Promotion Help

[AdamRave]

Were pretty busy playing about a show a month in the city (Toronto) now working on booking shows outside of the area. its working!

heres my problem, theres only so much promotions and pushing we can do ourselves, or is there?

Were trying hard to advertise our shows and pull people out to pay cover and see us play, it works but for how long?

how long will the same 30 to 80 people show up? we need something bigger that will help us capture more people.

anyone know of a way to do this? a bteer way to promote? perhaps a promo company? ..

any ideas and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks so much!

[john]

Hey

There's a whole lot you can do. Really your talking different issues... getting gigs and effective promotion. It's different in the UK but you should be able to organize plenty of gigs on your own, though a booking agent can be useful.

What I did in bands was contact venues to get terms, dates etc, contacted larger local bands to get support slots and built up a list of promoters and events managers to contact. At our max we played about 5 gigs a week for about 18 months (think there was a few weeks with more, some with less.), 2 being weekly residencies, a couple of others being monthly. The rest were all sourced by the methods described, and it didn't take much effort. You could try playing for free to get more gigs but I always found that counterproductive on the industry side of the fence.

For effective promo you need a reason. Like a CD, or a tour, whatever. General marketing is a bit different.

Do you have a mailing list? Fan email addresses? You should be building that at the gigs, get someone to gather fan contact details.

Other than that:

Get some Tee shirts and products made. Behave like a more popular band and give that impression to people. That means having promotions material and products available.

Do press releases to local press, national press and music press

try and get some free promo from newspapers/radio, contact them about the possibility of getting an article. Be prepared they need to know WHY they should write about you. A new CD seems a perfect opportunity.

Set up a tour. That in itself becomes a free promo item.

Publicity stunts (don't do something alienates people)

Hand out leaflets with your gig dates

Posters

Use your newsletters (email and snail mail)

Start getting to know the local band managers, events promoters, venue managers and press.

Get support slots

use your newsletter to recruit people to help at gigs, doing promo, building hype etc

Band managers often have contacts for venues.

Cheers

John

[AdamRave]

^^^^

Hey john,

playing in the city isnt the problem.

the problem is with promotion.

you can only play the city a number of times before people stop coming to the same show.

we need new ways to promote, new ideas.. thats what this post really is about!

Thanks for the reply.

[john]

Hey Adam

I was talking about all gigs, not just those in your city.

People will keep coming if you introduce new material and vary your set, but I understand the problem if you don't.

Bear in mind press interest etc is a chicken and egg scenario, fans can help you get gigs.

I guess I'm not sure why you have a problem getting gigs further afield. Similarly a city holds a lot of people, usually with a number of venues you can play (student unions, rock bars, clubs etc) each drawing it's own standard audience which you can augment with your existing fans.

So... what is the problem with getting gigs further afield? What do you think a promo company would do for you that you cannot do yourself?

[AdamRave]

i think youre missing my point..

i can get gigs here and around the city no problem.. i can book plenty of gigs per month, but whats the point of doing that?

over saturating people with your music can bring you down easily. venues in the city will not book you if youre already playing a show that month in the city.

we play once or twice a month and change up the set list every time, add new material to every show, to keep it interesting.

what i want is to find an effective way to promote the band, the music and eventaully, get more people coming out to shows.

i'm just looking for new promotion ideas, new ways to inreoduce people to the band and music.

[john]

Hey

Ok. It wasn't clear why you needed promotion or promotion help, and that purpose makes a difference in the kind of promotion you choose to do. Some of what I said already is still relevant, after all gigs are also promotional tools... it depends on context and purpose.

So save me wasting more typing... You say you want better promo...

What do you currently do promo wise? What do you promote, how and for what reason?

If you were to break it down:

What do you now want to promote?

What is your immediate purpose/goal?

Do you have longer term goals?

What is your scope? (local? regional? national? international?)

I could guess at your answers but been there done that

Promotion is about strategy, not just individual ideas.

What mechanisms do you currently use to build and keep a local fan base? Newsletter? The reason I ask is that if you don't have the back end to retain people during and after promotion, much of your promotion efforts will be lost.

Do you do much in the way of marketing? Getting some local intel can make a big difference.

Cheers

John

[Nightwolf]

John is right about "Behave like a more popular band and give that impression to people"

My old Band "Two and a HalF WeeKs" acted like Rockstars and we created a buzz when ever two or more of us were in a room. It may feel corny and self rightious, but it works.

Create a buzz, take a few of your more rabid fans and turn them into your StreetTeam. Special access, special all access badges, part of the Band type thing, introduce one of them and thank them onstage. Make them feel like a part of the trip and they will take promotions seriously. Give them a special name (The Chosen Ones) and send them out with fliers, clipboards, teeshirts, free tickets.

Separate promotions from the band itself, if you want to give someone a shirt or a free ticket, have them talk to one of The Chosen Ones to get it, that is their job, not yours...

[JonathonHolder]

Interesting topic. My plan for my current project is to book gigs around central London, pay in a few promoters to hit the streets with like 5000 flyers and hope that brings people in, and then get the music right big time. The key element of my idea is that the music has to be absolutely amazing in order to hook in the people that I get through the door. It's a very simplistic view, but it makes sense to me.

Can anyone with more experience tell me if this sounds like a good way to go about promotion?

[MusicKing]

Personally, I'm a huge fan of internet promotion.

As said in the above posts, build your mailing list.

It sounds like you already have a lot going for yourselves , have you tried to attract any media?

Obviously, you need to go to the next level. Take some risks , start contacting papers, look for better known bands that will let you open.

You also need to set some specific goals. I'm not clear whether you are looking for a record deal or just want to sell your CD, or whatever else it is you want.