Dorothy Hamilton

This fall, I interned at two companies in the music industry. The first was Atlas Touring, an artist management and booking company, and the second was Red Light Management, the world’s largest independent music management company. Through both of these internships, I’ve been fortunate enough to actively participate in the work that pushes an artist’s career forward. With the help of the Carsey-Wolf Center’s Internship Scholarship, I was able to move to New York City immediately after graduating from UCSB’s Film and Media Studies Department and be on-site for work.

At Atlas, I primarily worked remotely, supporting the management teams for Hotel Fiction, a small, indie-pop duo from Athens, GA, and flipturn, a bigger indie-rock band from Florida. Hotel Fiction set out on their North American headline tour just as I was joining the team, so most of my work revolved around supporting the artists while they toured the country. I maintained concert information across multiple ticketing and concert discovery platforms, published content to social media, and coordinated press coverage with local and national news outlets. When Hotel Fiction’s tour came through New York, I helped out at the show, filming content and selling merch. Ahead of flipturn’s upcoming album and subsequent tour, I’ve edited localized advertisements for distribution to every venue along the tour route and managed email contacts for geo-targeted e-blasts. Flipturn is currently touring Europe, where I’ve communicated with local photographers to ensure coverage of shows and quick turnaround of photo assets for posting on social media.

At Red Light Management, I worked in their Midtown office directly under one of their artist managers. In assisting my mentor, I got to help with the management of every artist on his roster, from jazz bassists to jam bands. I assisted in managing artists’ social media through uploading YouTube releases and designing graphics for Instagram. In preparing for album releases, I distributed video content to Digital Service Providers (or DSPs, such as Spotify) and labels, processed album clearances, and provided direct, on-site support to artists during studio sessions and press appearances. I did a lot of research, such as finding lodging for artists along tour routes, locating venues for after parties, and making sure all international regulations around taxes and Social Security were being met by touring artists. I was also able to work a number of concerts at the Brooklyn Paramount, Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY , and more venues.

Both internships were set to end in December, but in mid-November I received a return offer for a full-time position as the Manager of Digital Marketing in Red Light’s New York office. I (enthusiastically) accepted the offer and started the next week. In this position, I’ll be continuing a lot of the work I started as an intern, but on a much larger scale. I’m planning to stay with Red Light for a long time, and think it is the perfect place to build a strong career in artist management.