Hot Seat: Making It In The Music Industry… with Katie Rynne, Select Music

TMNhas revived Hot Seat to offer our young industry subscribers an insight into what it takes to make it in the music business.

Ahead of Melbourne's eighth annual Face The Music conference, TMN chats to conference panelistKatie Rynne, asenior agent at Sydney booking agency SelectMusic (The Preatures, Japanese Wallpaper, Seth Sentry, Boy & Bear).

What are your main pressure points that you focus on within your role?

How to create, maintain and nurture an act’s momentum through live shows and also how to keep things interesting. For acts that have been around for 10+ years (or even 5+ years) that’s a lot of tours in the same cap cities, so we need to work on ideas to keep fans entertained.

Do you have a rule of thumb that you’ve adhered to since entering the music industry?

To me it’s fairly simple, but it’s just to treat others with respect. This is only a small industry, and we see and deal with each other so often that it just seems crazy to think you can be rude to someone and not feel the repercussions down the line. At the end of the day, it’s music, it’s meant to be enjoyable. Chill out, be kind, but do what’s right for your artist also.

Do you have any advice for those who want to enter the music industry?

Be prepared to work hard! Getting your foot in the door is all about networking, so that generally means starting off with an internship and working your way up from there (even if it’s just through other contacts you meet along the way). Show how much music means to you, I’m more likely to hire someone that runs a music blog on the side of working/studying because it shows just how passionate they are. Little things like that!

You’re set to speak at Face The Music in November, which industry issues do you hope are touched on during the course of the conference?

There’s been a real spotlight on women in the music industry lately which has been wonderful, but I think there is definitely still a ways to go until the perception & attitudes are properly changed, so I’d definitely love to have that topic discussed.

Aside from attending Face The Music, what plans do you have while you’re in Melbourne?

Go to venues! Every time I’m in Melbourne I try to visit as many venues as I can – I know every bit of information about them and have worked with the venue bookers for years, but there’s so many I still haven’t actually seen in action! There’s also a few Melbourne bands that I want to check out who haven’t played shows in Sydney yet. Also Face The Music is on my birthday weekend so I’m going to need to sink some wines at some point.

If you could go back, what advice would you give your teenage self?

Go to more conferences and forums! Having a broad understanding of all aspects of the music industry is so helpful – I learnt a lot through experience, working a lot of different music jobs, but there’s still so much I want to know that’s completely unrelated to the live music side of things that I wish I had sat down and gotten an overview of when I first started.

Face The Music takes place at the Arts Centre, Melbourne on November 13 and 14.Passes are available atfacethemusic.com.auand member discounts are available from Music Victoria, AAM, APRA, AIR, Collarts, AIM and The Push.