From Bruce Springsteen to Blue Oyster Cult, Harvey Leeds had heard it all. And after he heard it, he made sure the rest of the Syracuse University campus did too.

‘I was always hanging around the campus radio stations, and started working at WOUR in Utica,’ the 1975 advertising and psychology graduate said. ‘The campus’ student representative for CBS Records saw that I was way into music, so we started talking. And when he graduated, he passed the job on to me. It was a very little-brother-benefits-from-big-brother relationship.’

Leeds is now senior vice president of artistic development at Sony BMG Music, with an industry career he says he largely owes to his campus rep job. Today, a new generation of SU students is working as campus reps for a multitude of companies, hoping to get a foot up on the corporate ladder.

Surfing the Internet one day last year, Andrew Harding, a sophomore television, radio and film major, happened upon a link advertising campus rep jobs for Adult Swim. After Harding completed and sent in the application, the company sent someone to Syracuse to interview him, and he was offered the job.

‘When I accepted the job, I had no idea if I would even get paid,’ Harding said. ‘Adult Swim has so many great shows though, and I was happy to help them promote what they have coming out.’

Harding does get paid a small amount for his work, which largely involves coordinating events on and off campus. Last semester he threw a poster event on the Quad, a listening party at Chuck’s and another party at Maggie’s.

‘All of the events have been really successful so far,’ Harding said. ‘It’s just a problem sometimes to navigate through the university’s red tape, since I’m not representing a student organization.’

Unfortunately for Harding, Adult Swim’s college rep program has been so successful in promoting the network that the company no longer has a need for it.

‘It’s too bad they’re canceling the rep program, but new positions are being created all the time with different companies,’ Harding said. ‘I’ll definitely be looking for jobs with other companies.’

Adam Gold, a senior television, radio and film and music industry major, is in his second semester as a representative for Apple, a company that continues to generate buzz through new technology such as the MacBook Pro.

‘They told me to evangelize Apple on the SU campus, so I’m constantly notifying my friends and peers about deals on Apple products,’ Gold said. ‘I don’t actually sell anything, but I do provide technical support to whoever needs it.’

Gold said he doesn’t receive any special discounts from Apple, but he was given an iPod Shuffle a few months ago.

This does not hold true for all reps. Josh Roth, SU’s representative for Sony BGM Music, receives discounts and free CDs regularly. In addition, he is given a stipend and an expense account.

This is Roth’s third year as a rep, a job he got after an intense four-month interview process. The senior marketing major is one of about 53 reps across the country, at schools that have great music scenes, he said.

‘I’ve been really into music for as long as I can remember – I started marketing it when I was in the 10th grade,’ Roth said. ‘The Sony job provided me with a chance to promote bigger name bands that I love, such as Ben Folds.’

Roth has five areas of focus – making sure independent retail stores receive music and promotional information, supplying radio stations with music to play, giving CDs to print media for reviews, making sure CDs get played in non-music stores and creating awareness for different artists on Web sites such as facebook.com, he said.

‘It’s a very time-consuming job, since we have to write reports every other week, and sometimes they can be up to 20 pages long, depending on how many priority artists we have,’ Roth said. ‘It’s definitely worth it though, since now I have my foot in the music industry door.’

Leeds said his job in the ’70s as a Sony rep was primarily aimed at creating excitement about artists so they could have successful live careers. He and his friends frequently collaborated on promotional ideas, and one of the most successful was a Duncan Yo-Yo contest which got heavy press both on and off campus.

‘The radio station was our frat house,’ Leeds said. ‘We made a lot of noise; it was the ultimate farm team approach. My favorite part was watching the music go from an unknown entity to a popular item people wanted to buy on Marshall Street. An artist that no one knew previously would then come to campus and sell out a show.’

Leeds believes student reps have even greater opportunities now, largely because of advancing technologies.

‘With the Internet and the ability to download onto portable devices, what reps are able to do marketing-wise to expose music is completely unlimited by the imagination,’ Leeds said. ‘You can use anything to turn people on to music.’

Sophomore policy studies major Sarah Benedict is currently trying to decide whether she wants to accept a rep job with Ruckus, a company geared toward getting college students to download music legally. She is a regular user of the program and said since the company is around 4 years old, there are only about three reps across the country.

‘If I take the job, I’ll be going to concerts and putting up fliers around campus to let people know about Ruckus, essentially being their lifeline to the students,’ Benedict said. ‘Right now though, it’s not worth it unless they offer to pay me more.’

Benedict realizes working as a campus rep can provide future job opportunities, as it did with Leeds. After he graduated, Leeds worked full time for CBS Records as the company’s Northeast College Promotion Manager.

‘Imagine graduating and your job is to hang out on college campuses, where people who work for you are getting people excited about music,’ Leeds said. ‘I said, ‘You’re going to pay me to do that?’ It was the greatest job, never having to grow up.’

Leeds continued to work in various promotion departments at the company, staying even after it was sold to Sony. His success story is not altogether unique though, he said.

‘The company’s college rep program has been going on since 1969, and it’s extremely well-established,’ Leeds said. ‘Many people have moved up to successful jobs after working as reps.’

Leeds said his parents thought he was spending too much time at radio stations and record stores, and not enough on his academics. However, he knew that a large part of a college education happens outside the classroom.

‘There are so many things you can do, whether it’s working for a newspaper, a radio station or an Internet company,’ Leeds said. ‘To not think outside the classroom is shortsighted, silly and, frankly, stupid. Take advantage of all the media opportunities surrounding you – that’s how you learn, not by some alter kakher (Yiddish for ‘old person’) telling you what’s right or wrong.’

Published on January 18, 2006 at 12:00 pm