
As an Arts Management certificate student, one is required to take four classes in the major and must complete three internship credits at a relevant arts organization. This past summer, I was an intern at Island/ Def Jam Music Group in New York City. I worked in the Radio Promotions Department, where I learned about the marketing and promotional work that goes into getting a recording artist air time on radio stations all across the country. It is a ton of work! A large part of my job as an intern consisted of distributing 'creative mailings,' which essentially consists of mailing out an artist's latest single out to literally hundreds of radio stations across the country-I remember once doing a mailing for about 600 recipients (it took a good three to four hours between myself and two other interns)! They are called 'creative' mailings because the single is sent out in 'creative' packaging. For one of our artists, for example, we placed the singles in brown paper lunch bags in reference to a lyric in the song. In another creative mailing, a miniature skateboard key chain was attached to the packaged track. As I have learned in my Fundraising for the Arts class, gifts-even small ones-are an excellent tool to get people to notice and REMEMBER your product, whatever it may be.
Creative mailings are effective in promoting an artist for a variety of reasons; DJ's, for instance, can listen to the pre-released track and give a record label feedback on whether or not a radio station will play it-i.e. is it radio-friendly enough. Another advantage of a creative mailing is that the record label can effectively promote a single that they consider a "hit-worthy." A record label will usually just send out a single song as opposed to a variety of tracks to radio stations so that the one song can play over and over, thus making it a 'hit.' This wouldn't be as effective if radio stations were playing a variety of songs; the chance of one song sticking and becoming really popular would dramatically decrease.
My experience as an intern at Def Jam was overall an excellent one that I would do all over again! What other internship could you expect to see Jay-Z and Mariah Carey walking around the office all while learning marketing methods of the music industry? It was an incredible learning opportunity, and I met some really wonderful people in the industry that I have remained in contact with. I would highly recommend for anyone interested in the arts and entertainment industry to intern at some point in their college career; summers are a great time to intern, and it can lend itself to future internship opportunities in the fall or spring, and even employment opportunities post-graduation.
Network with your classmates, professors, and friends, and you are bound to find some one that has connections to an organization that you are interested in. In my case, my roommate was an intern at Def Jam. Internships can be truly rewarding experiences and will also give you some upper-level credits. So don't wait, go get an internship!