Tour Talk

“Booking gigs is easy.It’s getting a person to come that’s hard. So here’s how it works:

You look around at coffee shops and little bars that no one goes to and the owners are thrilled to have you come and play. But they can’t afford to pay you. You go and tell everyone you know to come and bring friends. The first gig you play you get 50 people to come. Then you’re thinking “This is so sweet! I love playing for a packed little house! And I made three hundred bucks selling CDs!” So you book again.You get pumped for another show and another $300.

This time 20 people come. It’s a little disappointing because you don’t have the feel of a packed house, but you put on a good show and have fun playing your tunes–knowing that the crowd loves you because these 20 people bought your CD at the last show. So you don’t sell anymore CDs but they love you give tips so you end up with $26 and you had fun.

You book again but his time you advertise, put up posters in music stores, churches, colleges, and you’ve only spent $15 on the posters. Now you’re ready to make another $300 on CDs.You show up at your gig and the place is quiet. You talk with the owner of the place for a half hour and decide to start playing just to practice hoping that carfuls our people will show up late to your 2-hour show. You know college students are never on time anyway.

After you’ve played through a couple songs 2 cars enter in the parking lot and in walk one groupie from the first two shows and your parents”.
(http://www.myspace.com/ryedwardsmusic)

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That phenomina in business is know as saturation of market. It happens the same way to the guy selling fish or oranges up and down the street.
People in a small demograpic area like you are descibing, can only eat fish so often. The answer is multifacited. Change or better still diversity must be instiled.
Example: If you play country in the coffee shop, your fan base comes and becomes saturated. You rotate out of the demograpic area by playing elswhere or not playing at all and your friend who plays folk or rock plays that region / coffee shop. Street venders have known since the dark ages to rotate goods or areas with other vendors.
Seek out three or four other musicians of variety in your area whom are interested in doing a cooperative you might even use a magician or other form of intertainment. Work those small venues as a group. You may find you have more work than you can handle.

I used to book our band for the door at clubs.

I would then line up2-3 other new bands to get on the bill with us and charge their fans and keep the money. Hopefully some of the bands fans will rub off and stay with you. It takes 2-3 years to build up a consistent fan base. Your group name has to get familiar. Our name did and we eventually were just payed to play to whoever showed up, which thankfully for a couple of years we did draw well. The only problem was that we started off original and then started adding our fans favorite cover songs to the sets, over time we became a cover band and thats all we were known for.

If you cant keep people coming more than 1 or 2 times you might need to evaluate your material and maybe tweek it to suit the crowd. We used to come up with little contest to spice up the night, you know loudest (drunk) table, best(biggest hooters) looking gal, anything to get the audience involved in what you are doing. Somehow you have to make yourself an event that people just cant stand to miss. When we ran the door we would let unescorted women in free, this would in turn bring in more guys. Remember the custumer is king and really doesnt owe you anything, dont piss them off in any way.

Unless you have two or three hundred very close friends who are wild about you, you're going to have these problems for a long time.

Part of the problem is that the economy is bad, so ppl aren't going out as much. ($3+/drink vs $3+/gal of gas...sheesh! While I only have a few drinks, I use a LOT of gas!!!!)

Add to that our current over-policing with an emphasis on "zero tolerance" for everything from DUI's to ppl just trying to have a good time & gather together.

Add to that the competition with karaoke & DJ's.

Top it off with bar owner apathy & refusal to advertise anywhere except thier marquees (if they even HAVE a marquee).

The end result is a huge problem for a band trying to get started.

Stop playing bars. Go with venues where the audience is guaranteed, like town festivals, fairs, company picnics, weddings (shudder!) & the like. You'll sell more CD's & T-shirts, & possibly get to the point that you DO have a loyal following who would like to see you in a bar sometime. You may have fewer gigs overall, but at least the ppl will be there.

Or, you could fnd a really good manager &/or agent. Never tried that, myself, but I've heard it can give good results, with the right person/agency.

Good luck. We're all in the same boat on this issue.

Radio, radio, radio, I say.
The magic bullet (if you can swing it) is to have you or your band get involved with a radio station that is putting on some event. They will advertise it, because it's in their interest, and they might even put a tune of yours into their regular rotation.
Radio advertising absolutely crushes all.

Put on a good show, have lots of merch to sell, and it can give you a big bump in fanbase in one night.

It is a tough one. I use to play in a rock band in Kentucky
and it took us at least a year before we had the regular crowd come in.
At first no one showed up except the few that just came to the bar.
Eventually some friends and family came and that always made people
like the band...when there is people in the crowd cheering for you,
then other people cheer and become fans.
My problem now is that it seems you have to have
a crowd before the clubs will let you play...least the good clubs.
I have yet to try out small dives here...perhaps I should.
I was thinking of open mic night or what philbymon said about festivals etc...
I think it would be cool to just hook up with as many
bands as you can and everyone help pitch in to rent out a venue and for advertising
and put on a show...I think this could bring in the crowd,
especially if some of the bands are known in the area.

Streat Team buddy. thats what we do... decicated fans always return, and the word spreads. Print like 50 25 cent flyers and post those suckers at places you know your demographic hang around st.

JW FOR THE WIN..

The big problem is you're gigging the same venue over and over. plus after a few weeks your best friends and biggest fans are only gonna come out once a month to the same place. Get word of mouth going and push other coffee house bar or whatever owners to have you on certain weeks. Once you establish 6 or so regular venues you will see the crowds back and the cd sales Because you are not saturating the town, not even market but town with your material

I agree...Radio advertising is by far the best investment for a tough market. Don't expect the venue to advertise either.

By buying advertising on a local station of your genre..it quickly gets you in with the local station....They want you to succeed too...so you buy more advertising...suddenly ...when a big national act turns to the station to get a warmup band or play a big event..you are on the top of the list. It also expands your name to the clubs that hear your bands name on the radio, making it much easier to get the prime gigs on the weekends since bar owners always want to steal away the successful bands from other clubs!!!

Radio advertising would always bring out hordes of people if you make it sound exciting... I used to bring in my tracks for the band and do sort of an exciting "funny cars/Hotrod Show" like commercial using my own voice and record it there...making it seem like an event they can't miss.
People leave their radios on all day at work and eventually the show sinks in their head..and when they have to think of something to do that firday...walla...your show pops in their head...there is a reason people pay big bucks for advertising...because it WORKS!

The station liked my voice so much for the ad, I actually worked out a deal to announce radio ads in exchange for free advertising and they would repeat it all day long all week...by Friday when we played, the place was packed and we more than made our money back if we had paid full price for the commercials! We accomplished a few things..our music and band name being mentioned more that week than any other band or music that was mentioned or played by the station.

Unless your are Playing nightly in Vegas...you are going to have to travel and repeat this same process in other towns, your friends, family and fans just don't have the extra money or time these days to come out and see your shows on a regular basis....and you do have to promote it as "An Event"

Posters work too, depending on the city...

I try to not play anywhere twice in a month within a 50 mile radius if possible when starting out with an unknown band.

Believe it or not...some of your best advertising is merchandising, see my post in the Merchandising thread. IF one person wears your T-shirt to a big concert, it will be seen probably by more people than will see your posters.... It's like legions of little walking billboards!!

Plus it gives your band a sort of foundation so your fans can feel tied into your project. Like I said in the other post, make a simple but great design to keep costs down on setup and print charges and just buy the cheapest black shirts you can get, look online and price them out than go to your local printer and see what he can do for ultra cheap blacks...They will always try to sell you on Heavyweights because they make a better profit.... but go for large amounts at cheap prices because nobody cares about quality at a bar at 1AM, they are buying it for the design plus female fans look better in thin T-shirts!!!

Whitesel said what I was going to say but I can add a bit to it.

When you don't have the money to spend on radio time, then you have to be selective about where you book. For starters if you have a local following and pack any club you book yourself into, you can't book yourself out of town 200 miles away and expect the same turnout or even close to it.

You have to choose specific, intelligent locations when you start trying to branch out. College towns by far being one of the best choices as well as isolated towns with large populations yet a void around them and other well populated areas.
Word of mouth, posters, college radio promotion. A lot of those DJ's will be thrilled to have you stop into the studio in person if they like your music. Also a harder market to tap without the finances but one of the best is high schools, granted you can book a club without the age restrictions.

I've read a lot about advertising and to this day, nothing promotes you more than word of mouth due to the work place and schools. 10 people hear what you have to offer and think it's great, the next day at work or school that 10 converts into 100. Even major television and radio advertisement doesn't inform the public as much as word of mouth even though that's the primary financed source promoting you.

Handing out promo CD's, fliers with your website and free downloads, posters, banners on every band member's vehicle-you can have a really crappy band and proper promotion will deliver a killer turnout.

The big problem is you're gigging the same venue over and over. plus after a few weeks your best friends and biggest fans are only gonna come out once a month to the same place. Get word of mouth going and push other coffee house bar or whatever owners to have you on certain weeks. Once you establish 6 or so regular venues you will see the crowds back and the cd sales Because you are not saturating the town, not even market but town with your material

Good advice. I've never liked playing the same venue more than once a month. I think the crowd will get sick of the same band every Saturday night for example. I know that bands and venue owners like having the same bands every Saturday, Friday, Sunday, etc. It gets OLD. I'd rather play a certain venue say the last Saturday of the month, and then a different venue the first Saturday of the month, etc...