Summer is the perfect time to develop your professional skills in the music industry. With no classes taking the lion’s share of your attention and energy, summer jobs are opportunities to explore. You can try out a new musical experience for a few months. If it turns out not to be the right one – best to find out through a summer posting!
Last year, we shared a list of nine excellent summer jobs for music students, everything from music camp counselor to luthier’s assistant. Every option on this list remains a great option, so check it out. But here are nine more:
- Do you like to travel as well as play music? How about spending the summer as a cruise ship musician? Check out sites like this one to find out how to get hired for the summer cruising season. You’ll probably have to be at least 18 years old for this one.
- Want to learn more about the business side of the music industry? Get an internship in music publishing administration or distribution. Copyrights and royalties are a complicated Music publishing administration and distribution offices protect songwriters and performers by ensuring they're appropriately paid for the use of their music.
- Another job option on the business side of the industry is getting an assistant's position or internship with a record label. Yeah, they exist.
- If you're the super-social sort, look for a job or internship with a music promotion company or music event company. Another good option for this personality type is with a public relations firm. They often plan events and have great networks in artistic and creative communities.
- Technology now rules the world, including music. If you want to learn or grow skills in different music technologies, like editing, dubbing or re-mixing, look for music production companies or any company that uses music producers. Music producers are the people who hire other people to take care of the music quality of their recordings or videos.
- Check out your local library or near-by museum to see who needs help cataloging or organizing their stores of records, CDs, sheet music, or other music-related items.
- Events coordinator at a local café. Many cafes have live music in the evenings. Someone has to coordinate the bands. You can look for a job supporting the events coordinator. Or, if your job is as a barista, volunteer to organize a few live music events over the summer. You'll learn a ton and make it easier on yourself to get a paying event coordinator job next summer.
For those of you in high school – here are some new options just for you
Just because you’re in high school doesn’t mean that the opportunities above aren’t open to you – they are (except the cruise ship one). You’ll just be competing against college music students who have more experience than you. Go for it if you want to, but here are a couple of other options that might sound better to you:
- Retail associate at a music store. A record store is one option. An instrument shop may be a better one. It depends on what your interests are. If you want to learn more about instruments, then go with the instrument shop. If you want to learn about musicians, then go with the record shop.
- Social media intern for a music professional or music organization. You have the technical, social media skills. A position like this will teach you how to use them in a professional setting while introducing you to music professionals who can be future job sources.
Since summer is a logical time to experiment, think about looking for jobs outside your preferred musical genre. This approach will expand your realm of possibilities and your knowledge of music.
As you start applying for positions, bone up on how to land that interview for a summer music job.
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