Party & Bullshit: The Essential Guide to Music Industry Events

Skip the line, raid the bar, here’s how to “turn up” with the best of ‘em

A few years ago, I was at a music industry party when an aspiring rapper, presuming I was a nobody, asked me to “sell myself” to him.

Confused as to why any human, specifically a rapper with no buzz, no money, and no record deal would resort to such tomfoolery, I chalked it up to one thing: this guy went to too many music industry parties.

Ah yes, parties. The supposed lifeblood of the music industry. Everywhere you turn there’s an “industry” party to go to. But what’s an industry party anyway? Why should or shouldn’t you go to them? How should you act there? And what should you take from your experience?

An industry party is an event that will usually draw a large number of people who work—or in this day and age, used to work—as professionals in the music business. I want to hone in on that word professional, because it’s a very loose term when applied to music, and the amount of real professionals who attend an event will most likely correlate with the value gleaned from attending the event in the first place.

In Part 1 of The Essential Guide to Music Industry Events, I will cover the different types of events that…