In Conversation With : Frankie Abeelack
After attending one of Route’s CV and Cover Letting Writing workshops three years ago, Frankie stayed in touch with workshop host Jaqui, who was working at Domino Publishing at the time. Just a few months later, she landed a job there herself!
Three years into her music career, we hear what she’s been up to, and how her first job in the industry has been...
What is your role at Domino Publishing?
I'm copyright and royalties coordinator. I started three years ago in the copyright and royalties assistant role before I was promoted. Basically, what that means is that I work on the music publishing side where It’s my job to register songwriters’ works at collection societies across the world and then we collect the income that comes in from those songs being played and process payment back to the artist.
What does your day-to-day look like?
It depends on what kind of period we're in, but a lot of the time my job involves answering emails to do with queries that we get, often asking whether we control the rights of ‘this’ songwriter, for example. That’s a big part of the job. At the moment, I’m in the process of creating a newsletter that goes out to our subpublishers. So for that, my day involves going through all of the releases that Domino Publishing has had in the past six months and compiling that into a nice looking newsletter so that people are aware of what music the artists are releasing.
All of my work revolves around the Domino roster and getting involved in what our songwriters are doing, and we also have quite a few interesting co-writes. So we might find out that for example, one of our songwriters has written on the new Coldplay record, so then it’s my job to make sure that we've got that front and center in the newsletter that we're sending out.
Did you go to uni and if so, was it worth it?
I did Music Business at BIMM. From my experience, you get out as much as you put in. I think it was very useful to be surrounded by people who were really into music and make friends with people who would then go on to do stuff in music. I went to uni because I wanted to get a job in music, but if I had just gone to lessons and gone home, I don’t think I would have got a job. I think it was the fact that I was going to networking events and the event you guys put on at the Roundhouse. You expand your knowledge just by talking to people and building a network of people who are all interested in the same thing as you. Doing those kinds of extra curricular events is where you get the most out of being at uni because it affords you the time to do them.
What was the application and interviewing process like for your current job?
After your Roundhouse event, I stayed behind and spoke to Jaqui Rice who worked at Domino. I told her I was really interested in working in music publishing and asked if she could let me know if anything comes up. She emailed me with a job that had become available, so I applied. It was really intimidating because that job was listed on Music Business Worldwide so I thought there’d be loads of people applying, but the biggest piece of advice I’d been given was to do as much research as you can about the job you’re applying for. So I went on Spotify and ended up finding a podcast where they’d interviewed someone that worked at Domino. Listening to that podcast gave me a few hints about what it means to work there, and having that little bit of knowledge can make your cover letter sound so much more human, because it shows that you’ve gone and done your research and you actually care about getting that job. There’s so much information out there that it can be quite easy to find out exactly what you need to say in a CV and cover letter.
I was invited for a first interview after they'd looked at my CV and cover letter and then got the job after the second interview. I think that it’s important to look at ways to make yourself stand out. And that can usually just mean doing your research and actually having a passion for the thing you're applying for.
What’s your favourite thing about the job?
Lots of things. I mean, just being in music! That's what drew me to the job in the first place. Being surrounded by people who are all into music is great as well – in some ways that means you've got a common ground anyway, so you get on with people a lot more.
I get to see the whole cycle where we register the songs, then we receive income for them and then I match the income to the writer. I’m a part of the process of getting artists their money and at the same time, I might be listening to their album or have been to see their performances. Knowing that they’re being compensated for all the hard work they put into their music is one of the best things about my job.
What’s the biggest challenge about working in music?
I think the toughest challenge is once you're in a job, thinking ‘what now’? I think I was so focused on the whole ‘getting a step into the industry’ that once I got here I didn’t know what I actually wanted to do long term. I’ve started studying for a masters in music law because I now know that that's where I want to head. And that's kind of kept the momentum going for me. But I know that isn't for everyone because it takes up a lot of your time and there's certain things that I can't do, like go to loads of gigs because I have to study. But I think having that momentum of having another thing to focus on keeps me going and keeps me passionate about music because I feel like I'm heading somewhere.
What’s the most valuable bit of advice you’ve had so far?
I want to say not being scared about stuff and also faking it. I know that sounds like a terrible piece of advice, but I very much have always followed the whole ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ kind of thing. I think that only works when you can back yourself up with the research that you've done as well though. Confidence can get you a long way as long as it's from a place of reality. And I think just being smart about things, having a goal of where you want to be and looking at the realities of how you can get there. I think taking it into smaller steps can really help, especially for people who feel like they don’t have a clue of how to get into the industry.
Career highlight so far?
Getting to attend the Mercury Awards a couple of years ago! That was pretty big because I didn't expect that I’d necessarily get to do something like that. And also certain days where I just sit back and look at the fact that I'm in music and I'm here and doing a job that I like, I think that that is always a highlight for me.
Finally, what are you listening to atm?
Fontaines! And Lip Filler. I went to see Masterpiece play and Lip Filler was supporting and I thought they were really good. And also, Piri and Tommy have released a new album which I've been listening to a lot lately.
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