Name: Jasmine Vega
Age: 41
Current City: Venice
Job Title: Music Publicist
Company Name: JPR
Length of Time in this Role: 20 years

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field?
JV: I didn’t actually go to college.  I started working at 14 yrs old and haven’t stopped.  I didn’t know what a publicist was when I asked for the job.  I was working at a law firm in the data entry department during the day and at night I was promoting my boyfriend’s club in Los Angeles.  This was in the late 80’s.  We always had rappers and record promoters come to the club and get on the mic.  I became friends with the A&R person from Delicious Vinyl (Young MC, Tone Loc).  He asked me if I wanted to come to his label one day after work, so I did.  I looked around and saw that the office was in a shambles, no file cabinets, no structure etc.  This was hard for me to understand coming from a law firm where everything was in its place at all times.  So I asked why that was and a month later I got a call asking if I wanted to come in for an interview to assist the GM.  I went in and got the job.  A few months later the publicist at the label was leaving her position and said that I should ask to take her place since I was already doing her job and everyone liked working with me.  Doing her job at that time since we had established artists was answering the phone and sending out press kits to those who asked.  Those calling were the likes of Rolling Stone, Time, Newsweek etc.  I was in a very fortunate situation and took the position.  The rest is history.

Mopwater: Describe how you got from the in-house publicist job to what you’re doing now. When did o become an independent PR pro? How many years into working at Delicious Vinyl did you decide to go out on your own?

JV: While working at Delicious Vinyl, we also hired an indie pr firm to work other projects that I didn’t have time to.  After a year in the position, the pr firm had asked if I would like to work in their LA office.  I eventually left the label, moved to the indie firm until it closed its doors.  At that time, I was able to leave with a handful of accounts to be independent for a few years until Priority Records offered me an in house position.  I was there for a couple of years until I was courted by Virgin Records.  I remained at Virgin for 8 years until they moved the company to New York.  At that time I went indie again and have remained indie for the last few years. Read the full story