Week One

Well I've officially arrived in Tennessee and begun my internship at Darkhorse Recording.  Pulled into town Monday night and woke up at 6 o'clock Tuesday morning for my first day.  Darkhorse is sort of nestled in the middle of no-where in Franklin, TN so finding it was a bit of a task.  After winding through some hilly dirt roads I found myself at the front door of "The Lodge", their main recording studio.  After wandering in I met the studio owner, Robin Crow,  along with some of the other staff and interns.  The days here start with a meeting to discuss what will be happening throughout the day and what needs to be taken care of.  I was given a two page list of things to accomplish during the shift, most of which is cleaning.  This list is a daily routine and rather important to the upkeep.  Halfway through the list I was pulled aside and asked to make a run into downtown Nashville to pick up some supplies.  Armed with GPS I was on my way.  GPS doesn't work when the address is incorrect... Needless to say I got lost on my first venture into the city, but did eventually find where I needed to go.  Afterwards I was sent out to another nearby studio, "The Castle" to drop off a couple of borrowed cables.  The day to day routines are pretty much what I expected starting off this internship, except for feeding horses.  I didn't expect to be feeding horses.  So far things are pretty great here, and it will be 60 degrees here tomorrow which is way better than x below zero.  

Last night the people I'm staying with threw me a "Welcome to Nashville" party.  I met some local engineers and musicians, and got to give out my business cards.  Good times!  We also ate shrimp, southern style chili, and french toast.  The south is strange, but fun.  

That's all for now!

Tyler Jones RHINO Week 2

Hello all and welcome to the second installment of my blog..

I must say week 2 at Rhino was great, I was able to sit in on a meeting concerning Filters' new and up coming greatest hits CD, as well as work on getting settled into my new cubicle. I was moved to be closer to my mentor and the other people within New Media and Internet Marketing. I like it much more before it was almost as if I was on a different world or at least floor.
If you all that are reading this are familiar with twitter and are signed up then you can go here : http://twitter.com/rhinorecords follow us and check out what I have been/will be working on over the next few weeks.. We will be posting throughout the day, everyday, birthdays, trivia, history facts, and ringtones. It has been a lot of fun compiling all this info.
There will be more to come as I will be taking on helping to promote the awesome and huge dvd boxed set that well for susupence sake I am not going to tell you till closer to release date. That has been my life at Rhino, and now onto a few observations of the greater L.A. area...

The weather is really really nice.
My allergies are realllllllyyyyyyy bad.
Noone here can drive.... Everybody has a car but nobody knows how to drive.
Lastly there was aparently an earthquake the other day that I did not feel, it wasn't close to where I am but still worth mentioning.

Well I must go but I will leave you with this, Stay Classy..

Ashley Stafford - Swinghouse - Week 1

I arrived in Los Angeles about a week ago and started my intership at Swinghouse Studios on Monday. I am the intern under Jen, the general manager, of the studio. She handles booking for the recording studio and practice spaces as well as daily work of the business. Everyone thus far has been really nice and helpful to me. I love the atmosphere of the recording studio. Working with all the different people that come in and out is amazing. Not to name drop but on my first day I met Drew Carey, who came in to do a Sirus radio program and also Dhani Harrison, the son of George Harrison (The Beatles), who was working with his band thenewno2. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Jeremy Horvath Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

I started my internship with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra on Tuesday January 20th.  The SPCO is located in downtown Saint Paul in the historic Hamm Building.  This is where the orchestra rehearses and the offices are located.  They perform all over the Twin Cities at venues like the Ordway Center, Ted Mann Hall, and many others.  

I arrived at SPCO and met with the marketing and sales departments to talk about what my duties will consist of.  I also spoke with the education department.  I will be splitting my time between the two groups.  The marketing department will have long and short term projects for me to be involved with.  I also plan on working with an SPCO outreach program called CONNECT that works with Twin Cities schools.  They also have youth programs that I might have a chance to be involved with.  

It was a busy week for the SPCO.  They are celebrating their 50th birthday.  They are performing with The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, The London Sinfonietta, and others during the next couple of weeks in celebration of the event.  Festivals and birthday concerts will continue on into next week.  I plan on attending and volunteering next Saturday, January 31 with a youth concert.  

Until next week,

Jeremy Horvath

Music Business

2nd Week Blog (Rainy days & D-listers)

Winter is so bad in LA, it's been rainy and 60 degrees the last couple days.

I've been working pretty hard at Pangaea this week. Just trying to soak everything in and figure out how I can best help the company. Everyone here works tirelessly with a common focused goal in mind. I'm starting to see first hand how intense the business can be and I have a feeling it's just the beginning, considering we have MUSEXPO on the horizon. More on that later...

Random Thoughts...
Being a beach bum is enticing... Locals seem to kinda dig the rain... I could eat In n Out Burger everyday... I hoping my first celebrity sighting was going to be a D-lister...

Band I'm Checking Out: VV Brown (yes check her out)

LA Moment/Celebrity Sighting: Ron Jeremy outside the Roxy checking his text messages... Yes!

Done.

Jesse

Joshua Stoll -Conway Studios- Week 2

O yes, week two.... It was great just like the first. I did everything I did last week plus more! This week I got to help set up and tear down for a few sessions. Conway has a ton of amazing microphones. Friday night I got to do a closing shift and I was there till 5 a.m. Which was fun to see what goes on at that time of night. There is a big project going on there and they have the studio blocked out for the next three weeks.

I feel like I need a second paragraph so I will tell you that they don't have Buffalo Wild Wings out here and when I found out I cried for 9 hours. I found this place called Hot Wings Cafe and it is pretty amazing so that will do for now. I have been eating at a lot of really cool little shops around LA and trying lots of new foods.

Josh Stoll

Tanya Heltemes - Urban Network

Oh LA... where have you been all my life? Probably in California huh?

I got to experience many 'firsts' during this first week in LA: first ride on an airplane, first time seeing mountains (which weren't all that spectacular, though I don't know what I was expecting really, I think I had this romanticized idea in my head... although I'm sure they're amazing up close), first time seeing Las Vegas (my layover was there), first time riding a city bus (which is an experience...). I'm sure all you readers are thinking "boy Tanya is so sheltered"... no, I just never really had the opportunity before.

Initially, I was set to start at the Urban Network right away Monday morning the day after I arrived, but due to it being MLK day... I was off the hook. So Tuesday morning at 11 I showed up all ready to go. Being the first day, I met everyone and got some idea of what I'd be doing... at least for right now. It's a fairly small office with not many people to meet, though I'm good with names so that didn't bother me. But the Man In Charge, Miller London, he's amazing. He used to work with Motown and there's all these plaques up on the wall with records of artists he's worked with... it's seriously impressive.

Wednesday. Well, let's say that was a day I'll never forget. It was the first day I was to travel by bus and I was nervous. And scared. I had the routes all memorized and thought I knew where I was going... wrong. The first bus went okay, but the transfer got me all messed up. Somehow I wound up going south all the way past the airport. Luckily, the place I got off on was where a bunch of buses were stopped at (I think they were taking breaks or something), so I told a driver my situation and thankfully the kind lady said she'd take me where I needed to go. I pretty much wanted to cry. Though, now I know. And knowledge is power. Because Thursday... smooth sailing. I'm a pro.

Job duties. Okay well, for right now, I check their social networking sites to update them (add new friends, messages, etc) and look for news stories in the urban entertainment department. Once I find some news, I rework them in my own words, find pictures to correlate and then submit them. So far I've got two on their website on my first 'real' try. Then I basically do whatever Warren needs me to do.

Things will really get interesting in the near future with their Summit coming up in March. I'm really excited about that. I'm sure I'll have more details to post about later.

A few final things:

• The weather is amazing. Except it rained Thursday and is supposed to for the next few days. What's up with that?
• Things are more expensive here. No Super Target/Walmart... how do people survive?
• Drivers are crazy. They honk all the time.
• I love it here.

The end. Til next time.

Tyler Jones (Rhino Entertainment)

Hello all,
I must say the first week in L.A. has been a bit of a climate shock as well as a blast. Starting out from 20 degree Minnesota I drove 1300 miles to Montana to visit my parents for a few days. Leaving there on a nice 30 degree day I traveled through Idaho, a blizzard in Utah, rush hour and lots of construction in Las Vegas (not to mention I think I saw Elvis), arriving 2 days and 1400 miles later in 75 degree Los Angeles, CA.
Unpacking and settling into my new place was first off. The fun of finding the grocery stores, a Target (everyone that has livved in Minnesota for any length of time must find a Target with in 10 mintues or life is not good) and not to metion a place to get snacks and soda.
With those necessities taken care of, it was time to start the internship!!
Prior to starting I met with Matthew from Rhino and I got the generall tour of Rhino, if you do not know Rhino Records is a division of Warner Music Group.. Rhino covers releasing catalog material from all of Warner Brothers, as well as reissuing vinyl, DVD and CD boxed sets. Anyone out there have the Complete Led Zeppelin boxed set? Yep that was Rhino.

My "job" as of right now has been working within the marketing dept. working on promoting the new Grammy Nominee CD along with new up coming exciting stuff. Top secret, hush hush if I told you have to kill you kind of things.. Not really that top secret but I have to have something to write about next week.
The upcoming weeks will be great and exciting, with plenty of new things to learn, people to meet, and parts of Rhino and Warner brothers to explore. As much as I can from my cool cubicle with my computer and phone, yep I have my own phone number and email.. Well it is exciting to me so deal with it America..

Well this Blog has been fun, hope you enjoy following my progress with Rhino and untill then keep it snappy..

Mike Swoop-Alan Ett Music Group

Gyeah, L.A. is hot.

Getting here was a formidable load, but I made it.

AEMG is inviting, and it's clear there is a great deal to be learned while I'm here.  I'm a Music Production student participating in a highly business oriented internship, so naturally I'm anxious to experience more of Media City Sound's (AEMG's audio post production company) operations.  So far, I've analyzed royalty statements, reproduced CDs for the in-house Music Library catalog Audio Horizons and learned reception duties (answering phones @ the front desk).  

L.A. is big. It's sunny. They have a terrible transit system. Most people drive everywhere. Things are expensive.

Peace,

-Swoop 

Paul Marshall: Warner Music Group

So, here's my story:

I left chilly Minnesota and drove 3 days, 35 hours across IA, KS, MO, TX, NM, AR and CA, making stops in Wichita and Albuquerque. Once I hit TX, everything got sunny and beautiful and I honestly haven't seen a cloud since. Like Bill Hicks said: "Hot and sunny everyday, aint it great?"

I arrived at The Meadows (McNally housing in LA) late last Friday. The place is incredible. It's a hotel resort, basically. Pools, sauna, gym, tennis courts, movie theatre and many more great accommodations. McNally students and alumni have been using the Meadows as a stepping stone in LA for a while now, and it's obvious why.

As great as this all sounds, the move to LA and interning is no vacation.

I started at Warner Group Music Licensing Monday morning. After a tour of the division, and meeting all the employees (minus remembering half their names), I spent time organizing and cataloguing new releases in what I like to call "the vault." It's a room that holds multiple copies of every cd/album/box set/compilation/soundtrack ever released by Warner Music, or it's subsidiary labels (Rhino, Atlantic, Maverick, Electra, Nonesuch etc.) If we're out of something, I order it. I quickly learned to take advantage of the vault, checking out music and discovering new stuff.I also ship packages from WMG to their clientele and prospective clientele, usually including albums and a pitch of some sort, whether it's simple bullet points or a one sheet. WMG asked me to make a one sheet for a 2009 Grammy compilation that I sent out, and it allowed me to share my creativity with the department. I have quickly became friends with peeps in the graphics and art department and hope to work with them more in the future.

Another creative output that I get to exercise happened Tuesday morning. A client sends us a "pitch" simply stating, "I have this movie trailer ready, here's how it's layed out, here's the type of music that could be cool, what songs would work?" and my mentor and I can give our opinions on the music selection. Among my numerous intern duties in music licensing is researching upcoming film productions and releases, so we know who to directly pitch to, databasing it and keeping it updated. Weekly, I compose a review that goes out to the division. The "Rhino Review" is a compilation of industry news, and world news, that relates to the licensing and business in general.

I like it here, even though I miss my friends and family more than I can explain. I highly recommend this experience to everyone.

-P

First week blog (shortsleeves & sunglasses)

Hello All,

I am blogging to you from fantastic LA, a place in which I have yet to see a cloud, a place in which there is never a reason to check the weather because it seems always to be a sunny 78 degrees. I may have heard a rumor or two that I picked the right time to escape from MN for a few months...yeah?

20 below...? (I feel so guilty...)

So ladies and gents I am interning at Pangaea Entertainment Group where there the first two McNally interns (Peter Chalmers & Josh Woodard) have done really well, leaving me with some big shoes to fill. The first week has been mostly about learning about the company and what they do. Pangaea is actually about five companies all in one, the main co. is A&R Worldwide, which focuses globally on artist discovery and development and consulting artists, executives, and companies with vested interests in music. I 've also been doing some research for our very sweet, very fresh weekly online newsletter put out by our marketing company, hush hush Attack! Check it out and subscribe here: http://www.hushhushattack.com/newsletter.html

Random Ramblings....
I feel like I'm in some sort of time warp with this weather though, I went to write the date down today and I felt like I should've been writing May 16 instead of Jan 16. It doesn't seem quite right... All the people I work with seem really really cool... Venice Beach is an interesting place... Interesting is an interesting word... They don't have Super Targets in CA... It's a long walk from Beverly Hills to Koreatown... LA busses are never on time... It's not smog...it's marine layer

LA Truth of the Week: LA traffic is really that bad

LA Quote of the Week: "It's too cold to be outside" - lady at the bus stop (63 degrees)

Band I'm Checking Out: Delta Spirit

'til next week...

Jesse

Josh Stoll -Conway Studios- Week 1

I stopped at Conway the Friday before I started my internship to check out the grounds and get my schedule. The studio really blew my mind! I walked through the front gate and could already see why it is a world-class studio. The whole complex is set up like a fancy hotel; everything is spotless and set up flawlessly. All the staff is amazing, very friendly, and knowledgeable in each of their fields. After seeing this, I couldn’t wait to get back and start on Monday.

The first two days I was there, I spent most of my time following the head runner at the studio. Now I know how and what to do to keep the studio in phenomenal shape like it was when I walked in for the first time. An example of this that really popped out at me was that every pencil cup had to have 2 black pens, 2 blue pens, 2 pencils and the paper holder sitting next to it has to have the paper always flush with to the top with a pencil on top of that. If any of that is missing, it has to be replaced immediately. The other thing that made me go "wow" was the fact that the toilet paper needs to be folded into a triangle.

The rest of the week pretty much consisted of the same things and they slowly let me off on my own. By the end of the week, I was doing runs on my own and taking care of a lot of little details. I also got to help set up a vocal booth for a session and help clean the consoles. That experience was pretty awesome because I got to see the set up and gear which is just amazing.

Josh