Women and Non-Binary People in the Music Industry: Rebecca Potzner

Rebecca is a young music professional from Cincinnati, Ohio, with an impressive professional background within different sides of the music industry.

We sat down with her and discussed some of her favorite experiences, how COVID impacted her career, her future projects, and some tips and advice for aspiring industry professionals.

Prior to her latest experience, Rebecca dabbled in a lot: writing and taking photos for online publications, working for a concert promo company and an artist management company; she worked VIP services for a popular venue in Cincinnati and spent over 5 years in radio promotions. She currently works at her self-started PR company and specializes in booking artists for client events - and even DJ'd a few of them herself!

Like most people in the entertainment industry, especially in the live scene, the pandemic has greatly affected Rebecca’s career:

"In March 2020, when COVID really started to hit people, I was working with Live Nation as a marketing coordinator for festivals under the umbrella AC Entertainment. We decided to take a two-week break to then reevaluate the situation and I decided to go stay with my family to then come back. We never went back. I worked remotely until May and then I was furloughed. In August I was laid off so I no longer worked for them unfortunately and I’m working on finding my next move.”

Rebecca shares, “I had to find a new job and it was really hard because my position at Live Nation was literally my dream job.”

First Steps in the Industry

Back in high school, Rebecca was very active in the student community and she was always involved in events and initiatives. She eventually came to the conclusion that she wanted to go to school for public relations, but it wasn’t until college that she realized she wanted to find her place in the music industry.

Once in college, she started to go to more concerts and found a local business company that put on most of the concerts in her area. “I started attending events and networking. I decided that I wanted to work with them and that really kick-started my career,” Rebecca says. “From that point, it escalated to finding gigs where I could write about music I liked, to working events and selling tickets for that company. I would then go to the show and write a review about it. Before then I never even considered working in music. Music has always been a huge part of my life but I don’t think until that point I ever really considered it being a possible career," she adds.

Rebecca also got to work at VIP events with big acts, including Blink182! “Hanging out with the fans and seeing the excitement in meeting their favorite artists, that to me is worth it all. Working VIP is really hard, it involves a lot of different aspects and it can be crazy exhausting, but seeing the fans being so excited always really makes it worth it,” Rebecca explains. “I could say that my favorite part about my job is interacting with people." Rebecca is currently focusing on her online publication and PR business, BANDEDPR.com.

To young women and queer people starting out in the industry

Some people know exactly what they want to do from a young age, other people grow to learn what their path is and others just need to go and learn through experience what makes them happy. Rebecca, like many others, didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do in the industry, but she knew she wanted to be there, so she just went out and took all the experiences that she could get.

“Be unapologetic! The key to success in the industry is networking and connecting with people. So be kind to people and work hard.”

Follow Rebecca on Instagram | Twitter

Keep an eye on Bandedpr.com on Instagram | Twitter