Back to stories listingWorking with artists including Taylor Swift and Rita Ora, Jack David believes he wouldn’t be where he is today without going to university.
Keen to work in the music business, he studied Music and Media Management at the University of Gloucestershire, graduating in 2013. He is now Senior Manager of International Marketing at Universal Music and travels the world with his artists, which David Guetta, Sir Paul McCartney, Emilie Sande, and many more.
“It was one of the few universities in the UK that offered the Music and Media Management course which I wanted to enrol in. The music business is not something you learn in school so it was important that I choose a specific course that matched my career ambitions,” he said.
The highlight of Jack’s studies was the opportunity to learn from people who had first hand music industry experience including regular lecturers and guest speakers from across the agency. And as the course developed he learned more about the areas he felt he could work in within the music industry, gaining a progressive understanding of where he wanted his career to lead.
And since graduating nearly seven years ago he was offered an internship at Universal Music. Since then he has worked his way up the ladder, and it is Jack’s job to oversee his artists’ careers globally offering expertise on local strategies and how music consumption / trends differ from country to country.
Jack said: “If I had not gone to university quite simply I would not be doing what I am today. You don’t learn the music industry at school and I would not have had the confidence to visit the biggest record label in the world for an interview without a basic knowledge of such a complex industry.”
And when it comes to making connections, and making your next move, Jack believes it’s never too soon to start.
“From year one of my course I was reaching out to potential employers. I had not graduated so at that early stage I was not specifically asking for anything from them, I just wanted to say ‘hey’ and to initiate a line of contact. Throughout my three year course I checked in with the various HR contacts I made regularly, letting them know what I was doing on my course as well as any unpaid work I was carrying out.
“Even before I had formally graduated I had arranged an interview for an internship at Universal because of the relationship I had built with the relevant HR contact throughout the previous three years. Imagine how many LinkedIn messages talent acquisition executives receive from panicked graduates at the end of their course? Get in there early and build external relationships alongside your studies.”
Find out more about our Undergraduate Music courses.
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