Joshua Radin

Singer/Songwriter/folk artist Joshua Radin has slowly but surely built up a large fan base, thanks largely to the use of his music in many TV shows and movies. Radin is also almost constantly on tour, helping to bring his music to an even wider audience.

Joshua Radin – A Life in Soundtracks

Joshua Radin’s story is rather unique among music career stories in that his entire career has been propelled by the use of this music in the media and advertising. Though he started writing music and playing live at a young age in his native Cleveland, Ohio, Radin only found a minimal level of success – or rather, he found himself on the live indie music circuit, earning fans but not mainstream success. It was Radin’s other interest – acting – that really helped his music career take off.

Radin met and become close friends with Scrubs actor Zach Braff, who became a big proponent of his music. Strings were pulled and Braff helped Radin score a place for one of his songs, Winter, in an episode of Scrubs (the episode entitled My Screw Up). Winter was an instant hit with Scrubs viewers, and people began to sit up and take notice of his music. Scrubs went on to feature more Radin music in their show, including the songs:

• Today
• Closer
• Don’t Look Away
• These Photographs

More TV soundtrack success followed, and Radin soon became a go-to artist for TV music supervisors looking for tracks for their shows -- two notable inclusions being Fox’s North Shore and the ever popular Grey’s Anatomy.

Radin’s soundtrack success has not been limited to TV, however. His songs have appeared in the movie Last Kiss (with the song Star Mile) and Catch and Release (with the song What If You). You can also hear Radin’s music in commercials for JC Penny and Hilton.

The Zach Braff/Joshua Radin Connection

Helping Radin land some of his songs in his show is not the only way Zach Braff has been involved in Radin’s career. He actively tries to promote Radin’s music whenever he gets a chance. Braff featured both Radin’s music and Radin himself, albeit in an extras role, in his hit movie Garden State, and he also stepped up to direct Radin’s only music video, for his song Closer. Braff hosts the video on own website and also features Radin’s music and video on his MySpace page, giving his friend another promotional boost.

Bootlegging Recommended

Radin spends a great deal of his life out on the road touring, and he takes a fairly unique position to fans making bootlegs of his performance. Go for it, he says, with a few caveats:

• The recordings are for private use and trading exclusively. Selling bootlegs is prohibited.
• Don’t bug the sound engineer to get a sound desk feed recording – it’s not going to happen.
• Bring your own recording equipment – no, the crew will not lend you any gear.
• Only the original taper or someone with the taper’s permission can compress a recording into MP3 format. (MP3 compression is associated with some quality loss, and no one wants to get the reputation for putting out shoddy recordings!)
• Don’t put your recording equipment in the way of other fans. It’s a show, not a recording studio, and the live experience comes first.
• If Radin is the opening act, and the headliners don’t allow taping of their shows, then no taping will be allowed, period.

Radin is not the only artist who allows fans to tape his shows, but there aren’t many bands that actively promote the process and put out a set of policies to manage it. This move on Radin’s part helps develop his fan base even further by creating an informal network of bootleg traders (and any Phish fan can tell you how powerful that can be).

Listen to Joshua Radin

Want to check out some music from Radin? You can sample most of his tracks on his website or check out his MySpace page for full versions.