In an industry that finds more and more of its promotional focus concentrated in the realm of online media and social networking, Amy Houck is in charge of making sure that word of mouth about the artists she represents spreads on a global scale. As Netreach Coordinator/Program Manager for Universal Music Group, the Full Sail Recording Arts graduate steers a unique form of online promotion that is quickly emerging as the definitive way to promote and sell albums in the digital age.

“We are actually one of the only departments – and the largest – in the music industry right now that does what we do,” Amy says. “What we do is total grassroots media marketing for different artists under Universal, Universal Motown, and Geffen/Interscope. We create entire campaigns for an artist and their project and promote it across the internet through different social networking sites.”

Utilizing avenues such as MySpace, Facebook, and community message boards, Amy creates marketing plans, creating buzz around the latest new release. As Amy describes it, the work environment in the offices of Universal is one that’s as fast-paced as it is creatively vibrant.

“Our whole department of Netreach is very much connected,” she explains. “There’s a hierarchy, but everyone has to work with one another in order for the flow to work. On a single day, you work with anywhere from 15-30 people on a project. We are always having meetings where we talk about the industry endlessly for hours, and everyone is always excited to hear what we have to say as a department, because no one else in the industry is doing what we do.”

Amy first got her foot in the door at the company as an intern, not unlike the same ones that she delegates assignments to today. “There were about 25 other interns who started out with me, and only three of us got promoted – and two of us were Full Sail graduates,” she recalls.

“I would definitely never be where I’m at or know what I know without Full Sail,” she continues. “The more knowledge and understanding you have going in, the better a position you can get and the more prepared you are for what you might encounter. The other intern who got promoted and I already knew about the terminology of the business, numbers and figures, dealing with marketing and industry types and labels. We had both been reading Soundscans since square one. I feel like our past experience just gave us that something extra over everyone else.”

As a music lover who also operates her own recording studio out of her home in her spare time, Amy’s work affords her a wonderful first-hand experience of how the music business functions, from the initial steps all the way up to the final payoff.

“I love the environment here, and being able to see where things start and end in the music business,” she says. “I like to take an artist or a project, whether it’s someone who has sold over a million records or someone who is brand new, market and promote them, and then watch them win a GRAMMY® or get their record sales back. It’s a really cool feeling to see the results and think, ‘I was a part of that. I helped them get there.’”