aidanbriggstc

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Covid 19 Impact

This is where I think Pioneer Records was different. The label was back tracked by almost an entire year of scheduled content and performances. The Pioneer Stars from 2020 never had a chance to shine and reap the benefits of the contest. For this reason, Pioneer Records had to combine two rounds of Pioneer Stars into one year, and the workload was immense for a group of full-time students. Regarding functionality, Pioneer Records must comply with university protocols for Covid-19 safety. This can make things limited for an organization that is based off events and face-to-face interaction. Masks are required for all events including meetings. Politics aside, this makes it hard to attract students to get involved and participate in events. Students must wear a mask throughout the day in class, so it is understandably unattractive to spend a lot more time wearing a mask for a school-based event.

[aidanbriggstc]

Covid-19 Impact

I was inspired by my peers who had entered themselves back into their careers and education full throttle, especially those in the music industry. The pandemic has made it undeniably hard for workers in music to support themselves and their families. Many music venues and record labels have shut their doors, mainly because they were dependent on live events for their revenue. As the world has slowly returned to normal, the industry has hit a reset. A lot of the people have exited the music industry to stay afloat financially, which means newer workers are filling these spots. I find this concept interesting, because it almost seems beneficial to a young person like me, newly engaged in the industry. It is still a challenge because the opportunities have lessened, and you can feel that some people don’t prioritize work ethic anymore.

[aidanbriggstc]

Covid-19 Impact

Covid-19 had an impact on my internship and the function surrounding Pioneer Records. Throughout 2020 I was mostly unable to fulfill my internship because of quarantine and I started to get desperate to find an internship worthwhile for me going into the 2021 school year as many positions were being filled because of the blockage caused by Covid-19. The pandemic made me question my work ethic, financial situation, and school standards regarding the internship. I’ve been trying to graduate earlier than expected, and I’ve taken 21 credits this semester in order to do so. I don’t make the greatest amount of money in my work, and I pay rent for an off-campus apartment. I really questioned whether I would be able to handle an internship, especially because it needed to be one of my main priorities.

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PR Internship Overview Pt. 3

I also learned how to use many different marketing websites and software which can be beneficial for the rest of my career. I had never been too familiar with professional website creation or graphic design, but I was able to dip my toes and finally begin to use my creativity professionally. This was a goal of mine from the beginning and I feel like I accomplished it well. My director taught me a lot about what looks good for social media when creating graphics, and why its important to have a different graphic for each platform of social media. We also worked a little bit in web design, and we toyed with some different websites that help you create a marketing plan that’s personalized and easy to follow. Now I feel like I’m aware of these resources that I can use in a professional setting because my work looked so professional during this internship.

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PR Internship Overview Pt. 2

Some of the important things I’ve learned during this internship include how a record label team would have to function in the real world. All of us working on the team are students, and it isn’t our full-time job. It has taken a lot of time and effort to accomplish our goals. If it wasn’t a school-run label, the workload would be double because you wouldn’t be able to rely on university funding. If the label isn’t successful, everyone’s job could be compromised. This made me realize how important the marketing team can be. For music, its all about the reach of the audience. The label can have a groundbreaking artist and a good team to back it up, but if the marketing team fails to present the artist to an audience, it can be a complete failure to everybody.

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PR Internship Intro Pt. 3

Along with the marketing and promotional duties, Taylor and I were responsible for making professional documents for the label. The entire team collaborated on a declaration page for Pioneer Records so that we could have a more established summary and be considered a club at the University. Taylor and I also had to do press releases for the EP Release Show and the announcement of the new Pioneer Stars. This was something new to me, as I had never done a press release before. I now feel more confident in creating professional files like this, and how to make an organization look more professional and established. This skill can be important in any company, but I think it can be crucial in the music industry especially when working with music venues and recording studios. I also took on some operational responsibilities as the intern. I would be the one to make sure everyone involved knows that there was a meeting on a certain day. I also became responsible for communicating with volunteers to help at certain events. I felt this would be beneficial as I had never had been in a leadership role such as this before, especially in a professional setting like the prestigious record label.

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PR Internship Intro Pt. 2

The record label has cashed in on important opportunities presented to it. Stage AE, the prominent Pittsburgh music venue, gives us opportunities to have concerts at their club stage for Pioneer Stars. We’re able to use resources like the school newsletter, radio, and the campus activities board to promote events and release of content from the label. The team has remained engaged with these opportunities and it has helped our success immensely. Our supervisor, Ed Traversari, has endless connections to the music scene in the Pittsburgh area, which has given us the opportunity to do a lot of meaningful work. We’re connected to Red Caiman Studios which is excellent for creating and publishing content for our artists. Under the surface, students are the ones that present opportunities for Pioneer Records. We have so many people involved with Pioneer Records, like myself, that have their own connections. I think something that I brought to the team was my involvement with the local Pittsburgh music scene. Through my own band I am tied with a local music collective called Steel City Death Club, and we’ve done our own work recording, publishing, and promoting our own music. Its important to realize how beneficial the workers can be in the organization, even if they are just volunteers.

[aidanbriggstc]

PR Internship Intro

After joining the team at Pioneer Records, I was able to assess the techniques and management of the organization, and the strengths and weaknesses within. The team at Pioneer Records is excellent with communication whether its between the directors or the entire staff. There are meetings twice a week in which all staff are suggested to attend, and all potential volunteers are welcome to attend. These meetings are crucial to ensure that everyone is on the same page with what we want to accomplish. Each director has interns creating a team for each category of business. Each team must communicate with each other to make sure things are done correctly. For example, the graphic design team sends content directly to the marketing team to have posted on social media and other promotional platforms. Mistakes in communication can be detrimental to the goals of each team. This is where Pioneer Records thrives, because all members were very communicative and efficient.

Where Pioneer Records sometimes struggles is finding a good reach and audience for their content. As a student-oriented organization, the target audience is clearly not the general public, and it can’t even be general music fans or concert goers. Our aim must be for students, and I felt there could have been more effort for engagement. Still understanding that its difficult to draw attention from a smaller university like Point Park. Another weakness was a major conversation within the label. We want to rebrand the label, mainly dealing with the color scheme on the logo and other graphics. We feel as though our colors are somewhat bland, and we need something that will pop out to the audience. Our color scheme is a dark green and white which is relevant to school colors, but it doesn’t fit very well with our music culture. Something brighter or more relevant to music genres like pop and indie would make sense.

[aidanbriggstc]

PR Internship Overview

This report will analyze my time as the Marketing, Public Relations, and Social Media intern at Pioneer Records. I’m going to summarize the history, operational structure, and workflow of the organization. Then I will do an overview of my work during the internship. I’ll look at all of my duties, things I accomplished, ideas created, and things I learned during my time at Pioneer Records.

Pioneer Records is a student-run record label under Point Park University and the Sports, Arts, and Entertainment program. Since 2014 the label has been giving students direct opportunities and experiences in the music industry and the business operations that hold it together. Each school year Pioneer Records holds a contest for musical artists to compete in. Each artists submits their content for a chance to become a Pioneer Star. The winners of the competition get to record an EP at Red Caiman Studios in Pittsburgh. The EP is published and released through Pioneer Records. Of course, the Pioneer Records team will use their resources to market and promote the artist and the EP. Pioneer Records will then set up live performances in the Pittsburgh area for the artists. Point Park students can volunteer in many different instances for the label. They can help produce events, do promotional work, and more.

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PR Internship - Week 6-8

As Pioneer Records moved on to the next phase of work, the marketing team began to structure what we needed to do. The first thing was to produce media for our new Pioneer Stars. We did a written interview for each of the stars in order to create a biography for them. Not only was this important for us to get the biographies, but it was also a chance to get to know them better, and understand the type of brand they want to display. Some had more of an established brand than others, but all of the stars still requested our help with re-branding. We took the biographies in order to create a complete press release for the new Pioneer Star announcement. This was once again a point in which I became comfortable creating documents for a record label that looked professional and were done in a timely manner. Once we had this basis, we were able to begin creating ideas for what we wanted to do on social media to promote the new stars. We had images and graphics for them so we could make posts and begin to get interaction between them and our audience. We also started creating ideas to use IGTV once the artists have their new music published. It has been exciting to be in this position with brand new artists because I have felt that I can actually use my own creativity to help them in theirs. Very exciting.

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PR Internship - Week 5

We finally made it to the week of the EP Release Show but there was much more work to be done for the marketing team. We had to put together our social media plan leading up to the event. We put together ideas for what to post on instagram and twitter each day to get more people to the show. We also continued to do our tabling events to distribute tickets. Along with the promotional side, we completed our press release for the show which included biographies of each of the artists, and a general overview of the show. Once Sunday came, it was finally showtime. Our job was to set up our promotional posters, a table with our flyers and stickers, and sell merchandise for the artists. I was responsible for manning the Pioneer Records table and giving out stickers while informing people about the label and how they can get involved. I felt like I got a good amount of interaction which is important for spreading the word. Word of mouth is still one of the most important parts of promoting a brand. I thought the show went very well, and we had a good crowd for our talented artists. We were also able to promote the new Pioneer Stars at the show, which is important for the next phase we will be entering for the next month.

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PR Internship - Week 4

It was a big week for Pioneer Records and the marketing team was on the front lines. We started selling tickets to the EP Release Show on November 7th. We sat out at Village Park with good looking poster boards and flyers. I felt pretty successful in the amount of tickets we distributed. I feel confident that we will have a good crowd of Point Park students at the show. It will be nice for the company to finally be able to celebrate past year’s Pioneer Stars, as they never got a chance to perform through the label due to Covid. Even more intense has been the announcement of the Pioneer Records 2021 Pioneer Stars. We marketed the Trick or Trivia event pretty hard, which is where we made the announcement. This was the first time in my internship that I could watch our promotion for an event come to fruition. My director and I had a lot of creative input, and I came up with the name for the event. Marketing wasn’t the only facet I grew in this week. In volunteering for this event, I felt like I gained more experience with producing events and event planning. Working with the Pioneer Records team has been great because each director, intern or volunteer knows their role and does it well. Functionality is immensely important to success, especially in the music industry. I’m proud to be a part of it.

[aidanbriggstc]

PR Internship - Weeks 1-3

After joining the Pioneer Records team, I immediately got to work on upcoming events and content that we are promoting. I jumped in right as the label was accepting applications for the Pioneer Star contest, so there was a lot to prepare for. I assisted in creating graphic content for the Trick or Trivia event, Ticket Tables, and the EP Release Show at Stage AE. We started to map out a marketing plan for the weeks leading up to these events. Once we had the finalized graphics, we went to work on the social media marketing and promotion. My director utilized my creative input for creating some of these event names, captions, and tweets. The Pioneer Records twitter is something that we’ve been working on boosting, and I think my experience as a twitter admin can help with this. It has been nice to be able to work with a team of bright people, and I’ve even gotten some experience with operational duties including scheduling volunteerism and sending email reminders for meetings. This upcoming week is big for us as we need to sell tickets to the EP Release Show. Its going to be important that we push it at the Trick or Trivia event, as this is where the Pioneer Stars will be announced. Finding a good reach of students on social media will be important. The show is just across the bridge at Stage AE, and we’re hoping to have a good crowd for a good show with talented artists.