Tips on promoting your band

[LBAjazz]

Anybody got any good ideas on promotion? Tell me what you have done that has worked or what sounded good but didn't work.

[kcp]

Have a Press document, or if our band is new have a (short) descriptive brochure w/ pictures. On your "big" gigs it's worth it to hire a photographer and use the pictures to update your press doc/brochure or use on your website. Have a demo on CD. Have business cards made for each musicians in your band w/ website adress & email. To have more than one booker doesn't hurt. Don't sign-up with bookers that want exclusivity. Have a video done of your band in performance (not too long, 5 min top) more and more clients, esp. festivals, congress ask for this nowadays. Plan a Show-Case where you invite potential bookers and clients (this is $$ though) and sell some CDs. Don't do "charity" gigs or free appearances even though they promiss you to be on TV, front page of the paper or whatever; It doesn't work.

That's all I can think of right now.
Have fun :wink:

[sax rookie]

Web site, web site, web site... with downloadable mp3 samples. Make the samples short so the download is fast, as opposed to squashing the fidelity to make the file smaller. A glossy promo pack with a sample song CD wouldn't hurt either. The more professional you 'appear' the more professional you are to a client. I stress the use of sample songs (about a minute in length) because most club owners have the attention span of a gnat and wont sit through a whole disc of your music.

[Bill Mecca]

A lot of club owners want to see your band's mailing list, to see what kind of $$ you will bring thru the door.

[JL]

All these pointers are important. Billmecca also hit on something. When you do get a gig, especially if it's the first one at a given club, everyone in the band should invite everyone they know (especially the heavy drinkers, lol) to come down and fill the place up. When the owner sees this, and counts the bar $$, you'll be asked back.

[pepper]

get someone else to take care of all the business/promo side, and concentrate on the music

[LBAjazz]

Pepper, I agree that would be best but I don't see it happening right now. I cannot even count on the other players to do any promo, booking etc. My doctor has advised me to get out of the construction business and I hate it anyway. I need to get more gigs and unless I do it, it won't get done.

[Cozmo]

All these pointers are important. Billmecca also hit on something. When you do get a gig, especially if it's the first one at a given club, everyone in the band should invite everyone they know (especially the heavy drinkers, lol) to come down and fill the place up. When the owner sees this, and counts the bar $$, you'll be asked back.

Heheh, sounds good, too bad our heaviest drinkers will be playing together hehe.

[Anonymous]

Playing together for the first set... Then it's every man for himself!

[electricninja]

Think Dave Matthews Band... in the beginning they freely passed around their recordings and through word-of-mouth, their popularity spread like wildfire and everyone knew the words to their songs.

The music was good and easy to acquire for anyone who wanted it. The payout came at the performances. No independent band gets rich off of CD's.

And that's another thing that sucks; most bands don't post their lyrics ANYWHERE, neither with the CD nor online. It's not like we don't have copyright laws! Make it easy for me to sing along! Show me your poetry so I can quote you later!

It comes back to business... do you want to be popular, or do you want to nickel-and-dime your product?

[werkinsnake]

Here's a quick tip on an easy copyright or patent. If you write a song with lyrics, simply make a cd with a page of your lyrics and simply mail it to yourself. When you recieve your cd, leave it in it's original package/envelope. The post date on the package is now a legal patent, AS LONG AS THE SEAL IS UNBROKEN!!! If someone steals your song, take them to court where the judge will then ask you to open the envelope, and you can nail the dude who tried to steal your music.

[steve]

All good points...Mr. snake, I think you are referring to a "poor man's copyright"....I don't practice in the copyright area, so I will defer to any attorney who does who can clarify the issue, but my recollection is that first use of a work, publicly, gives the artist/composer a "common law copyright". But, if you have a really good original work, spend the bucks to get federal and state copyright protection.
Press kits with a good photo, bio of the band, demo CD, and cover letter are good tools. Web sites are the norm. Money is what its all about with club owners...the first question we get asked is how many people will show up to hear us play. We spam our email list prior to a gig. At a gig we will ask the patrons for their email addresses. Schmoozing the club owner, and follow up contacts are important.

[gary]

"Every rehearsal is a performance and every performance is an audition."

LBAjazz - this may sound a bit wacky, but David Lee Roth wrote a bio and in it he talks often about how he promoted Van Halen. And not only in the beginning. They were big and they were still fighting T-shirt sellers in auditoruim parking lots, etc. There are some good things in his book to think about.

It's been out in paperback for some time, shouldn't be on the NY Times list, and could probably be had for 50 cents at your nearest yard sale.

[Josh]

Here's a quick tip on an easy copyright or patent. If you write a song with lyrics, simply make a cd with a page of your lyrics and simply mail it to yourself. When you recieve your cd, leave it in it's original package/envelope. The post date on the package is now a legal patent, AS LONG AS THE SEAL IS UNBROKEN!!! If someone steals your song, take them to court where the judge will then ask you to open the envelope, and you can nail the dude who tried to steal your music.

I know this is old, but it's important. Does this for some reason only apply to lyrics, or could I also copyright a tune by recording it and mailing a printed copy to myself? If so, do I have to record it, or do I just have to have it written down?