The 20 most coveted Colorado music-industry jobs: The complete list with five new profiles

By Team Backbeat Fri., Mar. 8 2013 at 4:00 AM

Blogger (Nick Guarino, ThisSongIsSick.com)

Searching out new music and sharing it with your friends (and their friends) sounds more like a late-night obsession than a job, but Nick Guarino has parlayed his blog, ThisSongIsSick.com, into a viable career. "My original goal was to make good music more accessible," says the rising Boulder music mogul, "because I felt like there was a lack of that on the radio and mainstream media."

Driven by this notion, Guarino turned TSIS into a popular site that attracts upwards of four million hits per month, and one that has been crashed more than once thanks to exclusive releases from Big Gigantic. This caught the eye of talent buyer/band manager Ben Baruch (profiled in an earlier installment of our coveted jobs series), and the two have since established a great relationship over the past few years.

"The first real big show was Skrillex at the Fox Theatre," say Guarino, recalling his early exposure, "and I couldn't even meet [Sonny Moore] because I wasn't 21 at the time." The young Guarino was still taking full advantage of access by passing out flyers and stickers to promote TSIS.

Once he found himself engulfed in the music scene, the entrepreneur was soon managing Robotic Pirate Monkey, a trio now co-managed by Souls In Action founder, Lulu Simone. This led him to approach GRiZ, a Detroit raised saxophonist with a knack for creating bangin' tracks, which then turned into another professional venture: managing GRiZ.

Guarino plans on pushing TSIS to new heights and to continue showcasing more talent. "I am going to be developing the artist management side," he says. "And so, essentially, there are other artists I have had my eye on.

"And as far as live shows," he concludes, "there is so much more with festivals and partnering. With those, we were gone all summer. Now we are gearing up for fall: We've got Wolfgang Gartner at Boulder Theater, and GRiZ at the Fox in December." -- Britt Chester

Artist Rep. (Wilcox Weaver, PressPlay Colorado, Center Stage Classic)

Going to a lot of shows is rewarding as a fan, but it can also be frustrating when you realize that all the talent you are seeing is not being heard by more people. Wilcox Weaver came to this deflating realization in Boulder and decided to do something to change it. "Two years ago," he remembers, "I started up PressPlay Colorado with a collective of DJs that weren't getting the love that they needed."

Seeing this talent so unrepresented, Weaver took it upon himself to bring it all together, which is where he stands now with Center Stage Classic. Representing artists from all over the world, Weaver soon found himself consumed to the point where he was takikng time off from school to focus solely on the music scene.

"Since PressPlay Colorado started," he points out, "we've had about twenty or so writers and photographers providing content, and it just brings a lot of music to people who may not have heard it before."

The 21 year old business owner and partner has big things on the horizon, including bringing one of his artists, Anvil Smith, all the way from Russia for a show in early 2013. "With agency, I have a partner in California, Veronica Weitz," he notes, "and she covers a lot of the U.K. side of the agency. There are about fifteen acts, and we try to get them exposure here." -- Britt Chester

Tags:

3 Deep, 95.7 The Party, artists, DIA Studios, DJ Bedz, DJ Chonz, djs, Hip-hop, ks1075, Music, national, promoters, rappers

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lltt2177

This is great about denver scene, but being someone who has visited Denver a few times, and been to some of these "events" that some of the above names mention has thrown parties in the past. I will say they are not approachable people. They are not humble. Maybe some should realize that in order to be example you need to act like one and really give back.

tagava

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@lltt2177

i'd like to disagree with you on that. Being someone who LIVES in Denver/Boulder I've been to these 'events' more times than I can remember (don't know why you put events in quotations). if you're approaching someone to try and chit chat at an event they're producing and managing, they don't have time for that. Imagine someone coming up to you at your job and trying to have a conversation with you? It doesn't work like that - yes the event may seem like a fun time, drinks are being had everyones having a good time - but SOMEONE has to be making sure that these events are running smoothly, and those people usually are the people mentioned in the list above. If you want to meet the person as they are in person when they're not 'on the clock' - do your best to contact them and meet them at a time that fits both of your schedules. Being that the music industry isn't a strict 9-5 type of job, this is very important. I intern for Berk Visual (Elm & Oak) and he is one of the nicest and more open people i've ever met, and it's been great working and learning from him. There isn't a person or even little kid that comes into the shop with their own clothing line or music that he doesn't give his full attention too, he's open to helping everyone and unlike you said, he is a very approachable guy - and Ben Baruch, despite how busy he is, he still found the time to meet a starry eyed college kid like me at a coffee shop one morning just to give me advice on how i should go about pursuing a career in music. I don't know most of the people on the list, but the ones I do know - have been nothing more than helpful as i'm trying to pursue a life in the cutthroat industry that is modern music. I think you may need to change the way you present yourself before you jump to the conclusion that these people are just self centered.