Jasmine Hussain

How long have you been working at Futuresound?

Nearly 2 and a half years, I started in October 2018

What did you want to do career-wise when you were at school? 



My uncle took me to lots of shows when I was younger which led to me having an active interest in live music. I always wanted to be a tour manager, I thought that being a TM would be the epitome of the rock and roll touring lifestyle!

What route did you take into the music industry? (IE apprenticeship, work experience, FE qualifications, HE qualifications…)

I went to Birmingham City University at the age of 18 where I studied Media and Communications specialising in Music Industries. During my second year I started working behind the bar at The HMV Institute (now the o2 Institute) from there, I began covering shifts in the box office and learning things about ticketing and marketing.

Live Nation offer secondments for their venue staff to go and work at their big festivals across the summer whilst the touring season is quiet. Through this I started my event production career, working as artist liaison at Download, Latitude and Reading Festivals. This then lead to me finding more freelance opportunities with other events which I could balance with my job at the NEC as a Event Specialist.

What do you love about your job?

I love that no two days are the same. My role is so very varied, and I get to see all aspects of the company which I find very exciting and rewarding. Working on Slam Dunk Festival is one part of my job, but it means a lot to me as I first attended the event back in 2009. I think job satisfaction is very important and something that, luckily, when you work in events you get a lot of. Being able to see 25,000 people having a great time watching bands they love is the best feeling ever.

I also love that I still get to work in venues as Slam Dunk also promote local and national shows which we go and work. This means that in a ‘normal’ touring season we get a nice balance of working in the office and repping shows in and around Leeds at various venues such as Leeds Becketts, Leeds University Union, The o2 Academy and of course our venue, The Key Club.

What are the biggest challenges for you at work? 



One of the things I love about my job is also one of my biggest challenges – As I am involved with lots of various aspects of the company, sometimes it can be hard to keep track of what is taking most of my time and attention and to make sure that things don’t get neglected.

Something that I have found to be very useful whilst in this role is to use a project management program like Trello. It is essentially just lots of lists, where you can tick off tasks and manage your timeline. I find that having everything out in front of me in a list format makes things easier to arrange and prioritise.

What tips do you have for someone interested in working in the music industry in Yorkshire?

Get involved with your grass roots venues, we have so many in Yorkshire that cover a wide spectrum of music genres. A large percentage of people who work in the music industry started in venues. It’s where you get to learn the ropes, all venues will have a wealth of knowledge within them. Always ask lots of questions, ask to shadow the event managers on smaller shows, ask to shadow the in-house techs – by no means am I a tech guru but I know enough to get by and everything I learnt I learnt by chatting with the in-house techs at venues.

Be open to constructive criticism. Things move very fast, especially on live event days, the best way to learn is to throw yourself in the deep end and take everything in as you are doing it. I very quickly found that being confident and honest is the best way. If you have missed something or made an error, it is always best to confront the issue straight away than to try and cover anything up. Touring crew and venue staff are the best problem solvers you will meet, they would much rather know of an issue sooner rather than later and they will appreciate you being upfront about it.

Pre-COVID what was your typical day like in the office?



A typical day for me would normally start with marketing meetings, we hold weekly venue and festival marketing meetings to make sure that we are producing engaging content and that all new gig announcements are being covered on socials.

Then I would check in with Ben to see if he has any pressing tasks for me to do for him before I start on my workload for the day.

I can be working on anything from sponsorship for the festival, putting together a new merch range, ticketing, other admin such as customer emails and access requests etc. My main task in the office normally is making sure that the marketing team, our SD team, any external contacts and Ben are all on the same page, which can be challenging at times!

Then depending if its gig season or not, I would either finish the rest of my day in the office, or head over to the venue to the show to rep the gig. Repping a gig is essentially being the middleman between the venue and the touring artist as well as being a representative and friendly face from the promoter. The rep deals with the advancing of the show which includes everything from van / bus parking to guestlists and riders to the final financial settlements.