A&R, Creative Director at Altadena

From an early age, Noreen knew she wanted to be in music. From listening to her mom play piano to writing her own songs, music has been a huge part of her life.

How do I listen to songs all day? That’s what I want to do

Starting as an intern at BMG Publishing in Nashville and New York, Noreen realized her favorite thing to do and what she was good at was listening to other people songs.

After finishing her internship, BMG offered her a position as a receptionist her last semester of school.

I think you should be a publisher…

The turning point for Noreen’s career was when her boss recommended a different career path to her. Up until that point, Noreen was struggling if she should become a songwriter, or stick to the business side of the music industry.

Do the job, before you get the job

Noreen’s advice to people who want to grow in their career as a publisher, even as an intern, is to create a job for yourself before people ask you to. As a receptionist at BMG, Noreen researched how to get writers in a room together, how to get emails of people to pitch songs to, and all other aspects of getting a song heard. She decided Pop was her ticket in and started focusing her attention to getting pop into Music City before anyone thought it was even a possibility.

Now, she looks for this quality in assistants and coordinators. What are you doing now to advance yourself? Who are you working with already? What are you doing because you love it, even if you don’t get paid for it.

Altadena

As a Creative Director, Noreen’s role is to get artist’s in a room to set up cowrites or sessions that will hopefully turn into a song placement for the writers. She also listens to songs submitted by her writers and provides feedback to help improve the songs and hopefully get them placement.

What does Altadena do? They serve as a hub for writers, artists, and producers where Altadena serves as the intermediary between an artist’s label, publishing company, or management company. Their partnerships are Warner Chapel on the Publishing side, Warner Records for label and print, and the management partnership with Red Light Management. Altadena keeps artists from feeling forgotten and falling through the cracks. Some of their talent includes Carley Peirce, Ryan Griffin, Conor Matthews, and more.

Listen as Noreen expands on how she brought Pop to Nashville and how they are trying to keep Nashville pop competitive with the rest of the country.

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