Finding a Career in the Music Industry: A List of Music Companies, Links, Resources and Some Words of Inspiration

One of the first steps to finding a career in any industry is knowing where to look. Before we get into highlighting some of the many companies and resources to finding a career in the music industry, I have a few words I’ve shared with past students, podcast listeners, friends, and complete strangers.

Are you getting close to graduating from college, and about to take that first leap of faith praying you land a job in the field you just got your degree in? Are you working a job that’s completely unfulfilling and literally sucking the life out of you one little bit at a time each day? Is school not for you, and you’re out there hustling trying to do your own thing? Regardless of where you are right now in your journey, there are a few important things to consider. Are you looking at all of your options and are you being too impatient? To get to that dream career in the music industry, it takes time, patience, consistency, being proactive, and a positive attitude. It’s not something that’s going to happen over night. Sometimes we might have to work other jobs to make ends meet. However, the most important thing is to never lose focus on the things you love.

What are you doing with the time when you are not working the job you can’t wait to quit or when you’re not in school? There are 24 hours in a day. Health and family comes first. So, you get 8 hours of healthy, restorative sleep, spend 2 hours with family and the people that matter the most and call it 9 hours in school or that other job. What are you doing with the remaining 5 hours each day? What are you doing on your days off? If you’re hanging out getting drinks with your buddies, playing video games, binging shows on Netflix, or whatever, it’s 100% your fault you’re not where you want to be. However, if you’re happy with that life and feel fulfilled, great! This is not for you. For those that want more, it’s time to get to work. I’m always a big believer in taking care of your physical and mental health first. Because if your body and mind are in a good place, you have the energy and motivation to push through. The music industry is really hard work. Careers are not handed out at graduation day. Those have to be earned, through hard work, low pay, a positive and good attitude, and lots of patience. Also, talk to a few people in the industry, and make sure it’s something you really want. The music industry can be very harsh, cold, and extremely unforgiving.

I’ve been in the business for over 12 years at this point. Everyday I see a lot of people in the industry that are just burnt out, or have given up on their goals and dreams. They get comfortable with where they currently are. It may not be their ideal career or lifestyle, but it’s the best that they can do. At least they tell themselves that story. But they are feeding themselves a lie. Life is too short to not do something that inspires and motivates you to the core. The most important thing is to make sure you’re enjoying the journey to your goal. You’re going to spend most of the time on the journey. If you’re not enjoying the journey, you’re not going to enjoy the end point. You may need to take a few jobs and volunteer opportunities at first to build your resume. However, get to where you feel happy and fulfilled as quickly as possible. Waste as little time as possible being depressed, unhappy, or any other negative feeling. Because I’ve been there and it sucks. It lead me to making one of the worst decisions in my life, and it took me 4 years to recover from that decision. I thought I’d never get a career in the industry again. I quit what many would’ve considered a dream job. My boss and mentor, told me that he won’t be around forever, and that someone will need to take his place. He was hoping for that to be me. My depression got the better of me, and I quit. That decision sucked for a really long time, but I wasn’t mentally 100% there.

One more thing before we get started. Don’t compare yourself or focus on what others are doing. That’s a dead end path. Focus on what you’re doing. How can you do better today than you did yesterday. For 1 to 2% of the people out there, it’s going to be easy. However, you don’t know how they got there or what connections they may have had. Focus on you, and build your own connections and take your own journey to a career in the music industry, and find your path to a fulfilled life.

Where to Start?

Below are a bunch of links to all different areas in the music industry from big companies to sites that list opportunities for freelance work. Get your foot in the door anywhere possible. If you’re in school or working another job, do as much freelance work on the side as you can. Build your resume one show, one event, one internship at a time. If you fill your schedule with a show every other week, you’ll be amazed how impressive your resume will look in a year, and how many new connections you’ve made.  Be extremely patient, always stay positive, and always try to find ways to be helpful. Be proactive. Don’t wait around for someone to give you something to do. For the people that wait around, it takes longer, and sometimes a whole lot longer to get to where they want to go. The ones that are positive and proactive usually always get to where they want to go. It just takes time. It could take weeks, months, years, and sometimes even a decade or two. But stay consistent with the positivity, hard work, and being proactive, and you will get there.

I once shared some of these thoughts and only a handful of the links below with a Full Sail University student. She immediately took the advice I gave her, and within a few short weeks she landed a job in the box office at House of Blues in Orlando. She got her foot in the door. Working in the box office, you have access to Marketing people, Tour Managers, Talent Buyers, Production Managers, and many more. You learn about ticketing, which is one of the most important parts in the industry. We have to sell tickets somewhere. She’s going to learn about customer service, buyer behaviors and concerns, and so much more. This might be only a foot in the door for her, but working her butt off scanning and selling tickets along with being proactive, patience, consistent, and having a positive attitude, greeting every guest with excitement, is going to lead to her to something really great. I can’t wait to see where she goes. I can’t wait to see where you go.

I would love to hear some stories of your journey, and your first steps, and then follow-up a few years down the road to hear about where you are now. Maybe our journey will cross paths in the music industry. The further you move up, the smaller the business gets. Take that first step to building your resume, enjoy the journey, laugh, love, and work with passion everyday. If you have an off day, try better the next day. Not everyday can be great, and not every day will be great. But YOU WILL GET THERE! Check these links out, and feel free to share additional links, questions, or success in the comments. Thank you!

Major Promoters:
Live Nation - http://www.livenationentertainment.com/careers
AEG Presents - https://www.aegworldwide.com/careers

Top Promoters
AC Entertainment - https://acentertainment.com/
Aiken Promotions - https://www.aikenpromotions.com/
Another Planet Entertainment - http://apeconcerts.com/
Awakening Events - http://awakeningevents.com/
Beaver Productions - https://beaverproductions.com/
Bill Blumerich Presents - https://thewilbur.com/
Broadway Across America - http://www.broadwayacrossamerica.com/
C3 Presents - https://www.c3presents.com/
C Moore Live - http://www.cmoorelive.com/
Caesars Entertainment - https://www.caesars.com/
Cardeans Marketing Network - CMN - https://cmnevents.com/
Chugg Entertainment Group - https://www.chuggentertainment.com/
Crossroads Presents - http://www.crossroadspresents.com/
DF Concerts (UK) - http://dfconcertsandevents.com/web/
DG Entertainment (Argentina) - http://www.dge.com.ar/en/
DG Medios (Chile) - http://www.dgmedios.com/en/
Dirk Becker Entertainment - https://www.dbe.ag/
Evenko (Canada) - https://www.evenko.ca/en
Feld Entertainment - https://www.feldentertainment.com/Careers/News/
First Avenue Productions - https://first-avenue.com/
FKP Scorpio (Germany) - https://www.fkpscorpio.com/de/start/
FPC Live - http://www.fpc-live.com/
Frontier Touring Group (Australia) - https://www.frontiertouring.com/
Greenhouse Talent (Belgium/Netherlands) - https://www.greenhousetalent.com/
ICON Concerts - http://iconconcerts.com/
IMP Concerts - https://www.impconcerts.com/
Jam Productions - http://www.jamusa.com/
Kilimanjaro Live (UK) - http://www.kilimanjarolive.co.uk/
Mammoth Live - http://www.mammothlive.com/
MCD Productions (Ireland) - https://mcd.ie/
Move Concerts - http://moveconcerts.com/us/
MSG Live - http://www.msggo.com/
Nederlanders Concerts - http://www.nederlanderconcerts.com/
North American Entertainment Group - http://northamericanentertainment.com/
NS2 Concerts - http://nationalshows2.com/
Outback Concerts - https://www.outbackconcerts.com/
Phil McIntyre Entertainments (UK) - http://mcintyre-ents.com/
PromoWest Productions - http://www.promowestlive.com/
Professional Facilities Management - http://www.pfmcorp.com/
Red Mountain Entertainment - https://redmountainentertainment.com/
Semmel Concerts (Germany) - https://www.semmel.de/
T4F (South America) - http://www.t4f.com.br/
Triple A Entertainment (UK) - https://www.tripleamedia.com/
Ocesa (Mexico) - http://www.ocesa.com.mx/
Premier Productions - https://www.premierproductions.com/
Score More Shows - http://scoremoreshows.com/
SJM (UK) - https://www.gigsandtours.com/
VStar Entertainment Group - http://www.vstarentertainment.com/
Zignia Live (Mexico) - http://zignialive.com/

Talent Agencies (The Big 6)
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) - http://careers.caa.com/
William Morris Endeavour (WME_ - https://wmeimg.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/WMEIMGUS/
United Talent Agency (UTA) - https://unitedtalent.com/careers/
Agency for the Creative Arts (APA) - http://www.apa-agency.com/#careers
ICM Partners - http://www.icmpartners.com/
Paradigm - https://www.paradigmagency.com/careers/

Boutique Talent Agencies
Atomic Music Group - http://www.atomicmusicgroup.com/
Blue Mountain Artists - https://www.bmatours.com/
Crossover Touring - https://www.crossovertouring.com/
Fleming Artists - http://www.flemingartists.com/
Flowerbooking - http://www.flowerbooking.com/
High Road Touring - https://www.highroadtouring.com/
Madison House - https://madisonhouseinc.com/
Midwood Entertainment - http://midwoodentertainment.com/
Partisan Arts - https://www.partisanarts.com/
Red 11 Agency - https://red11music.com/
The Billions Corporation - http://billions.com/news/
The Empire Agency - https://www.empireagency.com/
Skyline Online - https://skylineonline.com/
TKO - http://tkoco.com/

Major Labels
Universal Music Group - http://www.universalmusic.com/careers/
Sony - https://www.sonymusic.com/careers/
Warner Music Group - http://www.wmg.com/careers

Music Publishing Companies
Artist Publishing Group (Los Angeles, CA) - http://artistpg.com/
Arthouse Entertainment (Hollywood, CA) - http://arthouseent.com/
Atlas Music Publishing (New York, NY) - https://www.atlasmusicgroup.com/
Bicycle Music Company (Beverly Hills, CA) - https://concord.com/music-publishing/
Big Deal Music (Encino, CA) - https://bigdealmusic.com/
Big Yellow Dog Music (Nashville, TN) - http://www.bigyellowdogmusic.com/
BMG (NYC, LA, Nashville) - https://www.bmg.com/us/
Bluewater Music (Nashville, TN) - http://bluewatermusic.com/

Artist Management Companies
http://www.artistmanagementonline.com/free-resources/artist-management-directory/

Independent Music PR/Publicity and Media Firms
All Eyes Media - https://alleyesmedia.com/
Big Hassle (NYC, LA) - http://bighassle.com/
Calabro Music & Media (Kingston, NY) - https://calabromusicmedia.com/
Greenlight Go - http://glgpub.com/
Live Loud Media - http://www.liveloudmedia.com/
Mason Jar Media (Asheville, NY) - https://www.masonjarmedia.com/
Muddy Paw PR - https://muddypawpr.com/
No Big Deal PR - http://nobigdealpr.com/
PMK-BNC - http://www.pmkbnc.com/
Sacks & Co - http://sacksco.com/
Schure Media Group - http://schuremediagroup.com/
Shore Fire Media (Various Locations) - https://shorefire.com/

Production / Touring / Music Festivals
All Access Staging & Productions (Nationwide) - https://allaccessinc.com/
AVL Productions (Jacksonville, FL/North Florida) - https://www.avlproductions.com/
Bobnet (Freelance Nationwide) - https://www.bobnet.rocks/   
Clearwing Productions (Nationwide) - https://www.clearwing.com/
Clair Global (Nationwide) - https://clairglobal.com/
Crew One Productions (Nationwide) - https://www.crew1.com/
Eight Day Sound (Nationwide) - http://www.8thdaysound.com/
G2 Structures (Nationwide) - http://g2structures.com
Gallagher Staging (Nationwide) - https://www.gallagherstaging.com/
Mountain Productions (Nationwide) - https://www.mountainproductions.com/
Premier Global Production (Nashville, TN, Nationwide) - https://www.premierglobalproduction.com/
PRG (Nationwide) - https://www.prg.com/
Rat Sound Systems (Nationwide) - https://www.ratsound.com/
Sixth Man Productions (Nationwide) - https://www.sixthman.net/
Solo Tech (Nationwide) - https://solotech.com/en/
Sound Image Productions (Nationwide) - https://www.sound-imageproductions.com/
Stageco Productions (Nationwide) - http://www.stageco.com/
Tait Productions (Nationwide) - http://www.taittowers.com/
Triton Productions (Nationwide) - https://tritonproductions.com/
Upstaging, Inc. (Nationwide) - http://www.upstaging.com/
VER Productions (Nationwide) - https://www.ver.com/

Live Events / Staffing / VIP Ticketing
237 Global - https://237global.com/
Andy Frain Services - http://www.andyfrain.com/
Artist Arena - http://www.artistarena.com/
CID Entertainment - https://www.cidentertainment.com/
Contemporary Services Corporation - https://csc-usa.com/
Future Beat - http://future-beat.com/
OMG VIP - https://www.omgvip.com/
SMG - http://www.smgworld.com/p/who-we-are/302
Songkick - https://www.songkick.com/
Teamwork Online - http://www.teamworkonline.com/
Tickets Today - http://www.ticketstoday.com/

Performance Rights Organizations (PRO’s)
BMI - http://www.jobs.net/jobs/broadcast-musicinc/en-us/
ASCAP - https://www.ascap.com/jobs
SESAC - https://www.sesac.com/
GMR - https://globalmusicrights.com/

Job Listing Sites
APAP Career & Job Center - https://jobbank.apap365.org/jobs
Digital Music News - https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/jobs/
Music Business Worldwide - https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/jobs
Venues Today - http://www.venuestoday.com/news_features/industry_jobs
Fun Jobs at Music Festivals - https://www.thebalancecareers.com/fun-jobs-at-music-festivals-2059655

Also, search music venues in your area. Below are a few good places to find venues.  
https://www.pollstar.com/ and https://www.jambase.com/.

Find Music Festivals in your area at https://www.musicfestivalwizard.com/.