Attendance at gigs?

[drumminjohn]

Hello all, my band has been playing gigs since last summer at some semi-small venues in town pretty steadily, we have a good demo, but we just haven't caught on really... Like we advertise on our myspace and post a gracious amount of bulletins, we hand out fliers, and post some up around town, we even personally invite people and the such; yet we still have the same group of like 15 people (plus more sometimes) at every show.. I'm not trying to sound greedy or anything at all, I just wish for some more people.

So my questions to you are, how do you get crowds at your gigs? Am I doing something wrong? Am I not doing enough? What are your advertising methods?

Thanks folks

[drummerchick435]

can you afford to advertise in the newspaper? try joining up with another band too but not one better than yourselves.

[drumminjohn]

can you afford to advertise in the newspaper? try joining up with another band too but not one better than yourselves.

I may look into that, surely it can't be to expensive, we're already advertised in several "indie" mags around town...

Yeah we've got our friend who does an acoustic act opening up for us currently, he brings a couple people...

[DogBreath]

I used to go see two of my friends perform once or twice a week for years when I lived in southern California. They have about a dozen CDs out, they play three to four nights a week consistantly, they do private gigs and win awards at music festivals... and I saw the same 15 people at every show. It just goes to show you. Most working musicians do not play to sold-out arenas every night. If you are gigging and getting paid for it, you are a working musician. If you get to the point that it pays your bills without you needing a day job, then you are way ahead of most.

[drumminjohn]

I used to go see two of my friends perform once or twice a week for years when I lived in southern California. They have about a dozen CDs out, they play three to four nights a week consistantly, they do private gigs and win awards at music festivals... and I saw the same 15 people at every show. It just goes to show you. Most working musicians do not play to sold-out arenas every night. If you are gigging and getting paid for it, you are a working musician. If you get to the point that it pays your bills without you needing a day job, then you are way ahead of most.

Very good point DB.. I guess really its not the quantity, but quality.. And I am very gracious of those 15 people that do take time to come see us, they will always remain our "deadheads" hah

And like you said, it's not necessary to make a living on music; but a sold out arena would be pretty sweet every once in a while haha..

[fourstringdrums]

Do you guys have a website or a mailing list? Having a sign up sheet for that stuff at your gigs may help gather more attention. Also seeing if those regulars can each bring someone new to your next gig, and then those people bring someone and so on etc..

[drumminjohn]

Do you guys have a website or a mailing list? Having a sign up sheet for that stuff at your gigs may help gather more attention. Also seeing if those regulars can each bring someone new to your next gig, and then those people bring someone and so on etc..

We have a myspace, no mailing list though.. The sign up sheet sounds like a good idea.. A couple regulars bring their byofriends/girlfriends and such, so sometime that works out good..

[fourstringdrums]

We have a myspace, no mailing list though.. The sign up sheet sounds like a good idea.. A couple regulars bring their byofriends/girlfriends and such, so sometime that works out good..

Advertise the MySpace on your bass drum head or hand out business cards if you can.

[drumminjohn]

Advertise the MySpace on your bass drum head or hand out business cards if you can.

We were actually thinking about getting some stickers made with the myspace link on them... Is there a way to get mass-produced stickers and/or business cards for cheap?

[fourstringdrums]

We were actually thinking about getting some stickers made with the myspace link on them... Is there a way to get mass-produced stickers and/or business cards for cheap?

If you have a good color printer you can do them yourself. They have printable business card sheets and sticker sheets. Of course you could always check out local print shops.

[drummerchick435]

We were actually thinking about getting some stickers made with the myspace link on them... Is there a way to get mass-produced stickers and/or business cards for cheap?

www.cafepress.com

great site...tons of stuff including DrummerWorld stuff!

[fourstringdrums]

www.cafepress.com (http://www.cafepress.com)

great site...tons of stuff including DrummerWorld stuff!

I forgot about that mainly because I tried using it for Handidrummed and I found the prices too high to be worth it. I'm not going to ask that people pay $15 for a mousepad with my logo on it :)

[intooder]

We usually post myspace bulletins before most shows, sometimes blog it, and occasionally (for special shows) send out event invitations (which is a pain but it is personalized).

If you have some close friends who regularly attend your shows, you might look into doing gig swaps with bands in neighboring cities - that way you can bring your guys with for your shows, and play in front of a new audience and they bring some when they come to your city.

Also look into playing new bars/venues in your city which have a regular crowd show up on a certain night (say every Saturday night).

[drumminjohn]

If you have a good color printer you can do them yourself. They have printable business card sheets and sticker sheets. Of course you could always check out local print shops.

Yeah, I may run by the office store on my way home from school today...

www.cafepress.com

great site...tons of stuff including DrummerWorld stuff!

I agree with fourstrings, I've found some ridiculously priced stuff on cafe press...

We usually post myspace bulletins before most shows, sometimes blog it, and occasionally (for special shows) send out event invitations (which is a pain but it is personalized).

If you have some close friends who regularly attend your shows, you might look into doing gig swaps with bands in neighboring cities - that way you can bring your guys with for your shows, and play in front of a new audience and they bring some when they come to your city.

Also look into playing new bars/venues in your city which have a regular crowd show up on a certain night (say every Saturday night).

We always post lots of bulletins from like a week away, right up until the day of the show..
Thats a good idea about a gig swap, I'll talk to some of my friends in other bands..
And that's where we try to book, busy places, which sometimes works out well..

[bermuda]

Obviously a web presence is important, but many people seeking entertainment won't look for or otherwise stumble across your site. They have to be reached in more traditional ways, such as:

You may want to see about playing the local colleges, where you'll be able to play in front of more people. Such gigs may not pay well, but that's okay - the students who like the band are likely to come see you at paid gigs. If you're playing bars & clubs with an age limit, that may be a consideration.

If there's a radio station with a program featuring local/indie bands, try to get an interview & airplay with them. Same for local-access cable TV.

If there's a local CD store, see if they'll let you do an in-store and sell your CD. If you don't have a CD... record one!

Solicit a story/interview in the local papers, freebies as well as your city's daily paper. If placing a 1/4 page ad for your gig will encourage them to do a story, it's probably money well spent.

And that last part is important: you're going to have to spend some money to make some money.

But good exposure and networking is not enough. You have to back it all up with the band itself. Are you doing covers, or originals? (or both?) Is there something about your band that excites the people who see you? In other words, what does your group do that people would make an effort to see & hear?

That's probably the first thing you need to examine, how marketable the band is. If you've got everything going for you, then by all means go out and market yourselves!

Bermuda

[cnw60]

one possibility:

our main local newspaper has a section every Friday where they list all of the shows that are going on in the area. the listing is free - you just have to let them know about it.

same thing with another local entertainment weekly - they list every show they know about - you just have to make sure they know about it.

[drumminjohn]

one possibility:

our main local newspaper has a section every Friday where they list all of the shows that are going on in the area. the listing is free - you just have to let them know about it.

same thing with another local entertainment weekly - they list every show they know about - you just have to make sure they know about it.

Yeah thats what ours does too, we've put ourselves on the show list for alot of our shows..

Obviously a web presence is important, but many people seeking entertainment won't look for or otherwise stumble across your site. They have to be reached in more traditional ways, such as:

You may want to see about playing the local colleges, where you'll be able to play in front of more people. Such gigs may not pay well, but that's okay - the students who like the band are likely to come see you at paid gigs. If you're playing bars & clubs with an age limit, that may be a consideration.

If there's a radio station with a program featuring local/indie bands, try to get an interview & airplay with them. Same for local-access cable TV.

If there's a local CD store, see if they'll let you do an in-store and sell your CD. If you don't have a CD... record one!

Solicit a story/interview in the local papers, freebies as well as your city's daily paper. If placing a 1/4 page ad for your gig will encourage them to do a story, it's probably money well spent.

And that last part is important: you're going to have to spend some money to make some money.

But good exposure and networking is not enough. You have to back it all up with the band itself. Are you doing covers, or originals? (or both?) Is there something about your band that excites the people who see you? In other words, what does your group do that people would make an effort to see & hear?

That's probably the first thing you need to examine, how marketable the band is. If you've got everything going for you, then by all means go out and market yourselves!

Bermuda

The local colleges sounds like a good idea, I'm sure alot of people there would dig us..
And the pay doesn't really matter to us right yet, for now a gig is a gig..

There is a few indie radio stations and also a few local podcasters, one of said podcasters contacted us about coming on his show, but no plans were ever really made after that...

I'd like to say our band is marketable, everyone who comes to our shows say we put on a good live show... And we do mostly originals, only 2 covers, which are just medleys anyways.. And we do have a CD, we're about to release an EP very soon actually, so maybe we can talk to some local CD's about selling our CD at their place..

Thanks everybody, you guys are really givin me some good advice!

[onemat]

We have a book at gigs for getting folks email addresses. During our gigs we encourage people to sing up and they do. We email out gig announcements, cool posters they can print out etc. We started with about 20 names, we are over 300 now. Some gigs, it feels like everyone is there, some gigs we only get one or two from the list, but everyone knows you're still out there doing your thing. I use the same email list to announce gigs that any member of my wife's group is doing..we get a nice cross section of people.
Matt

[DestinationDrumming]

We were actually thinking about getting some stickers made with the myspace link on them... Is there a way to get mass-produced stickers and/or business cards for cheap?

Try googling for free business cards lots of printers offer them for postage only. The hope is they get repeat business and your choice of options is limited. Good for free handouts though.

Can you do a free entry if you bring someone to the gig or free gift or entry into a draw? Are you marketing your gigs to narrowly? You mention indie publications but lots of people who are not really into indie music will go to an indie gig for a listen....or is that just me!

[drumminjohn]

Try googling for free business cards lots of printers offer them for postage only. The hope is they get repeat business and your choice of options is limited. Good for free handouts though.

Can you do a free entry if you bring someone to the gig or free gift or entry into a draw? Are you marketing your gigs to narrowly? You mention indie publications but lots of people who are not really into indie music will go to an indie gig for a listen....or is that just me!

Haha the free gift sounds like a cool idea... Maybe we could do like the person who brings the most guests wins a dinner date with the band? hahaha That'd be awesome! Yeah, that is a possibility that we are too narrow, though we do hand some out around town and put them in the windshield wipers of cars in parking lots, etc..

[da cheese walks]

Man,
you get the same 15 people at your show??well ill be honest its a hell of a lot better than getting hundreds of drunk, disinterested emo kids who basically stand around gawking at you....the faces always change, but the lip rings and pink hoody tops stay the same...the same disinterest, and the muffled clap at the end of a crazy performance...or the absolute silence when we announced at one gig : "this is from the one and only, Frank Zappa"....

Its disheartening, but man someday a band will find its niche if it stays at what it does....


i hope someday my band wont still be playin in front of lots of gimpy teenagers thinking "wheres the screaming?","whys that guy not using double bass?","whos Frank Zappa?"....


*shudder*

[ZildjianMan1023]

what my band does is we kind of make pacts with other bands.


its like a group of allies

someone gets a show and they invite all of us in our pact to play

so theres some pretty popular bands this one band darwin in particular

last show we had 150 people show up

so we hope that by this these 150 people will come to our own show


catch my drift? you need some semi big opening acts or maybe open for a big act

[drum.lad]

Man,
you get the same 15 people at your show??well ill be honest its a hell of a lot better than getting hundreds of drunk, disinterested emo kids who basically stand around gawking at you....the faces always change, but the lip rings and pink hoody tops stay the same...the same disinterest, and the muffled clap at the end of a crazy performance...or the absolute silence when we announced at one gig : "this is from the one and only, Frank Zappa"....

Its disheartening, but man someday a band will find its niche if it stays at what it does....


i hope someday my band wont still be playin in front of lots of gimpy teenagers thinking "wheres the screaming?","whys that guy not using double bass?","whos Frank Zappa?"....


*shudder*

im with you my friend every single band around where i live is all double bass,screaming and gangs of pasty little emo poser smoking and touching one another.and the worst part about it is half of them are poser drummers who play the same blast beat evey song and dont know anything about drumming trying to convince me joey jordinson is better than Jonh bonham ohh i hate them.anyway if you want to get a larger attendance you just got to get your name out there and play bigger venues with lots of other bands that way you get all the flowover from the other bands also advertising at school is good and free good luck

[drumminjohn]

Man,
you get the same 15 people at your show??well ill be honest its a hell of a lot better than getting hundreds of drunk, disinterested emo kids who basically stand around gawking at you....the faces always change, but the lip rings and pink hoody tops stay the same...the same disinterest, and the muffled clap at the end of a crazy performance...or the absolute silence when we announced at one gig : "this is from the one and only, Frank Zappa"....

Its disheartening, but man someday a band will find its niche if it stays at what it does....


i hope someday my band wont still be playin in front of lots of gimpy teenagers thinking "wheres the screaming?","whys that guy not using double bass?","whos Frank Zappa?"....


*shudder*

Frank who?? Nah, I kid I kid, I love Zappa.. but seriously man, that sucks, I'm sure you guys will find your niche one day...

what my band does is we kind of make pacts with other bands.


its like a group of allies

someone gets a show and they invite all of us in our pact to play

so theres some pretty popular bands this one band darwin in particular

last show we had 150 people show up

so we hope that by this these 150 people will come to our own show


catch my drift? you need some semi big opening acts or maybe open for a big act

Yeah our band is starting to open up for some bigger bands in the area lately, we hope that this'll attract some more people to come to our regular shows..

[burnthehero]

Connections, promotion, and how well you tap into the current "scene" seem to be the biggest factors. I've been playing the local scene for years and every band that seems to get a strong following has those 3 bases covered. I think a big reason for why it's hard to get a following these days is because of the sheer number of bands out there competing for an audience. Because of that, you gotta have something really special to capture the attention of listeners.

[drumminjohn]

Connections, promotion, and how well you tap into the current "scene" seem to be the biggest factors. I've been playing the local scene for years and every band that seems to get a strong following has those 3 bases covered. I think a big reason for why it's hard to get a following these days is because of the sheer number of bands out there competing for an audience. Because of that, you gotta have something really special to capture the attention of listeners.

Yeah, thats true.. We have something pretty special, at least I like to think we do, but I think is the connection and promotion base we only have slightly covered.. Like we have someone on the base, they're just not a good runner.. hahah

[Jusstickinaround]

Hello all, my band has been playing gigs since last summer at some semi-small venues in town pretty steadily, we have a good demo, but we just haven't caught on really... Like we advertise on our myspace and post a gracious amount of bulletins, we hand out fliers, and post some up around town, we even personally invite people and the such; yet we still have the same group of like 15 people (plus more sometimes) at every show.. I'm not trying to sound greedy or anything at all, I just wish for some more people.

So my questions to you are, how do you get crowds at your gigs? Am I doing something wrong? Am I not doing enough? What are your advertising methods?

Thanks folks

Do you have any tunes to listen to? Maybe, dare I say it, your music doesn't appeal to a lot of people, the music business is tough, most bands don't appeal to a large audience. More than likely you'll eventually find a day job and become a weekend warrior, it happens to most of us, but don't sweat it, as long as you have your passion for drums and music you'll be successful.

[drumminjohn]

Do you have any tunes to listen to? Maybe, dare I say it, your music doesn't appeal to a lot of people, the music business is tough, most bands don't appeal to a large audience. More than likely you'll eventually find a day job and become a weekend warrior, it happens to most of us, but don't sweat it, as long as you have your passion for drums and music you'll be successful.

Yeah, here's our myspace: www.myspace.com/prevailion

Though I must add, on Flight Of The Nazgul, that was a horribly improvised solo, I'm bad at making them up on a blank slate like that.. We have a good live recording that we plan to upload soon...

And it probably doesn't appeal to most people, instrumentals and post-rock has a small audience.. But our town seems to like it, Sigur Ros and Explosions In The Sky are big around here, just no one comes to the shows, the same thing happens to my friends post-rock band...

[Bernhard]

just my two cents:

Myspace is always ugly - and especially yours too - brown is the worst background colour - the fonts doesn't fit well and are too small....arghhh..

No seriously:

I suggest to make an own website....

Bernhard

[drumminjohn]

just my two cents:

Myspace is always ugly - and especially yours too - brown is the worst background colour - the fonts doesn't fit well and are too small....arghhh..

No seriously:

I suggest to make an own website....

Bernhard

Haha myspace is ugly, but the backgrounds and stuff is not my doing, its the guitar player.. I personally just like it plain, but he's gotta go and put some color on there..

I want to make a website, but I don't want to have to pay for one.. Do you know any free hosting sites?

[Bernhard]

Haha myspace is ugly, but the backgrounds and stuff is not my doing, its the guitar player.. I personally just like it plain, but he's gotta go and put some color on there..

I want to make a website, but I don't want to have to pay for one.. Do you know any free hosting sites?

I think without investing just a little money, you can't reach the goals you want to achieve...they are not free.

I would suggest, to buy a domain with your band-name (.com) - this is 50$ a year. Building a site with a free hosting makes no much sense - will give you a bad webadress and it will not have a good index with Google.

Just my two cents..

Bernhard

[DestinationDrumming]

I think without investing just a little money, you can't reach the goals you want to achieve...they are not free.

I would suggest, to buy a domain with your band-name (.com) - this is 50$ a year. Building a site with a free hosting makes no much sense - will give you a bad webadress and it will not have a good index with Google.

Just my two cents..

Bernhard

Bernhard is right, better to pay a little than have a free (look at those 150 ad's on my home page) site. Not sure about in the US but in the UK I can register a .com for $17 a year plus get web hosting (without ad's and with lots of space) for around $50 a year.

Best to shop around but also look at what you are getting as well as the price. I've been stung with poor service and uptime fo a cheaper price. I use hostroute.com for my web hosting and buy in the reseller package. I have a number of personal and business sites that means it's cheaper buyingthe reseller package. Costs me less than $200 to host up to 5 big sites and the service is excellent. You could even get together with other local bands to share the cost.

[drumminjohn]

Yeah I guess you guys are right.. $50 a year isn't bad at all, I was thinking it would be $50 a month or something... I'll do some research and find a good one..

[bonzolead]

I used to go see two of my friends perform once or twice a week for years when I lived in southern California. They have about a dozen CDs out, they play three to four nights a week consistantly, they do private gigs and win awards at music festivals... and I saw the same 15 people at every show. It just goes to show you. Most working musicians do not play to sold-out arenas every night. If you are gigging and getting paid for it, you are a working musician. If you get to the point that it pays your bills without you needing a day job, then you are way ahead of most.
great point DB i've played to 1000 people and then i've played for the bartender and waitresses LOL when that happens i call that a "paid practice" I always try to have fun no matter what happens.don't. be discouraged and even if you not having fun try to look like your having fun the crowd will pick up on bad moods quickly.if your having fun the people will also and they will be back.

Keep swatting,
Bonzolead

P.S. also talk to the crowd and keep the songs moving along "dead air" is a mood killer

[drumminjohn]

great point DB i've played to 1000 people and then i've played for the bartender and waitresses LOL when that happens i call that a "paid practice" I always try to have fun no matter what happens.don't. be discouraged and even if you not having fun try to look like your having fun the crowd will pick up on bad moods quickly.if your having fun the people will also and they will be back.

Keep swatting,
Bonzolead

P.S. also talk to the crowd and keep the songs moving along "dead air" is a mood killer

Yeah, we've had a few paid practices... But we always do have fun and we look like we have fun! And I agree on the dead air thing, my guitarist chats with the crowd, no worries about dead air..

[hauk]

Well if you've got your fifteen loyal fans, get personal with them. Make friends, ask them to tell their friends about you and bring people to your shows. Sell shirts, they're a great way to advertise because half the people that see them will ask, "who's that?" and some of those will get interested enough to check you out on myspace. Also getting a site of your own will help, but you should also make your myspace prettier and simpler (I'm basing that suggestion off what others have said, I haven't seen it) because it is often the easiest way for people to get a taste of your music online.

try joining up with another band too but not one better than yourselves.

Playing with other bands is a great idea, but I disagree on the second point. Playing with bands that are worse than you won't really bring in extra people, except I suppose on the off chance that they are bad with a huge fanbase. Point is, opening for a better known local band (or bigger band touring without consistent openers) is a great way to get your name out there. Good luck!

[drumminjohn]

Well if you've got your fifteen loyal fans, get personal with them. Make friends, ask them to tell their friends about you and bring people to your shows. Sell shirts, they're a great way to advertise because half the people that see them will ask, "who's that?" and some of those will get interested enough to check you out on myspace. Also getting a site of your own will help, but you should also make your myspace prettier and simpler (I'm basing that suggestion off what others have said, I haven't seen it) because it is often the easiest way for people to get a taste of your music online.



Playing with other bands is a great idea, but I disagree on the second point. Playing with bands that are worse than you won't really bring in extra people, except I suppose on the off chance that they are bad with a huge fanbase. Point is, opening for a better known local band (or bigger band touring without consistent openers) is a great way to get your name out there. Good luck!

Thats the thing, the fifteen people are our close friends, girlfriends, etc.. haha.. We're working on shirts and I've already given alot of the stickers I made the other night out...

Our myspace is very simple, but apparently its a bad colored background.

We're actually talking about opening up for a pretty big local band in a couple of weeks..
Thanks for the advice man

[bojangleman]

not to be a smart ace or nothin,...lol but, i have 100 every friday night..lol and sometimes on special occasions, i have upwards of 200...haha. but advetise more and like others have said. have more than a few bands to gig with! and just give it time also. cause once ppl hear ya, they will keep comin back and bring there friends!

Alex

[KLittle123]

I'm not trying to be an ass but maybe your band sucks? I know a band like this(except it hasn't hit them yet) who talk about all the BA shows they play(not that you're saying that) and I've been to them and I noticed two things-- 1. They suck 2. There's about Fifteen 5-year olds there. If you're confident it's not your band then maybe you need to just open your range of playing, if you're playing locally and that's all you've been playing keep hammering at that but widen the range of places you play, keep going farther and farther, making a name and fan base for yourselfs. Myspace I don't really think is that great of an advertisement for music, it seems like it only works with established bands and people rely on them after they know them. You need to have a www.com to show off your band and then once more and more people know you myspace will hit with you guys. Also try to link your band with other bands on your myspace if you're determined to go with the Myspace way--hook up with some other bands you haven't played with before so that fans of that band can see your band. If you're constantly playing with the same band you're just having the same fans. Exchange top friends--you post a band in your top friends and they do the same thing for you so that people that look at that myspace will see your band and check you guys out.

Also be professional--I've ran into a few bands that post those really immature lame posts that say "OMG! Come to our show saturday and we will love you all forever XOXO. I will sell my body to you all if you come." Make it professional--Post the date and time, the place, admission cost, and who's all playing. Don't spam it in myspace bulletins either, I think that's one of the reasons I stopped using myspace is the excessive spamming by bands.

[drumminjohn]

not to be a smart ace or nothin,...lol but, i have 100 every friday night..lol and sometimes on special occasions, i have upwards of 200...haha. but advetise more and like others have said. have more than a few bands to gig with! and just give it time also. cause once ppl hear ya, they will keep comin back and bring there friends!

Alex

Hahaha lucky you.. Yeah we're working on the opening for bigger bands thing..

[drumminjohn]

Haha sorry, double post

I'm not trying to be an ass but maybe your band sucks? I know a band like this(except it hasn't hit them yet) who talk about all the BA shows they play(not that you're saying that) and I've been to them and I noticed two things-- 1. They suck 2. There's about Fifteen 5-year olds there. If you're confident it's not your band then maybe you need to just open your range of playing, if you're playing locally and that's all you've been playing keep hammering at that but widen the range of places you play, keep going farther and farther, making a name and fan base for yourselfs. Myspace I don't really think is that great of an advertisement for music, it seems like it only works with established bands and people rely on them after they know them. You need to have a www.com to show off your band and then once more and more people know you myspace will hit with you guys. Also try to link your band with other bands on your myspace if you're determined to go with the Myspace way--hook up with some other bands you haven't played with before so that fans of that band can see your band. If you're constantly playing with the same band you're just having the same fans. Exchange top friends--you post a band in your top friends and they do the same thing for you so that people that look at that myspace will see your band and check you guys out.

Also be professional--I've ran into a few bands that post those really immature lame posts that say "OMG! Come to our show saturday and we will love you all forever XOXO. I will sell my body to you all if you come." Make it professional--Post the date and time, the place, admission cost, and who's all playing. Don't spam it in myspace bulletins either, I think that's one of the reasons I stopped using myspace is the excessive spamming by bands.


Haha I don't think we suck, alot of people like us, we just don't get that number at shows.. I think its really because we don't play big venues, like right now we have a steady booking at an art and wine gallery that isn't a large venue at all, everyone we invite asks for directions, no one's heard of it, etc.

We are very professional on our myspace, and we try our best not to spam or anything..

[bojangleman]

good! i wish you and your band the best!

Hahaha lucky you.. Yeah we're working on the opening for bigger bands thing..


Alex

[drumminjohn]

good! i wish you and your band the best!




Alex

Why thank you, I wish your band your continued sucess, haha

[hauk]

Thats the thing, the fifteen people are our close friends, girlfriends, etc.. haha.. We're working on shirts and I've already given alot of the stickers I made the other night out...

Our myspace is very simple, but apparently its a bad colored background.

We're actually talking about opening up for a pretty big local band in a couple of weeks..
Thanks for the advice man

Well you're on the right track then. Good luck with that opening gig.

[drumminjohn]

Well you're on the right track then. Good luck with that opening gig.

Thanks for the well wishes!

[DamoSyzygy]

I just wish for some more people.
Ah! Theres the problem...

Wishing for it to happen is never a good thing.You have to get out there and take the show to the people!

Many times I have seen bands in the same predicament as yourself, and the one thing they always do wrong is they play within the same scene, so obviously theyre only going to attract the same people time and time again, be it 15 or 1500...

The band may be performing well onstage, but youre probably not connected with the engineroom out the back. Simply put, youve gotta get connected with the gigmakers, the promoters, the higher profile bands. Go to music festivals and meet the bands that are playing in front of the types of crowds you want. Ask for support shows, get contact cards, email addresses etc.

Get to know the venue promoters around town as there are probably only a few booking the majority of the larger shows.

Learn to be as 'in-house' as you can. Learn how to use programs like photoshop, frontpage, Vegas etc so that you arent having to pay someone everytime you want to promote.

If the response at your shows is positive, then its most likely NOT something wrong with the bands performance or its material - You just have to get the "Who you know" side of it down.

[mattsmith]

Youtube is a pretty remarkable free tool for getting yourself out there. It's the only thing I've ever seen where you can impulsively decide to do something at noon and it can be seen pretty quickly by a lot of people by dinner time. And don't think people from all walks don't watch it. The older crowd /the money and influence people/ who still won't go near myspace or facebook are OK with checking out youtube. Graphicly, the youtube colors are a nice variety, and there are a lot of options. Every TV or radio show I've done in the past year or so came from somebody happening upon a youtube video. Have you tried that? And if the reason you haven't is because you don't have a video camera, buy one somehow. It's really worth it. I don't even do much on myspace. One day I saw my grandmother checkin' out youtube videos and I said that has to be it.

A lot of people hate the comments and ratings stuff because it is the center of the troll universe. But all you do is disable the ratings the first time somebody is pretty favorable, and edit the comments when people say bad stuff that has nothing to do with the video/like: he's fat, ugly etc, or you can just disable comments entirely. If the video backfires you just take it down.

PS- I don't work for youtube.