Shelly's Internship Adventures at TheFuture.fm

The Future FM is a free music platform streaming DJ mixes, live sets, from nightclubs, concerts, festivals; covering EDM, dance, hip-hop rap, rock, underground, indie, and alternative. The Future fm has a blog which posts about everything from...

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Reach For The Stars While Staying Down to Earth

Shelly Cohen

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The End? I Think Not!

I am happy to finish my Internship Adventure by saying it's not over!

I was asked to have a conference call with my internship before parting ways. I spoke to the head of my internship, the business manager Mary, who told me that they would like to offer me to continue the internship! I gladly accepted! This time around, they would like me to post more blogs, since that is my main interest, as opposed to all the track listing and artist relations I have been doing. Also they offered me to have an opportunity to do on site photography at events, since that is also a passion of mine and I have previously interned for a photography studio. Next semester they would like me to post about 3 blogs a week on anything from events to interviews to new music technology and everything in between.

It will be a lot of work but I have no doubts in my mind that I have everything it takes to be successful. Who knows, maybe it will even lead to a full time job after I graduate in May! 

I am content with the work I have done in the past and I have high hopes for the future at TheFuture.fm.

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Social Media Plan I made at Rider University for my Writing for the Media class

In the future I hope to have more involvement in social media, blogging, photography, public relations and event planning.

Here is a social media example I made in my class Writing for the Media which I took at Rider University:

The Jersey Shore

To build a presence on social media, we will have a competition where each person posts their favorite photo from a vacation with their family or friends. The winner will receive a gift card to the restaurant of their choice at the Jersey Shore. The competition can be held on twitter as well to engage followers and increase follower revenue.

For twitter we search anyone who has mentioned “Jersey Shore”  and respond to their tweet by asking what their favorite memory was in order to get them to be engaged with us. 

During the day, posts will focus on family aspects while at night we will focus more on the younger generation with nightlife.

We can combine business with the restaurants and have coupons for a discount at their restaurant with our logo and social media info on the coupons. This can be beneficial because The Jersey Shore can advertise for them while they advertise for us. This can gain attention to the Jersey Shore and possibly bring people back in the future. We can have competitions at certain restaurants where customers post photos of their food and the best photo gets a free meal.

During off seasons we will create emotion grabbing videos reminding the audience that just because summer is over, it doesn’t mean that the Jersey Shore is closed. We would hold pumpkin carving during the fall and ice sculpture design competitions during the winter. We would also remind the audience that summer is coming soon by having a count down till the first day of summer. Lastly, The Jersey Shore would post on their social media accounts asking what the audience is looking forward to at the Jersey Shore for this coming summer.

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Life is a journey and you hold the map so make sure it's something to smile about

Shelly Cohen

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So after my experience through this semester interning for TheFuture.fm and going to school full time at Rider University, I do want to suggest others to look into getting an internship, no matter what field it is in. Although the work load may be excessive at times, the pay off will be grand. So take it from me, someone who devoted time three times a week to this internship at TheFuture.fm, had six classes and event planned for a club at my school. I want to let you know that, yes, it is all possible! So don't you dare give into Netflix, even though it is ever so tempting. Even if no one other than yourself gives you a pat on the back, at least you will know your own worth, that you are in fact capable of keeping your head above this storm of an ocean, and lastly that the sky is the limit so as I like to say, "reach for the stars while staying down to earth."

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Here is a photo of me at Pier of Fear in NYC in the VIP stage area for press coverage. Can you tell how ecstatic this Mini Mouse was to do this event coverage and blog about my experience? 

I won't deny that there was a ton of work that went into putting together these blogs but I'm very happy I had and took the opportunity.

Literally right after my event coverage blog was posted, I began on my next task, which was to do more track listing for a prestigious DJ's music. The internship is very fast paced but I do love writing. They say "if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life." So to be honest, it doesn't seem like work to me. Just as an artist doesn't find creating their masterpiece to be work, I don't find writing to be work. Knowing that my thoughts have been published and that I actually added something to the world? Well, it's a great feeling. It truly is. 

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The big adventure began after I was asked to attend my first event for TheFuture.fm for my first event coverage! The event was called "Pier of Fear." Pier of Fear is New York's Halloween festival. This year a big name DJ, Nicky Romero headlined the event. TheFuture.fm's business manager, Mary, sent over my name and info to the event contact and had my name put onto the guest list. I was extremely excited but once again, I had to act normal... well as normal as I can possibly get.

When the day came, I got onto the bus and made my way to The Big Apple! I got to the event and signed in at the area that said "Press Coverage." It was all so surreal. It was a fun surprise that I was lead into VIP where there were white leather seats, our own personal DJ, bar and even our own bathroom (yes a nice clean bathroom is a big deal especially compared to using porter potties!) I had a blast and met tons of people. I even had my own VIP area which was a mini stage over looking the crowd. Over all covering the event and writing it up was a great experience.

I used the knowledge that I had learned from my first blog to create this one. They taught me all the details that went into creating a blog. I learned how to save photos a specific way in hope to make them appear on Google closer to the beginning than other photos. I learned how to formulate the html codes along with uploading the DJ's most recent song to their page, updating their information and researching to update their contacts. So I did all the research, found pictures, did html embedding and coding and poof appears my finished blog. I put hours and hours into perfecting this blog to the best of my ability.

I also used the knowledge I learned from my Writing for the Media class at Rider University to create the event coverage blog post. Something that really stuck with me and helped me through writing this was something I was taught in my Writing for the Media class with Professor Edelstein, who most may know as Jeff Edelstein, yes THE Jeff Edelstein who writes for The Trentonian. He taught us that the secret to some of the best writing is simply to read it out loud. It stuck with me, and you know what? It genuinely does help! 

So there you go, my friends, life lessons brought to you by Shelly Cohen & Jeff Edelstein. 

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Tiesto Joins TheFuture.FM

Not only did I have great opportunities coming my way, but TheFuture.fm had great opportunities coming their way as well! We had one of the most famous DJs, also known as DJ Tiesto, not only sign up with us but Tiesto also decided to represent TheFuture.fm! Tiesto had all of his hour long mixes uploaded to the site, there were about 400 different ones and I was assigned a few mixes to tracklist/give credit to the original artists who DJ Tiesto mixed together. Once again I had to make sure the times lined up when the songs changed, upload the correct photos and information to go along with the music.

  Not only was there a big step for the company but a big step for me as well.  I was asked to take on another project. So as Neil Armstrong said, "One step for man, a giant leap for Shelly" or something like that.

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I was offered to begin blogging for TheFuture.fm! I gladly accepted since blogging is a passion of mine. I was offered a great opportunity to work with an up and coming DJ duo who go by A&G for an exclusive interview. I did research on A&G and learned about the process of interviewing them. I wrote up about 15 possible questions which I sent in to get okayed. The questions were then okayed by A&G's contact for approval.

Once the interview questions were approved, the interview began. When I had all questions answered, it was then time to begin writing up the blog post. I had a skype session with our business manager who trained me on how to post through the back end of our website's blog. I learned about every detail from uploading music to embedding to html codes and everything in between. Using everything I learned, I put together all aspects of this blog post. 

It was refreshing to use info I learned in my classes and actually relate it to the "real world." In one of my classes, Writing for the Media, we learned everything from writing up news releases to press releases to creating letter heads to social media write ups and in between. Actually using the information I have been taught all year was an uplifting experience. I felt proud of my work and content that I created a blog post interview of an up and coming DJ duo, A&G, who currently have over 40,000 likes on Facebook. I wasn't done there. I was ready for more to come. Anything thrown at me I was accepting of. I even asked to know about any other interviews that are available! I guess an initiative to ask for more opportunities paid off because of what came my way next! 

(Click the title of this post to check out my exclusive interview with A&G!)

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Artist Relations Email Example

Hey (insert name of DJ) !

My name is Shelly and I am working for TheFuture.fm. I wanted to reach out to let you know that after reviewing your work you are eligable to be a part of TheFuture.fm. In case you have never heard of us, we are an internet radio site which streams tons of free music from EDM to R&B to reggae and everything in between.

Until today there has been no turnkey solution for DJs to compliantly share and earn royalties for their mixes. The Future FM has created the opportunity that allows you to make money from your mixes while also supporting the artist community.

Our patented technology, MixSCAN™, which powers The Future FM, identifies the music within a mix or single and then pays the underlying rights holders on your behalf. This means that there is absolutely no cost to the DJ.

To change the future click here and create a profile to start earning royalties. If you would like more information email us at [email protected]

Feel free to check out the site and message me back if you have any questions!

http://www.thefuture.fm/

Take Care,

Shelly

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Tracklisting can be very tedious work but it pays off and is well worth the work in the end. I was assigned to be in charge of tracklisting many DJ mixes of some pretty big names like David Guetta. Tiesto and more. TheFuture.fm uses patented technology called MixSCAN™, which identifies the music within a mix or single and then pays the underlying right holders on the DJ's behalf at no cost to the DJ. This is actually helping support the entire music industry. In order to tracklist, first the MixSCAN™ goes through every song played in a DJ's mix. They I go through song by song to make sure the MixSCAN™ got every song correct and lastly I time stamp when the song begins and ends within the DJ mix. Here is an example of a DJ mix! Click to listen in on Tiesto's DJ mix Club Life 370!

Enjoy!

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After learning all about artist relations and creating profiles, I was excited to get to action and create my first profile! Through my tutorials at TheFuture.fm I learned a lot about how they ran their artist relations. I learned which artists could be eligible to join the website by criteria such as how many followers they have, how many plays their music has and lastly how engaged they are with their fan followers. I was in charge of searching for artists who fit those requirements and contact them about the opportunity we have at TheFuture.fm for them. I learned how to, and not to, interact with these possible new members. After I contacted a few DJs that fit the standard that TheFuture.fm holds their members to, this great DJ who calls himself "Jaxx" wanted to sign up! I applied all that I learned into creating a profile for him. I obtained his biography, contact information, photo, uploaded a music mix he created and linked his profile to his social media accounts. I got the profile approved and then it went public! It truly is a good feeling to know that my actions effected another individual in a positive way and that I actually created something that never existed before. This was only my first step to many more steps to come. (P.S. click on the title of this post to see the profile I made for DJ Jaxx! Also feel free to jam out to some of his music mixes!)

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After sending my resume and a few emails and a conference call interview later, I was hired to be their intern! The next big step was the learning process. I successfully traveled into the city alone for the first time… yes I did say alone I know! This is actually a photo of me on the bus ride to New York City to begin at the office of TheFuture.fm! I was so excited and happy to officially start my journey (if you can't tell by my smile!) I got to their office on 42nd street where I was greeted by a check in desk. I then went to the elevator where my heart was racing. I got to the floor, got out, and found the woman I have been in contact with who hired me. She was very friendly which put my mind at ease. She gave me a tour of the place from the kitchen to the different office spaces. We then sat down and got to business. I learned how to use the website through the “back end” aka the company’s side as opposed to the public’s side. We went over everything from track listing songs in order to give credit to the artist to creating profiles for new members to artist relations and everything in between. At the end of the tutorial, she gave me a surprise test where I had to create a profile for new member using all the information she gave me. I had to find their biography, contact info, stage name, photos and apply it all to what she taught me in order to make a my first DJ profile. She was just as surprised as I was that I made no mistakes on the profile and successfully got it done in a timely manner. I remember I was so excited when she created my very own email with the company, [email protected]. I tried to contain my excitement but I’m pretty sure she knew. She definitely knew. 

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We got to the venue, Output, which is a roof top over looking the beautiful New York City skyline. The location has been described as, "Great underground music and really cool people with a good vibe" and that is exactly my experience. I was walking through the crowd and up some stairs when I saw a man with a giant camera. I have a passion for photography and I have interned for a photography studio in the past. Part of me wanted to ask him if he was here for a company or if he was freelancing. The other part of me, shy me, was scared to ask and wanted to keep calm and carry on...literally. I would up giving myself a little push and asked him. All of the sudden a nice young woman, who over heard me asking the photographer questions, approached me. She said they were from TheFuture.fm and they were doing some event coverage. At the time I had never heard of TheFuture.fm but if I had I would have been even more nervous to speak to her. I once again was fighting the inner sides of me. One side, shy me, wanted to say "okay cool" and carry on but the other side of me was pushing me to ask more. I gathered up the confidence and playfully asked if they needed an intern. To my surprise the woman said, "well actually I am the intern coordinator so here's my card," as she hands me her business card, "and send me your resume and well talk." I was in shock. Was this meant to be? Or did I make it happen? Who knows but all I do know is that this my friends was the begging of an adventure.

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I would like to start my Internship Adventure with a photo of where it all started. Here in good ol' New York City. The story behind how I got my internship is not the typical one. I had been working hard to find a suitable internship for me for months. I joined websites, I sent out emails, the whole 9 yards in order to find one but every offer that came my way seemed sketchy and the companies didn't seem very legit. I wanted to make sure I was working with a reputable company not just Joe Shmoe's basement. During my search however, I took a spontaneous trip to The Big Apple. My friend asked if I wanted to go for a music show. I almost didn't go but then I said hey why not. So the adventure began.