Alumni Review: John Fielding, Audio Production & Engineering 2010

John Fielding graduated in 2010 from the Audio Production and Engineering Program. Currently, John is working at True North Records as A&R, Licensing and Artist Development. Recently, Marketing and Promotions Coordinator Sarah Konowal caught up with John to ask him a few questions about his exciting job:

What is your title at True North Records and what are your responsibilities?
I’m head of A&R, Licensing and Artist Development. I also handle artist booking for those who don’t have booking agents, or if they are only represented to certain countries. Each title has different responsibilities. For A&R, I’m in charge of finding new and emerging talent or legacy artist who would be a good fit to one of our 3 labels. This job also requires listening to demo submissions as well. Yes we listen to everything that comes through! For the licensing side, I handle all the music synchronization. I make develop pitches for music supervisors, or facilitate their musical needs if they reach out to us, both by using our large and diverse catalogue. The artist development side is creating marketing plots for new releases, branding new artists, promoting tours, ideas for press releases etc… We have a great collective marketing team here which is fueled by our president who is very much hands on with everything that happens in our office, which is really nice to see.

So far, what have been the highlights of working for True North Records?
We are a small staff, so it’s nice to see your direct work come to fruition, and receive credit for it. Also working at True North has allowed me to sit on panels with some of the industries heaviest hitters such as Alan Cross, Kim Cooke and many more. We also have many great legacy artists who have had large impact on the music industry over the years, so getting to work with them driectly is really cool!

How has your education from the Institute helped you?
It really rounded out my overall knowledge of the industry, allowing me to become a more complete professional, rather than one specific section.

Which class has turned out to be the most useful?
At this point all of them have in a way. Everything from contracts to engineering have developed skills that I use on a daily basis.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?
It was a great atmosphere and provided me with a good chunk of knowledge that contributed in getting my Job here at True North. A piece of advice for future grads, take all of your classes as serious as the next cause you never know in this industry and it’s better to be as well rounded as possible. Also make sure you to get yourself out there. This is industry is driven by networking, and you won’t get anywhere in it if you don’t put yourself out there.

Congratulations John, we wish you all the best!