Each month we feature one member from our community to hear more about their story and what inspires them to be part of the industry.

This month we spoke to artist and industry professional Hisham Dahud who goes by RIZIK on stage. Let’s take a deeper dive into Hisham’s story!

Hey Hisham, it’s great to have you part of the Artist Community! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Since 2010, I've been helping music artists of all sizes — from the bedroom producer to the A-list pop star — build their businesses, solidify their brands and execute proven marketing strategies that have allowed them to rise above the noise. Combined with an immense passion for education, as well as managing my own career as an independent artist, I like to think I hold a pretty unique perspective of today's music industry that all stakeholders -- business or creative -- can benefit from, which is why I consider myself an open book when it comes to sharing knowledge, insight and experience.

Awesome! Did you always know you wanted to be part of the industry, and if so, how did you discover which path to take?

Well, I've been a musician all my life and pretty much knew by age 18 the goal was always to be a musician, but I didn't want to go in naively. So I got my stripes on the business side beginning in 2010 working in what we now call "social media marketing" managing MySpace pages for artists, including an early hero of mine DJ Shadow. That lead to the formation of FAME HOUSE, which was a leading digital strategy agency where I worked with a wide range of talent and brought me all over the world. My goal of being a musician was completely sidetracked by a nice paycheck and the experience of working with big artists. We were eventually bought by Universal Music where I left to go independent. During that time I was teaching Music Business at ICON Collective in Burbank, but eventually went on to launch my own educational vehicle called ArtistPro, where I teach artists how to market themselves and how to build their careers as independents. Once the pandemic hit and I lost the majority of my clients since no one could tour, I decided to return to music and have since been focused on my artist project RIZIK for the past 18 months. I still consult for select artist clients and teach, though.

You’ve accomplished a lot in your career so far! Is there a particular project that you found really meaningful or made you really excited?

While I worked with so many amazing artists, the "BIG 3" that have influenced my career the most were DJ Shadow for letting me learn the nuances of the indie hustle, Richie Hawtin for taking me all over the world and seeing what a pro he was at managing his business WHILE being a fantastic artist, and Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL) for providing a model I'd like to one day emulate of a thriving artist career turned into a fruitful career as a Hollywood composer.

What inspiring artists to be surrounded by! We’re curious to know, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

So hard to think of a single best piece, but the best PERSON I've ever received advice from consistently over the course of my life is my great friend and mentor Gian Fiero -- who taught me the essence of planning, preparing and positioning myself for life and career success.

We cannot thank you enough for your support on the Bandsintown for Artists platform. We would love to know what your favorite feature is and why?

The ability to message fans directly -- while it may sound like a relatively basic feature, the sheer context alone of these people being the ones who are willing to step outside their homes and see ME offers me a unique lens in which to communicate. I think so many teams waste this feature by copy and pasting generic messages because the potential you have for deeper and more meaningful interactions is HUGE here.

Hisham, thank you for your time today! Before we let you go, is there a project you would like the community to support you on?

Give RIZIK a listen on your streaming platform of choice and please hit me up for all your music marketing needs!

To connect further with Hisham directly, find him in the Bandsintown Artist Community!

We’ll be back next month with another Member Spotlight, stay tuned!

Website - http://hishamdahud.com/ 

Bandsintown - https://www.bandsintown.com/a/10897853-rizik 

Facebook - ​​https://www.facebook.com/hishamdahud 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hishamdahud/ 

Twitter - https://twitter.com/hishamdahud