Spend Less Time on the Phone & Get More Gigs

The first thing you need to do is identify where you are as an artist. It’s easy to develop a business-as-usual mentality as an independent artist. But any successful independent artist will tell you looking at the big picture is just as important as taking care of the day to day details.

Taking an objective look at your current level of development is crucial when planning your summer. How many markets are you playing in? More importantly, how do you draw in those markets? If your not drawing to capacity at the larger clubs in the markets your playing in, you need to pick a market to focus on, or two if they are close enough together.

I subscribe to the overlapping circle touring philosophy when it comes to market development. The first market you should develop is obviously your home market. After that, you look for the next closest market to you geographically. Once that market is developed to the point where your drawing to capacity, you look for a market that is geographically near that market. This enables you to string together a tour of dates where you are traveling to a new market each day. Plotting the markets on a map creates a circle. The more markets you develop, the bigger the circle or circles, and the longer tour you can take.

The most proven method of developing a market has many names, but essentially it goes like this. Play anywhere and everywhere you can for 2-6 months (or as long as it takes for you to get a buzz going and pick up momentum in the market). Reach out to every local music pro you can find (Promoters, reporters, publicists, radio DJ’s, the clerks at the local music stores that carry your CD, etc) and start developing relationships with them. Get to know the people who come out to see you as much as possible (Bro-ing out) – at the show, after the show, at the after show party, etc. Everyone wants to know the “rock star”. Everyone wants to say they were the first person to “discover” the band. There is no substitute for an active fan base. Fans who feel a connection to the artist are five times more likely to promote the band to their friends.

Once you have developed relationships with enough fans to fill up the smaller venues, you need to start to play less frequently. At first you’ll be playing in the market Monday-Sunday if possible. But once you start developing a solid following of your own, you want to limit the number of your performances for two reasons. First off, you don’t want to burn yourselves out to the local music fans. Number two, by limiting the number of opportunities people have to see you, you concentrate your draw. This helps you ensure that when you play, your fans show up.  If they miss your show, it may be a week or month before they can see you again.

It all starts at home

You will never have more of a home court advantage than you do in your home market. You have spent a large amount of time there. You have friends and connections as well as a fundamental understanding of the local music scene. Because you know the whole picture, you should know who to talk to, or someone who can introduce you to anyone you need to talk to.

The other crucial advantage you have in your home market is the fact that your there. To develop a band in any market, someone has to be pounding the streets in the market. Developing relationships on the business side of the industry is almost identical to the way you develop a solid fan base. It all comes down to developing and maintaining personal relationships.

You know the people who write the music sections of the local papers and have no doubt developed relationships or friendships with them. You invite them to your shows and do things to make sure they feel welcome like your manager buying them a beer, or putting them on the list at the door. When you have something new happening, you make sure to let them know, but personalize it so they know you value their opinion. Your not one of those band’s that cc’s them with an impersonal spam email of upcoming shows then wonders why they never get any press. Spam is dead.

But your first problem while developing a new market is you don’t know who any of the local writers are. It’s not like you can run down to the corner and pick up the weekly reader to see what’s going on. You probably don’t even know the name of the papers in the market! This is a textbook reason why so many successful independent artist’s use the Music Phone Book. The MPB lists thousands of press and media contacts including their direct contact information.

You could probably find some of that information if you knew where to look online. Depending on the size of the market, you could probably find a decent number of local contacts in a few hours. Then again, the entertainment papers may not list the writer’s contact info on their websites. Maybe they don’t have a website at all. Maybe it’s a new paper and they aren’t online yet. Instead of wasting those couple hours looking for information online, Smart independent artist’s simply grab their copy of the Music Phone Book and start calling the writers immediately. Remember, finding them is only step one. Developing a relationship will take time.

You see, most music writers only do two types of band articles: on local bands, or on bands that have an impact on the local scene. In your home market you met the first requirement because you lived there. But on the road, you have to provide a local angle or slant to a writer about how your band is having an impact on the local scene; exchanging shows with a popular local act, doing a radio interview with a local station the night of your next show, drawing to capacity at the market’s biggest venue, etc. Playing up this local angle will increase your success in getting the press you want.

Multi pronged attack

Another difficulty independent artist have is working to achieve several different goals without loosing focus. While your contacting local writers to develop relationships that will help you down the line, you also need to be scouting the local venue scene to find the right room for your band.

Many independent artists mistakenly think playing the biggest venue in a market is the best possible thing for their band. In most cases, nothing could be farther than the truth. Number one, it’s usually a pretty big room. If your new to the market and don’t have a big fanbase, that room is going to look awful empty to the club talent buyer. Your band’s perception changes to a talent buyer when that happens. It’s nothing personal, but if you can’t fill the room or come close, you wont be asked back. The number one priority for ALL talent buyers is filling the room. Failing to bring enough people also means it will be that much more difficult for you to get your foot back in the door as well.

It is always more impressive to pack a smaller room than fail to fill a big one. Even if it is a show at a venue with a low capacity, when a band fills a room - everyone sees it – your fans, the club that’s paying you, any reporters at the show, people on myspace, etc. And what did they see? A band that packed the place and put on a great show.

Many independent artists also mistakenly feel talent is the most important thing when it comes to landing a gig. While being talented helps you get the fans that fill the room, it wont get you booked if you don’t have the fans in the first place. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ANY TALENT BUYER IS YOUR DRAW. As sad as it may be, it’s a safe bet that nearly every talent buyer in the country would rather book a less talented band with a big draw that an extremely talented band without one. The sooner you understand that concept, the better off you’ll be.

So how do you find the right club for you? Again not living in the market, your going to have to do some research. Not all bars have live music, so it’s a little more difficult than when you tried to find a local newspaper to write about your band.

Different bars have different formats, crowds, age limits, etc. Unless you know all that information about each bar in the market, you’ll have to spend days or weeks trying to find the right place to play. Luckily the Music Phone Book lists all that information for more live music clubs and venues than any other magazine on the planet. It also lists direct contact information for the club talent buyer, including the best day and time to call them. So instead of spending a week or two on the phone and internet looking for clubs to play at, you can start calling the clubs now. That’s especially important this time of the year as most clubs have already been booking their summer shows for a month or two now. Time is running out.

When contacting a club, make sure you are a good fit for their room. Playing the music format they book will make it easier to get your fans to the club and let you pick up some of the club’s fans. As a rule of thumb, you should be able to bring a minimum of half the capacity of the room. When you tell the talent buyer you can bring 50% of the club’s capacity, your chances of getting booked increase dramatically. But your chances of getting a second show will be next to none if you don’t back up what you promise the talent buyer. So be careful about exaggerating.

“Obviously I would prefer to book a band that packs my club than one band that only fills up half,” said John Gillantry of Down Home Productions. “But you need those half band’s too. Not very many bands can pack a club all by themselves. If a band tells me they can bring a certain number of people and they’re close, I’ll work with ‘em. Some of those bands can become the band’s that do pack the house and I pay those bands the big money.”

Make no doubt about it, bands that sell out a club get paid in more ways than one. In addition to the money you get for the show, your draw becomes an asset. The club will likely sweeten the deal to keep you from taking your draw to another club. This puts a band in the best possible position. When your crowd gets so big you have to find another room, the next club’s talent buyer will already know who you are. They will also know your draw will bring a certain number of people, and may even contact you first, to make your band a better offer to come play their club.

The process of growing from smaller to larger clubs is called matriculating through the venues. Bands that develop themselves in a market this way always have an advantage when negotiating how much they will be paid. The larger club knows your getting paid x dollars by the smaller venue and that unless they offer you more, you probably wont play their room. They also know you can bring them what they want – fans to fill their club. Remember, your draw is the most important thing to a club talent buyer.

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