2020

As I have the left successfully the music biz it was time for a new website for this, please look at Barbara.Hallama.org for all job related things. (Ah… you want to know what I’m doing now? I work as Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Facilitator and have a fable for Agile Games) (Still digging music and DJ from time to time!)

 

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Since the early 90ies, I’m working on the different sides of the music business. I had the pleasure to work with fantastic artists, labels locally but also internationally for services like iTunes, google play music, Klassik Radio and many more. As I was always working very closely with the development teams in all companies, I find it more and more interesting to work more on the technical side of things.

Now it’s time to move on!
MusicBiz: Been there, done that. At least, when it comes to the jobs in Germany. I’m still interested in working in the fields of Business Development, specially for Classical Music but these units are mostly in the UK or the US.

 

 

Barbara Hallama Interview Mint Mag

2017

BBC worldwide Global Beats Show

Berlin Edition: to be released in July 2017
Presentation, Curation, Interviews
7 Artists from Berlin in 5 Studios and 1 Festival

 

Label: Monika Enterprise

Spotify / Twitter (Setup, strategy and execution)
Release: Monika Werkstatt + 2

 

Huawei Matebook Product Launch

Eventmanagement: IT Infrastructure live streaming & more
via ITTZ    Location: Andels – Convention-Center, Berlin

 

Startup Camp 2017: –> Eventmanagement / Production

– Service provider + Expo Participants
– Last minute content strategy
– Technical Production (incl. live streaming)
read on

 

 Off Ya Tree: Label + Studio 

Content strategy + development/Execution/Workshops/Guidance / Social Media /
New Website, Bandcamp, YouTube, Facebook, Spotify
Guidance and execution for the period of 3 album releases

 

2016

Currently finished my job as “Head of Content” for Klassik Radio” where I was working on a Radio Streaming App for Classical Music. 
My role included building the content team, the content structure, the content itself (100 channels, mood lists with classical music!) and managed all label and artist relations. Plus I was involved in optimizing the existing content management system and added all my knowledge to the planning of the release strategie, such as marketing, cooperation ideas, social media and many more. 
Unfortunately the app will be rebuild again and my role changed from “Head of Content” to “Content Editor” and should live in Augsburg. It was great to be heavily involved in the development process, I love setting up things and passing it on to someone else.

But it would not be me if I’m not doing also other things in the MusicBiz. My contract allows me to do some consulting jobs. This I did for the band Der Fall Böse . Overall strategy for the 20 years celebration of the band and the upcoming album –> New website, social media action plan (Facebook, Youtube), Mailchimp integration and supervision. Low budget “Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe”. We built a history box with a lot of fun stuff which happened over the last 20 years. This was our main topic for the social media strategy until the album came out in October 2016.

For the label OffYaTree Records: Here we had more budget, so we could hire a brilliant web designer, built a brand new WordPress page, with integrated bandcamp links etc. Ongoing project. 

2014

Its time to write a bit about what am I doing. Since I left the safe cage of being an employee a lot of very cool things happened. I was working tied to a company most time of my life. Right after school I started working as a technical draftswoman, than I was a bouncer (Munich – Wunderbar), started DJ’ing and suddenly I became a booker/promoter and my career in the music biz started. (1992) After my job as editorial Chief for  iTunes (2008) ended, my focus was on learning as much as possible about internet related things and went to a lot of conferences and barcamps.

Foto

Working as a freelancer also means that you have a lot of duties (tax, insurance, discipline, self motivation etc..) some downsides (talking to your hand, missing out a lot of in-between communication). But the best thing for me now,  I do not have to sit in a chair at my desk in an office and pretend to be busy. Or stay until late cause everybody else is also staying. I love working in the morning when the day has just started. Sometimes I start at 6, cause an idea just came up or I go for a morning swim where my thoughts get sorted. (love swimming!)  Or I just go for a walk in the afternoon and think about a strategy etc.. These would have never been possible while I was working as an employee: “Chef, I need to think, therefore I go for a walk… ”
–> I will not say that I will keep on doing this forever but for now it’s perfect.

What am I doing now:

music:
– editorial for google play + access all areas (DE AT CH Li)
–> this is my “main” job. Since feb 2013 I’m part of the music team. I’m digging every week for new releases in all genres, focussed on DE/AT/CH/Li. Chart-music but also up and coming artists and music. Besides the fact, that my  knowledge about music is constantly growing, it’s really great to work remote together with people all over the world.  It’s a bit like the job I did for iTunes but now its google play. And now its part-time freelance giving me space and freedom to do all these other things:
– digging and writing about music –> support your local ghetto
–>follow my tweets with the #earcandy on twitter or read my tumblr or just like the SYLG –> FB page
– dj’ing, making mixtapes and doing parties

–>sylg about
for the L.O.V.E. of music and sharing means caring… . After doing for 3 years my monthly SYLG at the lovely Panke I decided to stop it doing there. Doing parties AND DJing is not a very productive combination. I am a DJ not a promoter. Unfortunately the only time I can DJ is when I do the party. So, Cptn, we have an issue here.  Back to bedroom DJ-ing. But with L.O.V.E.

orga + curation: (Project-/Eventmanagement)
–> organisation-, structure- and people- skills. I did this all my life: Project- and Event Management (more info –> my profile on linked.in). Looking at existing structures and providing ideas for collaborative tools and organization systems is also one of my special skills. Finding the perfect tools THAT fit the product, company and the people who have to work with it
What drives me most besides good music are all future related topics. This is why I really love my next projects:
– MLOVEConfestival
An amazing upcoming conference where I’m taking care of the MakerLab where we build the YOUtopia Island (June 2014)
– Music Hack Day
this will take place at the Berlin Music Week (Sept. 2014)

hands on:
– giving workshops (how to survive as an artist in the digital age)
– doing trainings (blogging, soundcloud, audio-tools, dj-tools (Private, Piratenpartei Berlin)
–> Growing up in a non internet time, I am a very good “translator”. My aim is to simplify things that look complicated. I’m very curious and always have an eye on new services and apps, check them out and think about how can they be usefully integrated into workflows. And I hate ugly and not user-friendly websites, apps.
– strategic planning + realisation (blogs, social media stuff, online/offline)
–> all the above things lead to the consulting part of my jobs. My goal is not just to talk about things, I also do them. With a lot of experience and empathy I work together with my client to find the right strategies, the perfect tools which fits to the product, the company but also the people who have to work with it.
– moderating and talking on panels “future music strategies”  (profile –> speakerinnen.org)
–> obvious topic for me with my 20+ experience in the music biz. I keep on thinking, talking and reading about strategies but also ranting about the old media in Germany. One of my fave topics is to talk about recommendation services – machine vs. human. And now it looks like I was right, that even the best algorithm never can replace human curation. (Apple has bought Beats and this was one of the reasons)
– blogging (here)
–> this is my playground. A place where I can try out things, widgets, plugins, the amazon affiliate program or just write a bit of code. But it’s also a place for ideas and thoughts. I will never understand why people put so much effort in a status update on Facebook when its gone within within a few minutes.