A music industry career: Cath Hurley
From sound engineers to festival bookers, lighting designers to concert promoters, there is a wide range of job roles and career paths in the music industry. But it's not all technical skills! Read on to find out about Cath Hurley's vibrant and varied music industry career.
Cath Hurley is Head of Skills and Development at Birkenhead music venue, Future Yard. As part of this role, she is the project lead of two major components of Future Yard’s activity:
- Sound Check - an industry skills programme that provides an entry level route for local young people in to careers in the live music industry, with a traineeship programme running in partnership with The Learning Foundry
- PROPELLER - an in-depth artist membership scheme helping talented musicians professionalise
Cath is committed to ensuring that Future Yard is a true community venue and fulfils the needs of those that need it the most.
Cath runs MOSTDEFFO, a management company that works with three emerging acts. Cath has worked on artist development and mentorship schemes for the past few years and tries to be a positive and supportive voice in the music community. Cath taught music business at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts for 5 years and is a member of the Liverpool City Region Music Board, which was formed to support the music sector across the local region.
In 2022, Cath was invited to join the Brit Awards Voting Academy and also visited Texas for the first time as a speaker at SXSW. She is also a regular assessor of PRS Foundation’s Momentum Fund amongst others.
Previous to this, Cath was product manager at Rough Trade Records and worked on the debut album releases of both SOAK and Girl Band, amongst others. For a number of years before this, Cath specialised in online PR, digital marketing and social media management working with brand new acts through to well-known pop stars.
We're passionate about demystifying the industry and our Sound Check training programme is designed to nurture the next generation of talent. Feeling inspired by Cath's career path? Sign up for Sound Check: https://www.thelearningfoundry.co.uk/soundcheck