General Music Chat

George

Now you are thinking like I do. I dont know what will work for you, but push the envelop. We sell beads, you could sell Love Beads or Rosarys. Im kind of lost on the Christian side of things. I used to play in a Bluesgrass/Rock/Rockabilly/Christian act. We always accepted Love offerings and a lot of the organizations contributed to it.

An idea get business's to back your band. Im doing this. Im making banners for 2 companys. One is a propane business and another is a bike shop. We will fly these banners at our gigs. How much you might ask? Im getting $350 a gig up front for advertiseing. Do you guys understand what I just said, my band will get paid $350 a gig to advertise for these companys. My band is $350 ahead of your band before we walk in the door. Im working on 2 more companys, a liquor store and a furniture comapny. I think 4 is all I can handle. As we develop our backing videos we will incorporate advertising into that. My plan is to be where I dont care what the venue offers us to play cause we are going to make more from outside sources. The venue owners dont even have to know this, we just come in do our thing and make the ad income. This might work for a Christian entity too.

Once again guys. Gigging is not all about the music. Get that out of your head and you can figure ways to turn your little hobby into a cash cow. Now dont get me wrong, before you attempt my approaches here you better be good and be able to play your music backwards, forwards and sideways, be it original or cover. Know your sh*t and have your act down. The guys I play with make everything look effortless, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes.

I had planned to make some eye to eye contacts @ some of the local Churches this Sunday, But as it looks right now I may have to chainsaw my way out of the rural area where I live.

John I am formulating a plan on ways to use your formula in my situation.
Keep rockin, and thanks for the info and encouragement.

Currently the band is working three songs at a time untill we are totaly comfortable playing them.

From the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary the partial meaning of the word business: "that which occupies the time, attention, and labor of men, for the purpose of profit or improvement." Looks like jw123 has successfully combined music and business. When you're playing music, having fun, AND making a profit, then you've really accomplished something good. Everybody trying to get a band together should also have a business plan. There's a lot of competition out there. What's going to separate you from the rest? Why would somebody want to hire you over another band? Thank you jw123 for sharing this info with us. Keep up the good work.

AN update, I have secured 2 companys sponsorships provided we are in their market area when we play. I took off this weekend to take my son racing motorcycles. We had a great time. Got back this morning and have 2 clubs wanting us bad or so they say, outside of my direct market.

George, I know you guys got a lot of rain your way. I hope there was no damage to your home. I have friends in Hickman KY who lost a barn from the winds that came thru our area. I was in Pontotoc MS, we got a lot of rain and some wind, but the races went on as planned sunday.

Bob, Im trying to make a profit with my passion, music. We are on course. As far as a business plan for a band. Work out where you want to play and then bug the crap out of the venues. So far I havent got one gig from my initial contact. I go back and see them over and over again. Ussually by the 3rd or 4th visit Im their buddy and I can get my band in the door. A few places Ive gone to I just decided it wasnt right for our band and passed on. Most clubs we play have some specialty meal like hamburgers, pizza, Italian. I go to these places an deat dinner and hang out on off nights. Dont accept the answer NO. Keep going back until you secure the deal. Dont burn any bridges with venuw operators. If you are a pain in the ass, the word will get around. Dont bluff a venue that another venue is giving you more money, this will get you in hot water quick.

If all you want is an occasional gig for fun dont sweat it, just play a couple of gigs, but if you are serious read up on some of my post, I am sharing info that can make you more money than the competition. And believe me, playing music is competition. If you are thin skinned and cant stand being told no over and over I suggest you get a factory job or let someone else in the band handle things.

Know where you want to play and make your mind up to play there, but do it politely like Patrick Swayze did in Roadhouse and you can go far.

The big problem here in KC is that it's a closed environment. There's well over 125 blues bands listed in the Blues Society newsletter and many more that aren't. And there's a handful of places to play at. There's a bunch of fools who are playing for little or next to little money. Makes it virtually impossible to make a profit unless you do the type of things you're doing. That's where the business plan is needed. Selling beads, selling CD's of your band (if you have them), doing advertising for businesses, etc. This is the kind of activity that can make a profit for a band. Very few people have the INTESTINAL FORTITUDE TO SEE THROUGH THE HARD WORK TO BECOME A PROFITABLE BAND. Just getting enough material together and getting gigs doesn't cut it any more. The preponderance of bands out there get burned out before they even play anywhere. You HAVE to have a plan and WORK your ass off to execute the plan. Sounds like you've got a good plan and people who had the WORK ETHIC to see it through. Later...

You da man, JW! You doing all the work getting this stuff done, or do the other band members help out & get creative, too?

Just curious.

Philby, Im in a position right now to do most of the work. But I enjoy it, I studied business and marketing in college along with pizza and beer.

My old band was doing an original act under another name, Chemical Zoo, look them up cause they are or were killer, but they werent doing anything but spending money. The bass players wife told me that they only made money on 2 occasions. We did a couple of things last year and I told them then that if they wanted to make some extra money that I could put a minimum $100 in their pocket at every gig. They decided to try it. Im in a divorce and dont have the kids half the time, so I just go out and hang out in places we want to play. 10 years ago this band was way to loud to play in most venues. I had to pick and chose, we got that issue settled and we can basically play anywhere. Weve got a couple of weddings and birthdays lined up.

But yea Im doing the work at this point. We are working toward being a corporate act. I have a friend who is a professional dj. Hes my age and has made a living DJ ing. He does the corporate gigs. We are working toward putting my band and a DJ together for gigs. We will charge in the neighborhood of $10,000 a show. You guys may think this is crazy but people are doing this, combine that with the advertising I am working on and we will wind up just doing club gigs for fun in the end.

Now our band is established over a 20 yr period and still draws a loyal draw. I dont know if I could get a startup band going like this. Also we have so much material that we can draw from. When we played heavily we had around a 400 title song list. All this helps a lot.

There is money to be made in this business, youve just got to make a plan and head in that direction. Most local bands dont get past figuring out what to play, and then they cant play what the want to play, so they inplode before they get going.

Hey I'll admit it Im a HO. If someone wants to hear Freebird and is paying the price I'll give it to them, its just another song to me and I get to solo for an hr if I want to or cut it short. The guys Im with are onboard cause we have massive local buzz and people wanting to see us again.

I feel blessed and lucky to have a group together like this at this point in my life. I could just be posting on the computor talking about the good ole days. But Im living the good ole days right now.

It takes a lot of work and dedication, and it takes money. Yesterday I was on Craigs List and there was a listing for 3500 Cds duped with art for $1000, thats around .28 cents a cd. I cant burn them myself for that. So I jumped on it. A local producer had bought around 15,000 cds for a project that fell thru and decided to just dump them cause he didnt have storage for all those cds. You see a lot of deals for $1 a cd. I told a friend in another band about the deal and he calls the guy after I met with him last night, the guy told my friend that I got the last group. We put 8 songs on the cd, I wish I had more originals, but this was a situation where you have to move fast and put your money where your mouth is. For this cost I can sell em for $2 or whatever, maybe even give them away. A successful band has some backing behind it. Its not luck, and its not about the music, in the end a lot of it comes down to economics. But if you are out there the least you should have merch wise is some music to sell or give away on a cd.

But Philby, Im having a blast and actually have a couple of local groups wanting me to manage them cause they see us as some kind of success story. The crazy thing is weve only done a handful of gigs in the last 6 monthes, but they were all high PR gigs. We are dong a benefit bike deal this weekend at noon on sat. We can play as long or short as we want. I sent messages to some local newspapers, radio stations and tv stations, and all the papers are covering the event, one radio station is pushing it, and to top it off a tv station may cover the event. How cool to have our band on the 5pm or 10pm news. Looks like it could happen.

Keep Rockin

Philby I should add that I dont know if I could do what Im doing with another band, cause my guys Kevin, Brooks and Andy are all badass players. People that see us say that we dont even look like we are thinking about playing. Just having a good time and rocking out. My bandmates are the best Ive ever played with and Brooks our drummer is my best friend so it just makes it all good. I gues they are all my best friends, plus we have a lot of history that we can share with each other so its like family. I know they can back up any claims I make, and believe me I make a few every now and then. Rock bands have to be larger than life to accomplish anything, its a lot of attitude, and if you dont have a lot of attitude and confidence then you probably should be in some other business. Cause after all, music is showbusiness.