to various industry news sources that also include job posting pages on their sites. Several of them gather various postings from music-related employers. For example, Digital Music News posts job openings, and as of the time of this writing, there are postings by companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com, RightsFlow, and RED Distribution.

Music blogs may also be similarly helpful. The Hypebot blog features a very helpful jobs page at , where visitors can even filter the listings by occupation (A&R, Artist Manager, Journalist, etc.) or job type (full-time, temporary, internship, e.g.). More specialized sites can even be helpful. Film Music magazine, a helpful resource for music supervisors and those in the film and television industry, posts job listings (as well as needs for music- an opportunity in itself) right on its homepage at http://www.filmmusicmag.com/.

Access to job postings at the aforementioned sites is free. But there are also sites that claim to offer abundantly more listings for a monthly fee. The aptly titled sites Music Jobs and Music Jobs Central are two such web destinations, the former claiming on its home page to have 1,664 music job postings. Monthly access to the sites costs $10 and $10.99, respectively, according to the sites.

Paying for job listings would be an individual decision likely based on where you are in your search. But the routine of even having to actually go to multiple sites can take some time. So it might be helpful to complement your monitoring of opportunities with a service that actually delivers postings to you via your e-mail inbox. Indeed is such a service. At its homepage you’ll simply enter a keyword or keywords (“music”, “EMI Publishing”, “bass player”, e.g..) and/or a location (“Seattle”, “CO”, or “71901”, e.g.), and the service does a comprehensive search for jobs fitting that criteria. It also checks popular job sites like Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs. You’ll see a handy list of the results for your review, and you can even refine them by salary level or the amount of miles from your selected location. But you’ll see at the top of the page a link to “get new jobs for this search by e-mail”.

That link will allow you to enter your e-mail address in order to receive daily or weekly updates anytime a job meeting your criteria is posted. In other words, Indeed does the monitoring for you, sending an e-mail with the new listings. You can manage your various alerts from an account page and even “pause” them if at any point you feel overwhelmed by them. Using this service might sound all too easy, but there are a couple of caveats. First of all, if you want to use several variations of your search criteria (you may want to monitor several cities) you’ll receive a separate e-mail for each set. That could get overwhelming. You should also choose your keywords carefully. For example, if you select “music” and “Austin” your listings will include any posting in Austin where the employer makes reference to the city being the live music capitol of the world. This and other slight quirks are only slightly bothersome, but should be kept in mind as alerts are established.

Yet another resource for seeking employment combines staying informed of opportunities and networking, two of the essential strategies of job hunting. The latter is an interesting topic itself and, again, entire books cover that subject. But it is a central focus of LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals and job hunters. The site includes many groups and forums for generally any industry area based on common interests. There is a Music Industry forum as well as a Music and Entertainment Professionals group that LinkedIn users can join. There are also more specialized networks, like the Music and Marketing and Music Publishing and Licensing groups. In all of these groups you’ll find various job opportunities posted. However, you’ll also find a plethora of advertising and posts by those seeking employment as well. Though the site is yet another free and useful source for job hunting, the overwhelming advantage in using it is the networking capability. You can also post your resume and profile information for potential employers who are searching the site.

As with any job search and career plan, taking initiative is essential. Regardless of the outlook for a particular sector, companies continue to hire to at least some degree. It’s no different in the music industry. Finding those opportunities and finding them early is essential. The aforementioned sources can help you do just that. If you know of any others you’d suggest, feel free to let me know at storm.gloor@cudenver.edu.

Storm Gloor serves as Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Music and Entertainment Industry Studies, University of Colorado Denver.