Be Professional

By David Barber

Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Being Professional is as important in the music business as in any other. And, yes, just to remind you, it is a business. If you're just in if for the fun of making music, don't bother reading these articles. It's not gonna help. Actually, being professional in the music business is easier than in most. The music biz is littered with flakes, drop-outs, and as long time tour manager/booking agent/radio goofball, Matt Need, likes to put it "D students." ("I'm no good at math or science and my grades suck, but I like music, so I'll get into the music business!") Therefore, all it really takes is showing up on time, playing as well as you can and being polite to the people around you.

Yeah, we know that sometimes you'll have to deal with people higher up the food chain than you who aren't nice, polite or sensible and it's easy to treat them as badly as they treat you. Sometimes that may even be the best approach, but not very often. Usually, when a booking manger screws you over, it's much better to just walk away and silently vow never to play his venue again, if possible, than it is to yell and scream and bad-mouth the guy all over town. Now, if someone is really ripping you off, it might be a good idea to discreetly let your friends in other bands know what happened, but try not to get a reputation as a trash talker. Why? This guy is scum, why should you care what he thinks? Because even if he is scum and you never play for him again, he likely has ties to other booking managers, club owners and industry professionals, and those people do talk. Nothing travels quicker though a tight knit music community than stories of how that guy from that band made an idiot out of himself because he thought he should be paid more than he's worth. Yes, that's the way they are likely to look at it. And from that perspective, why would any other club in town want to hire you?

The same goes for when you're talking to them up front about booking the gig. If you say you can bring in 250 people on a Tuesday night (and he actually believes you) you can be certain that you won't be asked back when only 25 people show up. Clubs hate to lose money and, from their perspective, your job is to bring people in to drink. (More on that in another article)

Along the same lines, if you work in an office or a factory or store, it's not acceptable to get drunk or high at work. The same goes for the music business. Show up for your gig on time, perform your set like a pro and then, after the gig, if you must, you can relax and enjoy the time honored tradions that go along with your rock & roll lifestyle. Nobody wants to pay see a bunch of drunks playing sloppy. Also, bear in mind that most venues would rather piss you off than risk losing their liquor license, so don't put them in that position. It doesn't matter what level of success you are at. It's just common sense. Work first, then party on your own time.

Flyering / Postering Etiquette

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Your band has a gig coming up, you've printed up stacks of flyers and posters and now you need to get them out there where people will see them. Seems fairly easy, right? You just staple or tape up posters hand out a bunch of flyers and sit back and wait for the crowds to roll in. Right? Sure. Just be careful and avoid a few simple mistakes.

First off, never put up posters for your show at venue A inside venue B. Postering space is limited inside any venue, even the ones that let you tape it up anywhere you want. They aren't going to be excited to see posters advertising a show at another venue. Same goes for flyering. Don't put out free tickets for your upcoming Herman's show on all the tables at your Dove show. Likewise, don't plaster the restroom at the Cricket with posters for your show at the Toad. This kind of behavior is simply discourteous to the venue you do it in and likely will result in them being less inclined to book you there again.

Is there a way around that? Yes. It's usually acceptable to mention your upcoming gigs while you are on stage. It's also acceptable to walk around the room and personally hand your flyers to people you know or have just met, as long as they don't immediately drop them on the floor and walk away. "Put this in your pocket." is a good way to handle it. Also a poster that has been printed up with a month's worth of shows can be safely hung in most venues without fear of pissing anyone off. It's not gonna stay on the wall past your gig in that venue, but if you post it a couple weeks beforehand, it might be helpful.

Along the same lines, it's not cool to flyer outside of most local music venues. Don't put them on all the cars in the parking lot, unless it's for a gig at that venue. Don't hand them out to patrons leaving a venue unless it's for an upcoming gig at that venue. A major exception to this rule is to hand them out as people are leaving a large concert venue. Hang on the sidewalk out in front of the Fillmore or the Pepsi center when a compatible national act is playing and hand out your flyers. It's an excellent way to build your fan base.

Don't run afoul of the law. In many cities it is against the law to put up posters on telephone poles, etc. A few cities even enforce these laws. You can be certain that they will know exactly what band is responsible, by simply reading the poster or coming to the show.

Always bear in mind that your promotional activities can also reflect upon the venue. If you plaster all the cars in front of Herbs with flyers for your show at the Skylark, the management of one place may well call the other to complain. Remember, venue owners and booking people do talk to each other, even while competing. Word can spread quickly, so try not to piss these people off.

What Makes A Good Poster?

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Every band that promotes itself (and if yours doesn't, you're already wasting your time by reading this), has dealt with the problem of posters. Some bands get lucky and discover an artist who is also a band member, friend or relative who will design cool posters for free or cheap. Many bands, though, struggle with this. Even the one's who have a professional graphic artist in their midst sometimes lose perspective and put out posters that, while they are cool or like works of art, are completely worthless when it comes to promoting the gig.

That's the bottom line: The poster's sole purpose is to promote the gig(s). Don't forget that. It doesn't matter how cool the artwork is, if people can't see it or can't read the important details, it's not doing the job.

We have a friend who collects old psychedelic era concert posters. They are expensive, the art is terrific and some are very rare. You know, the ones from The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Did you ever try to read one of them? Even at full size and up close in good lighting, it's sometimes nearly impossible to read the names of the bands, the venue, and the date. While it's cool to have those as collectors items now, they were nearly worthless at getting the word out about the gig.

Here's our rule of thumb: All the information should be easy to read from at least six feet away in a dark smoky bar. If you can't see the name of the band (or an easily recognized logo), the date and location, what's point?

Now, sometimes you have to decide where the posters will hang before you can make the call. If they are on telephone poles and you're hoping drivers will see them, then there's no point in using any fine print. If they will hang in coffee shops, which are usually well lighted, then maybe you can expect curious patrons to step in closer and read a little more. A short description of the music is a great idea. That way, someone who isn't already familiar with the band could become interested. Potential new fans want to know what kind of music you play, so even if you have to make something up, put it down. Even something as simple as "Rock" will work most of the time and it's way better than nothing. If you can't describe your music, you've got bigger problems. (We'll write an article on that one later) A website address is helpful, too.

When designing a poster, you also need to think about printing. Making full color 11" x 17" copies at Kinkos gets expensive pretty fast. So think about what that same poster would look like at 8.5" x 11" in black & white or black ink on colored paper. Make sure the design will not be ruined by B&W printing. If you're gonna send your posters out in electronic format to venues or street teams out of town, you better expect them to be printed in B&W.

Make A Generic Poster: This will save you lots of time and cash in the long run. Make one cool poster design with a big blank white space at the bottom (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the poster) and have 1,000 of them printed up in full color at a professional print shop You can use them for any gig for years. Just don't put a photo of the band on there unless you're certain nobody will leave the band before you can use them all up. CD cover artwork is perfect for this.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Have fun with your poster design and play around with things. Just remember what it's for and it'll be that much more effective.

Turn Up The Vocals!

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

We've seen this one a million times and so have you. A local band puts out a CD where the bass, drums or guitar overpower the vocals to the point where one can barely hear them, much less understand the lyrics. A glance at the liner notes shows that someone spent a lot of time writing very deep meaningful poetry that nobody will ever hear. Many bands do this live as well. In a few genres that's the way it's "supposed" to sound.

Bah! Humbug!

People love vocals. We're not just talking about musicians here, we're talking about the general public. One thing that mainstream radio has taught us is that one catchy lyric can make a band (at least a one-hit wonder). And vocal harmonies are even better. Here's our theory as to why this is:

Anyone who can speak has tried to sing, even drummers. Most of us aren't that good at it, but we've all tried it and therefore, we all know how hard it is to sing well. But, not everyone has tried to play guitar, bass, drums, keyboards or horns. Even if they have and they appreciate the skills of a jazz sax player, they still like a catchy lyric. It's so obvious that everyone should already know this.

Therefore, when mixing down the tracks on your CD, don't let the guitar player or the drummer make the decisions. Their input is appreciated, but everyone naturally wants their own playing to be heard loud and clear above the rest. It's just human nature. Commonly we've heard stories from the mix-down where, after hours of going around and around and trying different mixes, the vocalist just gets tired and says "Whatever you want, let's just get it done." But, please, don't be bullied. Don't quit. Instead, tell them "My ears are tired, we'll have to finish this later." Then put the tracks away for a week or a month and come back with fresh ears. Or hire a skilled producer with a proven track record and let him make the decisions.

The same goes for live shows. When the sound guy says "Turn it down," believe him and do as you're told. He can't mix your band well if your amp is so loud that he's taken it out of the PA mix. Trust us, you don't know better than him and you probably don't know how it really sounds out in the room. Just because your monitor mix sucks, doesn't mean the house mix does. It doesn't matter if you are a punk or heavy metal act, let the sound guy crank it up. He knows how. The old blues and jazz guys who tour constantly around the country know this. They don't bring their own sound guy on the road, either, they use the house guy and trust him to mix it as good as the system will allow. They keep their amps turned low and sound really good, most of the time, because of that. Learn from the examples set by the elder generation of players. If it works for them, it'll work for you.