Employee Spotlight: Alice Clair

In her nearly 2.5 years at Musictoday, Alice Clair has worked her way up from an internship to a position as an Account Manager in the Client Services Department. Alice is also a part time musician, a part time radio DJ, and a full time dog mom.

What’s your current role and how would you describe the evolution of your role at the company?

I started as an intern in June of 2019, right after college. Then, I began full time that August as an assistant in the Client Services department. This last September, I started my new role as the account manager working primarily with Sony Music Entertainment. I enjoy working with their team, which includes many facets of Sony (RCA Records, Epic Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music Latin, etc). I also work closely with Sony’s merchandising arm, the Thread Shop, as well as many of the aforementioned labels’ media releases. I also work with Joe Satriani, Alicia Keys, and The Orchard. I’m all over the place.

How has working from home affected your workday?

I definitely miss the office camaraderie. Since we are back to our Thursdays in the office, it’s been a lot better and I get to see people enough now. I actually really enjoy working from home, because I adopted a puppy during COVID. She turned 2 years old at the end of this past February. It’s nice to spend time with my dog at home, and with all the video conferencing I still get to see everyone. WFH definitely gave me more flexibility, since I am able to choose whether or not I commute. 

How did you find your puppy?

I had fostered a pup named Ricky Bobby, but let’s just say I was an inexperienced dog owner. I really wanted a puppy, and I was going to shelters a lot. I am sure anybody who has gotten a dog in the last year or so knows, in 2020 it felt like every animal on earth was immediately adopted. I was missing the puppy train every single time, but then I got lucky. Somebody just had a human child, but had also just adopted a baby German Shepherd. They were overwhelmed to say the least, and had to put up the puppy for adoption. It’s two years later, and she’s been the most positive change in my life. You can follow her adventures at @jadi_thedog on Instagram.

Let’s talk about your music. Have you kept up making music the whole time you’ve been at MT?

The entire time. I am also still a DJ at WTJU. Since June of 2019, I have been doing my radio show on Tuesdays from 4-7. I released my own album in February of 2019, and I haven’t done anything since with Alice Clair. Let’s just say 2019 was quite the year.

But the BLNDRS have been BLNDing! We took a 6 month hiatus for rest and COVID precautions, but we came back to the Southern Cafe & Music Hall at the end of March, and have a summer of shows coming up. We released our debut album at the end of August 2021, and we’ve got new music coming out soon, or as soon as we can. 

That’s incredible. How do you balance the music with your job at Musictoday? Do you think they connect to each other?

It does relate very much. I see merchandising happen from the very beginning through actually fulfilling to the customer. At a certain point I can absolutely apply what I have learned from this job to my personal experience, having released two albums so far. I’m ready to start playing again. It’s been nice to take a break. But it has been about 6 months since we have played. Our whole goal is that we are doing only new music for our sets, so that’s a huge change, and it’s exciting.

Finally, the classic employee spotlight question: What’s your favorite lunch spot in Crozet?

Fardowners, dude.