Undoubtably anyone who has made it in the entertainment field has gone through some sort of internship at some point in time. These internships serve as a stepping stone for the participant, to get their foot in the door of an extremely competitive industry. They are supposed to be for college students and recent grads who want to gain experience based on what they learned in college, with the ultimate goal of getting hired by the company they are interning for. In most cases however, your first internship is not with the company you get hired by. These internships last anywhere from three months to a year (depending on the position and company) and can have the intern doing a variety of tasks, some of which have absolutely nothing to do with the job position they want, or even the internship position they were hired for.
I cannot speak for the entirety of the entertainment field (as I specialized in the music industry, and more specifically audio engineering) but in regard to the music industry these internships can be ruthless. Everyone in the music industry has heard the notorious story regarding Diddy (P. Diddy at that time) and some of the things he had his interns do. The prime example (which was on tape, and I believe even on his television show at the time) was when he made his interns (who were all vying for the same position) get him a piece of pie from his favorite pie shop. Where this might not seem too outrageous (as everyone in music has at some point been a gofer, meaning you are going for something) but the shop he sent them too was in Brooklyn. The headquarters of BadBoy, where they were interning, was in the center of Manhattan. They had to walk to get the pie.
Speaking for myself, I held six to seven different “internship” positions at different music studios in an attempt to create a name for myself and gain as much knowledge as I could. All of these positions were unpaid (expect for the final one which was paid to a certain extent, that I will get to later) and were based around gaining hands on studio knowledge. My first internship was at a small studio in New Jersey while I was going into my last year of college. In this position, I got to help out around the studio, setting up and breaking down sessions, along with sitting in on sessions conducted by the hired studio engineers. As my introduction to music studios and internships this wasn’t bad, as I got to see how engineers and studios operated. The second internship was during my final year in college, and this was defiantly an internship in the terms we all think of them now. My sole purpose was to get the owner food, go on bank runs, get equipment, clean the studio and other non-studio related tasks. This internship even got to a point where when I would be in the studio with none of these tasks to do, I would sit there doing nothing because he either had nothing to do for the day, or he didn’t want me using any of the equipment. After about two months of this the studio owner hired a second intern and began teaching him how to work studio equipment and fired me stating that I wasn’t engaged enough (that didn’t bother me in the slightest as he had little business and I wasn’t learning anything during my time there). Upon graduating I received an internship opportunity at top studio in Atlanta. This was the perfect position, as it taught me everything about how to run and operate a studio. Granted it took three weeks before I was able to answer the phone because I had to, “Learn how to do it properly,” but the engineers and owner were receptive if you did what was asked of you and were willing to teach you in their down time. The owner had a specific program in place that taught interns step by step had to run the studio, then how to set up sessions, how to record, how to conduct sessions (allowing you to conduct free two hour practice sessions) finishing with learning how to mix and master. The problem was you were expected to work 40 hour weeks, unpaid, and could only work the schedule you were given (mine being 8pm-4am five days a week). This wasn’t great, but the skills and knowledge I was learning there were awesome. That is until all the other interns left and I became the only intern running and operating the whole studio. Until the point where new interns began to be hired, and were getting to do things and offered opportunities never offered to me (like being able to take paid sessions, along with hiring new engineers, that didn’t have to go through the internship process, to do the same). That coupled with the fact I got jumped outside the studio one night (by ten people with no help, security or consequences from the studio) I decided to leave and pursue other opportunities. A third internship (second in Atlanta) promised to teach marketing techniques along with being a full studio engineer. I drove around the entire state of Georgia taking people (sometimes not associated with the internship) to their houses and other places they needed to be, only seeing the studio a handful of times in four months. Coming back to New Jersey after that for an opportunity at Engine Room Audio in Manhattan, netting me nothing but a once a week studio visit for no more than two hours to sit in on a few sessions over a four month period. Internship number five only lasted two weeks. Getting a chance to work at Platinum Sound Studio seemed like a dream come true. I had mutual contacts with the owner (which is why I got the position) and was embraced immediately (even getting to sit in on a mix of an Akon song in my first two days). However , having to be there four to five days a week unpaid with no set schedule (a few times having to stay for more than 12 hours until 6am the next morning) wasn’t worth it, especially coming from a position where I was the head engineer at another studio. The last straw for me was when one night I was speaking with an intern who was teaching me how to be an intern there but told me,”I should be learning from you,” as I had five years more experience as an engineer than he did. That same night a famous rapper (I won’t name names) pissed all over both bathroom floors at 4am that I had to clean up. At the same time I began that internship I was interning at Water Music Publishing in New Jersey (the company I am still with today). From the first day I started I was doing sessions, mixing with the owner, working with the writers and artists, and learning how to run the studio and market songs. From there I began to bring in my own artists to work with (which was my source of income as the internship was again unpaid) began to hire interns to do different tasks around the studio and started to learn the business side of music, ultimately leading me to my position now of A&R, Manager, Publisher. However, before getting this role I had one final internship. This was brought to me by someone I worked with through Water, and was presented to me as being the personal engineer for an artist, her manager/producer and offering me $20/hr for recording and studio work. In this position (which I kept for one year before literally having a break down and leaving) I became their lackey. I would be doing 12 plus hour studio sessions, driving them all over the city, staying in the car (with no AC) while they held two hour long meetings, carrying their bags through every airport on trips, driving them to shows in different states, and being their errand boy. Mind you the hourly price I was promised never happened, at the end of each month I had to almost plead with the manager to get a compensation from the work I was doing (which was probably close to 70 hour weeks) and to cover travel, as I was traveling from New Jersey to Brooklyn everyday. Where I was promised to be paid by the label, each I pleaded with him and barely got $500, not even enough to cover the travel. My final straw there was being awake for 72 straight hours in consecutive weeks, in consecutive months being the driver to shows in four different states, continually being the lackey and not getting what I was promised (all of which led to a mental breakdown).
So all that being said (sorry the extended rant) it begs the questions, one, why is the music industry reliant on internships? Second, why are a majority of them unpaid? To answer these questions we have to look at the history of the internship. Beginning in the 11th and 12th Century, students served as apprentices during the trade guild in Europe. The master would teach the apprentice a new trade like printmaking and provide him with housing and food during the duration of the apprenticeship in exchange for payment. In the 18th Century, the Industrial Revolution saw young workers moving away from apprenticeships for skilled labor positions and started getting jobs in factories or seeking vocational schooling. Between 1920-1980, the fields of engineering, medicine, and business increased significantly and started incorporating practical training with the theory being taught in the classroom. 1938 saw the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which established general rules regarding minimum wage and who qualified for minimum wage payment. In 1947 the United Stated Supreme Court case, Walling v. Portland Terminal, essentially set the criteria for employers regarding unpaid internships or training programs. In the 1960’s formal internship programs started to emerge, especially in industries such as government. Industries such as entertainment, business, communications, and government started using internships as a way to recruit top students. Between the 1970’s-1980’s Universities started awarding credit to students who interned as a way to make internships more appealing. In 2008, the Economic recession hit and many employers started hiring unpaid interns. 2010 saw the Department of Labor issue Fact Sheet #71, which restated six guidelines for-profit employers must pass in order to be exempt from FLSA. Finally in 2013 the first court ruling where the judge ruled that an employer, Fox Searchlight Pictures, was in violation of FLSA and should have paid their interns.
One turning point for the establishment of the modern internship came in the 1940s. Though the right to minimum wage and overtime was established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), in 1947 the Supreme Court ruled that a company didn’t have to pay railway brakemen for their roughly week-long training program, an exemption that has been cited as the loophole that helped future employers justify unpaid internships, as Intern Nation author Ross Perlin has previously written for TIME. After that — all the way up to 2018 — a job that met six requirements could legally qualify as an unpaid internship. As TIME summarized in 2012:
1. The internship must be similar to training that would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship must be for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees;
4. The employer derives no immediate advantage from the intern;
5. The intern is not entitled to a job at the end of the internship; and
6. The intern understands that he or she is not entitled to wages. (Oliva B. Waxman time.com)
Based on these six requirements companies have been finagling their way around the ramifications of internships (especially in the music industry) to run their companies with unpaid labor. Research on the internship market by Seal and Nunley suggests that roughly 70% of internships are part-time and 60% are unpaid. College students, and recent college grads are taking these internship positions (whether willing or reluctantly) because they see this as the only way into the industry. They have heard the stories of what the interns prior have gone through, however, they have also heard about the interns that have made it through and are now heads of the company or in high ranking positions. While these scenarios maybe few and far between, they are enticing enough for kids to take the chance. The thought of becoming a studio engineer for a promenade artist, getting a manager position for the same type of artist, or becoming an A&R at one of the top labels, is enough to make kids jump through hoops for the opportunity. The promise of doing things they only dreamed of and being in the same room as their idols is the carrot and the stick of these internships. The stick being all the non-industry work you are required to do before they think about learning your name. I have even been in a position where I (after four years of working for the same company) went into a meeting while another intern sat in the car (in New York City so we wouldn’t get a ticket) and before we got out of the car he was told, “Frank used to sit in the car too, now look, he is going into meeting, this you could be you, but for now you have to start here and wait in the car.”
For its part, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) changed its requirements for classifying interns versus employees. Among the seven criteria, the DOL states that there is no expectation of compensation by either the company or the intern. “Any promise of compensation, express or implied, suggests that the intern is an employee–and vice versa.” There’s also a tie to education and class credit that is necessary for an internship and “the extent to which the intern’s work complements, rather than displaces, the work of paid employees while providing significant educational benefits to the intern.” Finally, the criteria protect the employer from having to hire the intern by stating, “The intern and the employer understand that the internship is conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.”(Lydia Dishman fastcompany.com) The government is attempting to cure this “problem” but is at the same time leaving stipulations that are up for interpretation and loopholes that companies can exploit for their internships. Giving someone college credit is great, but giving them college credit to get you coffee doesn’t further the students experience in learning the business. Separating interns from employees just because one is paid and the other isn’t, isn’t right either. In most cases that paid employee is doing one specific thing and nothing else with a specific schedule and guidelines. Whereas the intern, who is unpaid, is doing multiple tasks, being an assistant to multiple people, being asked to do to a multitude of things by everyone in the company because they are “an intern” (being exploited by everyone in the company) working on an unset schedule and supposedly gaining experience even if that means doing nothing related to the company or the field they are trying to get into. Lastly, putting a time stipulation on the internship with the understanding that after x amount of months the intern will no longer be with the company, is the same thing as hiring a freelancer on a contract to work on or finish a specific project. The freelancer and the company both have the understanding that after the project is completed and the contract has run out, the freelancer is no longer working with the company unless the contract is renewed. How does this differ from an intern? The only difference is the freelancer was able to negotiate the terms of their contract and is hired to do a specific job. The intern is hired under the pretense of doing a specific job, but has no room to negotiate anything, because they should just be grateful for the opportunity to simply be an intern.
Here is the kicker to this whole situation, companies in certain fields are now required to pay their interns. If you work in banking, (especially on Wall Street, in New York, or with a major company) as an intern you will be paid an hourly wage. This changed a few years ago after it was noticed that interns in this business were working 60-80 hour weeks for their employer for free with no other form of compensation either. So why has the entertainment industry not caught on? Why are studios and labels allowed to work their interns for as many hours as they want with no compensation, unless you are in college (in which case you may get college credits but still wont get compensation for your travel)? Yes, some labels do pay their interns an hourly wage, some do pay them a weekly stipend, and some studios allow their interns to take sessions in which they get paid for their studio session work (however this aspect of studio internships doesn’t apply until at least six months, or longer, into your unpaid internship). Again, some labels will hire their interns and pay them from the start, but they are taking on very few interns and have a laundry list of stipulations that you must meet in order to even be considered for their internship program. Most of which start with you having to be in college. So what happens to the kids who didn’t get the internship position while in college and want to be an intern for that label? Too bad, you missed your opportunity, or you now must be an unpaid intern at a different position and hope you are able to get close to the position you wanted in the beginning. As for music studios, it is very rare for any intern to get paid. In most cases, you will be a runner (someone who literally runs around the city getting anything anyone in the studio needs at anytime) for a minimum of three to six months before you will even be allowed to begin training on any studio equipment (granted in these cases you are compensated for gas but that’s it). If you are able to make it to the point where they begin to train you, you still have to be the runner when you are not training, and it will be at least another six months before you can call yourself an assistant engineer. Take it from someone who has been in the music industry for going on eight years now, internships are necessary, they are a great learning tool, and provide a wealth of experience (providing you get the right internship with the right people at the right company). If you happen to get an internship with someone just looking for free labor, you are lucky if you will ever get close to doing anything in the job description of the internship you applied for.
I have seen in the last few years college students and recent grads trying to get anything they can out of internships. As someone who now hires new interns every semester, every single interview I have now I get asked, “Is this paid, or is there some sort of compensation?” Like most music industry internships I tell them, “We do offer college credit, but at the moment it is an unpaid internship.” However, I do also provide them all with different avenues to bring in paying clients for our company, thus providing us with new clients, allowing them to be the main person working on the project (gaining hands on experience), and giving them a commission for not only bringing in the client but also for the work they are doing for the client. I do understand that this is taking advantage of the same loopholes as the larger companies, but at the moment it is what we have to do. Believe me once I grow the company into a position where I can pay interns, I will be in the forefront of ensuring our interns get some sort of financial compensation for their time and efforts. With all the interns we hire, we ensure that they are willing to be part of the company and the culture we have and are creating. We tell each one of them that we want you to be part of our team. Working with us is going to give you the industry experience to work anywhere, but we want you here. Yes, this may seem like a pitch to get the intern excited to work for us, but it is the truth. We generally have interns that stay with us for the entire school year and the summer, unless they have schedule conflicts, and even then we try and work around those giving them remote work to keep them as part of our company.
Do I see this trend changing, unfortunately not in the near future. Do I hope it does, at some point yes I do. I think the change is going to have to come from the smaller companies in the music industry, because we all know the major labels and bigger companies are not going too change unless they absolutely have to, and even at that time, most likely will find a way around the change. It is going to be hard, because the smaller companies in the industry don’t always generate the type of income to sustain themselves and their staff, let only interns. For these companies the interns are part of the backbone of the company helping it grow and become successful. I believe once the smaller companies build their names and grow to compete with some of the larger companies in the industry, interns will be looking to work for these smaller companies due to their internship structure and will move away from working with the lager companies (sort of like the artists are starting to work and sign with the smaller independent labels instead of the majors). Yes, the big companies will always be around and are not going anywhere anytime soon, but if you start chipping away at the armor, eventually it will break and something will change.
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