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Apart from emailing, handing out fliers, putting up posters, posting on social networks and offline networking etc. What else is there to do? Do any of you have a tricks up their sleeves to get people to come to your shows

And when you're planning to share a show, or gig swap with another band, whats the technique to combine promotional efforts?

mruff

thanks

gigdoggy wrote:Apart from emailing, handing out fliers, putting up posters, posting on social networks and offline networking etc. What else is there to do? Do any of you have a tricks up their sleeves to get people to come to your shows

I don't know of any other tricks you haven't mentioned. Online forums and networking sites are playing a much bigger role now than ever before.

gigdoggy wrote:And when you're planning to share a show, or gig swap with another band, whats the technique to combine promotional efforts?

That I have no experience in, so 'no comment'

Well Im in the middle of this right now.

I approach club owners different than most people. Im not looking for a gig for a hundred bucks in their club. Im looking for a venue to hold a show in. Most of the time I get the venues for the door. Some resist and I have to eat crow. The first thing I do after getting a date at a venue is come there one sat night between 11-1 and see who the party animal girls are. I get to know them and give them a couple of t-shirts, some stickers, and a cd. I tell them to wear the t-shirts to all the clubs they hang in particulary the venue we are playing in. I go in the mens restroom and put stickers above all the urinals, and instruct the girls to do the same in the womens, and also to put them in any restroom they happen to go to, 3 weeks before the show I go visit the local newspaper and inquire about running some adds for the gig. Then I ask for a free story or writeup in the paper, if you buy a couple of adds they will do whatever you want and papers need special interest storys to fill space. We make up large posters for the show and place them in Walmarts, Grocery stores, high traffic mall areas and if we can get away with it around other clubs or venues. We are developing an email list, but everyone I see or meet I mention it to them. I also call the local chamber of commerce office and inform them of what is going on. The weekend before the show I take piles of flyers to my party girls and have them plaster them on cars that are in the parking lots between 12-1am, I figure this is the peoples cars I need to get at. You have to take a shotgunn approach to getting people. If you are just starting you can count on friends, but over time no matter how good you are they will get tired of going to the shows. I catch a lot of flack about being a sexist on here, but I give 90% of my personal attention to the females to get the word out. Why cause if you can get the hot girls the guys will follow, did everyone read that? Bring the women and the men will follow.

Im working on a bigger show for later this fall where we will start using radio ads, also I have some friends that own a furniture business that may, and Im keeping my fingers crossed, they may sponsor us and pay for advertising and provide us with a TV or Appliance to give away at the shows. In my case the Band is called Aint Yo Mama, before the last set we are having the AYM "HOT MAMA" contest, we pick 5 of the best looking women in the house get them on stage and judge them by crowd response with our soundmans db meter. The winner would then draw a ticket out of the bucket for door prizes like the tv or appliance.

If you are in the music business somehow you have to seperate yourselves from the pack. It doesnt matter how good you music is or isnt, what matters is getting attention to your band.

What does the above net me a night. In our area if I do all this and follow thru. I can ussually draw 250-300 people, when we handle the door we charge $7.50 a head thats $1875-$2250 a night. SOme clubs give us all the door, some I have to give up to $300 to get the venue, but if I go back ussually I get it free the second time. Im spending around $300 on ads, swag to the girls. I dont account for all the running around I do. ANd dont forget merchandise. You need a full complement of stuff to sell people. #1 is a cd (DUH how many bands i go see dont have a cd) even a cd of covers is worth $5, t-shirts, we have sunglasses, beer huggies, lanyards with backstage pass on them, Im currently trying to find some guitar pics with our name on them. You need stuff starting at $1-$2, all the way up to t-shirts for $15-20, I found these cheap tote bags that we stuff with a bunch of stuff for $30, and yes people will spend the money. Last sat we played a wrestling event and sold $660 worth of swag. Get some kind of merch to sell. At our gigs we gross $400-800 in swag sells.


As you can see our band can gross around $3000 a night in places where you might get $300. Its all in how you handle it.

Another thing is we dont want to play an area more than one time in a 3 month period. If you play the same place over and over you just become a houseband making $60 a member a night. Currently we are working a 4 cty area and looking to expand.

Im only scheduling club gigs every 3 weeks, but the band winds up making more in one of these gigs than we would playing 3-4 gigs a month the traditional way.

Remember this is a business to be successful you must treat it that way. Most people are so protective of their music, like its so special, well Im here to tell you its not. Theres thousands of other bands playing almost the exact same thing that you are. Just start thinking about what you can do to stand out. Dont take the rejections personal, just move on to the next thing. And DONT I REPEAT DONT BURN ANY BRIDGES, the poeple you cuss out over not booking you or listening to your music may pop up again and again in the position to help you. Bite your tongue and go cuss a tree or something, and never badmouth anyone in the business just mention oh yeah hes a great guy even if he is a jerk. He could be hiring you in the future. I know most of these things from mistakes Ive made thru the yrs.

And diggy if you want to post this on the other sight thats fine with me. Im all about sharing info with people who want to learn. Your other site is pretty cool I check it out occasionally.

And like I did here always share with others ideas good or bad. I believe very strongly in Karma, what goes aroud comes around.

On merchandise, always have a cheap item to give people with your band info on it. I found some beer huggys for .59 cents, if someone insists on a freebee thats a lot cheaper than a t-shirt for $5.50, and you gave them something useful, in our case we are in bars 80% of the time.

I think face to face still works way better than e-mail or myspace everyone likes personal attention. In any town we play I try to know a few key people who seem to be hip to what all the party people are doing and I call them every couple of days for a couple of weeks prior to a gig to shoot the breaze and build buzz. Once agian dont rely on the internet to do your work, lots of people dont ever get out cause they are so busy on the internet.

Well Ive got to go. This afternoon Im picking up flyers for a gig 2 weeks away and another club owner wants me to come by and see him this afternoon. On club owners dont go see them when they have a full house of people they are busy with. Find out if they come in early some days and go see them while no one else is around and get to know them. The people I work with I pencil in a hr in my schedule to just talk and listen to them. You need to make these people friends because when you play there you are a business partner. I learn all kinds of stuff hanging around with them. They tell me what they pay for special events. I found out one guys gave a friend band of mine a guarenteeed $3500 for New Years while we worked down the street for $2800, who do you think Im going to be visiting about getting a New Years gig?

Information is king and knowing who you are talking to and there likes and dislikes will get you gigs.

Good Luck and get busy.

On other acts, thru the years weve had lost of people open for us for free.

They want to get in front of the club owners in front of our crowd, most never follow up enough to get a gig. Its a business.

If another band we like will sell me their swag cheap enough we will put it with ours to sell, I currently have 2 defunct bands merch that they gave me for next to nothing and I am selling it next to ours.

I wouldnt pay an opener anything, cause as you can see from the above post Ive got to much in it to give them something. I also dont promote any other bands or even acknowledge them unless they are friends with our band.

All you guys with myspaces and 150 other bands, all your doing is promoting them and sharing them with your friends. Ive looked at many bands friends and 90% are just other bands. To me thats a closed loop, but I ve had others tell me it just expands your network. I dont see how me associating with a band from Germany or Sweden is helping me get anything other than a bunch of friends.

I wish some of you younger guys that are grossing more than $2500 a night could explain this to me. I would like to know how it helps put $ in your pocket.

hey dude
thanks a lot. This is great. Indeed, I am planning on posting this in a topic. I'll keep you updated when i Do.

You really cut to the chase here, Im sure our readers will like it.
We get very positive comments from bands who just appreciate reading what other bands do to make it happen.

you got some youtube videos of 'Aint yo mama' ?

would love to post one in our daily videos section.

Forget flyers strewn all over the place. All that really does is annoy everyone.
It worked in the 80's and early 90's when there wasn't an abundance of entertainment options. It's just litter today.
If you have to go with paper, make it 'big'. I mean BIG, like movie poster size -- wiith interesting artwork or great graphics.
Why? Cuz we're conditioned to equate big and colorful with important or successful, thanks to the movie industry. (And advertising in general)
Dont make it half-assed looking, or you'll go from important and successful looking, to looking like losers who are starving for attention.

I agree with jw about the merchandise and the face to face. If you have a charmer/schmoozer or two in the band, getting out to clubs and making yourself known pays off pretty well.
Have a good promo pack to give to club owners, and carry some around with you. leave em in the car or whatever is near it hand. But... I think that goes without saying.

Personally, I think the king of all promotional tools is the Radio Advertisement. Costly though.

Jw - fantastic advice, thanks for taking the time to type all that out.

GTZip - thanks for the addition as well.

Good stuff. Thumbs up!

(edit) Oh, and gigdoggy- One thing your site seems to be missing (or I just missed it), a link to contact you.

..myspace and mass e-mails....and post on all my other sites..works for us!

hmmm
thx kramerguy

had never realized i didnt have a contact email on there

doggies are suspicious animals, they dont give their personal info to anyone

but im gonna change my ways. Thank for the heads up

For solo gigs, I make a call to the local radio talk show. It doesn't matter what the subject is, as a rule, I can say something about it while plugging my upcoming gig.

@JW
Ok i get wwhat you're saying about online networking. You get in that game you have to understand the rules. Of course not everyone is your friend. Most of them as you say are just bands doing the exact same thing you're doing. So yea it is a closed loop.

But I believe its crucial to use these tools for the simple reason everyone else is. Im not talking about playing the sheep card or anything but you cant reject the potential networking power that can come from social networks.

Ive talked with tons of bands who look for gig swpa opportunities only through myspace, craigslist and so on. An it work. BAnds are enthusiastic about having another band sending them a real message about real life opportunities.

As for 98% of the rest of your 'friends', well they might as well be there. Their presence doesnt hurt. You have an overall view of how influential the band is. See all the data as stats. We live not in an information age, but in a data age. Bands who get fooled by their "popularity" in social networks don't get that.

Great info. Now to find a way to apply that technique to my situation.

Gig, I dont understand how social networks put money in a bands pocket. Its just another way to communicate with another human, hell pick up the phone or see them face to face.

This evening I went out and gave out promo kits at 6 different clubs. I landed one, I think you as a band need to make your own opurtunitys. Maybe another band will give you part of a gig.

A couple of weeks ago I went to what I call a high school club. 4 younger bands on one bill. After the first band played, all thier people just got up and left. It was loud so I went outside and heard this guy laughing that all the people had left the club. I told him if a band opened for my band and they just left without even listening to our band that that band would never open for us again. He said why, I said its a matter of respect. That goes back to burning bridges.

I may have burned one tonight when a club owner told me that he had to see any band he hired before they played. Ive been in this club and the bands that play there arent very good, in my opinion. I said sure come to the next show it will cost you $7.50 to see us. He seemed insulted. and I replyed its a lot cheaper than $500 to see us in your club. I dont know how that is going to work out, I may have blown it.

Now that I have my weekends to myself again I will be doing some of that networking of which you speak.