Throughout the fall of my Junior year, I had the opportunity of working for a startup music library located in Chicago. I didn’t know what to expect when it came to interning virtually due to the pandemic and I was nervous if I would be able to learn anything. When I met the founders for Who’z The Boss Music Library over zoom, I felt assured that this would be a good internship for me. I’ve always been interested in the music industry and this was my chance to be a little part of it.

Who’z The Boss was launched in 2018 by two creators who have been in the music industry for years. It is an agency that offers custom music, music licensing, music supervision, and library building. My position as marketing specialist intern is to research potential clients and help the company create, execute, and track marketing plans to gain more clients. I work with a team of three other interns and we have weekly meetings to discuss what steps are best to pursue next. Currently, we are researching clients such as production houses, ad agencies, firms that focus on public relations, and even television networks who may need music for their next project.

Due to Covid-19, my daily tasks are done all remotely and virtually. Luckily the business mostly operates online, but their free music workshops to educate young adults in underserved communities are affected by the pandemic.

Every Monday at 10:30am there is a marketing team meeting via zoom with the two founders of Who’z The Boss. We go over what was achieved in the past week and discuss how to move forward. We are given updates from different departments and together determine what tasks need to happen next to reach the current goal. After this meeting, I hop on a zoom call with just my intern team and we split the tasks that should be done by the following week. We also go over possible ideas that can be used once the company’s social media accounts become more active and we begin contacting potential clients. After this meeting I send a recap email to the directors of what we set to complete as a team. During the week I work on my research regarding potential clients a bit each day, or every other day. We enter all our information on excel sheets which typically includes information on the company or client, what their main services are, location, size, etc.

Before interning at Who’z The Boss, I didn’t know what the process for a startup company looked like and I certainly didn’t know much about the music business. What I have been learning the most is the patience, time, and effort that gets put into setting up campaigns and goals. By researching potential clients, especially when they are hard to reach contacts, it takes me sometimes around 20 minutes per client before I find the information I need. In addition, I just began writing emails to current clients about new albums being added to the library. This has challenged me to not only communicate clearly, but to write in a way that attracts the customer to the new music. What I also really enjoy is hearing the stories and experiences of my directors. It is so interesting to hear about their careers and it really helps to create a space I want to participate in. Since the company is a startup, my directors also encourage us interns to say our ideas and opinions because they know the world of music, not so much the marketing area, which they are slowly learning more about themselves. I think this is what makes me excited to work here the most; the fact that I actually feel like I can help move the company forward.

Photos From Who’s The Boss Music social media & website (https://whozthebossmusic.com/)