As a UF student intern for Live Nation, I learned what it takes to thrive in the entertainment industry
Standing in the crowd at New York’s Governors Ball — listening to thousands of voices singing along with A$AP Rocky, KATSEYE and Lorde — I realized something vital about the entertainment industry: behind every concert moment is an intricate balance of data and human emotion.
As a fan and partner research college associate from UF with Live Nation Entertainment over the summer, my job was to understand what makes those moments resonate.
One afternoon I was conducting on-the-ground qualitative interviews with festivalgoers; the next morning, I was at Live Nation’s Manhattan headquarters, analyzing survey data from major festivals like Lollapalooza to show corporate partners the measurable impact of their brand activations.
My journey to the global stage of live entertainment began in Gainesville, where I structured my studies around a multidisciplinary vision. At the Warrington College of Business, I majored in marketing to build a rigorous foundation in consumer behavior, finance and business operations. Simultaneously, I added an anthropology minor and immersed myself in the UF School of Music’s Music Business & Entrepreneurship program.
Marketing taught me how businesses make decisions, but anthropology taught me to look closely at the human variable — who we are actually speaking to, what they value and how culture shapes their decisions. Projects centered around the music business provided the ultimate testing ground to bring those two worlds together.
That curiosity drove me to get involved in undergraduate research during my first year at UF. Long before taking classes with Dr. José Valentino Ruiz, I reached out to propose ideas on how we could study the global music ecosystem. Through UF’s Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience program, I ended up authoring and co-authoring four academic publications, including a study in the UF Journal of Undergraduate Research that explored the cultural and entrepreneurial potential of Música Popular Brasileira.
Growing up in Brazil and being a music lover from birth gave me a distinct lens on the American music market. I was fascinated by why certain Latin artists cross borders seamlessly while others struggle, and how global audiences form deep attachments to microgenres. Analyzing those cross-cultural dynamics through rigorous academic research taught me how to synthesize complex qualitative interviews and quantitative metrics into actionable insights.
When I interviewed for the Live Nation internship, that research portfolio set me apart. Out of 30 interns in our cohort, only two of us were published authors. My managers saw that I had already spent two years investigating consumer behavior, defending methodologies and meeting the standards of peer-reviewed journals. That academic rigor gave me instant credibility when presenting data-driven recommendations to senior executives and brand managers.
At UF, leading a 66-member research department at The Agency — our student-run advertising firm — had already taught me how to manage real client deliverables for organizations like Disney Advertising and NBCUniversal. Stepping into Live Nation’s Media & Sponsorship division felt like a natural extension of that work, just on a massive scale.
Live Nation connects nearly 160 million fans across tens of thousands of events annually. Making sense of that volume requires serious analytical power. We leaned heavily on data analytics and AI-supported tools to track trends across massive databases, identifying unexpected consumer shifts — like how the same fan who streams traditional country music might also be an avid K-pop listener. Yet no algorithm can replace the visceral energy of a live show.
What surprised me most was how seriously Live Nation took the fans’ voices. Everything started with empathy for concertgoers. My anthropology training came alive every time I stepped into the role of the fan’s advocate inside corporate meetings, ensuring our marketing strategies enhanced rather than interrupted the live music experience.
My summer in New York was a constant whirlwind of creative energy: presenting analytics to Fortune 500 partners, discussing festival headliners and attending rooftop showcases. But the greatest takeaway was the affirmation that academic curiosity belongs in the creative industries.
Dr. Ruiz often reminds us that music education shouldn't just teach students how the industry operated yesterday, but how to investigate what it will look like tomorrow.
As I look ahead toward graduation in 2027, my goal is to continue working at the intersection of brand strategy, audience research and global entertainment. In live music, we aren’t merely marketing a product — we are safeguarding shared human experiences that people remember for the rest of their lives.
Beatriz Galatti Pedro is a senior in the UF Warrington College of Business, majoring in marketing with an anthropology minor and a concentration in music business and entrepreneurship in the College of the Arts. She plans to pursue a career in brand strategy, audience research and global entertainment marketing.