My Professional Training Year in the Music Industry – Katy

I’m Katy, a Music student currently in my final year. During my placement year I worked for Film/TV composer, Michael Price. I lived in West London and worked in central London.

My placement year role

My role was as the Social Media and Project Assistant. This was a new role in the company and so my tasks over the year varied. Over the year it involved the daily implementation of social media strategies across several projects, admin support, runner duties, designing content for social media, and various other jobs. The work I undertook ranged from furthering the project Contemplative Classical, to organising events for the office, as well as being on hand to do a variety of tasks.

Contemplative Classical is an online community for contemporary classical music and it is centred round a Spotify playlist, now with over 1500 followers. We interview artists and have recently launched Contemplative Classical podcasts. I am still working with Michael on Contemplative Classical, which is a real pleasure.

A photo I took during a recording session for the ITV show Unforgotten at Abbey Road Studios which got used on Abbey Road’s website

A photo I took during a recording session for the ITV show Unforgotten at Abbey Road Studios which got used on Abbey Road’s website

Making contacts on placement

Over my placement year I did a lot of networking and built up a range of contacts. I was also fortunate enough to go with Michael and his colleague when they had sessions at Abbey Road Studios. I soon became trusted in a room full of producers and engineers and took photos at one of the sessions for social media. One of the photos got used on the Abbey Road website!

My stand out experience

I actually recently spent a day at Abbey Road to film a very exciting session, which was apparently the first ever all female session at Abbey Road. I got this opportunity through a final year Tonmeister who was the assistant engineer. I absolutely love filming and editing together videos and to be able to say I have done one at Abbey Road is something that I will never get over! You can find out more information about the session here.

A view of a recording session at Abbey Road studios featuring a female singer and drummer

Recording of “Twenty-first-century woman” at Abbey Road Studios

My placement year taught me so much and I now feel more confident going into the music industry once I graduate. It’s an experience that I will never forget, and I am eternally grateful to Michael Price and his assistant Nick Hill for having me for a year and being fantastic to work with.

Further viewing

Michael Price’s studio on Creative Cribs on Youtube

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