|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
Hello. Welcome to my online portfolio. A short collection of various projects I have completed over the past six years. Some were required school projects while others were voluntary fun projects. Ultimately it is a collection of what I love to do most: combining creativity with passion in order to promote someone or something I truly love. I am a recent graduate of Indiana University, graduating with an MS in Telecommunications with an emphasis in Music Promotion. However, the story that has become my love for music promotion started in the summer of 2001. It was then I discovered a world I never knew existed, a world that I will always be grateful to have discovered for it has lead me to where I am today. That world was the world of the local music scene. It was then I realized you have a choice of what goes in your ears, that there is more out there than what is on the radio and that the best music may just be in your own backyard. This is a key frame for me. During this pivotal summer I also began embarking on road trips with my sisters, some 6-7 hours away, simply to attend a show. I discovered online communities and message boards, a place where you would always have at least one thing in common with every one there. I became friends with Dar, who was simultaneously discovering her own local music scene while attending the University of Miami. One day, while discussing and swapping local band information from our respective areas Dar jokingly stated we should start a club and call it the "Great Local Band Exchange" or GLBE for short. After much joking and discussing we realized we may be sitting on something special. Finally, in December 2001, spawning from a running inside joke and the love and passion to pass on the great music we had discovered locally, the Great Local Band Exchange at GoLocalRock.com was born. My sister, Hilary, came on board as the web designer and additional information gatherer. The original vision of the GLBE was to show our love and support to the local bands we had discovered in our region while hoping to make other recognize their own local scenes. Most of what was done at the GLBE was learned on the fly. As the months passed the site continued to develop in different directions as we began to understand our audience more and more. Feedback began pouring in around the country as word about our site spread. What started as a site which mainly featured three local bands would eventually transform into a database containing thousands of unsigned bands from around the United States. Bands were divided into regions, making it easy for fans to discover music in their area while features were being added what seemed like monthly. Bands were able to submit their own news, mp3 and streaming audio was added, along with a Band of the Month feature. We even added a "gig swap" feature, allowing bands to swap gigs with other bands in different regions. As the year went by we began to realize there was room between a local, unsigned band, and that which you hear on the radio. As our musical collections developed it began to include more artists signed to independent labels or simply artists on major labels without the recognition we believed they deserved. The GLBE developed along with our musical tastes, eventually including and spotlighting unsigned and "lesser known" bands. During these first few years of the GLBE's creation and development I had the pleasure to come to know many of the band members, especially those in our home area of St. Louis, and a few in the Chicago area, on a personal level. We took the GLBE to the streets, promoting these bands by flyering for shows, promoting online, establishing street teams, and performing merch duties, all of which I quickly began to realize I loved. Hilary and I would eventually compile and release a compilation CD entitled Great Local Band Exchange 2003 Compilation (original. I know). Now that I look back on the situation, all that comes to mind was "what were we thinking?" We had absolutely zero experience in this area, but it seemed to be a theme for us. All we really wanted to do was break even financially, and most of all expose a greater audience to great local music. Let's just say we ended up in the hole and with a lot of CDs we still have to this day. But we learned a great deal from the process and probably had way too much fun considering the end result. In May of 2003 we had the surprising pleasure to finally see our first ever GLBE Band of the Month perform live....two years after the fact. That band was Limbeck, who at the time, had recently signed to Doghouse Records (they were previously unsigned when we featured them). A short time after the show Hilary and her friend Mandy established the Limbeck Street Team. I quickly realized their need for someone in a managerial position. Someone to handle all of the incoming information, to set deadlines and make sure they were met and provide some basic organization. It was an amazing rush for me to be able to coordinate a marketing plan between the band, the label, and most importantly their fans. I would eventually develop missions, coordinate tour promotions, obtain "prizes" from the label and band, facilitate promotions via online and offline means, and pretty much any other duty that required any sort of organization. All I ever wanted was to be happy. During this time I was attending Southeast Missouri State University, majoring in Athletic Training, which featured one of my other loves, sports. It was difficult at times to juggle the required schoolwork along with the hours an Athletic Training major is required to commit to. More than once the excuse that "friends" were coming into town was used in order to be excused from practice (or even a final exam) in order to make a roadtrip to catch Limbeck or any of the other various local bands I had come to know and love. I found myself staying up at all hours of the night, many times in favor of studying, in order to maintain the GLBE and Street Team. I actually looked forward to and enjoyed this "work" and began to dread what I had committed to as my career. By the middle of my junior year I was convinced I had my hobby and career path switched. Becoming an athletic trainer would require a full commitment - making work your life and not knowing much else. I just couldn't do it. I was already burnt out from the required hours of undergrad. How was I going to make it the rest of my life? But I also realized what I really wanted to do with my life. I loved to promote the music I loved. I loved interacting with the fans. I loved seeing their excitement while promoting someone they loved. Results may not exactly be measurable when it comes to a street team. You are not often able to witness the direct impact your hard work and dedication in marketing a particular tour or album accomplishes. But the reward to me has always been the process and not necessarily the end result. I decided to continue my education path, thinking I had already made too large of a commitment to turn back now. I ended up taking (and passing) the certification test just to prove to myself I could. But I knew where my love lied and decided to head to graduate school in order to gain skills I could use in promoting music. Hilary was always the graphic artist and web designer. I was never very good, but loved the creative side of things. Making something from nothing and the freedom it allowed you in promoting music both online and off. I chose a graduate school that would allow me the freedom to pick and choose classes which would allow me to continue to develop my knowledge and skills needed in order to become more involved in music promotion. I attending Indiana University immediately following undergrad. I loved the production classes - learning how to make television graphics, video editing, DVD, websites, logos, learning flash, making ecards - suddenly all the things I had done as "side projects" were now my main focus. With each class I chose to take, "How could I use this improve the street team?" was always on my mind. I also became involved in a research project conducted by Indiana University professor Mark Dueze involving the current status of marking and promotion in the music industry. This year long process, involving extensive research and phone and email interviews of current music industry professionals eventually led to a manuscript titled Bandmakers: Artist Representation and Promotion in the Music Industry [read]. I learned a lot while in Grad School. Not just about music promotion, but about the industry in general. It was a state of mind that changed. A way of thinking. It allowed me to view media in ways I didn't even know existed (I once wrote a 20 page paper on "tagging". Yes, that thing you do to your photos in Flickr, your videos on YouTube, or to any of your blogs [read]). I hope that I'm not revealing too much. That brings me to today. A recent graduate from Indiana University with an MS in Telecommunications I'm currently living in St. Louis, working two part-time jobs while searching for that career I finally discovered I loved. I've learned so much over the past six years, much of which I learned in the best way - from experience. My musical tastes have changed, focusing more on the independent side of music, coming to appreciate and understand the indie, DIY culture. I interned for a year at the independent label Secretly Canadian, a truly unique experience considering they are actually four labels, a distribution company, a worldwide manufacturing company, and a radio promotion company all rolled into one. The perfect career opportunity for me would involve some sort of coordination of promotions - whether that be tour promotion or establishing and maintaining a street team to anything in between - at an independent label or artist management company. e; holly @ golocalrock.com Quick Fact Sheet; Name: Holly Renshaw more to come! |