Just Jaded
Music Industry Insights: Sunny Dangui and Sara Fleischer
Written By: Brooklyn Poutra
Hey Jaded Babes! Welcome back to this months ‘Just Jaded’ blog! In our second installment of our Music Industry Insights series, we are so excited to present our podcast with Sunny Dangui and Sara Fleischer! I will be overviewing the podcast and sharing the highlights, but be sure to listen to the full conversation here!
Sunny and Sara are both Carnegie Mellon Masters in Entertainment Management students and although they have different experiences and goals, they both have a passion for music and entertainment. Sara started out in music by interning at small record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA. Before ever interning, she started out as a fan participating in fan projects in different fan spaces. She decided to go to graduate school to learn more about entertainment in an educational setting, and has had the opportunity to intern with HBOMax and Full Stop Management.
Sunny was born and raised in China, and initially started out in entertainment in the talent aspect. She began as a performance artist in ballet, music, and acting, and decided to pursue entertainment in school. Sunny had initially thought that she wanted to pursue linguistics, but after spending some time working in music, she decided that the intersection of music and film is what she wants to pursue.
Sunny and Sara share pros and cons of the program at Carnegie Mellon, and a big positive factor is the network they have built of other students. Sara describes her peers as an uplifting group of individuals who all share the same passion for music. They encourage each other and share opportunities when they come about. However, Sara and Sunny did not have a group to network with as easily before they joined the program. Prior to the masters program, Sara utilized LinkedIn to network. She would access her school's LinkedIn page, and search students and alumni for people who worked at companies she was interested in and send them a message to connect. In her connection messages, she would always point out what she had in common with the people she was reaching out to, let them know she was a student, and let them know that she was interested in learning more about their position or company.
Sunny’s personal experience with branding and marketing as well as social media is quite unique. Sunny currently has a TikTok following of 173k, and her following is thanks to a viral prank video with her boyfriend. While Sunny aims to be a musician on TikTok, her current following expects more lifestyle and comedy videos. Her gradual rebranding is something that we often see in influencers turned musicians. For Sunny, this popularity could mean a specialty visa due to her influencer status. You can follow her on TikTok here!
To hear more about Sunny and Sara’s experience as graduate students and upcoming music industry professionals, be sure to check out the full podcast here!