May 17th 2018
by Music Week
DHP Family's rising star, Kelly Bennaton talks about her career highlights and what she'd change in today's modern music industry.
Work NewsI’ve been promoting DIY shows since I was 17, but I got my first official break working at the Association of Independent Music (AIM) whilst I was doing my MA.
I worked at AIM for three years, helping to organise the AIM Independent Music Awards and their Women In Music event.
I saw Kanya King, founder of the MOBO Awards, do a talk at one of AIM’s Women In Music events and she was talking about the difficulties she’s faced as a woman in the music industry. Her advice was ‘don’t get bitter, get better’.
That resonated with me as I think it’s easy to become disillusioned with the industry at times, but if you work hard it’ll pay off.
There’s still a long way to go in terms of diversity within the music industry so I would love for it to be more accessible to a wider range of people.
There’s a lot of great opportunities out there now for young people to get into music and that’s made it more competitive for jobs.
I think getting experience as early as you can definitely helps to make you stand out from the crowd – whether that’s putting on your own gigs, managing your friends’ bands or booking tours for smaller acts.
Whenever I’m hiring I’m looking for people that have demonstrated a passion for what they do beyond just a desire to work in music.
I know it’s been talked about a lot, but secondary ticketing is still a huge problem. It’s incredibly frustrating working hard to put together a great live event only to have genuine fans priced out of attending.
DHP recently organised a charity festival in Nottingham, where we raised £100,000 for a local homeless charity, and it was one of the highlights of my career.
It was amazing to see bands, venues and the public come together to do something really positive and raise enough money to make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
I would love to do more work with charities and use music to mobilise communities.
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