A Chat with Rebecca Brianceau, ABRI's Band Manager

Alistair from Dubai Lime had a chance to sit down with Rebecca to talk about her job as a Marketing Manager of Music Master and a Band Manager of a famous band in Dubai ABRI.

Where did your career as a music marketing manager start?

Well I was born and raised in ontario, canada and I started my career as more of a hobby, organizing charity skatepark hip-hop fundraisers. Then one day I held a huge birthday party featuring some of the best of the best urban music performers in ontario. That specific party sold out and from there, I realized that I was actually really good at organizing/promoting events. I started up my own urban events/street team by the name of B-Girl Productions ‘99, since we were the only girls having urban shows in our area in the late 90’s.

I carried on creating gigs across Ontario with my all girl street team and soon moved to Toronto. After coordinating many events, I began to work with a celebrity events company named “Maxamus Entertainment”. I then moved to Switzerland and with me I took allot of the artists that i had made contacts with through my time in Canada.

So how did you end up in Dubai?

I had a months break in Switzerland and decided to go to Dubai to visit my close friends and during that time i had to good fortune to meet Hamdan from abri through my girlfriend. During my stay, I saw Abri perform 3 times and and I fell in love with them and we all hung out as friends, no business was involved at that time. I went back to Switzerland and finished my clients contract and moved to Dubai and started working as a Marketing Manager for distributor “Music Master”, and once I learned the complete backend of my job, I knew I had to sign my first band and that first band was ABRI.

What do you need to make it big as a band?

There are no real rules. The only things I can say are, be good, and make sure people know it. Try to have the closest finished product possible, create your own buzz, to gain fains and do as many free gigs you can to start. With ABRI I signed them around March, and I organized eight-months marketing plan. When signing a band, to make them famous it is 90% marketing and 10% product. The music does have to be good enough for radio, clubs, etc.. but the marketing has to be equal, if not better than the product. We released there first single in mid June and we didn’t release and album until the 1st of November. On the 1st on November I planned it so that all across the region and the world there songs were being played on the Radio, in clubs, web-sites, etc... and they were getting mentioned in unison everywhere, from tv, magazines, newspapers, etc.

Thats the second thing that you need to do, Get region wide shows, spread yourself wide. If you stay in the same small area, you will find it amazingly hard to move up. Flights and stay aren’t too expensive in the region, so invest.

The last thing you need to do is, don’t stand still, stop doing free gigs. After a while you will have to give up selling your talent for free because you end up getting a reputation of being the second choice, if the first band they ask wants too much they can always fall back on you.

Its ok to turn down a gig because if they came to you first, they did just that, they came to you first and they will come back to you again.

So what else does your job entail?

I could go on for hours. Ideally, working/marketing the regions music scene, while representing our licensee labels Universal Records, Wagram, Road Runner, etc... I have now signed Kamal Musallam and NerveCell, so I am very focused on their new album releases.

I strongly believe in the regions music scene and am very passionate about it.

Any last words?

If you are a band who wants to make it big, one of the most important things you can do is be patient, focused, positive, stick to your goal dates. For example, CD release on November 1st, 2008, make sure to follow through with it. The market will trust you even more for following through with your word.

I know it’s not always possible, with label deals and falling outs, but really anything you say in media, follow through with it. Also, it’s ideal to get a passionate manager, as there is just too much to do by yourself.

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