What is it like to work at the world’s number one electronic dance music label as a marketer?
I had the same curiosity and started my marketing internship at Spinnin’ Records at their Hoofddorp office. Here’s the story of the journey.
Spinnin’ Records is an electronic dance music label based in the Netherlands, specifically Amsterdam. The company’s main job is to recruit and sign the best artists from around the globe to release new hits. With a big roster of artists such as Tiesto, Timmy Trumpet, Ummet Ozcan and many more under its belt and by recently being acquired by Warner Music Group, Spinnin’ Records has become a household name in the music industry and DJ scene. Furthermore, in 2023, Spinnin’ Records was ranked as EDM label of the year at the Miami Electronic Dance Music Awards.
When I first joined the company, I had some experience in marketing that I had gained from previous internships. Yet, this was completely different as I was used to marketing physical products and didn’t know how to market music in any way. In the first few weeks, I had a lot to learn regarding certain marketing terms and procedures. As well, I had to learn how the algorithms of every social media platform worked, how important hashtags and the timings of posts were. This proved to be a challenge at the start, but it also gave me a sense of curiosity and excitement in understanding how social media worked and how to market on these platforms.
What I found to be truly beneficial was the fact that marketing stems from communication. Marketing has many elements in common from its theories to execution with persuasive communication. This allowed me to use what I learned in the persuasive communication course when I worked on different social media campaigns and events. As well, being in the entertainment sector, specifically music industry, I found that my job as a marketer for Spinnin’ Records to have a lot of things in common with entertainment communication, which allowed me to use what I have learned during my entertainment communication course in practice on different campaigns and projects. Communication is the very core of every marketing strategy, which proved to be very helpful during my time at Spinnin’ Records as a communication science student.
After having completed my internship, I came to realize that by being a communication science student, what I study is applicable to any part of business, whether it is marketing, communications, PR and events. There are many different types of tasks and works I participated on, and I did so intentionally. The roles I took at Spinnin’ Records included managing the company’s’ and artists’ social media pages, content creation, video and photo editing, posting on socials daily, and organizing events. Since I wanted to explore every aspect of what communication and marketing had to offer, Spinnin’ Records gladly accepted my enthusiasm and curiosity by giving me different opportunities to experience every aspect of the company and specifically what I wanted to do. Based on my internship experience, I now know definitely that marketing is the industry I have set my sights on, but as well I have developed a big interest in the music industry and see myself possibly continuing with it in the future.
For anyone interested in a marketing internship at Spinnin’ Records, I would definitely recommend it if you have an interest in the music industry. As well, I would recommend it if you would like to challenge your capabilities and comfort zones by experiencing how social media marketing works in a big professional environment with the full support of an amazing team that is there to support you every step of the way.