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POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH
Be open to opportunities where you can gain
experience, such as small record
stores or on-line retailers. "Don't pick your
job based on a genre of music, but pick it
based on the opportunity to learn about music.
I've worked in country and folk
radio, did a reggae and an African radio show,
worked in urban and rock record
stores and at Tower Records, and I just never
made the distinction about music."
TED SINGER, SENIOR MANAGER, DIGITAL MEDIA
SERVICE, BEST BUY
As a teenager growing up outside Philadelphia,
the only thing that truly engaged
Ted Singer's attention was the music he heard
on the radio. Once out of high school,
he drifted around the country for several years
before settling into a job stocking
record bins at a Warner Elektra Atlantic (WEA)
warehouse. He immediately fell in
love with the record business, memorizing the
liner notes of every album and
pouring his salary into a spectacular record
collection. "You were allowed to buy ten
records every two weeks for $1.82." After a
skid of records was dropped on his foot,
he left warehouse work and enrolled at a
Philadelphia radio school in 1976, working
nights answering the telephone for a deejay he
had listened to as a kid.
Following a miserable year of spinning disks at
a country radio station in Hobbs,
New Mexico, Singer moved to Phoenix, Arizona.
He found a job on public radio
doing a weekend folk music show, and worked at
a downtown record store during the
week. Several years later, he and two partners
opened Charts Records, and added two
more locations over the next six years. When
the stores were sold in 1985, he went to
work for the buyer, and moved to Rhode Island
to manage the Midland Records
chain.
CASE STUDY:
LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT THIS
JOB:
"Sometimes the politics drive me crazy, but I
love the business. I think that
occasionally even the things I love drive me
crazy."
THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS JOB:
"My favorite part of the job is free records.
I've been very fortunate to
work in the record business and be able to
raise a family and live relatively
comfortably. I don't think that many people get
the opportunity to work in
a business that they love and make enough money
to support their family
comfortably."
VOICES
OF
EXPERIENCE
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