Band Promotion

squashed · Band Promotion

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2006/02/100_free_afford.html

THE BASICS

1. 1. Never leave promotion to the other guy. Bands should promote as if the promoter will do nothing. Promoters shouldn’t count on the band or label.

2. Know your market or hire/befriend someone who does.

3. Always think of the fan first when making any decisions. Remember the Phish model.

4. Start early. Pre-promote AND get a show on sale now! 3-4 months prior is not too early for a rock show and 6-9 months is not too early for an adult show. It allows time for viral/word of mouth buzz (free promotion) to build

5. Always have a tour or venue publicist to get free media

6. Get/send out promo material immediately after a date is booked. Don’t wait until you need it.

7. Email lists must be your religion. Put your list sign-up visibly on the top half of the front page and watch the list grow. Consider segmenting your email lists by state (for bands) or genres (for clubs) to fight email burnout.

8. Produce and send good e-cards. If you’re a band use www.Jukeboxalive.com and. If you are a venue use www.audiocal.com. Their products can have built in music players. Use a newsletter builder like www.mynewsletterbuilder.com

9. Make your web site a destination by keeping it updated and including news, giveaways, polls and things to make it worth visiting regularly.

10. Put all your promo online including photos and logos in downloadable form for 24 access by the media and fans

11. Encourage others to do promo for you. On your web site have a poster maker (see Derek Truck’s site or Skyline Music is having one built.) and/or putting all club or band poster in a free downloadable PDF online for fans to use.

12. Create, utilize and reward a street team. (flyers, posters, and more).

13. Talk to people. Have they seen your ads. Where? Did they grab them and provide useful information?

14. Survey your audience via email, on the web and at shows. Try the Steven Talk House Poll before even buying a show.

15. Get every free listing everywhere you can no matter how obscure or far away. Maintain a “listings” email list and use it.

16. Enhance the value of free listings (or press releases) by attaching a photo or graphic file (or a link to one) related to the event with every announcement. If they use it you get 5 times the exposure of a listing without a photo.

...more

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2006/02/100_free_afford.html

squashed

Twenty paying shows a month? You're absolutely extraordinary.

I don't book shows -- they have someone who handles that in exchange for a cut of merch sales. She handles dozens of bands, and she gets them shows constantly. I can't think of one band I work with that can't get 10+ shows a month by hiring a booking agent, even small bands.

She spent the days making phone calls to venues who generally never called back. The band I worked for was extraordinarily talented (download some of their music for free here). They quit their day jobs for over two years. They toured up and down the East coast and as far as Detroit. They had a devoted but small audience.

She didn't follow through well with her contacts. Venues want to see warm bodies buying beer, if you send bands to them that don't attract even a small crowd, they won't call you back ever. The best way to get a band out there is to get them involved with show promoters (we have www.mpshows.com in Chicago) and get them opening for small bands. A lot of bands don't want to invest the 1-2 years it takes opening up for bands that they think are worse than them. I know, I watch bands all the time give up because they won't move forward with the risk. Many people invest 4-8 years in college to further their career; a band needs to invest 1-2 years of even more work, and they don't have to pay as much as college costs.

If they could have booked 20 paying gigs a month, they'd still be in existence. Most venues want cover bands, not original music. The venues have the power and so they get to treat me rudely. I bow before your superior nagging-people-on-the-phone skills.

I have never heard of a venue that wants cover bands over original music. The indie pop scene is huge right now, I just went to an indie show last night in Chicago for 4 bands that I've never heard of, and they were all excellent and the crowd was thick. Cover was $7, but all 4 bands sold a ton of merch to people who liked their sound -- and I think I heard one cover song the entire night. I go to 2-3 shows per week in the Spring and Summer, and I have yet to visit one venue in Chicagoland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and the Bronx that had cover bands. Most of the bands I talk to fail because they refuse to invest the time it takes to get notoriety.

(It's because of that that the "Hey, give the music away and make it up at the live shows" argument on Slashdot makes me furious. But if you've got the secret for booking venues, please let me know and I'll retract everything I've said about it.)

Plan on investing as much time honing your writing and performing skills -- make it like a future career. You go to college for 4 years and spend up to $100,000 learning a trade or a skill, why should a lifetime of performing be any different?

One thing, though: there are a LOT of bands that just don't have it -- just like there are programmers or CAD operators or lawyers who don't have it. It is easier to pick up a guitar and a mic and find 3 friends and call yourself a band than it is to become a lawyer, so of course there is a higher drop out rate. Yet I still see venues dark 3+ nights a week for a lack of bands committed to playing and bringing in warm bodies.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=224538&cid=18182888