Arizona Night Buzz
December 2003
http://www.aznightbuzz.com/adviceforbands.php
(Link no longer valid. Try the Internet Wayback Machine for original.)
Professional advice is just a click away
Has the business side of music got your head spinning?
Randi Reed understands your bewilderment.
The founder and editor-in-chief of musicbizadvice.com is familiar with all
the blunders musicians make when it comes to managing their careers.
One of the most common mistakes, she says, is not understanding how the
business works.
"You have to do your homework. Artists with career longevity understand the
business and and are less likely to be taken advantage of," Reed said.
A former concert promoter and booking agent, Reed grew up in Southern
California but spent her summers as a teen in Scottsdale, catching live
shows whenever she could. She moved to Phoenix in 1987 and spent seven years
in the area before settling in Los Angeles.
Now, she offers free advice to artists at all levels of the industry--and in
all sorts of ways.
The "How To" section gives straightforward talk on self-management issues
like hiring your own publicist and creating your own filing system. "Body &
Soul" discusses health-related topics, like vocal care and the effects
facial plastic surgery can have on the voice. "Bus Fare" lists recipes easy
to make from a bus galley.
But the most common advice people want from a music professional, Reed says,
is how to get signed.
"Even though it's the age of the independent musician, most artists still
want to get signed to a major label," she said.
The site first launched in July 2003, but the concept originated in 1997, as
Reed was battling Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome.
What appeared at first to be a case of the flu, was really, a chronic
disease that would cost Reed her job at a prominent entertainment firm in
Beverly Hills.
"At one point it got so bad that I couldn't read a calendar or dial a phone
because the numbers were so scrambled -- not good when you're booking
bands," she said. "Just watching TV or listening to music gave me vertigo.
Meanwhile I was going crazy from boredom and freaking out because I knew
that every day I was sick, my career was going further away."
She began jotting down ideas for musicbizadvice.com from her bed.
"I'd always gotten a lot of email and IMs from people who wanted advice on
how to break into the music industry, so I knew there was a need for it."
The web site gave Reed a way to continue a career in the music industry--one
flexible enough to accommodate her fluctuating health. But it's also a
valuable resource for artists all over the world.
"Currently we're read in 43 countries, and last month we were featured on
the News page of Bon jovi's official website," Reed said.
As the site grows, Reed plans to stay true to her original mission.
I've always said that my dream for musicbizadvice.com would be to have a
platinum-level artist reading our site at the same time as a kid who's stuck
in a small town still dreaming of being a rock star--and having both of them
find the information they need. That happened, and it was an amazing
feeling. Now we want to keep expanding on it."
--Celia O'Brien |
