The Fine Art of Promotion
By Tom Hallett

So you want to be a promoter? It ain't like being a rock and roll star, that's for sure.

The first question you should be asking yourself is: Why do bands or artists need or want bookers in the first place? Wouldn't it just be easier, and cheaper, for them to do the job themselves?

Well, yes and no.

It would be cheaper, but it certainly wouldn't be as effective. Clubs and promoters will give an official booker a lot more respect and leeway than they will the actual band members. Why? Who knows? It's just the way the business is. Get used to it. The music industry is chock full of little twists and turns like this that make absolutely no sense.

Look at it this way — if you wanted to buy some macaroni and cheese, would you drive directly to the factory and pick the noodles straight out of the pasta maker? Of course not. You'd walk on down to the corner grocery and snag your blue-and-white box there. And you'd pick that certain brand of noodles, because you've seen, heard, and read about ten thousand advertisements telling you it's the best.

And that's your job in a nutshell.

You have to convince not only the grocery store owner (club, festival or event booker/organizer) that your product is the best one to stock on his shelves (his Friday night, or weekend rock-fest stage), but you also have to convince the noodle-buyer (ticket and album purchaser) that your product is the one they want to come into the store (club) and buy to eat (rock out and buy liquor to).

Does it make you uncomfortable referring to your band or artist as a "product?"

Get used to that, too. Art, originality, and musical integrity are way down on the list here.

Club owners and festival organizers, tour bookers and national management companies could care less if you think your act is the next Hank Williams, New York Dolls, or Leonard Cohen. They want to pack as many ticket-buying or cover-paying bodies into a room as they can, while selling as much booze, food, and merchandise as possible. Then they want to send the mobs home full, happy and drunk. If you get lucky and score a gig somewhere without delivering the maximum on those counts, you can be assured you won't be asked back.

Pretty bleak scenario, eh? Once again, the answer is yes and no.

Those hurdles help to weed out both unprofessional promoters and some of the millions of truly horrible bands currently vying for stage time. The downside is that you have to work twice as hard to set yourself apart from those kinds of people and products.

But you can and should believe in yourself and, most importantly, in the acts on your roster. If you can't sell your artist to a club booker, you can forget about radio airplay, print and television coverage, and record store placement.

One key to launching a successful booking/promo business is to stock your stable with artists you actually like and listen to yourself. If you really believe in the music, it's a helluva lot easier to sell it to some bored music biz insider who hears 40 people a day telling him their band is the next big thing.

Also, without media help, you're not going to pack any booze-buying, ticket-hungry bodies into those clubs. Whether you're shooting for a national, regional, or local tour or gig, you should automatically set up an enthusiastic press blitz at least a month before the show. So, once you've targeted your prospective blitz-receivers, you need to devise a stellar promotional kit for each act on your roster.

Most bands are already hip to promo photos, rudimentary press kits, and bios. What many don't realize is that club owners, journalists, and media folks receive literally thousands of those packets every week. You need to set yours apart. Take the time to have a professional photograph (with each band member identified) taken.

Do not — repeat DO NOT — let the band members write their own press kit. Do it yourself or hire a respected local journalist with credibility on the scene to do it for you. Always include a CD or some sample of the band's music. You aren't going to get airplay or club consideration with words alone.

And never, ever, under any circumstances, send out promo packs in plain brown envelopes. Put eye-catching stickers on the outside and always ship your material first class. I know you're probably broke and operating on a shoestring budget, but no one else needs that information. Everyone you deal with concerning your band should be convinced that from the get-go, they're already on their way up, and that the radio station/club/festival is lucky to be getting them at this stage in their careers.

All hooey? Maybe. But your job is to SELL, SELL, SELL. Paying close attention to the above steps won't guarantee you a gig anywhere, but it will definitely up the odds in your favor.

Now you've got your package together, you know which radio stations, media outlets, and clubs to hit — it's time to get on that phone and the Internet.

Never send your packages without calling and e-mailing first. Find out who's booking or promoting at the outlet you've chosen, and call them. Even if you get an answering machine (you most likely will), leave a detailed message, repeat the name of your booking firm and the band you're pushing (make sure to describe the band's genre/style so bookers can think about several different nights with different acts to pair them with) three or four times, leave your phone number twice, and let them know a package is coming their way. Wait a week or so, then follow up that call and ask whether they got your package and what they thought of it.

Once you get them on the phone and your package is in front of them, you're ready to sell.

Let them know how big of a following your band has. Tell them you've packed rooms from college towns to big cities, and that you're doing a mega-press-blitz for the show you'd like to do at their venue. Don't be picky in the beginning — especially at top-level local clubs because your band will be lucky to get an opening or middle slot for a local fave on a weekday night, or, if you're really lucky, for a national act or tour. Take what you can get without underselling your act. But remember that established national acts are having a hard time getting a guarantee from venues nowadays. Your band should be prepared to make as little as nothing and as much as a couple hundred dollars for a gig, depending on how well you've promoted it. Sometimes, you'll have to be happy with a few free drinks.

Remember — you're the face and the voice of the band or artist you're promoting. Whether or not they get gigs depends on your enthusiasm, professionalism, and attitude. If you're not a salesperson, don't even try booking bands.

The important thing in the beginning is to establish your bands and build an audience.

They're not Kiss, even if they do know every song on Destroyer. If you're working with new bands, make sure people know that they have a very loyal following and that they're going to provide both a great night of entertainment and help sell a lot of drinks, if they're playing a club.

And follow up on those promises. Rock shows in the '60's and '70's were so successful because somebody took the time to tack up cool posters, talk to the media, hang out at the clubs and brag about their bands, schmooze with the pretty scenesters and pack a bar with a respectable number of paying customers.

That's how it works. Once your act has impressed the club owners, etc. with their awesome draw and stage performance, you're in the running. Now it's again up to you to keep those relationships strong and follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!!

Let's go over the list, in order, of absolute requirements for booking or promoting your band:

Good luck.

Tom Hallett is a freelance writer / booker / impressario based out of St. Paul, MN. He's contributed to The St. Paul Pioneer-Press, The Twin City Reader, Pulse of the Twin Cities, the Midway Como Monitor, and reams of underground 'zines. He currently books a dozen or so popular Minneapolis / St. Paul acts, and can be reached at: tmygunn777@aol.com.