Advertising senior Joshua May is not wasting time putting his education in branding and advertising from ComArtSci to work. May and a student collaborative have launched a second location for his music recording company in an apartment on the banks of the Red Cedar. Intertwined Entertainment is a music collaborative that works to provide a creative outlet for performing artists in Lansing and Detroit.
May’s background in music started him on this journey, and his work ethic pushed him forward.
“I started making music when I was nine years old,” said May. “My grandmother used to be in a blues band and that really got me started in music. I was always passionate about it.”
Founded in Detroit in 2016, Intertwined Entertainment was created by May and his three friends after working on a play together at Renaissance High School. From the success of the play, the four continued to work together in hopes of helping musicians in the nearby community.
“For the first year it was a major learning curve,” said May. “Lots of mistakes and typical start up mishaps occurred.”
The next year brought much promise to the quartet as their network began to grow. They gave out two scholarships to young artists and volunteered at local community centers. This boost in awareness brought exposure to the business and helped it begin to grow.
Intertwined Entertainment opened their first recording studio, The Space Station, in Detroit. In this physical space, May and friends began to record artists from all music genres and backgrounds. As a student at MSU, his networking skills allowed him to open a second studio on MSU’s campus, inside Cedar Village Apartments, referred to as Granddad’s Collections.
The success of the second studio allowed his team to provide even more services, such as digital marketing and video production to the outlets already available for artists.
Even during the pandemic, the business has been focused on continuing to lift voices, engage with more artists, educate young performers on the music business, and address social issues by offering free to low rates to record during Black History Month.
“We had to rapidly adjust our business in order to continue to grow the brand and keep up”, said May. “This led us to launch our new ‘artist feature program’ which is 100% virtual and allows artists to have an amazing experience with us by taking advantage of some of our services from anywhere in the world. This includes artists being able to work safely from their own homes.”
May is proud of the skills he learned here at Michigan State University in the Department of Advertising + PR. He uses his knowledge of branding and advertising as a tool for his business.
“The skills I learned from my grandma and the classes I took at MSU, I applied to my business and it has worked out.” said May.
The immediate goal of Intertwined Entertainment is to acquire an official commercial property in East Lansing so they can continue to serve MSU students, faculty, staff, and the greater Lansing community.
You can find music from Intertwined Entertainment artists on music outlets such as Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.
By Demetria Bias