General Music Chat

I know I will get slammed for this.

But weve come across another band marketing scheme.

Online dating sites, if you go in one you can find people within an area code and hit them with an invite. Kind of a different angle, but I figure they are looking for a date so ask them to come see the band. There may be some single people there. I figure they are lonely and looking for things to do so maybe a few will show up. Well actually a few have shown up and said they had a good time.

Just another angle to get people to shows.

Oh yeah on peoples profile it ussually tells their music preferences so you can pin point people that like your bands music.

On the other hand it may go against the nature of a site, so if you do it too big you might get booted off.

Good Luck

OMG that's friggin brilliant!

JW gets 10 bonus points for "creative thinking".

I dunno...it may be smart, but it also stinks a bit of spam-like opportunism, in a way. Still, if it works, good for you.

I would liken it to the guys who try to sell phones in here, though...

I dunno...it may be smart, but it also stinks a bit of spam-like opportunism, in a way. Still, if it works, good for you.

I would liken it to the guys who try to sell phones in here, though...

There's a really fine line between spam and marketing... One is accepted as perfectly legit and the other is not.

I hate spam, but understand the need to market, so where do we draw the line?

I've been pondering this a lot lately, as I'm sick of playing free 'exposure' gigs that really don't do much for us.. surely there's a better way to market ourselves and do more meaningful gigs.. just playing to 'pack the house' seems to be a case of kicking our own asses, as musicians - if $ is the only object, great.. but if exposure is the object, then playing the same rotations and getting maybe 1 or 2 new fans per gig seems to be self-defeating.

I would liken it to the guys who try to sell phones in here, though...

Maybe we should go to some cell phone sites and start posting our musical ads. Show 'em what it's like.

Well the flip side is that a couple of us in the band are available, so is it spam or memorex.

Philby you have a point there.

But most of them post they want to have a fun time and meet available people. Most of our gigs are fun, and after midnite everbodys available even the ones that shouldnt be.

We will see how it goes. As far as spam Im not really selling them anything or asking for their money, I guess if someone complains they will just shut me out of the site. Quite a few Ive messaged are sending me all kinds of messages about just about everything under the sun.

I dont know if any of you have looked at singles sites but the forums and stuff are a trip. Ive learned all sorts of things.

In the end I think most people on those sites are looking for attention, and if I give them attention even with the motive of getting them out of the house and off there asses, its just like me getting on here all the time and telling would be wanta be musicians to get off their asses and find some other "real" musicians to interact with.

Kramer, This past weekend, my band played this grand opening deal with radio support. They decided to have music from 1 in the afternoon all day and then we would play 9-1. When they told me all this, all I could think of was us having to set up our pa with a packed house. They told me I would get to set up at 7:30 for our 9pm slot. So i offered to come in early with our soundsystem and do the whole day. I didnt ask for anything cause we were getting radio support. 600 airings of a commercial that featured our name and us playing on it. I havent thought about it but Ive been on the radio for a week probably as many times as Metallica in a week. Not bad. So anyway, this place is packed to the gills, a side note weve played there a couple of times and bring the biggest crowd of any of their regular bands. The door guy said they took money from 210 people and get this women are free, and it looked to me like the women were 2 to 1. At the end of the night they gave me what I originally agreed to, no bump up for pa, or the fact that we brought a lot of the people, not all but a lot.

Last night I booked a show at a new venue we havent played but have been wanting to play for monthes. He asked what I wanted and i actually asked a little more than my gut told me to ask for. Of course I didnt quite get it but the guy got a referral fro another manager who loves us. In the conversation he says, look I'll give you this base pay plus a bar tab (he may regret that) , and if we hit certain benchmarks in attendance we will bonus you accordingly. Now, I dont know the guy, but I always take people at their word til they prove themselves different.

Kramer I guess im ranting cause there is a serious lack of recognition at the places we play. The first place told me that this past weekend was there best weekend ever, and told us that the other best weekends theyve had were when we were there. I went in the other day and tlaked to the lady again and said I think you should bump our pay up some since we are bringing it in for you. She says that against my policy and I pay all bands the same.

Not to bragg but Ive come thru there on an off sat night an at midnight theres 10 people sitting around and some horrible band playing, and shes paying them the same thing as me. Something is seriously wrong there. Im all for fairness but once youve proven yourself a few times it seems you should be compensated.

I felt like for the opening thing, since I provided a soundman and gear all day and with the success they had they should have at least gave us a little bump up, well they did cover our tab for a change so that was probably good for another $100 so I guess i should just be happy.

Anyway Im done and feel better

C-Yall

Oh yeah on another note. Neanderpaul is coming thru my area tomorrow night. Im trying to work around to take my son and daughter, hopefully I'll get some pictures to put up on here.

Not to bragg but Ive come thru there on an off sat night an at midnight theres 10 people sitting around and some horrible band playing, and shes paying them the same thing as me. Something is seriously wrong there. Im all for fairness but once youve proven yourself a few times it seems you should be compensated.

Too bad there's not a forum somewhere for club owners (that I know of) so they could discuss what brings a crowd. Maybe they'd see that if they paid more and only got good bands, the crowds would start to increase and everyone would come out a winner. Even the lousy bands, as this would give them a good reason to improve.

Hey JW-

I agree that the club owner is being unreasonable about the pay bump- perhaps you could try booking at a decreased rate, and let her know why? Maybe she will eventually bump you when she realizes that she's doing a lot less business when you only place once ever 12 or 20 weeks vs. when you play every 6 weeks?

I don't know..

All I know is that pay seems to be steadily decreasing everywhere, be it our originals or cover bands.. and most are wrapping that "exposure" bullshit into their pitch to the band, right before the "no pay / low pay" bomb drops. I'm kind of pissed right now only because (see my thread in the tour talk forum) of an unpaid festival gig that's not a charity gig...

ok enough of me bitching..

I don't see a problem with this. Especially if you're not automating anything (using software to push out thousands of e-mails per second, etc., which really is spam)


I see marketing as the challenge of trying to inform people who already want to see your band. They already want to buy your product, they just don't know you exist yet.


What I mean is this: My dad is a sales rep. And one of the things he instructed me on a long time ago is that you can't sell something to someone who doesn't want it. That's not sales.

Sales is really all about matchmaking; you're trying to hook the right buyer up with the right product. The seller doesn't know where all the buyers are, and the buyer doesn't know about the product, so it's up to the marketing person (matchmaker) to get the two together.

Anyway, point is - if someone isn't in the market for what you're selling, you will never "sell" to them no matter what kind of sales "technique" you use.

We're in the business of music. Our challenge, from a marketing standpoint, is to find consumers who already want what we're selling. They want to hear live music, they just don't know what's out there or where to go. It's our job (since we're almost always doing our own marketing) to make the buyers aware.

A dating site is, to my way of thinking, a perfect place to make a sale. It's not spam - it's marketing. And it's particularly good marketing if you're targeting people based on musical preferences. That makes it kind of like job hunting. Every HR person I've ever talked to or learned from has always said the same thing: you have a much better chance of getting a job if you target your resume to the specific company where you are applying. Generic resumes just get thrown out. And this is no different. If you're a hard rock cover band there isn't much sense in marketing to country listening folk.

So I think a dating website is a brilliant idea. My next thought is - what other locations (both physical and/or internet) can you think of where you could do some targeted marketing that has a high chance of being successful?

I mean, I think this is a brilliant idea. This is what this website is for; let's brainstorm and think of places where people who want to hear live music congregate, and think of how we can market to them to get our bands exposed.

Colors Fade, I have probably plugged 100 people on these sites. Like you say if they are into country or they like to sit home and watch movies I dont bother messing with them. But if they say classic to dance rock or in the profile say they want to get out and dance, then thats fair game to me. Or they want to get out of the house and meet people. Its a win win from where I sit.

Yea, as you can see Im open to anyway to interact with potential fans. I use myspace and have recently gotten going on face book. If someone is using facebook for band marketing I would love to hear ideas there. It seems like for a lot of people its the new myspace.

I seem to remember in college marketing that it takes people hearing your name 7 times for it to be implanted in their thoughts. So the more places you can get your name shoved around the better, cause a lot of these mediums have got to cross into each other at some point.

7 times?

Noisy Kung Fu
Noisy Kung Fu
Noisy Kung Fu
Noisy Kung Fu
Noisy Kung Fu
Noisy Kung Fu

Number seven is below.

No really John. What ever you have to do to promote your project is cool.
All's fair in love war and music.

If someone is using facebook for band marketing I would love to hear ideas there. It seems like for a lot of people its the new myspace.

The only problem with facebook is, you can't just go view someone's profile and see if you want to add them like you can on Myspace. You have to add them first to see their profile. But you can start your own group (fanclub) on your page and add the people you already have as facebook friends to that group so that you can send band and gig info to just them.
JW, I just sent an invite to you on facebook. Once you confirm it, I can hook you up with some friends that have a band in Little Rock. They are one of the best self promoters that I know and when you add them, you can see how they do it. Their myspace page is http://www.myspace.com/sharpedunawayandthebluemeanies and you should add them to your friends as they use that for promotion too. And I think you'll get a kick out of their music they have on there. Their drummer is a DJ on a classic rock station in Little Rock and others in the band have specific talents that help promote the band, like a graphic artist that designs their posters and stuff.

well i have solved your problem peoples check out www.thegigman.com


cheers!!!