Breaking into the music industry

Tasha Demi: I would say that experience trumps qualifications. I think just get out there and get all the experience you can. Whether it at an official company, or whether you're doing yourself on your own website. I feel like everything DIY; make that because you can. And then get as many bit of work experience as you can across the company.

Maria May: I was running lots of parties and I was going to lots of gigs and somebody offered me a job in a studio and it was a no brainer. There's been no looking back and actually I thought I just need to get a job in the music industry. And from there I will be able to build stepping stones to the next thing.

Tony L: I think blogging is an excellent way to get into music. You get to meet lots of people, you get to sort of experience the music industry first hand. You get to interact with artists. You can then go 'right, I like that bit'. Whether that styling artists or recording records of artists. There are so many roles in music these days.

Paul Pritchard: I was encouraged to go to university. I didn't just want to do a course for three years and then not have that carry through. So I look to courses that had a placement year. I was lucky enough to get them placement at Abbey Road. And I went back there after uni and I'm still there now.

Christian Wright: I, er, I was always playing music and I think like a lot of musicians, you know, kind of your… the dream is to try and like make that work professionally. Like a lot of people with those dreams it's… you end up with these different parts of, of music. So, I discovered that there was a whole other world of post production and part of that is mastering. And here I am, yeah, twenty years later as a mastering engineer.

Joshua Alamu: You know what, I never got the buzz that singers get when they step off stage. You know they get that buzz like ah I want to do that again. But at the age of nineteen I got the opportunity. I was basically thrown in a room and I was asked to teach them some riffs. And I came out of that session thinking, like, I was literally shaking with adrenaline and I was like 'I want to do that again. How do I get to do that again?'

Lauren Down: You know, it's hard but it can be really easy. We've got people who came as volunteer stewards and who now help out in the office. So there's, there's really clear paths there if you're engaged.

Trevor Nelson: Don't just think it's my time to go home. Always say 'Do you need anything else?', before you go home. That really is endearing to people; that means you got work ethic.

Tony L: Do it with love and passion. And whether you want to be an artist, whether you want to be a record producer, whether you want to start your own label. Just do it from a real pure place and when the time's right it'll happen for you.

Ray Pope: Tap up the people that work in the labels - see if they'll go for a coffee with you. There's so much information that is available to you with very little kind of effort. So, don't worry about thinking that you're stalking us. You're not. We want to hear from you.