Having trouble selling out your bands’ gig? Or maybe you have a small, loyal following and now you’re looking to expand your fanbase?
Getting people through the doors and hearing your music isn’t easy! But it can be done.
As we found out from an exclusive report, based on over 500 responses from those working in the music industry, live events are extremely important to artists.
So we’ve asked 7 successful music promoters for their top tips on how to promote your gigs. Here they reveal their secrets (for more top tips from event planners, head over to the EventTribe forum).
Jack Scales, from Motion Bristol
1. Have confidence in yourself to promote your art.
2. Ensure you are on social media and using it effectively by having a variety of different engaging content and using paid advertising when necessary.
3. Networking with fellow artists, promoters and people involved in the industry is essential and will open doors to many new opportunities / gigs.
4. Have a marketing head on – you think of different ways you can promote and make people talk about you.
5. Be enthusiastic and show support for the shows you do get booked for. No matter how big or small the booking, that promoter has taken a chance on you.
Alex Kerr-Wilson, Music Promoter at Discovery Talent & Owner of O-Mix
Don’t just book a gig and turn up expecting a full house!
In 2016, artists need to be strategic about where and when they play, how regularly they play in the same town, select the right promoters and venues to work with. They need to work out what they are wanting to achieve by playing a certain gig.
Back in the day, selling tickets to gigs revolved around the relationship between music fans and promoters. This has all changed and the artist/fan now rules. It is therefore vital that bands actively promote gigs to their fans. The most successful gigs are when the band, venue and promoter are all working together.
Promotion is key and there are plenty of online tools out there ready to assist. A central Facebook event page is essential then anyone connected with the gig can post content and invite people.
Artists should all be registered with specialist gig apps such as Songkick and Pepper. Pepper’s data is pushed out to Bing and Windows 10 so this is a huge potential audience.
Artists should utilise their blogger and radio contacts who might play their track and announce the gig or tour. We recently put on indie, folk band, Van Susans who had their single played by Chris Hawkins on BBC 6 Music with a mention of our gig.
Any emerging act should have their music uploaded on their local BBC Introducing and Amazing Radio websites and alert relevant print media of forthcoming tour dates.
Discovery makes playlists of the acts performing before every gig, on YouTube and Soundcloud to be shared around on social media.
Bands should be active on Twitter and Instagram before, during and after the event.
Some bands have some unique ideas such as busking, releasing video teasers, bespoke invitations, limited releases of tracks or merch for promoting their live shows which they should communicate with the promoter in order to maximise promotion opportunities.
Related: How to Actually Build a Music Career That Pays the Bills
Anthony Chalmers, freelance music booker & promoter
Go to gigs, make friends, promote your own shows, self-release, budget touring, good social media posts, print your own merch & make really good music!
Related: 5 Ways to Make Your Next Gig an Experience Your Fans Will Share
Tom Green, booker at 229 The Venue
Stay in contact with the promoter. Don’t go making your own poster without consulting the promoter, they might be making one as well. It’s simpler to have the same branding across everything.
Work your social, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, get all the other acts on the lineup involved via tagging and hashtags.
Don’t book shows two weeks before or after the one you have, especially in London. You will piss of the promoter and not maximise your audience attendance.
As a general rule we ask for 6 weeks either side.
Make each show as special as possible and combine with a single launch/tour etc.
Be nice to the promoter, they are facilitating the show for you and working under a lot of pressure. Work together and it means the show will be a lot better for everyone involved.
Nikki Gordon, Head of Talent & Marketing at Ministry of Sound & Director at We Are FSTVL
Always get your budget right before you do anything.
The play it safe formula is: Take the legal capacity of the venue, half it, then times it by the average door price = Ideal budget!
Jim Mattison, Director at Bug Bear Bookings
Bands need to actually get out more, attend other bands shows and hand out physical flyers and talk/connect with people.
Bands are too reliant on social media, which is over-saturated and doesn’t really work as well as it used to. It’s rare that we see bands print flyers, but pre-internet that’s what happened – and it worked – especially at grass roots level, it also gives your band some identity and something people can remember you by and helps create a scene, which among indie bands we don’t seem to have anymore.
Do some decent quality generic A3 posters for promoters to put up in the venue, press quotes etc so people who haven’t heard of you have some idea of what your about.
Obviously it’s all about the internet these days but target relevant blogs and sites, and do your research.
Related: How Eventbrite Can Help You to Sell Out Your Next Gig
James Monteith, Director at Hold Tight! PR
If you’re in a new band, try to find any existing music communities that are relevant to you and make yourself known to them.
Underground music is a very social scene, so people are more likely to discover you if there’s a social connection, no matter how tenuous. This can either be online in social media music groups, or the old fashioned method of going out to gigs, giving out flyers, and chatting to people about your band, but also music in general.
When you have a show booked, make sure people in these communities know about it. Post a link to music with gig dates in social media groups, flyer other shows with info about your show / band, talk to people about it in your local rock bar / music hang out.
Also, make sure to take an interest in other bands in the scene too. Some reciprocal love can go a long way.
Share your gig promotion tips in the comments or tweet them to us at @EventbriteUK!
