Tell us about yourself, but outside of your career
As a kick-off to our Entrepreneur Interview series, we had the pleasure of speaking with April Bredael, a 20-year-old from Wisconsin who is breaking into the music industry at such a young age. She knows what she wants, how she is going to get it and is making those career moves already.
It goes without saying that this kind of work is not your typical 9-5. It takes a lot of work & dedication to do what she is doing.
“I am a student at UW Madison. I will be a junior in the Fall. And honestly every part of my life I feel like relates to my career because I want to go into music, so it’s pretty much music all day every day and that’s about it.”
Tell us about the different titles that you have held in the past few months and what you are working on
“Sure, so the most recent thing that I am doing right now is I am with Warner Music Group in global digital accounts. I was able to complete a career classroom series over the Spring semester and learned from a lot of different executives in different areas and departments, and now I am able to intern with them as well. A lot of what I am doing is working with the artists, compiling their information, and drafting sales deals for youtube ads.
Other than that, I work for Tongue Tied Magazine; I’m a creative director there, so there I do a lot of artist interviews, and I get to be more hands-on with the artists and be able to talk to them more directly. Yeah, and I manage a couple of different artists. I’m pretty much in just doing it all at this point.”
Do you ever fangirl over the artists?
“The artists that I interview that I’m a fan of are the harder interviews because you know like in that position you’re not a fan. You’re not even really a friend. You have to be professional. You’re there for the artist. You’re there for the job.
But one of the artists I was actually a big fan of, I’m now his manager which is something that I would not have expected. Like I used to be obsessed with his music, and now we work together, so it’s really just finding that balance in realizing that you can still be a fan, and you can still work with them, you can still be their friend.”
How did you start developing your brand over social media?
“I feel like just as a business student in general, I’ve always been really self-aware of the kind of the brand that you create for yourself and the kind of the brand that others will view you as. So what I did originally was I made sure everything was super cohesive whether that’s the colors I use on my website my Instagram. I really just want to make sure everything is matching.
I don’t know if that’s a business major thing or just like me wanting it to look pretty, but everything has to match all the time. I know the atvialorraine website is the same way, so I’m sure both of you can relate.”
How do you differentiate yourself from other brands in the music industry?
“So I think that’s something that is easy to do, but it’s also hard at the same time. When you’re trying to break into the music industry, there’s going to be a lot of competition, and I think the main thing here to differentiate yourself, is not to view these people as your competition which sounds really ironic.
In a way, this is something I learned a lot about in the career classroom series. I was added to this group chat with about 200 people that were also accepted, and I remember stalking them all on LinkedIn, and I was just like ‘Oh my God why am I here?’, and I was looking around, and I was like ‘everyone is so talented’ ‘everyone has their life so put together’.
Then people started messaging me, and they were like ‘hey would you mind hopping on a zoom call would love to hear about your experiences’, and I was like ‘whoa like they think the same way about me that I do about them’ and since then I have just kind of gotten to know these people and other people through LinkedIn, Instagram, even people that just find my website and send me an email.
I think being able to kind of establish your personal brand kind of in tandem with who you are as a person, so I’ve always received a lot of help from other people that I’ve messaged that are willing to look over my resume or check over my website. So kind of paying that forward, people will get to know you for your brand but also for your personality in who you are, and I think that definitely makes you stand out.”
Do you have any advice for reaching out to someone that you want to learn from?
“It’s really important to establish genuine connections. Obviously, you’re going to be connecting with them because you want their insight. You might want to work for their company, but you need to do it genuinely.
So one way not to do this is don’t apply for a job and then find someone that works at the company and be like ‘hey I just applied, like tell me all about this, how can I deal with this interview’. They’re not going to help you. You’re straight up using them, and no one wants that.
What I do is I usually message alumni networks. That’s a really good way of going about it, otherwise just people at your dream job. What’s a dream position that you can see yourself working? Find the person that works there, and see if they have 15 minutes. Most people are really open to helping students, especially if you’re trying to establish long-term connections with them.
And then when you’re networking with people your own age, also just offering to do things in return for them, so like if they’re looking at your resume offer to review theirs as well and just pay it forward like that.”
Didn’t you do a resume review?
“I did I posted on LinkedIn, and it kind of went a little bit viral, and I felt really bad saying no to people. So over this past weekend, I reviewed about 250, and there’s still coming so that’s been a process.”
Has it helped you build your network?
“Yeah, I think it’s definitely helped. I mean I just really enjoy, first of all, putting it forward. Second, making an impact on someone who values that a lot more.
I remember when I first started networking calls, and I was talking to some of these executives at Warner Music group, and they’ve impacted me so much more than they know. They might not even know who I am at this point, but I still remember those conversations. I still remember what they told me, and the thought of me being able to help someone else break in that same way really means a lot to me.”
What have been some of your biggest doubts so far & how have you overcome them?
“So I really only started doing everything about a year ago. In September there was a position that opened up on campus for a campus representative at a major label. Major label. And these people never really come to Wisconsin, so the fact that they had a Madison position open up was shocking to me.
I was so underqualified, but I didn’t know anyone that was in music, so I was really arrogant. I mean I didn’t like act like this in front of anyone else, but in my head, I was like ‘I’m going to get this job easily. No competition. This position is mine’.
I didn’t even get an interview, so that was a very humbling experience. But after that rejection came, I found the person who got the job, I looked up her LinkedIn, I looked up who she was connected to, I looked up other representatives, and I was like you know what? I can try again next year, I can try for other positions that come around, and I just decided I was gonna spend the next year doing absolutely everything I could to improve myself and make myself more of a competition.”
How would your parents describe your job?
“Oh, they don’t even know what I do. It’s hard enough explaining it to my parents, but I went to my brother’s graduation party last weekend, and I had to explain to my grandparents what I am doing. And these people barely know what YouTube is, so trying to explain my internship and how it’s relevant and how I have access to a lot of information, and that I’m doing actually beneficial things for the company right is definitely difficult. I usually just tell them I’m working on the back end of youtube, working with artists, getting their music out there, and making people happy.”
Have there ever been people that questioned you or didn’t believe in you?
“In Wisconsin, there wasn’t really a music business path. My university doesn’t have any majors like that we don’t have any courses. If you look at universities down in like Nashville, there’s whole like music business majors. We don’t have that here.
If you say you want to go into business, people assume you’re going to be an accountant or a finance executive, which is great if that’s your goal, but that’s never been my goal. I failed accounting. So when I tell people I’m going to the music industry, most people’s first reaction is like ‘do you sing’ or ‘what instruments do you play’ and I’m like ‘no like that’s not the route that we’re going to go’.
I think a lot of people just don’t know it’s a career path. I didn’t know until a couple of years ago that you could even do this as a job, and so I think just explaining to them like ‘yes it is a career’ and ‘no I will hopefully not be homeless from it’.”
What is one thing that you wish someone would have told you before you started?
“I wish someone told me honestly just it’s tough. You’re gonna spend a lot of time. It’s not like your typical nine to five. Look at me right now. It’s 8:43 on a Tuesday, and I am technically working. But a lot of it doesn’t feel like work; like when I’m interviewing artists sometimes there are time zone differences.
I interviewed an artist once at 3:00 AM my time because she happened to be in Australia, and it was a major time difference. But it doesn’t really feel like work. The way I was doing it I was like ‘wow I’ve listened to her music for years, this is so cool, I finally get to talk to her’, and it just is really rewarding in that sense.”
How would you determine success in this field for yourself?
“Success is really what you make of it, and I think as long as you’re always learning and you’re always happy, that’s a really good indicator. I feel like I’ve always been pretty much like I don’t want to stop learning. I’m always like ‘what’s the next title I can get like, what the next thing I can learn, this next thing I can do’.
There are some people that think that success is when you get a major label job. You’re working at one of the three majors, and you’re living your best life, but I don’t really think that’s it. That’s definitely a definition of success, but I don’t think just if you don’t get a job at one of those three companies that you’re successful.
I think as long as you’re happy and you’re growing in your in a position that you love, that’s really the epitome of success.”
Have you ever thought about anything outside of the music industry?
“I don’t think I would pivot. I think when I was younger, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Originally I was like graphic design, and then I was like psychology, and then I discovered marketing was a thing, and it was about kind of a combination of the two.
So I tried really hard to love it, and I do love it, but it was never as enthusiastic as I feel about the music industry. I would go to class, and I would learn about this product marketing, and I could see myself doing it, but I can’t see myself absolutely loving it, and I think that’s the big difference with the music industry.”
What has been your favorite highlight moment?
I think my favorite highlight, honestly, is what I’m doing right now with my artist management. The two artists that I manage, I’m obsessed with both of them. Not only do I believe in them as people, but I believe in their music, and I think it’s really cool is someone that’s not a musician to see these people put their music out, see it do well, and know that I had a part in that.
One of my artists has a track coming out on Friday and just being able to build that release plan and experience a real release week, where I’m actually helping and doing beneficial things, and then seeing those numbers come rolling in on Friday is something that’s just so cool to me. It’s such a feeling that I didn’t know existed prior to this, and I think that’s just a really cool thing that not a lot of people get to experience.”
Have you found it hard to be young in the music industry?
“I did a lot of things at 20 years old that a lot of 20-year-olds don’t do. Most of the people that I talk to are really surprised that I’m so young. I was talking to someone today on just like the networking little zoom call, and she is just about to finish her master’s program. I’m like wow, and I told her I was going to be a junior undergraduate it’s kind of a shock to people.
I think a lot of that honestly comes from just like when I was 19, you see all these like child prodigies and even teenagers like going out making names for themselves, and they’re like doing all this as a teen. And I was like wow I’m not going to be a teen for much longer like I need to kick it into ger.
To do that is really priceless. Being able to talk to high-level publicists & getting all these interviews at such a young age is just something that I never thought I’d be able to experience. It is something that I would not trade for the world”