The music industry offers many career opportunities that go far beyond performing on stage: Careers spanning from songwriters and composers, production and sound engineering, music distribution and promotion, business and management, music publishing, music journalism, marketing and social media, to touring and beyond. These industry professionals are the backbone of the music world, ensuring the music we love thrives through their contributions to its creation, production and distribution.
A management coordinator is essential for acting as a liaison between artists, management, booking agents, promoters and labels. Management coordinators are a main point of contact when planning the logistics of a tour, coordinating marketing strategies for upcoming releases, handling contracts and financial planning and addressing crises that may arise.
Kelly Carrazzone, a New Jersey native, is a key player in artist management. From dancing competitively across the country to earning a degree in public relations at Appalachian State University, her love for entertainment and artist development has always been front and center. Now a management coordinator at TRACK mgmt in Nashville, Tennessee, Carrazzone has helped shape the careers of country artists Morgan Wallen, HARDY, Ashley Cooke, ERNEST, and Jake Worthington.
As a One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer superfan, Carrazzone traveled around the country for her favorite bands’ concerts which, in turn, piqued an interest for those who work behind the scenes to bring her favorite shows to life.
“It always intrigued me that people around these bands could have a career working behind the scenes to execute an artist’s vision for their music and their brand,” Carrazzone says.
Carrazzone worked hard to build up her resume to land where she is today. She played a hand in helping run small, indie garage bands’ socials, applied for every talent agency internship she could find and put her creativity to the test when COVID-19 hit in 2020, working with any artist’s manager who needed a hand. “I never let an opportunity to learn about the industry pass me by,” she says.
Before landing her job at TRACK mgmt, she spent some time working as a music journalist for Tongue Tied Magazine, where she was given the exciting task of interviewing artists to share their creative journeys with a wider audience. She recalls, “Little did I know, this job would lead me to Nashville post-college where I would truly begin my journey in the music industry.”
As a management coordinator, it’s important to be alert because no day is ever the same, offering new challenges and exciting opportunities daily. “You never know what you’re going to get on any given day,” Carrazzone says. She has learned to focus on the task at hand, rather than planning out an entire work day.
“One day I could be organizing 50 people’s flights, lodging, catering and performance credentials for Stagecoach, the next I might be lugging 42 boxes of Liquid Death to an artist’s storage unit across town, another day could be building out a database of celebrity contact information for album PR boxes,” Carrazzone explains.
ROSTR has been an extremely helpful tool for Carrazzone while working in the music industry. ROSTR’s mission is to help create a more modern, connected and fair music industry. It is a great tool for finding contact information for a specific artist’s teams and can also be used to discover jobs that are currently hiring.
“ROSTR was my best friend in college,” she admits. “The team behind that site is incredible. When I was starting out in this industry, it really helped connect the dots by understanding who was behind a lot of artist teams.”
In order to be successful in the music industry, Carrazzone says it is critical to, “Build your relationships from the ground up.” By making connections with the people who are in the position you want to be in, you will open doors to new opportunities and collaborations that can help advance your career.
“You’ll never get where you want to be without taking up space, using your voice to ask questions, and making yourself known!” Carrazzone encourages.
As someone who has worked in the industry for four years, Carrazzone has had the opportunity to work for some pretty amazing artists, but “Handing Post Malone a water bottle during one of our artist’s shows” was an unexpectedly fun career highlight — whether that’s a joke or not, she’ll leave up to you. Something that she will never forget in her career is helping plan and execute the first ERNvitational golf charity tournament for country music star ERNEST, where they raised over $154,000 for the Second Harvest Food Bank. “I will always have been proud to have been apart of that.”
Follow Kelly Carrazzone: Instagram
