Last September Marleen joined the Gigstarter team. She helped hundreds of artists and bookers on Gigstarter with their gigs, and as an intern she organized multiple cool events as well. We asked her about her highlights, tips for artists and her plans for the future!
What was your role at Gigstarter these last few months?
'I worked as the Dutch and Belgian Community Manager at Gigstarter and I worked on a lot of different projects. I helped a lot of artists with completing their profile as well as answering their questions. We’re now on nearly 7000 artists in eight different countries! I also took charge of the Instagram page of Gigstarter, together with my colleague Solene. Honestly, there’s too much to talk about! The job at Gigstarter is incredibly varied.'
Marleen Wanningen
Did you have any experience in the music industry before joining Gigstarter?
'Not at all. I listen to music a lot and enjoy discovering new bands, but besides playing the recorder when I was younger I never learnt to play an instrument. During my studies I was very busy with my job and my role in the board of the student organization, which meant I couldn’t explore the music business as much as I wanted to. Gigstarter offered me a great internship to start doing so!'
What was your highlight during this internship?
'That would have to be early 2019, when I went to a big three-day festival in The Netherlands: Eurosonic. I wrote an article each day about the bands that performed. There were also a few artists from Gigstarter there. I took the role of live-reporting, which was something I loved doing. Being able to see so many great bands perform in one place was breathtaking. The fact I got to visit concerts as part of my job was definitely a great bonus!'
The Gigstarter artist YVI was one of the highlights of Eurosonic.You helped a lot of artists these past months. Is there any advice you can give artists that are starting out on Gigstarter?
'Definitely. Be active on the platform! Use Gigstarter for every booking you get, even if they’re not through the platform. By getting reviews from these bookings, you show up higher on the search results. This means that bookers find you more easily and that you get more gigs. I always send artists this blog with more tips to get as much as possible out of Gigstarter.'
Can you tell us a little bit about the research you did on #gigstarter?
'I introduced #gigstarter during the last seven months. It’s a hashtag that artists and bookers can use on social media. By doing so, we get a better insight into the bookings through our platform, and it gives us a change to be more interactive with our artists. My thesis will continue on this subject, specifically why bookers don’t use the hashtags as much as artists do.'
Marleen organised the Work & Music festival together with Spaces, with a performance by Alla Classica among other artists.
What are your plans after you graduate?
'I don’t have any plans yet after finishing up at Gigstarter. I’ll finish my studies around June/July, and I’m planning to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way. I do know that I’m going to move back to my hometown. Maybe I'll turn the local music scene upside down, who knows!'
Related blogs from Gigstarter:
