Berklee Blogs follows Scott Beardsworth, Music Business Major, as he begins his internship at PAID, Inc.– a celebrity services organization focused on VIP ticketing events, merch, and other direct-to-fan marketing initiatives. We’ll follow Scott as he navigates the waters of his first internship and teaches us his lessons learned on the job. Stay tuned…

I’m finally getting used to a more regular routine after all the changes in the past months. I was talking with a friend, and mentioned that since I’ve started my internship, every month has presented a huge obstacle to overcome. In January I was just getting used to working on Huntington Avenue, and seemingly as soon as I got settled there, it was time to move offices. Then as my report with Dave developed, and I was getting used to the new office environment, the personnel change took place, leaving me to reorganize once more. I can’t help but thinking I’m overdue for another huge change! Not that I dislike that, I’d much rather have a dynamic and challenging work environment, than one that feels stale. I’m begining to realize too, that this is probably pretty commonplace in this industry… Glad to be learning this now.

Work has really become interesting over the past few days. Over the past week, both Motley Crue and Aerosmith VIP presale tickets have gone on sale, turning the office environment into a hectic buzz. I’ve taken the task of assisting customer service for all of this, especially with Aerosmith. A band like this has literally hundreds of thousands of fans waiting for first official mention of a tour, and when word is given, customers inevitably have questions, and PAID’s humble (yet highly effective) 2 woman customer service team needed some extra firepower.

It took a bit of patience to stay calm, cool and collected by the end of the day, but helping out the customer service team was something that needed to be done, considering that well over 1000 calls where made in one day alone. For this tour, we decided to work with Ticket Master as our ticketing platform, with PAID handling all the VIP efforts. Ticket buyers  who are used to purchasing tickets directly through our website have many questions and getting them up to speed can take some time.

Since PAID handles not only Aerosmith’s VIP packages but also those of their fan club, We have implemented a new service that tries to reward our most loyal fan club members. We do this by breaking down our customer base by years of seniority, and assigning each seniority bracket (20+ years, 10+ years, 2+, years, and less than 2 years) with a descriptive code which allows higher seniority fan club members to purchase at an earlier window than those below them.

While not the most exciting of tasks, its importance cannot be understated, as we are really the first representatives customers see on behalf of Aerosmith. This customer service crash course also did much to bring me up to speed with how we conduct our VIP packages on the whole. With the possibility still very great that I will be going on tour with Aerosmith, I view this as a primer to the level of customer service I will be expected to give while out on tour.

While on the topic of post-internship plans, I’ve had several beneficial conversations with our President, Keith, regarding my opportunities post internship. He acknowledged that everyone there is happy with my work ethic and performance, and asked what I would like to do at PAID. As I’ve said before, my dream was to go out on tour, with my role as assistant VIP tour manager. I’m young, love to travel, and have ample amounts of energy. All of which I’m sure is needed to combat the long days and nights on tour.

Anyways, I’m exhausted after a twelve hour day of answering phone calls. Time for some sleep and preparation to do it all over again tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates, as my internship is rapidly coming to a close! I’ll have more to share once I have a few more chats with Keith, and try to lock down my position on tour for this summer.

 

_______________________

Read Scott’s Other Posts

Adjusting to Shake-ups

Festival Excitement

From Last Minute to Top of the Pack

Snowstorms and Car-chases – All Part of a Day’s Work

A Day in The Life

_______________________

 

 

BIO

 

Scott Beardsworth has been studying music in some way, shape, or form, for the past 17 years. Starting on Piano and moving to electric guitar and tuba, until finding his true instrumental calling of Electric Bass. Upon acceptance into Berklee, Scott chose to pursue the Music Business major.

With an equal love for all things business and music, this major was a perfect fit, allowing him to learn the business ropes, in an exciting field, close to his heart. Most exciting to Scott was his required MB-495 internship. He remembers sitting at the first internship meeting in his sophomore year, thinking about how exciting it will be to get real experience in the field he loves. Two years later, Scott has started his internship at a dynamic company located in the Boston area. PAID inc. is a turnkey celebrity services outfit, specializing in VIP events, merchandising, online marketing promotion, video production and more. The company serves industry A-listers such as Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, and many more.

In his free time, Scott loves playing music with people of all walks of life and disciplines, especially with his two bands Goliath in Transit and Skylab. If anyone has questions or wants to reach out to Scott, feel free to do so on his personal Facebook, or by email at [email protected]. Check out his band Goliath in Transit on Facebook!