Thanks to Bandize, a handy web-based musician management tool created by Beamer Wilkins and Andy Miles, preparing for your opportunities is easier than ever before.
To Miles, organization is the key to taking charge and standing out. “You should know what your current merchandise inventory is," he says. “You should know how much you profit on each shirt after costs have been deducted. If you don't care, how can you expect anyone else to?"
After playing around with it a little bit, my inner geek delighted in all the tools Bandize offers. In addition to being able to organize mundane tasks like accounting and monitoring merchandise levels, booking tours and social networking, you can assign “tasks" to your bandmates to make your rehearsals run on tighter schedules. That ability to manage and compartmentalize tasks makes Bandize a boon to managers in particular.
“Originally, we built the site for bands," Miles admits, “but quickly learned that band managers were adopting it at an alarming rate. Same goes for booking agents and record labels.
“At this point, the name Bandize is a little misleading."
Miles also cautions that Bandize is not a panacea. “It will not book tours for you," Miles says. “it actually has to be used." Of course, to starving, independent musicians, the site's monthly membership cost of $15 is incentive enough.
But sometimes, that little push can make all the difference. “The more organized you are, the more you can leverage your organization," Miles stresses. “If a record label comes to you with a deal that you find less than fair, you can back up your 'worth' with actual sales records and show them that they're not dealing with a bunch of lazy people, but rather people that care about what they've created."
