Monday, September 25th, 2006
Create Local Buzz For Your Band
One of the first goals a band should shoot for is to make it big in your state. Bands that do well in a state tend to get national recognition. Here are a few tips on creating some buzz around your band.
Play as many local shows as you can. Get to know all the good local bands and team up with them to put on shows in different cities in your state. Go on weekend tours. If your in Washington State for example. Play in Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Everett, and then head over to Eastern Washington and play the Tri Cities & Spokane.
Look for opportunities to team up with local business's or non profits. Non Profits love the help and they have many more resources at their disposal and are more likely to promote the event via media outlets.
Perform at as many high schools or colleges as you can. These are actually rather easy to set up. It is more about finding the right person to talk to. Once you know who is in charge of booking shows for various school activities you'll be all set. Ask to play any festivals, school assemblies, parties, freshman orientation, back to school & end of school year events.
Every state and community has local websites dedicated to the state local scene. Find all of these local state communities where you can promote your upcoming local shows and band news. You can find local state communities on livejournal, myspace, yahoo groups, etc.
Get to know the influential people in your community. There are people in every scene that are naturally popular, they are trendsetters and people gravitate to them. When they speak people listen and they can sometimes make or break a band. When they say "this band rocks, or they put on an awesome live show" people will buy the album and will show up the show. So look for those kids, get to know them, and be sure to give them a free CD or invite them to a show.
Finally get as much press as you can. Make contacts with the local high school newspaper editors, college newspaper editors, zines, regional newspapers, radio stations, and local tv programs. Send you press release out atleast twice a month to these media contacts, you don't want to annoy them with emails everyday. The press release should look and sound as professional as possible. If writing is not your thing then you will need to find a friend preferably an aspiring publicist or english major to help you out. Here are some examples of press release's we have received in the recent weeks.
http://www.isound.com/music_news/392
http://www.isound.com/music_news/394
http://www.isound.com/music_news/390
http://www.isound.com/music_news/381
When you send out your press release include tour dates, CD release parties, CD reviews, when the band enters the studio, accomplishments like sales figures or when you hit #1 on the iSOUND chart etc. Don't be afraid to Invite the local media to review your CD, and come see you live. Be sure to always include them on the guest list.
Create a local state buzz and national buzz will happen.
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Posted By Alex @ 12:00 AM
Author's site: http://www.isound.com
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shady_rosy's comment posted September 27th @ 7:23 AM:
This article provides Excellent information.
A lot of artists believe that somehow, one day, a manager will discover them and their problems will be over.
Really what they need to understand is that there is a lot of hard work and crappy gigs that come first.
High schools and college gigs are a great training ground. You work out the performance kinks. If the crowd is thin, you still play as if to a full house. You will gain a repuation.
But the road is very long.
Commentors site: http://www.myspace.com/shadyrosy |
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jeff_miller's comment posted September 27th @ 10:27 AM:
I appreciate the advice. I do want to give a word of caution to bands and artists out there looking to get into the college scene. Contrary to what this article says, it is not very easy to set up college gigs.
I've been playing college gigs since spring of 2004, and though it has been worth it, it certainly is not easy. It is not just a matter of asking questions to get to the 'right' person. I have attempted this approach (I sent out mailings and then called to follow up on 100 colleges in TN and KY), and so far it has been unsuccessful 100% of the time. The only way that I've gotten any gigs at colleges is through:
1) a previously-established connection (e.g., having a fan in the family of the right contact person, knowing a colleague of the right person...)
2) getting the opportunity to play in front of the 'right people'. There are big organizations out there (NACA and APCA come to mind) that charge colleges loads of money to bring them entertainment conventions. Unfortunately, most schools that belong to these organizations don't want to bring someone on campus who isn't affiliated with the organization. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to play at a NACA convention last year, and it landed me about 7 shows.
The road is not easy!
Commentors site: http://www.myspace.com/miller |
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