POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH
Find a college with a music business department
and a good internship placement
program. Study the business side of music and
enter a label through the internship
program.
YUMI KIMURA, INTERNATIONAL MARKETING
MANAGER,
WARNER/REPRISE NASHVILLE
As a teenager in Japan, Yumi Kimura fell in
love with American music. She knew
at an early age that she wanted a career in the
music business, and wanted to be closer
to its origin than her native country would
allow. She learned English as a foreign
exchange student, spending four summers in
Texas, and following graduation from
high school in Tokyo, moved to California to
continue English classes. After research-
ing schools that offered degrees in music
business, she was accepted into Middle
Tennessee State University's
program.
Kimura served two internships during her final
year at MTSU. The first was at a
record company in Japan, where she learned the
workings of the foreign market. The
second, at Warner Brothers Records in
Nashville, became a permanent position upon
graduation. While multiple language skills are
not a requirement, fluency in several
languages was instrumental in Kimura's rise to
international marketing manager.
CASE STUDY:
THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THIS
JOB:
"If I work on a project very hard and believe
in it, but it doesn't work
in the marketplace, sales wise, it's very, very
frustrating. [In other
businesses] if you work hard and do your best,
you get good results. It
doesn't work that way in the music
industry."
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
"I love the people. I love the variety of job
tasks I have. I get to travel
and go to foreign cities. I get to work with
people of all different
cultures."
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