Sophomore film major Adrianna Dreckmann finds comfort in crowds. Whether it is front row at a concert, pushed up against the barricade with hundreds of other screaming fans or in the streets of New York with constant movement and people everywhere, Dreckmann is calm.
Dreckmann discovered her love of crowds along with her love for music her sophomore year of high school at an Arctic Monkeys concert. Since then, she has been to more concerts than she can remember. She has discovered a way to turn her passion for attending concerts into a career.
In August, Dreckmann accepted a position with Sony Music as their college representative for the St. Louis area. She is one of 75 college students accepted into the Sony Music U program in the U.S. Through this program students market various artists and bands signed under Sony Music and their record labels to the college populations in their region. Dreckmann works part-time with Sony to promote artists like Mariah Carey, Kesha and Cherrypools to college students in St. Louis.
“I went on indeed.com and [the Sony Music U job] was just there and I was like, this seems up my alley and it’s everything I want to do,” Dreckmann said. “So I just applied and got the job a couple months of interviews later.”
As a Sony representative, Dreckmann promotes new music and artists by giving out their merch and putting up posters around college campuses. She also gets to attend certain concerts for free where artists signed under Sony are performing.
“I’m going to the lovelytheband and Bastille show because the head of [their record label] wants me to go watch [them],” Dreckmann said. “I write tour reports for the label to talk about their demographics and the audience interaction with the band. Like what did the fans react to.”
Dreckmann said that if she does well the next three years as a college rep for Sony, she is likely to get offered a full-time job with Sony in New York.
Dreckmann’s manager at Sony, Tara Bendler said when standout reps are approaching graduation, they are invited to speak with their Human Resources department to see if they would be a good fit for a full-time position with Sony.
“Generally our reps that go on to work for Sony were standouts on the team during their time here,” Bendler said. “They were the reps that came to us with ideas beyond the general tasks that we were assigned. Adrianna needs to continue to exceed expectations not only in her assignments, but also find ways to grow the Sony Music U brand on her campus.”
Bendler said Sony looks for reps who are passionate about music and heavily involved on campus. They must also be hardworking and professional. Bendler said that Dreckmann hit the ground running as soon as she was hired, and her work has been solid ever since.
“Adrianna is clearly passionate about music and shows in her enthusiasm with being on the team,” Bendler said. “She’s a great rep because she’s invested in her job.”
Webster sophomore Jessica Clones met Dreckmann in the meet and greet line at a concert when they were in high school. They hit it off based on their similar taste in music and love for concerts, and they have attended many concerts together since.
Since Dreckmann has worked as a rep for Sony Music U, Clones said she has gotten them tickets to concerts of up and coming artists that Clones might not have listened to otherwise.
“She listens to a lot of stuff that I get into afterwords, she’s kind of ahead of it” Clones said. “Adrianna is always on top of [new music] and she tells me which new artists I should listen to and the next thing I know they’re getting big.”
Concerts as Community
Concerts are a source of community for Dreckmann and Clones. Besides becoming friends with each other through attending concerts, they have both made many other friends through a mutual love for music.
“Everyone is there because they like this band or singer and it’s really cool to see the community aspect of it,” Clones said. “It’s hard to go to a concert and not make friends with the people around you.”
Dreckmann said through this job she has made more friends through her love of music than she ever thought she would. In October, she went to New York City to attend the annual meeting for Sony Music U reps. She got to hear new music and see a new music video early from artists like Earl Sweatshirt and Travis Scott. She was also able to network with the 74 other Sony Music U reps from across the U.S.
“I’m so happy with [Sony Music U]. Everything I want to do [with music] I’ve already been doing, but I get paid for it now,” Dreckmann said. “[In New York] I met a lot of really nice, amazing reps from all over the country. [They] made me believe that I could see a future in this industry.”
Once she graduates, Dreckmann’s goal is to become a product manager. This involves coming up with marketing tools, distributing them and envisioning creative ways to get artists and bands recognition across a wide array of demographics.
While Dreckmann came into college interested in a career in film, she said she realized a career in the music industry was better suited for her interests. She said her love for film began at a young age with her family watching movies together every weekend.
Her love of music, however, did not come so easily. Her only exposure to live music growing up was her brother’s heavy metal band, which she was not a fan of. It wasn’t until she started attending concerts for alternative music bands that she really found her passion for music.
“It wasn’t like pushed on me. It was more like I had to find it myself,” Dreckmann said. “So that’s why I think it’s more like comforting to have music because I found it myself.”
Ultimately, Dreckmann hopes to fuse her passion for film with her passion for music.
“I would be into being a music video director because that literally combines two of my favorite things of all time,” Dreckmann said. “Something to do with video, like at a record label, where I can like see the videos that I helped work on and figure out ways to promote them in cool ways.”
By the time she graduates, Dreckmann is determined to secure a job with Sony Music or one of their other labels. She believes what sets her apart is her passion and ability to do whatever task is assigned to the best of her ability.
“I want to be like a front runner in a sense where they can be proud of me and I feel like I’m still new and getting the hang of all this stuff,” Dreckmann said. “So I’m not at my best with quality of work, but I hope to get there at some point so I can have a job right out of college doing what I love.”
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