When Megan Kleinschmidt was 16, she attended CMA Fest, a dayslong country music festival in Nashville, falling in love with the city and the country music scene, hoping one day she’d live there. Now 10 years later, she’s working as the director of promotions at Monument Records in Nashville.
“I’ve always been interested in music. I just had to figure out a way to make a career out of it,” Kleinschmidt said.
Born and raised in Parker, Kleinschmidt discovered her fondness for music at a young age. “Music was always at the forefront of my sport, and my whole life was dance, so music was always around,” she said. “I think I fell in love with music through dance.”
As Kleinschmidt grew older, she started listening to country music, and the genre became an obsession. “I can’t sing or play any instrument, but I always wondered if there was a way to work in music on the business side,” she said.
In high school, she researched getting into the industry and found a whole world of music business that she previously had no idea about. When looking at colleges, Kleinschmidt shopped for schools where she could study music business. She found a school in Nashville that offered a music business program and eagerly applied.
Kleinschmidt received an acceptance letter into the college but felt attending a school a few states away wasn’t an ideal fit. She decided staying in state and attending Colorado State University was the best option.
The College of Business didn’t have a music business program at the time, so Kleinschmidt majored in business. She figured that if she couldn’t study music, she could at least study business and gain a sense of the industry. To keep up with her love of music and dance, she joined the University’s Golden Poms dance team.
The power of networking
While Kleinschmidt knew she wanted to be in the music industry, she wasn’t totally sure in what capacity. Luckily, a connection she made while working at her hometown country club landed her an internship at Atlantic Records in New York.
“The music business is all about making and building connections,” Kleinschmidt said. “I learned that very quickly.”
Her internship working for the label’s marketing department proved invaluable, but Kleinschmidt knew she wanted to end up in Music City. After graduation, she ventured to Denver, where she got her first job working in promotions for 98.5 KYGO, a country radio station.
While at the radio station, she had her eyes on bigger plans. Through another connection from the same country club that connected her with Atlantic Records, Kleinschmidt learned of a new job prospect. Live in the Vineyard, a company that produces music, food and wine festivals in Napa Valley, Calif., was hiring. Kleinschmidt was adamant about working at the company and stayed in touch with the woman she had met. Fortunately, her persistence proved successful, and she got a job working in event marketing.
From planning events and running radio promotions to working with different sponsors, clients and artists, she got to experience a little bit of everything in the events industry. She spent three years with the company before the pandemic hit. Live events were one of the industries hardest hit by the global catastrophe. Kleinschmidt was on the hunt for a new job.
“I knew it was my time to move to Nashville,” she said.
Using her connections, she set out networking, reaching out to everyone she knew who worked in Nashville. Eventually, she landed a job as a promotions coordinator for Capitol Records Nashville.
Shortly after taking the position, Kleinschmidt knew she had chosen the right industry. “When I got the job at Capitol, I saw the roster of artists on the label. It was insane,” she said. “I had so many pinch me moments and felt very, very lucky to get that job.”
She spent a couple of years with Capitol before she leveraged her experience to make a career move and now serves as the director of promotions at Monument Records in Nashville.
In the business of music
At Capitol Records Nashville, Kleinschmidt got a little taste of what it was like to work with the country music superstars: Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley and Darius Rucker, to name a few.
“It’s awesome to work with artists at Capitol who are superstars and I have always loved,” Kleinschmidt said. “But then you get to help newer artists and see their career grow from the very beginning and all the exciting things happening for them, and that’s been really great too.”
At Monument Records, she works with artists including Tigirlily Gold, Walker Hayes and Caitlyn Smith.
As a member of Monument’s promotions department, Kleinschmidt handles all things country radio. Covering primarily the west coast territory, she has about 50 radio stations that she connects with to promote the label’s artists and get their singles played on the radio.
“One of the ultimate goals in the promotion department is to get a No. 1 record at country radio,” she said.
Depending on the territory, Kleinschmidt may travel on the road with artists — attending their shows, bringing partners backstage to meet and spend time with the artists and visiting partners at different radio stations. As director of the west coast territory, she ends up in Colorado frequently.
“I was just in Denver for a Walker Hayes concert and a Tigirliy Gold concert,” she said. “Walker played at Red Rocks and Tigirlily Gold played at the Grizzly Rose. I grew up going to Red Rocks and the Grizzly Rose, so that was really cool to be able to go there for work.”
Aside from promoting the artists, Kleinschmidt also works on brand partnerships. “I am able to reach out to any brand or company in my territory to see if there’s a way we could work together,” she said. “From the Denver Broncos to the Rockies, I get to get to work on infiltrating the market and building relationships with different partners.”
Making your own success
Relatively new in her position, Kleinschmidt feels content with her career progression. Like any go-getter, she’s determined to grow and continue exploring the music business industry. “There’s so many parts of the music business I could see myself in and want to learn about,” she said. “I think that’s one of the most important things, to never stop learning.”
While Kleinschmidt has had a successful career, it didn’t come without the help of connections and being persistent. She expresses the importance of taking advantage of what your college has to offer.
“The College of Business does a great job of helping current students find, when they graduate, that next step and helping them figure out what’s best for them and a good fit,” Kleinschmidt said.
Using the College’s resources was helpful, but she admits that students must have the courage to follow their passion, even if that means stepping into unknown territory.
“I feel like it’s just putting yourself out there and being willing to try new things,” Kleinschmidt said. “Not being afraid to talk to people and find out what they do, because they just might know someone who’s in the industry and is willing to connect with you. It just takes one connection, and you never know where that may lead you to.”
About CSU’s College of Business
The College of Business at Colorado State University is focused on using business to create a better world.
As an AACSB-accredited business school, the College is among the top five percent of business colleges worldwide, providing programs and career support services to more than 2,500 undergraduate and 1,300 graduate students. Faculty help students across our top-ranked on-campus and online programs develop the knowledge, skills and values to navigate a rapidly evolving business world and address global challenges with sustainable business solutions. Our students are known for their creativity, work ethic and resilience—resulting in an undergraduate job offer and placement rate of over 90% within 90 days of graduation.
The College’s highly ranked programs include its Online MBA, which has been ranked the No. 1 program in Colorado by U.S. News and World Report for six years running and achieved No. 16 for employability worldwide from QS Quacquarelli Symonds. The College’s Impact MBA is also ranked by Corporate Knights as a Top 20 “Better World MBA” worldwide.
