Campus Representative Jobs

About This Music Career

A Campus Representative is a student who is hired to set up promotional displays or hand out flyers at the campus bookstore, student union, or record store. They may work for little to no pay, setting up merchandising booths, and selling artist T-shirts, stickers, buttons, pins and posters. They might also set up a point-of-purchase display, which contains CDs, videos, and other pieces of merchandise.

The Campus Rep may also be responsible for checking campus stores for CD inventory, making sure albums are in stock, and if not, then notifying the label's distribution department. The Rep can also let the label know if it seems CDs aren't selling, maybe signaling the need for a harder marketing or promotion push.

Depending on the label, the Campus Rep may also have other duties like interviewing campus students to get a feel for how they view the label's acts, etc. the Rep may also be responsible for selling concert tickets if a show is going to take place on campus or nearby. To promote the show, they may even hang posters or flyers around campus.

If need be, he or she may set up interviews between media personalities and acts when a label's artist is in town for a concert. The rep might also even interview the act themselves to run in the campus or local paper, or even on a radio station.

Like an Intern, the Campus Rep is someone who is looking to get some experience while still in school. And, again, like the Intern, a Campus Rep has a very good shot at landing a job with the record company once their Rep position runs its course.

Salaries
Campus Representatives may work without pay, and if they are getting paid, it isn't very much, ranging from $2,000 and $7,000 or more per year. Sometimes, if the Rep is not getting paid, they are usually given free albums, T-shirts, posters, and/or Pay is usually not the reason students pursue a position as a Campus Rep. Rather, they are hoping the Campus Rep position leads to a position with the record company down the road.

Employment
While a Campus Rep position is not easily attainable, it is possible. A determined student can also try to create a Campus Rep position with any record company that does not currently employ a Campus Rep position.

Advancement
Like successful Interns, Campus Reps can expect fairly good advancement prospects. From a Campus Rep position, the individual could probably move on and get started in any record company department. The tough part is breaking into the industry, and once an individual is in and shows they are intelligent and eager, it is relatively easy to move up the career ladder.

Education and Training

It is mandatory that a Campus Rep must be enrolled in a college or university during the time they are working as a Campus Rep. College majors of music, business, communications, journalism, finance, or music merchandising would all be useful majors to prepare an individual for a position in the record company.

Experience, Skills, and Personality
Intelligent, aggressive, and willing students usually make the best Campus Representatives. They must also really want to break into the industry in order to take on a possibly unpaid position as Campus Rep. Basic industry and music business knowledge is useful, and an ability to work without direct day-to-day supervision is required.

Unions and Associations
Students interested in the music business often belong to the student union or activity board of the college, work on school concert committees, and might represent the school at the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA). This organization works to help all parties involved in booking concerts on campuses.

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