How to Manage a Band

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Athena Reich and I'm an actress, singer/songwriter and performing arts coach here in New York City. In this clip, I'm going to talk about how to manage a band. Basically you want to sit down with the band and you want to talk about their goals, their short term, middle, and long term goals. What are they looking to accomplish? Do not promise anything that you cannot guarantee. When you're starting out, when people are start out in the music industry, and when they think, "oh yeah, I'll get you famous in three months if you just work at it, it will happen". Listen, there's a lot of hard work involved, but there's also a lot of luck and a lot of paying your dues. Sit down and assess the goals and then basically work. As the manager, you are an administrator. It's not very glamorous. You're on the phone, you're calling venues, you're booking gigs, you're calling the press, you're calling publicists to get them to work with you, you're showing up at the venue, you're helping them lug their gear, you're on the internet, you're researching the venues, you're e-mailing the managers, you're e-mailing the publicist and telling them creating buzz, you're on My Space, you're doing promotion. It's all about buzz. You're showing up a the rehearsals, you're making sure that they have a strong artistic vision that is also commercially viable. So this has been Athena Reich on how to manage a band."