Bobbie Lane, 23, decided to work in the music industry while at university studying for a marketing and advertising degree. After writing CD and gig reviews for websites and fanzines, she and a friend financed the pressing of of 500 seven-inch singles featuring their two favourite unsigned bands, which ended up getting played on John Peel's Festive 50. She now works as a promotions coordinator for London-based Anglo plugging.
"I'm not very awake today. Last night a few of us went to see Kaiser Chiefs - one of the bands we promote - in London and I am paying for it now. Still, there's a job to be done. The first thing I do when I get to my desk is reach for the aspirin and then check through emails and sort the post. Then I'll sign for new stock, count stock, send a message around about stock, sticker the stock, send out the stock, stock, stock ... Also ask head of promotions if there's anything that needs to be done. Try and blag him the new U2 album? No problem ... It's also up to me to receive press releases from labels and edit them, adding the information to the website. Booking bikes and vans for urgent deliveries is next on the list. Sorting DHL or FedEx or carrier pigeon. After a couple of aspirin in the afternoon I'll keep an eye on the airplay figures and liaise with Music Control to collect the tracking on each single we do radio promotion for. This is so that we can report on how many times the Kaiser Chiefs have been played on Xfm or Northants 96 or whatever in the week. Then I'll add these figures to the reports sent to management and labels. I'll also then edit or write from scratch the PR stickers we add to the CDs and vinyl we send out to radio stations. Then I'll complete "playlist suggestion" sheets and packs for different radio stations (so all producers and decision-makers have everything they need to make the right choices). Also, for regional radio, I'll send out "reaction sheets" to stations to gauge their opinions on tracks, passing on the feedback to the radio pluggers. Last is the big job of the day - covering reception, bubblewrapping competition prizes and trying to blag more U2 CDs for the head of promotions."
