Blog
The Song Path; Marketing – how to get gigs
Written by Andy Patterson
One of the main ways to get a crowd is to play live. If you’ve made it this far along the Song Path, then chances are you’re already playing live. but just in case, here’s a few tips that might help get your music to a different audience.
Open Mic Nights
These are a good place to start. the general idea is that you turn up and sign up to a list and then when your turn comes up, you go and sing a few songs. These generally tend to be very friendly atmospheres in which to develop your skills and build up your fanbase.
How to find them? try here: http://www.thevac.co.uk/cgi-bin/venueslist.cgi
Or ask around. Start locally – it is amazing to see how many other local musicians there are. You’re also much more likely to get a bunch of mates to come along to see your show if it is easy to get to.
Promoted Evenings
London especially is full of these, happening every night of the week. What happens is that a promoter puts on a show of 4 or 5 bands/acts. Promoter charges an entry fee from all of your fans and with a bit of luck: performer gets an audience and promoter makes money. Promoter likes what he hears – he books you again.
So how to get these gigs? Go out and watch gigs. Search the web – find out how many people they expect you to bring. You’ll probably need to send them your MySpace, Facebook or Soundcloud page, so they can hear some of your stuff.
Look at it from a promoter’s perspective. What would make you book you. A guarantee of a fan base and a good set probably, but sometimes they may just like the music and want to take a punt on you, in the hope that it might help you.
Arrange it Yourself
One of the options is of course to arrange the gigs yourself-become a self promoter. So hire a room, maybe in a pub or cafe (cafes are good places – see our gig on the 13th April Downstairs at Leon for more info and can have a nice laid back atmosphere).
Remember these may already have evenings in place – the Half Moon in Putney for example has its own Good Voodoo night, run by resident sound engineer and artist in his own right Redvers Bailey. This will be the first stop for many artists.
And also – you could leave yourself open to some major financial risk if people don’t turn up, or decide that it is too expensive -so check, double check and check again your numbers. Find out how many people you need through the door to pay your costs. The last thing you want is to play to 3 mates and your mum and have to pay the pub £60 for the hire of the room – you could have done that in your garage, and had an easier journey home.
Play Less – Traditional Places
How to find these? Well – take your guitar into a cafe, or art gallery and ask the owner if he fancies some live music one night a fortnight. More times than not they’ll tell you ‘No Thanks’, but that’s ok, as one of those times, they may say ‘Yes Please’.
See what times these places are open – as they are not really likely to stay open past 6pm, if they’re in the City district, or if they are mainly a lunchtime market place. Chance your arm to see what you can get… As people in the north east say ‘Shy Bairns get nowt’.
Busking
Not a bad idea – watch out where you do it though as private property busking is likely to get you into trouble. You can apply to busk on the London Underground at one of their busking pitches. You get a set time booked in and you turn up at that time and sing and peform.
More info here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/2435.aspx
Pay to Play
As far as I am concerned this should be outlawed. If any promoter asks you to pay him to play a gig, 99.9% of the time it won’t be worth it. And the other 0.1% of the time, it probably still won’t be worth it, but you might enjoy it. For all the promoter can claim that it costs money for him to put on the gig – you are still the talent, and he doesn’t have to do any of it anyway.
Protect your talent with everything you have – as it really is what makes you special and different to the other bands/solo acts around the place. Also watch out for any deals where you have to have more than 5 people turn up, or you pay up to that amount. As far as I am concerned these are business men, and not music lovers. They may exhibit features of the latter, but they are definitely the former.
How are you supposed to get a following if you do not have the chance to perform, and to play your music to people?
So, go to as many open mic nights as you can – a few a week if you have the time…build up a following at these venues and the venue itself may ask you to come back and play a solo gig.