Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Allen Halas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Allen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Rather than focus on major label artists or acts that have hired PR companies to promote their music, we specialize in independent music regardless of who’s making it. We’ve covered everything from bands and acts playing big festivals all the way down to someone making music in their basement or their bedroom.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up in Milwaukee, WI, where I always had an interest in music and media. In high school, I produced hip hop, but ultimately abandoned it around college. Breaking And Entering formed while I was attending Marquette University, originally intending to be a podcast and a college radio show. By 2014, I had pivoted to writing about independent music on our website, which ultimately turned into a daily music outlet.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

It took some time for artists to discover what we were doing. Social media was a big component of that. Initially, I was just putting articles out, hoping that someone would see them. We started tagging people when we were writing about them, and then it slowly caught on. It wasn’t until we started doing live events, including our concerts in Milwaukee and the Big Beat MKE beat battle, that the momentum caught up. Once we were literally out in the streets more, people understood what we were doing as a media outlet and started buying in.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to learn that you can’t do everything all at once. In 2014, right out of college, I went to South By Southwest in Austin, TX for the music conference. I thought that I would have all of this coverage, and it would catch on right away, and Breaking And Entering would be huge. It… did not go that way. I ended up sleeping on a floor, handing out promotional cards to people that really didn’t want them, and figuring out that it was going to take some time to build up a brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: BreakingAndEntering.net
• Instagram: Instagram.com/BreakingAndEntering1
• Facebook: Facebook.com/BreakingAndEntering1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenhalas/
• Twitter: Twitter.com/BreakinNEnterin and Twitter.com/AllenHalas
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/breakingandentering1
• Yelp: N/A
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@breakingandentering

Image Credits
Headshot: Photo by Samer Ghani Concert Photos by Lily Shea