Alany Rodriguez

Coming from Laredo, Texas, Alany Rodriguez – Associate Conference Programmer at SXSW – has made a way for herself in the Austin music scene. She hit the ground running when she started at the University of Texas at Austin and has kept moving and shaking her way forward ever since. 

Read more about her journey below. 

Following a dream

Since she was seventeen, Rodriguez knew she wanted a career in music. “Music culture is everything to me,” she said. “I just had this enamoration for music with concerts and everything else.” Although she wasn’t sure which specific area she wanted to be involved in, she didn’t hesitate to jump on new opportunities and pursue things she thought would get her closer to achieving that dream.

In 2018, Rodriguez started school at UT to pursue a degree in journalism, which would soon prove to be extremely useful for her music business career. Before school even started, she secured a position as a Student Associate at Bass Concert Hall after taking a tour during freshman orientation. It was here where she learned the fundamentals of live music, from operations to behind the scenes to marketing. 

“I got to see a little bit of everything working shows,” she recalls. “Jimmy Fallon came that year and did the whole thing at UT. And I got to work that and see production take over the venue for two weeks, and that just blew my mind. From then on, it's kind of a blur at this point. I just started and never stopped.” 

Her career has involved a lot of that – wearing different hats and being involved in various parts of what makes the gears turn in the industry. But rather than feeling spread too thin, she sees this as a strengthening experience.

At Bass Concert Hall, she began to network with managers in different departments to get a feel for how the areas of production came together. She also started showing up to events and just being at the right place at the right time. Her journalism major skills helped her to network with all kinds of people. “You have to put yourself out there and make those connections,” she said.

Now, Rodriguez’s resume speaks for itself; she continuously puts herself out there and has hustled to learn as much as she can in the music business. In 2021, she was named a Denius Music Industry Scholar and received a grant to attend the UT Los Angeles summer program. From internships in Los Angeles with Pulse Music Group, Orienteer, and Warner Music Group to positions with UTalent Records, GRAMMY U, and eventually SXSW, she’s gotten a wide perspective of many areas. And she credits each experience as a stepping stone to how she got where she is now.

Open doors and stepping stones

Many students may want to get into the music industry but don’t know where to start. By being observant and excited about the possibilities around her, Rodriguez was able to open doors that fully immersed her in various aspects of the industry. Even though it took time to find her footing, she knew her mentality and the way she put herself out into the world was important. 

“I’m not just here for a transaction.”

In addition to helping her networking skills, Rodriguez’s journalism background led to opportunities to write about music. She used that to her advantage to do stories on local festivals and events, research the Austin music scene, and meet new people. The networking aspect has played an integral part of her career so far. 

But more than networking and meeting a lot of new people, she values relationship building. “If I’m going to meet somebody, I’m going to make this a long-standing relationship because it means something to me,” she said. “I'm not just here for a transaction. Like I want to learn from you.” Taking her efforts a step further, she would show up to help anywhere she could in every role she’s had, not because it would give her a leg up necessarily, but because she genuinely wanted to.

Doing your homework

In her second semester, she started working on the Street Team for Scoremore Holdings where she did guerilla marketing and eventually became a Market Lead for the team. She picked up on things quickly and did her research at every step, whether it was listening to panels, being observant online, or doing social media research. Generally, getting out and going to as many events as she could helped her in many ways. “I just tried to learn the insights of what everybody was doing and paid attention to the behind the scenes rather than what someone was just telling me,” she said.

Making an impact with her voice

Rodriguez really started to make an impact in the music scene when she became a Student Representative in the GRAMMY U Texas Chapter, which provides opportunities for emerging music industry professionals and creatives through events, networking, and more. 

The role changed a lot for Rodriguez; for the first time, she was given responsibilities to oversee the Texas Chapter, the student memberships within the chapter, and put on national-facing projects. “The way that I got so much responsibility and the way that they trusted me was because I spoke my mind, and I saw success in that,” she said. “If there was something I didn't agree with or didn't think would hit with our audience or if I thought we could do better, I was never afraid to say so even though I was just a little student part timer.”

Because she wasn’t afraid to speak up, she ended up contributing an idea for GRAMMY week that the team actually went through with. She suggested an event that focused on the music video category that featured Hannah Lux Davis, a music video director known for work with Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Kacey Musgraves, and more. Her boss ended up loving the idea. “Sure enough, we did the event with her,” she said. “And that was all something that stemmed from a little thought I had and wasn’t afraid to say.” Rodriguez’s confidence to speak her mind and not be intimidated by people in the industry made her trustworthy in these situations and ultimately led to tangible impact on projects that she values.

Two years after her role at GRAMMY U, Alany was invited to join the 2024 Recording Academy Member Class and was selected by the Board of Trustees to serve on the 2024-2025 National Music Education & Professional Development Committee.  

Trusting her gut

Like her other internships and part-time roles, her position with GRAMMY U allowed her to work within a lot of different areas. By intentionally honing in on numerous areas, she started to pick up on the industry terminology and better understand the ins and outs of everything. It also helped her narrow down what she did and didn’t want to do after graduation. She discovered that the areas that she loves the most relate to events and project management.

Her broad experience left the door a bit more open for her when she started job searching after graduation. And with the great network she’d built in Austin, she knew she wasn’t ready to leave the music capitol for somewhere like New York or LA. “I knew I wanted to build something for myself, and it's easier to stand out in that way in a smaller music community like Austin,” she said. But when graduation approached, Rodriguez found herself burned out and exhausted after years of constantly being on the go. 

After talks with her mentors, she decided taking a break before launching into full-time work would be in her best interest. She took the summer off, and when she did start applying, she trusted her gut to guide her. “I still was refusing to go to LA or New York, but I remember just thinking, okay well, I feel like South by Southwest is a good entry point for me. They have the music fest and music conference and I know their jobs open up in the summer. So, we'll see what happens,” she said. The time off proved to be a great decision for her, and her instincts were right on the mark.

She started as a Seasonal Associate Conference Programmer in December 2022 where she programmed the music mentor sessions for SXSW 2023. “I met so many music industry people because I wasn't working directly in a specific lane. I was programming  people from all different sectors of the music industry,” she said. “So, my network went from like a certain level to like a thousand so quickly.” Her seasonal job ended in March 2023, but by July, she was back in a full-time programming role.

What it’s like to program content

As an Associate Conference Programmer, Rodriguez works with the Conference Programming Department to curate and showcase inspiring, creative, and forward-thinking content for SXSW. The content could be anything from panels, fireside chats, keynote and featured speakers, demo listening sessions, and more. On a day-to-day basis, she oversees various portions of the music conference content as well as the workplace track. She still enjoys being involved in various sectors to keep her mind engaged. 

She also plays a big role in grading every single proposal that comes in. She evaluates each one and helps decide if they’ll program it in the conference. After that, she works with speakers to get them situated with all the logistical details. She may ask them questions like: What does your session look like? What are you going to talk about? How do we make sure this is relevant a few months from now? What are you going to bring to the table for our audience? Every detail comes down to how the session will benefit the audience in some way.

When it comes to onsite support, she has to do a lot of multitasking. She might be helping out at the conference sessions, managing her music tracks, making sure the speakers and audiences are okay and happy, or just solving various problems that pop up. “All in all, it's curating content and bringing people from all over the world to Austin to showcase inspiring thoughts and making sure that they leave our conference feeling inspired and for them to bring what they learned back to their workplace” she says. 

On the music side, she co-programs new music conference initiatives, consults on music keynote and featured speakers, and oversees Music Mentor Sessions, which brings the top music industry executives, professionals, and artists to events to speak, answer any questions, and offer advice. She also curates the artist Demo Listening Sessions, which is a panel setting with A&Rs where they come in to listen to artist music for constructive feedback. Artists at South by Southwest now have a music badge and can submit their music to be played in front of the A&Rs. 

“It was so cool to see this community come together, and the artists just being brave enough to come to the microphone and have their music listened to not only by the A&Rs, but their peers in the room,” she said. She finds this aspect particularly rewarding because she can see artists getting a chance in real time.

“My success story came through showing up to stuff that other people put on for people like me who were lost or just don't know what the inner workings of this industry was,” she said. “So, to be able to program content like this is very, very personal to me.”