Music and Marketing for Broadneck Intern

Hayley Gilbert's love of music and aspirations in an advertising career have led her to an unusual summer work experience.

The Broadneck High School 2010 graduate and rising sophomore at Boston University, has channeled her mania for music into a summer internship.

Gilbert is one of 50 nationwide “lifestyle reps” for 'stache Media, the marketing division of RED Distribution, an independent distribution company for Sony Music Entertainment. Through advertising and radio promotion, as well as social media marketing, 'stache promotes up and coming bands such as Art Brut, and more music luminaries like Radiohead, Mumford and Sons, and My Morning Jacket, among others.

Every two weeks, Gilbert is assigned a band or bands to promote. She uses Twitter and Facebook to notify her over 100 followers about new bands, and links to the songs, as well as notifications about upcoming events.

She also announces where fans can find promotional materials and cards for free downloads, which are placed in locations that fit the particular demographic of the band, such as Citi Dock Coffee.

For each band she promotes, she is required to have four posts on either Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or her own blog. She then reports back to Sony Music, justifying her choice of placement of promotional media.

Gilbert states that, ”Social media has drastically changed music promotion, let alone all promotion methods today. I am able to reach so many more people than I ever would be able to by simply talking about the bands.”

The multi-talented Gilbert was an honors student at Broadneck, played varsity lacrosse, and is an accomplished artist and photographer. In 2010, she was chosen along with 12 other students from around the world to attend Polar Bear Leadership Camp (for motivated individuals who want to advocate for conservation and sustainable lifestyles). Her photos of the experience were published on Photo District News' digital edition.

Gilbert's love of photography was inspired by her father, a professional photographer. Originally she chose photography as her college major, then decided that would be a better hobby and switched her major to advertising.

She hopes to work in the entertainment industry, and feels grateful to get “a foot in the door” with this internship.

"I have always had a passion for music, be it just listening to it all the time, finding new artists, or learning about the bands themselves," she said.