Waiting Room Records
I found out about the option for my internship in my Introduction to Music Industry class in Fall 09. Jared Alcorn the owner of Waiting Room came into our class and spoke about what it was like to own a small business in the Music Industry. Jared explained how he runs his store and how he got into the music business, previously working for distributing companies. He explained that at times it was hard to run a small business because funds were short at times.
I got the internship by approaching Jared at his store (before seeing the listing for it on this blog!). I told him because it was an internship I needed for credit towards my degree I did not need to be a paid. The trade off for my work would be the knowledge I gained from working for him. I'll admit I was nervous at first because the area of music business I want to go into is more classical. I primarily want to work for a concert hall but from feedback I've heard from multiple friends in many majors I realized that its going to be difficult to get a job after college so broadening my horizons would not hurt me, but in fact help.
My first couple of days at Waiting Room were a little confusing. I was nervous I'd break something but Jared knows everything about his shop so if I ever got confused or turned around he would politely set me straight. After the first week everything became easier. Jared uses the program LogicPro to keep track of all his sales, with the program he can search through every CD Vinyl and Tape on file in the store. The system is simple you can search by artist, album title, year published, publisher etc. After Jared explained how to search for and sell albums he explained to me the layout of the store so I could help customers find what they are looking for faster. The program also holds notes about each item that helps Jared and I tell what condition they are in and whether or not they are listed for sale on Amazon, Half.com and Ebay.
Jared gave me mini jobs that I do every week. One of these jobs is calling in special orders. When Jared does not have an album in stock he offers to order it special for the customer. The main distributor is Edge so he'll order the album offline and have it shipped to the store. Once it gets here he'll price it and send it my way. I spend at least an hour every Monday calling people telling them that their special order is at the store and that they can come pick it up. On occasion a customer will order and album that hasn't been released yet when that happens I tell them the exact date when they can come get their record. It's illegal to sell a record before its release date and a record shop could get heavily fined if not sued if caught selling a record early.
I got the internship by approaching Jared at his store (before seeing the listing for it on this blog!). I told him because it was an internship I needed for credit towards my degree I did not need to be a paid. The trade off for my work would be the knowledge I gained from working for him. I'll admit I was nervous at first because the area of music business I want to go into is more classical. I primarily want to work for a concert hall but from feedback I've heard from multiple friends in many majors I realized that its going to be difficult to get a job after college so broadening my horizons would not hurt me, but in fact help.
My first couple of days at Waiting Room were a little confusing. I was nervous I'd break something but Jared knows everything about his shop so if I ever got confused or turned around he would politely set me straight. After the first week everything became easier. Jared uses the program LogicPro to keep track of all his sales, with the program he can search through every CD Vinyl and Tape on file in the store. The system is simple you can search by artist, album title, year published, publisher etc. After Jared explained how to search for and sell albums he explained to me the layout of the store so I could help customers find what they are looking for faster. The program also holds notes about each item that helps Jared and I tell what condition they are in and whether or not they are listed for sale on Amazon, Half.com and Ebay.
Jared gave me mini jobs that I do every week. One of these jobs is calling in special orders. When Jared does not have an album in stock he offers to order it special for the customer. The main distributor is Edge so he'll order the album offline and have it shipped to the store. Once it gets here he'll price it and send it my way. I spend at least an hour every Monday calling people telling them that their special order is at the store and that they can come pick it up. On occasion a customer will order and album that hasn't been released yet when that happens I tell them the exact date when they can come get their record. It's illegal to sell a record before its release date and a record shop could get heavily fined if not sued if caught selling a record early.
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