Here at For The Punks, we’re kicking off with Luciana for Women’s History Month- a music industry professional with a moving story to share.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Luciana, or Lu, is a 31-year-old A&R Manager currently working at London-based indie record label frtyfve. She’s also worked in other areas within the music industry such as business development, artist management and touring both in Argentina and the United Kingdom. Lu was able to keep working in the competitive music business despite moving from Argentina to the UK!
Read the interview we had with Luciana to learn about her experience and future goals in the music industry!
You explained that you are a Latin professional working in the UK music industry. Can you share the story about your move from Argentina? Why did you move?
After working at Sony Music Argentina for 4 years, me and my partner decided to move abroad to live a new experience in Europe and get to know different cultures, places and people. Actually our initial idea was to live and work in an European country for just 1 year and get back to our home country… but it’s been almost 2 years already and we’re happy here so (sadly for my mum) no plans to come back yet!
Back in March 2018 we moved to Italy where we lived for 4 months while we were processing our Italian citizenship (we both have Italian great grandparents). After we got our passports issued (which allow us to live and work anywhere in the European Union), we decided to move to the UK as I knew the music industry here is really exciting and I wanted to continue working in it.
How were you able to keep working in the competitive music business after the move?
To be honest, it wasn’t that easy. It took me 3 months to find a job in the UK music industry. The first step was to translate my CV into an English version, and it took me quite a few days to get it done right. After several interviews, I was offered a role as Business Development Manager for Latin America, US Latin and Spain at a company called Instrumental, which develops a data-driven A&R scouting platform.
After about a year, I changed roles within the same company and started working as an A&R manager for Instrumental’s record label, frtyfve. Now I work with both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking artists so my language skills definitely came in handy!
What advice would you give a woman who is new to the industry or has had a recent move/shift in life like yours?
I would highly recommend working on your CV (for residents in the United States, this is a resume!) a lot and really making sure it reflects your skills and experience in the best way possible.
As I knew almost no one in the UK music scene so I didn’t have many connections who could help me, my CV was my main and pretty much only tool! So I decided to invest in a CV writing service here in the UK, as I didn’t want just a literal translation of my CV, but one that was a perfect fit for the UK market and showed all my achievements.
I believe it’s extremely important to understand the local market and how you can adapt to it, what you can offer and what your added value is, especially when your native language is not English and your previous experience was overseas.
Also, I believe it’s really important to do a lot of research before each interview, making sure you know the key facts about the company and the role and why you would be the right person for the job. There are lots of free resources online which can help you prepare for interviews and questions, but I do think you actually get better at them once you’ve had a few!
What female artists, musicians, etc., are you inspired by? How have they helped bring you to a bigger part of the music industry?
I think women like Lady Gaga are really inspiring. She has always stood up for herself, she embraces diversity and encourage people to be the best version of themselves.
There is this female empowering movement across the music and creative industries right now which I feel is amazing. Women who support and champion other women instead of competing against them really inspire me.
I find projects and initiatives such as For The Punks‘ Women’s History Month really important to showcase women’s talent, and we’re actually running a campaign of our own within our label for International Women’s Day as well!
What goals have you set for yourself this year? What are your plans for the future?
My goal for this year is mainly to learn. I would like to learn more about the UK local market, both in a more ‘theoretical’ (there are some amazing books available which I still need to read!) and practical way, through daily learnings at work!
Luciana said, “I’m really keen on making new interesting connections this year and get to know amazing people who share my passion for music and its business.” So, here’s the perfect opportunity for everyone: Luciana is always open to meeting new people so if you’re around or in London, or just simply interested in connecting, hit her up on LinkedIn!