Talk Tonight Events: Vinilo Record Store

As a cold, bristly evening started to roll in, the music students of Solent University huddled into Vinilo Record Store to discuss the ever-changing music industry, but more precisely music journalism.

The guests – Sam Ford of So Young Magazine, Adam England of Audio Addict Magazine and Ruby Tuesday as assistant tour manager to discuss how they got into the industry, any advice they can give and their own stories of being a freelancer.

The talk was presented by Lucy Wynne, who wanted to get to know the real, gritty stories of music journalism.  She was met with stories from Ruby Tuesday of being a female in this industry and how men couldn’t believe she was the assistant tour manager and asked for the ‘real’ tour manager as well as stories from the editor of So Young Magazine talking about creating a magazine in Southampton when everything is focused in London. 

The editor of Audio Addict Magazine, Adam, constantly mentioned that he was still a student and couldn’t answer the questions properly as he was still learning his craft, which was a disappointment.  However, Sam Ford’s stories were more interesting as he was someone who didn’t even think he’d end up in this industry.  As someone who studied sports and did So Young Magazine on the side, it was interesting to hear the stories of how he funds the magazine – through merchandise and a price on the magazine as well as his stories on the early days of the publication.

As the night drew to a close, the hard-hitting realities of music journalism stumbled in as Ruby talked about how she has never been paid to write about music, throughout her degree and after, she was paid to write other journalism pieces, but not music.  Sam spoke about the reality of there will never be a full-time wage as a music journalist because not only does everyone want it, but even the big publications don’t have full time employees, only part time and freelancing.

Although the realities of this industry are grim and hard-hitting, everyone came back from the event feeling positive that they have what it takes.  Talk Tonight Events have plans for future events every month to do with different parts of the music industry so watch this space as they climb the ever-growing ladder of the music industry.