OnlineGigs
presents: Booking Your Act Technology and organization are
the keys to success.
When people start turning
to technology to help them organize their music careers, it usually
means they are finding it difficult to manage the process using the
traditional address book, notebook, or Outlook-style application.
All the technology in the world won’t make much of a difference
if you are only performing live a few times a month and aren’t
looking for more exposure. But if you are looking to perform as often
as possible and manage your music career from the road, a digital
solution is something you ought to consider.
You can only saturate your local market for so long before you start
to cannibalize your fan base. Eventually you will either need to expand
your performance radius or simply reduce the number of local live
shows. Attempting to play out and do more traveling means more opportunities.
The more live music talent buyers with your product in their hands,
the more likely you will book more performances. If nobody has your
CD and press kit, all you can really do is sit around and wait for
the phone to ring.
You can only follow up
so many times with the same buyer before you are considered a nuisance;
so maximizing your time also means constantly pursuing new opportunities.
You should set goals in terms of how many new talent buyers you will
send your info to on a weekly basis.
The old adage that it’s not what you know but who you know holds
true in the music industry. When you need a gig in Lincoln, NB it
is helpful to know the local live venues and how to get in touch with
the talent buyers. But identifying possible gig opportunities in new
markets is really just the tip of the iceberg, the real work starts
once you find a location that seems like a good fit for your act.
There are a whole series of activities that need to be religiously
executed to contact a talent buyer, book a gig, notify your team and
fans, prepare for the road, and promote the show to the local media.
Finding booking and promotional contacts
Booking gigs successfully requires persistence and organization, whether
you are an agent or an artist booking your own act. It doesn’t
matter whether you are booking locally, regionally or nationally.
You will essentially need the same skills and tools to be effective.
The first place to start is to collect contact information for locations
that hire live music performers. You need as many of these as possible
to increase your success potential, and you also need as much information
(phone number, styles of music, capacity, contact name etc.) about
the location that you can get your hands on.
Alternative newsweeklies can be a great source of local venue listings.
Every major market in the country has an independent weekly publication
and most of them can be found online (check out Alternative Weekly
Network at http://www.awn.org/). Sometimes the ads alone are enough
to determine whether or not your act is appropriate for a particular
venue. You will still need to get in touch with the venue however
to find out their booking policies and get the right contact name
for the talent buyer.
Printed music industry directories are an incredible resource. These
directories tend to list everything from venues to record companies
to managers and back again, so it is easy to get overwhelmed. Make
sure you pick the one that is right for you and that’s going
to help you accomplish your goals. Take a look at the Galaris Music
Directory, The Indie Bible, or the Musician’s Atlas to get a
sense of what is offered.
Your peers are an excellent place to find venues appropriate for your
band. Most will gladly share what they’ve learned regarding
the best time to reach the buyer or exactly how to pitch your act.
It’s a safe bet that they are usually interested in telling
people about all the venues they have played, so don’t be afraid
to whip out a pen and piece of paper. The more names and numbers you
can get your hands on, the more possible gigs you can lock down.
Keeping track of your booking efforts
So you’ve scoured the web, bought every music directory, and
harassed every touring band you know. At this point you probably have
an incredible collection of venues, colleges, festivals and press
contact information. You most likely have pages full of notes, emails
with referrals, and spreadsheets covered with names and numbers. But
now what? The key is to be able to effectively organize all of your
newfound contacts in a way that maximizes your opportunity with each
one of them.
Software or web-based applications such as Act, Outlook, or Onlinegigs
are all efforts to help you centralize your business related messages,
upcoming tasks, and important contact information. Handheld versions
such as a Filofax or Palm Pilot can also suit many of your needs.
Whatever you choose, be sure to get as many of the following features
as would apply to your specific needs:
• Complete access to all of your important contact and business
information in one location
• Multiple, archived backups of your information in case of
data loss or equipment failure
• Reminder system for upcoming activities and tasks
• Integrated email and fax messaging with message tracking and
search
• Customizable to better suit your specific industry
• Remote access from any internet connection
• Ability to easily share your information with others
• Pre-loaded with a directory of industry contacts
Next you will need to either import your address book or do some data
entry to get all of this the information into one place. You should
get in the habit of storing data for every contact you do business
with in this location. Every phone number, every email, every call,
every meeting etc. This one tool becomes your address book, your task
list, your reminder system, and your filing cabinet.
When you complete a phone call, make some notes about what was said
and store it with the contact. It sounds simple enough, but trying
to remember what different talent buyers told you during your last
conversation can become confusing. Similarly, a record should be created
for every upcoming task you need to complete. A list of venues that
need to be called, packages that need to be sent, press releases that
need to be generated, etc.
The best tools in the world can’t help anyone if there isn’t
a steady system of upkeep and interaction. Task lists need to be cleaned
up and contact information constantly needs updating and maintenance.
A system of centralization and organization is the key.
Performance contracts
After a few months of working your task list religiously, following
up with every club and persisting until you are specifically told
“Not interested,” you should be ready to book a few gigs.
Many an agreement has been made based on a phone call and a virtual
handshake, but if you want to live without headaches, get in the habit
of sending a written agreement.
The story usually goes like this: you sent the CD in January, to finally
book a gig in April for this upcoming August. It’s just a Tuesday
night for 100% of the door, a place to stay and some food, but it’s
a much-needed stop over between Colorado and Nevada. You call a week
before the gig from somewhere in Texas and the club has never heard
of you. What’s worse, there is another band booked on that night
and the other band has a confirmed written agreement.
Check out Faxwave, they will give you a free fax-to-email phone number.
This gives you the ability to have a buyer physically sign your agreement
and fax it back to you, but instead of receiving a traditional paper
fax, you will get an electronic copy of the signature in any email
inbox that you choose. This eliminates the likelihood of agreements
or faxes slipping through the cracks. Most venues book a ton of talent
and have their own problems keeping the information straight.
Promoting your shows
Now that you have been diligently sending out CDs, doing follow ups,
landing gigs and issuing contracts; you need to be sure to update
your fans as well as the local press about upcoming performances.
If you have never played before in a particular market, then most
likely nobody in that town has any idea who you are. And why would
anyone come out to see you play if they have never heard of you before
and have no idea that you are even playing. What you really need is
some press or at a minimum just a listing with the local radio and
print music calendars.
Your first step is to put together all of the contact names, fax numbers,
email addresses etc. for the local media outlets in a 30-60 mile radius
of your gig. Then you will have to prepare a professional and concise
press release. A good release should be able to convey all of the
pertinent information on one page. Radio stations and newspapers get
flooded everyday with hundreds of releases; they do not have time
to read numerous pages that outline your band’s Zen philosophy
or all of your bass player’s musical influences. Keep it to
the point or they will not read it all. Keep your layout clean; do
not use multiple fonts and font sizes or too many colors and graphics.
Make sure your release has a section with the performance details
that is easy to pick out and includes: Performance Date, Band Name,
Venue Name, Full Address, Phone, Website, Ticket Price, Set Times,
Age Limit and any other bands on the bill. Also be sure to include
your personal contact information: Contact Name, Phone, Email, and
Website. If someone needs to get in touch for a photo or an interview,
you want him or her to be able to find you quickly and easily.
Here is where your CRM (Contact Resource Management) program really
comes in handy. You could take the time to create numerous, personalized
press releases for each press contact you have found. This could take
you days depending on the size of the market. If we are talking about
New York City, it could take you months. But if you have the proper
tools like we outlined in the section above, you should be able to
create one template and just click ‘send’ to issue a release,
personally addressed, by fax or email, to hundreds of contacts all
at once.
Getting prepared for a tour
The gigs are booked and the important contracts have been signed and
returned. You will now need to get a couple of things done before
you leave. At a minimum you should prepare a tour itinerary that outlines
all of the details of the trip for your whole team. Keeping your manager,
publicist, and band members in the loop is going to ultimately cut
down on your own stress level. Give everyone a copy of each gig’s
address, phone number, set time etc. Someone is going to have to get
directions from each gig to the next, so you might as well include
those in with the itinerary. This will hopefully cut down on your
only set of directions getting lost or destroyed.
Once you get on the road, someone can use the itinerary to advance
your shows. Every venue needs to be called a week or so before the
gig to confirm any last minute details. Getting into the habit of
advancing your shows is the only way to eliminate any surprises. Sound
systems blow up, venues close down, and liquor licenses get pulled.
Every band needs someone that can take on another simple task or two.
This one is simple but arguably one of the most important.
In conclusion…
Many independent musicians make a living through touring, CD and merchandise
sales. These mavericks represent everything DIY and grassroots. They
are living their dreams through their art, but they thrive by the
power of organization and information. It’s a strange balancing
act, but someone’s got to do it.
OnlineGigs.com is a group of DIY musicians, bands
and agents that built a central database whose members can contribute
to and help to maintain. As a result, the information is constantly
up to date, and as more members join, it will continue to become even
more accurate and grow. With access to the right tools and resources,
every artist should have the ability to survive and prosper through
practicing their craft. Visit OnlineGigs at http://www.onlinegigs.com/.
