The Coachella festival is truly a larger-than-life production. Planning and producing a music festival is hard work on any scale. However, touring and festivals are some of the most lucrative revenue streams for artists in the music industry. In 2019, touring brought in a global gross revenue of $5.55 billion. However, that came to a halt in 2020 and 2021 with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Coachella is a culmination of live performances, fashion, and pop culture at the Empire Polo Club in California for a weekend. Fans flock to the desert to watch the biggest names in music. A lot of energy and effort is required to put on a show of this magnitude. Many people work across marketing and management to get the job done. These are a few of the music careers you don’t get to see on stage.
Artist Manager
Artist Managers advise clients on career strategy. They have a hand in branding, marketing, merchandising, and tour management. Artist Managers interact with producers, record label representatives, agents, and other industry personnel on behalf of their clients. For a festival like Coachella, an Artist Manager will help shape the overall vision for the event to align with the artist’s brand. They assist in selecting other performers and sometimes work with the publicity team to facilitate media availability.
Helpful Traits: Being an Artist Manager needs exceptional time management skills. You may be handling multiple tasks for your artist at any point, and each one deserves attention.
Average Salary: Artist Managers average an annual salary of $64,887 nationally.
Concert Photographer
A Concert Photographer captures high-quality photographs that tell the story of the show. They shoot the concert from the photo pit and edit the photos for publication. Some venues have house photographers, but most Concert Photographers work as freelancers.
Helpful Traits: Concert photographers should understand lighting and how to adapt to dramatic shifts of light. Live shows use a lot of different lighting and special effects as part of stage design, and you have to make sure your photo quality is consistent throughout the photos you take.
Average Salary: Concert Photographers average an annual salary of $38,553 nationally.
Music Writer
Music Writers break music news, conduct artist interviews, review concerts, and new releases, and write other types of music-related coverage for print, online, and broadcast media. In addition, they work with publicists to secure press passes to cover the event for festivals. Event coverage can include reviewing the concert and interviewing performers.
Helpful Traits: Music Writers should be able to write engaging content quickly. Festivals and live shows are not evergreen topics. Therefore, it’s crucial to deliver your writing on a deadline to ensure your subject is still relevant.
Average Salary: Music Writers average an annual salary of $50,122 nationally.
Publicist
Publicists oversee national and regional press campaigns for their clients. Their main responsibilities include pitching story ideas and arranging artist interviews and photo shoots for print and online publications. They also write, proof, and distribute press releases to media members. In addition, an event publicist or tour publicist works to secure positive media coverage for a specific event like Coachella. For example, the Publicist for Coachella will work on-site for the entirety of the festival, scheduling interviews with local media in Houston and arranging fan meet-and-greets.
Helpful Traits: Networking is the key skill a publicist must possess. It’s more likely that media members will cover your event if you can build and maintain positive relationships with them.
Average Salary: Music Publicists average an annual salary of $46,866 nationally.
Social Media Manager
Social Media Managers develop and post content across social media channels. They may work with an artist in a general capacity or work specifically for an event such as a festival or album release. For example, a Social Media Manager for Coachella or a similar festival handles the daily management of the event’s social media channels. Responsibilities include scheduling all content, monitoring performance through online content curation, and adapting performance-based strategy.
Helpful Traits: Social Media Managers have to be able to multitask. They work across various platforms, sometimes managing different accounts on each platform.
Average Salary: Social Media Managers average an annual salary of $55,117 nationally.
Sponsorship Salesperson
The overall responsibility of a Sponsorship Salesperson is to develop relationships directly with major brands to invest in the event. They must maintain strong relationships with decision-makers at client marketing companies and advertising agencies across various business categories. A Sponsorship Salesperson negotiates and closes deals and oversees sponsor contracts and invoicing. Coachella has a multi-tiered sponsorship structure, with BMW and American Express listed as sponsors this year. While some sponsors offer prizes and other benefits, it’s ultimately up to the Sponsorship Salesperson to figure out the best system for their event and classify sponsors accordingly.
Helpful Traits: A Sponsorship Salesperson should be a confident negotiator. Event budgets are reliant on sponsorship money. Therefore, whether or not you can provide specific accommodations for attendees may depend on how much money you can secure through sponsorships.
Average Salary: Sponsorship Sales People average an annual salary of $53,000 nationally.
Stylist
Stylists help artists craft their image through fashion. They choose and coordinate outfits for their clients by networking with designers to gain exclusive access to new clothing. It’s the Stylist’s responsibility to balance high-end fashion, streetwear, and lifestyle apparel uniquely and authentically for their clients. Past Coachella festivals have featured exclusive merchandise created in collaboration with Adidas, H&M and Ray-Ban, and Revolve. A Stylist is often the initial point between brands and artists.
Helpful Traits: A stylist should be adventurous and willing to take risks. It’s fine to stay up on current trends, but you should ultimately want to set the trends.
Average Salary: Stylists average an annual salary of $44,274 nationally.
Tour/Festival DJ
A Festival DJ plays music to keep the audience excited and maintain the ambiance between performing acts. Festival DJs might play their mixes in addition to popular music and operate lighting and visual effects.
Helpful Traits: Intuitiveness is an underrated quality of a good DJ. You need to be able to read the crowd and adjust your set according to the vibe.
Average Salary: Festival DJs average an annual salary of $49,607 nationally.
If you’re interested in working in live music and touring and want to explore careers in the music industry which may be right for you, check out Yellowbrick’s Ultimate Music Career Guide.
