Paulina Levitan started singing on stage at just 5 years old. She played a cheerleader in a local musical production of “Grease.” After that, the University of Miami Frost School of Music senior knew she wanted to keep performing. She started piano lessons shortly after, and her interest in music never faded.
Still, Levitan, an aspiring singer and songwriter from Long Island, New York, understands she will face stiff competition as an artist, so she is educating herself about as many areas of the industry as possible and is open to a range of careers—as long as they relate to music.
Toward that goal, Levitan has secured a few internships in the music industry. Last summer, she wrote for “Beyond the Stage,” a digital music magazine that covers new releases. This fall, she found another internship at Creative License that she is continuing this semester. The New York-based company helps identify and acquire the best music or talent to feature in advertisements and commercials. Meanwhile, she is also working part time as a talent scout for Artist Partner Group, a record label based in Los Angeles.
Levitan is studying Modern Artist Development and Entrepreneurship at Frost with minors in music business and songwriting. She discussed her current internship, which is a remote position.
How did you find this internship?
On the website, Indeed.com. Since it is unpaid, I am getting college credit for my work through the Toppel Internship Program.
Although you had another offer, what motivated you to pick this internship?
I liked that Creative License was based in New York; I want to live there after graduation. And the company works in an area of music industry called “sync licensing,” or the placement of songs in commercials, and that is a niche that interested me. It’s something I have wanted to do for a while, but I never got to work on projects like these. Also, they have many ties to the music world and there was a lot of access to clients and record labels, so I felt like there was a lot to gain from this internship experience.
The company is pretty small—only seven people—so it’s not a huge corporation, but it has all these agencies that it is communicating with daily. It’s a small company that has big connections and collaborations.
What were and are you doing each week?
I worked Tuesdays and Thursdays during the fall because of my class schedule. And I would start the day on a Zoom meeting with the team, where each person would cover what they were working on and they would ask me to work on a given project. My tasks varied, but usually I would take that day to complete whatever they sent my way. This typically included researching or brainstorming song ideas for a certain commercial and sending out emails about it. Songs were found through my own research on Spotify, and I also sifted through songs we were sent from record labels. I downloaded certain ones I thought would fit best for the commercial and passed them along.
It was nice because they gave me an opportunity to be creative, collaborate with them, and contribute. I am still doing a lot of the same tasks. Additionally, every month I make a themed playlist to share, and every week I create a newsletter with pop culture updates and new music releases to keep them updated. I do that anyway, so to do it for work was super enjoyable.
How did this differ from your other internships?
Because the company is small, I didn’t feel lost in it. My supervisors and others would check in with me and make sure I really understood what I was doing. And I made sure to ask questions, and they made me feel comfortable doing so. Overall, it has a family vibe. And although they are small, Creative License is a very reputable company. Because of the companies they have worked with, the firm has created a name for itself as very trustworthy.I It’s known that it follows through on projects and complete them in a timely fashion.
How will this internship expand your knowledge about the music industry?
It’s really given me the opportunity to see an inside perspective of the industry in a new area that I didn’t know much about beforehand. Now, I’ve gotten more of a clear idea of what sync licensing includes, and I find it very fascinating. I’ve also learned a lot of communication skills, and it has pushed me out of my comfort zone to ask a lot of questions. While in the past, I would hesitate to jump into a conversation, now I know they want to hear my input and I contribute to conversations—instead of just listening. Also, working in this environment has allowed me to form connections with others in the industry.
Any advice for other students about internships?
Research any opportunities that apply to the area you’re interested in, whether it’s finance, music, or entertainment—whatever it is, there are jobs out there. A lot of people want to jump to the known big company names, but don’t be afraid of smaller companies because you could gain an incredible experience that could also help lead you to other opportunities. Don’t be shy to reach out and use LinkedIn to reach out to people from your school or college who are already working at the companies that you are applying to.
