By Jessica Booth
There is more to the music industry than just the artists and band members-there are also the people behind the scene who make things happen. For any students interested in this, MEISA would be the club to join.
MEISA (the Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association) is a club for students who are interested in all different aspects of the music industry, from writing about music to publicizing. It is a national organization for colleges, and the chapter here was started about five years ago in an effort to bring more music onto the campus.
“We want to let people know this is where you can go to learn about the music industry,” says Stephanie Leke, the club’s president. “We try to help people who are interested in different areas because not everyone wants to do the same thing, and there are so many options.”
Among other things, MEISA sets students up with music internships and tries to get them some connections to the business. They have a program called Band Buddies in which they set up a student with a local band from the New York area to work with. They also have conferences and panels where students can talk to real professionals in the music business. In recent panels, students have heard from employees at Live Nation about booking concerts and music production, Spin magazine about writing and CMJ about planning and organizing music festivals.
The club also regularly puts on different events on campus. The most recent event they did was called Clean the Scene Jam Session, where they did a clothing drive and had people donate CD’s to give to Musicians on Call. They also helped Hofstra Concerts with the recent Hofstra Music Fest by running the side stage.
Next year, the club plans to go forth with HUM (Hofstra University Music) Productions, an idea one member came up with.
“It’s going to be a record label slash music group on campus,” says Leke. HUM will try to help promote University bands and musicians and get their names out there. They are still accepting demos for any musician interested.
The members of MEISA are always looking for new recruits to help out. Leke says, “The only way people can learn more about the industry is by doing, so what better way than to bring the industry to them.”