[Frank D]

What do you do to pitch your band for potential gigs? Right now I'm in two bands that could be playing more gigs, but I'm puzzled as to how to pitch them to potential clients. One small jazz quintet has no recordings, pictures or social media presence at all. The big band has pictures and video, but they're cell phone quality from outdoor gigs and look like home movies, not professional quality at all. We're not playing enough gigs now to invite someone to visit to hear in person. I'm developing a Facebook page and creating events for gigs, but until we get better pics and video it's not something I can really steer potential clients to.

How do you promote your bands? What's been the most effective for you, that I might concentrate on first?

 

[59Martin]

Our promo stuff is kind of all over the place but here are a few things we did:

I teach at college and a couple of years ago, I invited a group of my college students to film one of our gigs as a project for their class, they did an amazing job.

We've had friends / amateur photographers come to shows to shoot in the green room and on stage.

I got the sound guy to give me the files from the board from one of our shows and mixed that with a recording from a couple of Zooms I had placed in the crowd.

We once had a random guy set up a tripod and shoot an entire show and then offer us the footage for $50 which we gladly paid.

Our shows are mainly promoted through posters, Facebook, Eventbrite, and a band mailing list.

 

[JayeLID]

What do you do to pitch your band for potential gigs? Right now I'm in two bands that could be playing more gigs, but I'm puzzled as to how to pitch them to potential clients. One small jazz quintet has no recordings, pictures or social media presence at all. The big band has pictures and video, but they're cell phone quality from outdoor gigs and look like home movies, not professional quality at all. We're not playing enough gigs now to invite someone to visit to hear in person. I'm developing a Facebook page and creating events for gigs, but until we get better pics and video it's not something I can really steer potential clients to.

How do you promote your bands? What's been the most effective for you, that I might concentrate on first?

I think you already answered your own question, regarding what you gotta DO.

1) Go into studio, record at least three studio-quality tracks.

2) Get some good photos, they can be live-in-performance taken by someone's phone-cam, but make them good resolution and GOOD.

3) Get on social media (dammit, did I actually just SAY that ? 😖😫 It's the devil we know, but no way around it).
We do Instagram, not FB, and we get by very well with that, as most all venues have both accounts.

4) Band page. Make one. Many sites available, we use reverbnation.com, it's free and its layout templates are pretty good.

5) Get whomever is best at schmoozing to start approaching managers of other establishments. Refer them to your social media and bandpage. Depending on your locality, consider whether you are willing to do an initial gig for a bit under-rate, as a trial; clarifying that it'd be to see how it all goes and whether they think you are a good fit. The trial fee would not be your regular, clarify that.

6) Get any friend or acquaintance to follow you on social media....venues like to see a good # of followers, they get the impression you can 'draw'.

7) Getting a real film/vid person to actually shoot a good quality video isn't a bad idea...could be live or could be, as our vid shows, during the recording session...
Note that we DO use cellphone vids...in SNIPPETS...on social media, just to show us in performing context; rarely are they longer than 30 seconds, oftentimes maybe only 15 or so.

8) Signage for the gig. Design and print up a sign, good size at least 24x36 and think of how you wanna mount it. I bought a portable art easel at an art store for that, it can sit between 12 and 48" off of floor....should read name of group, social media URLs, and band page URL.

I have never actually posted my band links here, have been hesitant, but this seems an appropriate time to give you an example. I play bass in this group, as it's my first instrument,
I always joke that I'm a Luddite with their own website...and actually I now run three, my vintage instrument sales one, and two band ones. I really do sorta abhor the www ....but...

www.instagram.com/lushlifequintet

www.reverbnation.com/lushlifequintet

...are...reasonable examples of the sorta firepower a band needs to go with these days to market themselves and provide a resource when you go soliciting. This doesn't remotely APPROACH what a LOT of bands in this region do, but it's also significantly MORE than what at least 30% of them do....and being a little understated for a Jazz group is OK....

Find bands who play similar material, follow them on social media, find out what venues they play at.
Approach those venues (sorry but bluntly speaking we all do that to each other, particularly if your genre is something a bit less popular than rock and folk).
Approach via email, social media, and occasionally in person....walk in, order a drink, chat up a bartender during a non-busy time, get the name/contact info of the person in charge of entertainment there.

Scope out music festivals in your locality...Music in the Park events, these sorta things. Get in touch with whomever is the point person of those. Are there annual fairs of some sort ? Wine festival, art festival, food festivals, etc ? Most will have live entertainment...
Dig and get the contact for the point person(s) for those.

At shows we really push our internet presence, we wanna pick up followers, we want bandpage visits. Print business cards, leave several by the tip jar at your gigs and point this out a few times throughout the evening while addressing the audience.

I always, always message a new follower to thank them for the follow. Sometimes this results in a rapport starting and this has on a number of occasions resulted in private gigs...and a few friendships to boot.

At break during a show, musicians have a tendency to go sequester themselves in a corner, hanging out just us, together.
Bad idea.
Walk around the joint, schmooze....if someone at a table or whatever makes eye contact with you, approach them and just thank them for hanging out and watching the show; no need to force a convo, if they are interested in one they'll start talking back; if they are not, you have done enough in that small gesture.

Hope this helps.

 

[John Laughter]

Our band plays for wedding receptions, high school and college reunions, corporate & private parties.

We have a Facebook page with cell phone sound samples and many photos of dancers having a fun time. Very few photos of the band members since it's not about us but all about the crowds and dancers having a fun time. We are a party band. I take some cell photos during the gigs and post them on FB to show what our music does for the dancers.

The two main things I have found over the years that helps us getting more gigs is playing at one party usually leads to getting hired for another party if someone at the party likes what we are doing. The 2nd thing is posting a song list (which is very long) and asking that YOU pick the songs you want us to play. We have a wide variety of Top 40 dance music from the 50's, 60's 70's 80's through more recent hits. I have found that if I offer the hiring party the option of picking the songs that they appreciate it. I also ask them to let me know of songs they DO NOT want played.

We have our own sound system for both inside and outside gigs, stage lights and WE control our total sound.

And of course dressing for the ocasion, being on time, friendly and professional.

So far it has worked for many years

 

[BrianMitchellBrody]

There is nothing more essential than getting out and hitting the bricks to the clubs you want to play. Bring an iPad or its equivalent or just your phone and have videos to show them right there and then. Leave a card and call back every couple weeks until they relent.

 

[Grumps]

The leader of our brass band spent years building a social media following on facebook. If a gig's a money-maker that's based on ticket sales, he'll advertise on Facebook as well. Now I don't set any of this up, and I'm not even registered on facebook. However, I do see what's posted there and often enough it's very low tech videos and some cringeworthy playing. Tell you the truth though, I don't think folks that do the hiring are as critical as we are when viewing this. Likely, they're more enticed by the number of followers.

Another idea is an online site called Gig Salad: Plan the Perfect Event - 110,000+ Bands, Entertainers, Party Pros for Hire | GigSalad
We get hired and paid through that site, and the reviews are all verified. Much easier when you have someone else selling your band.

 

[Frank D]

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty much trying to cover all those bases since I inherited marketing duties for the big band after expressing my frustrations to the leader (ironically a salesman in his day job). Getting a good picture of that group is like herding cats. Try gettin 17 guys in the same place at the same time, nicely dressed (with 17 different interpretations of what that means). I seem to be having some success with a Facebook blast for our Friday gig, so I'll persevere.

 

[BrianMitchellBrody]

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty much trying to cover all those bases since I inherited marketing duties for the big band after expressing my frustrations to the leader (ironically a salesman in his day job). Getting a good picture of that group is like herding cats. Try gettin 17 guys in the same place at the same time, nicely dressed (with 17 different interpretations of what that means). I seem to be having some success with a Facebook blast for our Friday gig, so I'll persevere.

Best of luck in your pursuit

 

[John Laughter]

Tell you the truth though, I don't think folks that do the hiring are as critical as we are when viewing this.

Yes indeed. The hiring party just needs a general idea of what we play and a sound clip or two to get the idea across. If the dancers appear (on posted FB photos) to be having a fun time and the song list covers a lot of good popular dance music that they are familiar with you will be fine. Hence the reason for sending a song list and letting them pick the songs. They appreciate it

 

[John Laughter]

Forgot to add that we have a few 40's and earlier selections like "In The Mood", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "Moonlight Serenade" and "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" IF is is the right crowd.

 

[buddy lee]

So basically you guys are doing nothing. I think you know what needs to be done, so I’d focus on getting those bare minimum things done first.

 

[Frank D]

So basically you guys are doing nothing. I think you know what needs to be done, so I’d focus on getting those bare minimum things done first.

Absolutely. I've taken over the FB page and created an Event for our upcoming gig, which is getting lots of likes and shares from our fan base. I'm going to tell the guys in the band to start sharing the Events to get them out to all of their friends, instead of just liking them. Events will become a regular part of promoting scheduled gigs. I have a full video of a recent club gig which is not the best quality, but I've been able to apply some EQ and other magic to the audio to sharpen it quite a bit, and am trying to do the same with the video. I've chopped it up into individual songs which I'm going to edit to make a promo reel, and also release on social media from time to time to keep the band in people's awareness. Still working on a way to get some better still pics, but that will come.

 

[buddy lee]

Absolutely. I've taken over the FB page and created an Event for our upcoming gig, which is getting lots of likes and shares from our fan base. I'm going to tell the guys in the band to start sharing the Events to get them out to all of their friends, instead of just liking them. Events will become a regular part of promoting scheduled gigs. I have a full video of a recent club gig which is not the best quality, but I've been able to apply some EQ and other magic to the audio to sharpen it quite a bit, and am trying to do the same with the video. I've chopped it up into individual songs which I'm going to edit to make a promo reel, and also release on social media from time to time to keep the band in people's awareness. Still working on a way to get some better still pics, but that will come.

Sounds like you have a good handle on this.

 

[liggy]

So far I’ve had good luck with promoting on Facebook. Two of our venues even made their own posters/promo email pieces for our shows.

I’ve also posted on LinkedIn of all places and have had people show up as a result.

Our local Public Radio station, KNKX has been kind enough to list our events on their calendar gratis.

For our debut last year I partnered with a local community organization and made it a fundraiser for them. They put out a blast to their list and a mention on their events page. Sold out the show even with a $15 cover.

We’ve gotten bookings for private events and community events and a jazz festival so far in spite of a decided lack of promotional material so I guess that is a good problem of sorts. When I formed the band I let everyone know that I was only looking to play 4-6x per year so as to keep it special.

To reiterate what @JayeLID mentioned - I work the room like crazy during breaks and that is a crucial element of getting new opportunities.

I play with 3 other groups and quite honestly I don’t like being a bandleader. Feels like actual work

 

[Neil Sharpe]

This thread may be of interest:
Does Anybody Really Understand What Is Happening In The...

 

[John Laughter]

I've taken over the FB page and created an Event for our upcoming gig

Frank, also check to see if there are any local music FB sites for bands and individuals to add and promote their next gig. We have four FB sites in town for bands and music events. When we have a gig coming up I post our site and the gig info on those sites. It's free publicity

 

[JayeLID]

Frank, also check to see if there are any local music FB sites for bands and individuals to add and promote their next gig. We have four FB sites in town for bands and music events. When we have a gig coming up I post our site and the gig info on those sites. It's free publicity

Yes good call, these just basically re-post your announcements, flyers, etc...but oftentimes they have many more subscribers/followers than an individual musical act does. Most do it for free, some do charge a small fee....

also, hashtag your announcements...for example when we play in El Paso we always add "#elpasojazz" and "#elpasonightlife" to them, as the former has over 1000 posts and the latter almost 10,000 with those tags...maybe if the big band gets swing dancers you could do "#(yourlocality)swingdance" or something...

 

[Frank D]

Thanks @John Laughter and @JayeLID. Another thing I've noticed about FB on this go-round is that a lot of our band members "liked" the event, but didn't "share" it. I need to get them to share so it will go out to a wider potential audience.

 

[John Laughter]

lot of our band members "liked" the event, but didn't "share" it

Get used to it Frank. Lazy arses (if retired) or maybe they are concerned about the IRS or they have a day job and do not want the boss checking out their fun times.

I can assure you that YOU will be the one to push the band. Same with me. 2 of our members are not on FB. The one member who is on FB does not share the gigs either due to his fear of the IRS but he damn sure likes the gig money I just keep on pushing us on my FB and the band's FB and it pays off

 

[Frank D]

John, I can assure you fear of the IRS isn't an issue. Most of our gigs are festivals, benefits or playing for the door. Even the paid gigs wind up getting split 17 ways, so that's not much at the end of the day. What I really think it is, is lack of an understanding of how social media works, or just plain laziness. You're right though I realize that it's just me at this point, plus a bit of help from a few others when they can remember (the leader mentioned FB once during his between song patter). At this point I feel motivated just to see how far I can get with it since I got a pretty good response on the first try.