By Carlos Chicas Berti. Originally published in the summer 2019 issue of Business Class magazine.
“Welcome to Offkey, a Membran Labs podcast about music professionals, for non-music-professionals. I’m your host, Linh Sa Arnold.” So began fourth-year Gustavson student Linh Sa Arnold every week during her winter 2019 co-op term with Membran Labs. Although she had sought out a position in the creative industry, she was still a bit surprised to find herself on the business end of a studio mic for the first time last January.
“Even though I’ve played music my whole life, I still didn’t know anything about the industry. I was the type of music fan that the podcast was aimed at. I was learning every time we did an interview,” says Arnold.
Dino Celotti, BCom ’06, is head of the Canadian branch of Membran Entertainment Group, a European music distributor that provides marketing, distribution and promotion services to artists and labels around the world.
Says Celotti of Offkey: “The goal was to generate exposure for local music and musicians, while also showing that there are other interesting and exciting roles in the music industry that don’t require you to be an artful songwriter or masterful performer.”
At Membran, Arnold was tasked with finding new ways to market and raise awareness for the company. She soon had the idea for Offkey, a podcast devoted to exploring the music industry in BC. For Arnold, this was an entirely new venture.
“I’m generally a pretty introverted person, so this was definitely not something I ever saw myself doing,” she says. The podcast features Arnold’s conversations with musicians and industry leaders and spotlights BC’s thriving music scene. It combines Arnold’s business background and Membran’s musical knowledge and connections. Offkey has now completed a 15-episode first season*, and Arnold is getting comfortable with the process. “I’m enjoying it now. Even though I didn’t expect to, I’ve grown pretty attached to this project.”
Part of this attachment is due to her sense of social responsibility, and how her work at Membran has allowed her to stay aligned with that interest.
“Something really important from the get-go was that we were getting a diverse group of people here,” she says. “Giving people from minority and marginalized groups a platform is super important, and we want the guest to illustrate the diversity that we’re lucky to have in BC, which unfortunately is flat out underrepresented in media.”
In order to do this, Arnold reached out to women and people of colour in the industry, from musicians to executives. “It’s been great to talk to and learn from some of the women at the top who are running these businesses,” she says.
The podcast has proven successful. “Linh Sa has helped us achieve quick wins, like being featured in Apple Podcasts’ New and Noteworthy within our first month of launch,” Celotti says.
For Celotti, having Arnold lead the project has been about more than supporting his alma mater. “Students bring a fresh and clear perspective to our projects. They do things differently, and ask questions that cause us to consider our existing approach.”
Photo: courtesy of Linh Sa Arnold
*Offkey is now eight episodes into its second 15-episode season.
