emilysia-internship2020

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 21

This weeks internship mainly consisted on internal evaluation and plans for 2021. 

4 hour meetings were held on both Tuesday and Wednesday, 15th and 16th December 2020, to discuss and evaluate the label’s operations and future plans. Tuesday focused more on reflecting on each individuals goals and aspirations for the label in order to ensure that everyone was on the same page and have the same vision for the label in 2021. We used the SWOT approach to discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of the company in order to develop potential plans for 2021. On Wednesday, we went through marketing strategies that bigger artists used in the year 2020 to promote themselves to try to come up with better artist development for our artist in the year 2021.  Takeways: I learnt the SWOT approach where we would look to the label’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities ands Threats to come up with a few game plan for the year 2021. I also got to learn from the marketing deck shared by my label to see the different ways artists can be promoted and potentially adapt them to suit the artists in our label. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 20

Wednesday 10 Dec 2020 - Today I followed up on a new release to get the assets in from the artist and did the release operations for this new single. I Thursday 11 Dec 2020 - Today I worked on updating our catalog to contain yesterday’s single and another single that my supervisor was working on today.  Friday 12 Dec 2020 - Today, I worked on another single release. As today was the cut of date for any new releases for the next one month due to it being the holiday season, I had to rush out the release process for this last single that would be release early next year. I also checked through and quality checked the metadata sheet we have for our catalog of songs to ensure that all information have been filled up correctly. I also did up the blog post and social media assets for all the new releases that we submitted for label processing this week.  Takeaways: I did not learn anything new this week but did tidy up the metadata sheet and release processes to wrap up for the end of year. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 19

30 November 2020 Monday - Today I prepared all the pre-scheduled posts for our upcoming releases on our website. 3 December 2020 Thursday - The assets for the last release of the month came in but we could not do much as our label’s google form was not filled up for me to start the release process.  4 December 2020 Friday - Today we had a label meeting to summarize our label’s achievements in 2020 and wrap up the year’s work through a presentation by my supervisor. We also roughly discuss some new changes to to the label for the coming year 2021. Takeaways: I did not learn anything this week although, I got to learn about the possible structure change for the label in the upcoming year.

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship 18

23 November Monday - Today I sent out the operations email to our clients. 24 November Tuesday - Today I started the release process for one of our new clients and did a catalog transfer for another. I also updated the labels catalog metadata sheet with all the relevant information.  25 November Wednesday - Today I finished up yesterday’s catalog transfer for our new artist. I also had to work on the new social media assets for this week.  27 November Friday - Today I worked on the social media assets for all our upcoming releases in the month of December and followed up with the progress of the catalog transfer from our distributing partner. Takeaways: There was no new takeaways this week though we did experience some trouble with the transfer of catalog as the system’s auto correct function often gets in the way of our stylization of song titles or artist names so these issues need to be clearly communicated with our distributing partner.

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 17

16 November Monday  - Today, I focused on a priority album release submission. There were a few hiccups in terms of the artist submitting information with errors which was a good reminder for us to stay vigilant. It took the full two hours of today’s work to get her album prepared for submissions due to the many minor changes we had to make and double check. I’ve already drafted out the email for the artist and will send it out once the album has been pitched by my colleague. I also got to whitelist a couple of videos. There was not much to do this week because a lot of the release operations that we had to do was put on hold since we had to wait for the assets from various artists to come in.  20 November Friday - Assets for one of our newly signed artist finally came in so I just did up the release operations for it. I have yet to prepare the social media assets for our upcoming releases in December.

[emilysia-internship2020]

RIF 6

Monday 9 November 2020 - All online IGLive interviews have been done over the last two weeks. Now the IG team have started with proper marketing leading up to the show next week. We have 2 official trailer videos as part of the marketing assets to be marketed on social media.  Friday 20 November 2020 - Finally, today is the first day of RIF online. Currently we have no issues other than the fact that Tau, our point of contact from arts management, still has not received the invoice and giro form from one of my artist who has not replied my follow up.

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 16

Tuesday 10 October 2020 - I update my label’s music catalog with the new music releases coming in. I also ingested new music for distribution and updated the imprint upon acquisition of catalog. This week, I will also be doing a lot of catalog transfers but I am waiting on our new artists to send the information and assets in.  Wednesday 11 October 2020 - Today I learnt how to do catalog transfers for new signees who have previously distributed music with other aggregators before. I helped in the catalog transfer for an artist and contacted another for metadata information for her catalog update. Thursday 12 October 2020 - Today I updated the metadata for an artist whose catalog we were taking over and submitted old catalog updates for both new signees. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 15

Monday 2 November 2020 - I had a meeting with my supervisors for an update on the workload and tasks of each person in the coming few weeks as we have just signed a few new artists on our roster. I have also been tasked with a mini project to do during the holidays but this will be elaborated during my school holidays in December which would be when I will start on it. Wednesday 4 November 2020 - We received a couple of emails requesting for some minor changes in the metadata information for certain artists. I made the necessary changes and also consolidated a list of songs by a particular artist to extract this artist’s song’s metadata information for a catalog transfer.   Thursday 5 November 2020 - There was an important pitching to our aggregator partners for one of our artists today. Assets were sent in by the artist last night at 12 midnight and this resulted in us having to rush the release operations. I also updated our internal catalog and filled up the important metadata for this artist’s songs. Takeaways: There was not anything new that I learnt this week though I had a good talk with my supervisor on the direction of the label and that I might get to stick around to spearhead a newer branch of the label.

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 14

26 October 2020 Monday: Today I sent out a lot of emails to inform most of our artists about their catalog of songs being updated with the metadata information they have provided so as to tie up any loose ends. Currently, there are only 4 more bands / artists on our roster that have yet to reply me with the relevant information for their songs’ metadata updates. I also ensured that the social media assets and materials were up to date and that the website’s schedule of posts were up to date too.  27 October 2020 Tuesday: Today I went about setting up the release operation process for a new music release by a new artist. I also helped to put forth some suggestions on how to better organize the way we gather information from our artist so that we can be more meticulous in getting all the information we may require. 29 October 2020 Thursday: I set up another process for the release of another artist’s new music. This week and the coming weeks, we will have to hep with the release of 4 artists, all whom are releasing their music in November. Usually releases need more than a month for us to work on to yield good results so seeing that it is the end of the month of October, these releases are cutting it very tight. I also set up the marketing links for the 2 artists I’ve helped with the release process this week and am waiting on the other 2 artists to provide me with more information before I can start on the release process for their music. 30 October 2020 Friday: I uploaded the music releases that I have set up this week and created the marketing links for both artists’ new releases. I also prepared the social media assets for these new releases.  Takeaways: There was not many new things that I learnt this week but I did get to reinforce the workflow which I have become accustomed to. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

RIF Update 5

24 October Saturday: We received messages to pass on to our artists in preparation for the interview filming this coming week. Most of the invoices for the bands’ performances have also been sent by now.  26 October Monday: Today marks the first day of IGLive interviews. I have prepped my band with the process and sent over the interview questions for them to prepare answers to over the weekend. My band will be interviewed this Wednesday.  28 October Wednesday: Today was the day where my artist went on live on IGLive. The process was simple as the artist had to communicate with the RIF IG team directly on Instagram for rehearsals and the actual interview. All that was need of me was to mentally brief my artists again  on how today’s IGLive will go and remind my artists to stand by on Instagram on time.  Takeaways: Communication is key when it comes to coordinating work as well as having a schedule to prepare our artist is important so that everyone was aware of how the interview would be like. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 13

Monday 19 October 2020 - I did some of the usual metadata updates and there was nothing new learnt.  Wednesday 21 October 2020 - Today I had a morning call with my supervisor to teach me how to collate the promotional and marketing information for electronic press kits for our artists. I also asked for access to get promotional information from pass music release and shows by our artists. I then proceeded to update the metadata information for our label’s catalog on the workstation and updated a few electronic press kits with this new skill and information. .    Thursday 22 October 2020 - I learnt how to do up a deck for audience statistics for our artists and had to do up a few. I then carried on with some metadata updates.  Friday 23 October 2020 - I mainly did some metadata updates and some promotional assets preparation work. Takeaways:  I learnt how to do up the past sales history data for electronic press kits for our artists and how to do up audience decks for pitching of new artists to distributors.

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 12

Monday 12 October 2020 - Today I did something new. Our distributor requested for a list of music videos released by our artists this year. I made reference to all the releases the label had done this year through a catalog we have and searched for any related music or lyric video and compiled all of them into a spreadsheet. This information was then emailed to my supervisor. The task was quite informative as I caught a glimpse of the different ways to create and showcase music or lyric videos for songs. This is something I can learn and take home with me as a practicing artist myself.  Wednesday 14 October 2020 - Today I worked on a new release campaign where I had to apply what I was taught in the last video call with my supervisor on how to come up with an official label’s electronic press kit (EPK). I also had to deal with the process of ingesting the music, adding the music and all related assets to the label’s catalog and creating the promotional links for this new release campaign.

Thursday 15 October 2020 - I worked on another new release campaign, having to deal with the same processes of ingesting the music to our distribution workstation, adding its music and all related assets to our label’s catalog and creating the promotional links for this new release campaign. However, this time, I had to rewrite most of the song blurb and artist biography when it came to this artist’s EPK. While we ask for these information from our artists, we would still have to do a quality check on the blurb and biography written to ensure they written in a certain tone and calibre. This process took a little longer as some of the information had to be pulled from looking into the artist’s social media and song. I was also not sure about the marketing and promotional plans segment in the EPK for both EPKs done yesterday and today. Hence, I would be speaking about it to my supervisor tomorrow. 

Friday 16 October 2020 - Today, I mostly worked on the social media assets and scheduled post about our new releases for the rest of October for the label’s website. I usually create the social media assets in bulks and had to do so as today was the last day that I had social media assets prepared for. I am learning a lot about time management and attending to the most urgent work first through this internship. 

Takeaways: This week I got to see the creative ideas from the music videos done by our artists as I had to collate this information for the label. I also got my first hand experience on handling the release process fully on my own and doing up my first electronic press kit. I also am gaining experience in my time management as this week I had a lot to do but had to prioritize my work as I still had school work to do. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

RIF Update 4

Friday 2 - Tuesday 6 October 2020: We finally got the interview schedules for us artist liaison to slot our artists in. A trouble I had with this was that my artist are working adults and the arts management team did not give us enough lead time for the artists to discuss their schedules and for them to come back to us. As such, a lot of the slots were taken up by other acts as my artist was slow to get back to me. This posed me the challenge of liaising with the artists and the arts management team for RIF 2020 on a time slot that would work for the artist and RIF team.  Wednesday 7 October 2020: Today is the first day of filming and my artist was the only one who was scheduled to film today. Erik and I were left unaccounted for and were told that we were not allowed to stay during filming due to space limitations. However, no one followed up with this and so Erik and I stayed throughout the filming process incase we were needed. It was lucky that we did as the band being filmed had questions that had to be answered by the music students as we were in charge of the creative decisions. After the filming session, a message was sent out to include that all artist liaisons have to stay throughout the filming incase of any need to communicate with the creative team. Through this, I learnt that protocols were not set in stone and to always voice out any concerns with the arts management team.

Friday 9 October 2020: I helped out as the point of contact for two bands today. There was not many issues as we had any kinks sorted out on the first 2 days of filming already. Things ran smoothly. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 11

Monday 5 October 2020 - Today I had to sort a few hiccups that arose over the weekend. One included song titles on streaming platforms being changed due to metadata updates. Music service platforms usually have a automatic text stylization algorithm that sometimes changes the song title’s stylization. This has to be solved manually in order for the changes to be reflected as intended and entered in the system. I also learnt that we should use spreadsheets to gather metadata information when an artist has a large music catalog. This would streamline the process of entering information as it can be copied easily but also helps with the visualization of information and easy referencing so that artists would know what information is missing. Hence, I set up a spreadsheet for this artists and set up a more detailed framework for existing spreadsheets by adding extra columns for additional details we may require in order to receive all the information we may require.  Tuesday 6 October 2020 - Today I consolidated more metadata information required for the system update.  Thursday 8 October 2020 - I consolidated the second last round of information required for the system update. I should be done by next week and would have updated metadata for all artists who are with the label. There was no new skill learnt today. Friday 9 October 2020 - I mostly did consolidation work for a new release and submitted my first high priority release. I ensured that I listened to the song through an embargoed promo link to check for any anomalies and also set up the folder for all the artist’s assets for this release as part of the labels catalog. We did encounter one issue, and this was that we were not sent the press release assets, artists pictures and cover art yet. We were told that the cover art was not ready and the lack of promotional assets posed a problem as we had to pitch for this high priority release today since our distributing partner at The Orchard will be out of office next week. This taught me that I have to be more meticulous in checking through the assets we require from artists and I will do so in the future.  Takeaways: First, I learnt that every metadata update submission has to be checked once approved especially if the stylization is odd as sometimes there might be glitches in the system and the stylization will be auto-corrected to what the system deems as “correct”. I also learnt to use spreadsheets for easy gathering and reference of information during a metadata update of an artist who has a large catalog. Lastly, I learnt to have to check through all new release assets as missing assets would cause a delay in our processes to upload and pitch new music to relevant partners, distributors and streaming platforms. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 10

Tuesday 29 September 2020 - I did up the pre-save link for an artist and did simple updates to metadata through information I have received via email from an artists.  Wednesday 30 September 2020 - Today I learnt what whitelisting meant and how to go about doing it. I was also asked what I wanted to learn and realised I have yet to pick up the skill of readjusting specifications for images to suit our workstation upload specifications. I will be learning that and more about funnel marketing this coming Friday.  Thursday 1 October 2020 - I carried on sending out new emails for metadata updates for new artists as I have cleared the previous wave of update and  checked in on new releases. 

Friday 2 October 2020 - I had a 1.5 hour meeting with my supervisor who went through various things like how to resize single art in the specific specifications for the digital service platforms. I also wanted to learn how to resize promotional assets for other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram but was that I am only required to learn this once I am familiar enough with branding as I had to learn to design the promotional assets that suited each artist’s brand too. I did, however, get to learn about funnel marketing which is a marketing concept that can be applied broadly to businesses of any nature including music. However, I did not get to learn how to specifically do ad buy campaigns though I now understand theoretical concepts of marketing like retargeting through social media and advertisement. I also continued to gather missing metadata information for some of the old music catalog and sent out a couple of emails. Takeaways: This week I learnt about whitelisting and how to do it in a label’s context. Whitelisting is the process of getting videos claimed as our own so that youtube or social media platforms would not remove or mute the sound on the video for copyright infringement. I also learnt how to resize images to fit specifications required for upload of materials to the digital service platforms. Lastly, I learnt more theoretical knowledge on how funnel marketing works and it applies in the music industry. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

RIF Update 3

Monday 21 September 2020 - I was not able to attend today’s meeting as I had an ASEAN Music Showcase Festival Zoom call to attend. However, I did not get much updates with regards to the meeting except that we needed get the logos from the bands we are in contact with by Tuesday. Wednesday 23 September 2020 - Today I realized that the last minute meeting that was held yesterday night had was important as we had to cut 2 acts from our line up and had some filming schedule issues. This information was not relayed to me in my absence despite me asking for updates. I realized that we were not as prepared as we should be as we are still scrambling for promotional assets from the bands to promote with RIF. I am starting to feel the same anxiousness I have been having from the lack forward leadership and lack of preparation from everyone else too. However, I do see progress in organizational skills as finally deadlines are being set and a to do list has been done up though I think the team can communicate more effectively as there were a few misunderstandings on the tasks that the rest of the committee had to do.  Sunday 27 September 2020 - We confirmed with our artist on whether they would be available for IGLive interview and that time slots for recording have been changed. We have also confirmed our artists’ visual backgrounds for the live filming in about a weeks time.  Take away: The RIF committee is quite unorganised as information and changes were done last minute so I had to do a lot of last minute liaison with my artists. This thought me the need for speed and efficiency in order to get work and information relayed and clarified. 

[emilysia-internship2020]

WATF Internship Week 10

Monday 21 September - I uploaded new releases on the Orchard workstation for release in the coming months and did some metadata update. Nothing new learnt today but I will be having a meeting tomorrow on electronic press kits for our artists.  Tuesday 22 September - We had a zoom meeting today and my supervisor to go through what should be included in music electronic press kits that I will be working on in the near future to pitch with our industrial partners. I then continued with my metadata update. I also had a 30 minutes introduction to the new Facebook and Instagram features to sell and promote music but not all functions would be available in Singapore. Wednesday 23 September - I had checked on a few new music releases that came in today. My job would be to take care of the release process for them. I also updated my label’s website with new blog post for a number of releases we have next month.  Takeaway: I feel like I am finally getting more independent in my workflow. While I still have to ask for some guidance, I’m also able to work on my own initiative to get small portions of label work done by myself. I’m proud of myself!