Question 1

What is the single biggest suggestion you would give to someone wanting to get into this career?

Brett Greenberg · Accepted Answer

“My suggestion is to go back to where it starts, at the record labels and the radio stations. Practical, hands-on experience is the most important thing. Our Head of Marketing at Epitaph started as an Intern. Our Sales Assistant started as an Intern.
“Our Social Media/Advertising Buyer started as an Intern. Basically, everyone but me and two other people started at Epitaph as an Intern. That’s it, that’s where it’s at.”

Question 2

What’s the #1 mistake people make when trying to get into this career?

Brett Greenberg · Accepted Answer

“Everybody makes mistakes and everybody hopefully learns from mistakes. I learn from everybody. There are so many great promotion staffs out there and so many great artists they’re promoting, and whether good or bad, they’re all lessons for your own personal work.
“You take the good and bad and everything and learn from it. What are we doing? We’re just dealing with people. There’s a way to work with people and there’s a way to piss people off.”

Question 3

What is the question people should ask about this career but rarely do?

Brett Greenberg · Accepted Answer

“It’s actually the opposite! My mom, my sisters, my best friend (who I talk to every day), they’re like, ‘What do you do?’ People are absolutely confused by my job. They’re baffled by it. Usually, they think it’s all smoking weed, concerts, and traveling. But like I said before, all that will grind you down tremendously.”

Question 4

What is one thing I should have asked which I didn’t?

Brett Greenberg · Accepted Answer

“We could talk about the structure of a record label, which I think I touched on a little bit, about what record labels do and all the services they provide —- whether it’s promotion, sales, publicity, marketing, social media.
“Again, it’s hard to make an impact with a band. You do that by touring; those are the best careers for bands, the ones they make out on the road without radio or publicity involved. It’s that they’re playing and someone’s watching them, saying, ‘I love this band,’ then they find out about that band.”

Question 5

If you could describe in one word what makes you successful, what would it be?

Brett Greenberg · Accepted Answer

“Caring. I care. I work for one person, Brett Gurewitz, and he employs a lot of people. The better I do, the better the company does, and the better the employees do and the better our bands do.
“I care about those artists and without the artists, what’s a record label? What’s streaming, what’s a download, without the artists and their music? It all starts there.
“When you see all the business that springs from one three-minute song or one album, it all stems from that. You have the band, the artist, the singer, and from there you have the Producer, the studios, and so on. It all stems from music; I love the music.
“If you don’t care, you don’t give a shit about your job. You don’t think people can tell? We’re not selling products. It might be easier if I was selling a can of Coke, but every single band or song, it’s not a product, it’s a living, breathing thing and I care about it.”

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Promotion Manager