Gigging - The Book Available now!

Gigging - Everything you need to know about Playing Gigs, from Booking to getting Paid (except how to play your axe)

An essential guide for beginner musicians, those who are new to playing out, and seasoned pros who keep having problems.  The book covers topics such as how to get along with the sound guy, what to do if you think you're being ripped off by a venue, and what you should wear on stage.  There are also many True Gig Stories that describe what happened to bands that did things wrong.  Learn from the mistakes of others and be one step ahead of the rest of the bands in your region.
Buy the book here: www.GiggingBook.com

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.

Why people don't come to your show

At some point every musician will ask him/herself: "Why didn't anybody come to my show?"

Every situation is different but we will attempt to describe some of the most common reasons nobody shows up and what, if anything, you can do about it.

Sooner or later, no matter how big or successful you are, you will have show that bombs. If you're successful and this is an uncommon thing, then don't worry about it too much. You're probably doing fine and you can just chalk it up to bad luck. If it's happening commonly, then you need to figure out why and try to do something about it. It could be a blizzard or a hurricane that ruins your show. Don't worry too much about the weather related problems. There's nothing you can do about them, so cowboy up and move on. Sometimes you may never figure out why people didn't show up, but if you can at least eliminate some common reasons, you may be able to avoid having a poor turnouts at all your gigs. Be aware, when booking, of things like holidays and the seasonal ups and downs of your particular market(s) and you can avoid some of those lousy shows before they ever happen. Check out our podcast/article called "Never Release Your New Album in December" for more details on seasonal and holiday bookings to avoid.

One common reason that people may not come to your show is simply competition. Maybe there's a huge national act in town that appeals to your audience and they're gonna go to that show instead of yours. This happens a lot and there's not too much you can do about it, except try to schedule your shows around the bigger ones. If you can manage that, then maybe you should also attend those competing shows and use it as an opportunity to hand out flyers and promote your act. After all, these are the same people that like your band. An ideal situation would be to get your band booked to open for that bigger act.

Another common reason people aren't coming to your show: They don't know about it. Have you sent out emails to your fans? Is it posted on your website? Your Myspace? Your facebook? It should be. If you don't have any of those, you need to make them and build up your fans/friends pronto. Did you make sure your gig shows up on any/all local calendar sites, news and arts weekly papers/magazines? Don't rely on the venue or promoter to advertise your shows. They should and usually do, but there's always more that you can do. The bottom line: If your fans don't know about your gig, they aren't gonna come. We've seen great bands playing wonderful music to empty rooms simply because nobody in the band could be bothered to promote the show. If you don't want to do it, then recruit your fans to help out or consider hiring someone who does it for a living.

Are you playing the same market too much? If you're playing in the same city every Friday and Saturday night, there are very few people who will be able to come to every show, much less want to. If your shows are spaced out enough, not more than once every six weeks or so, then it becomes an event when you play and your fans will try harder to make it to the show. If you need to play every weekend to make a living, then play different markets. In almost every part of the country you can drive 20-30 miles and find yourself in a whole new market. Rotate through as many markets as you can, so that you always have gigs, but never overplay in any area.

The last and hardest hurdle to overcome may simply be your performance. To put it bluntly: You might suck. You should be able to determine if this is the problem by watching your fan base. If it grows, you're doing things right. If it starts off big, with all your friends and family coming to your first couple shows and then drops off quickly, then you have a problem. What can you do? Practice more. Make sure all your band mates are playing as good as they can. If they can't cut it then maybe lessons are in order. Anyone can improve their performance musically and stage presence -wise. Maybe it's time to replace someone, try some different material or even quit. We hate to see anyone give up, but certainly, playing music professionally just isn't meant to be for some people. Sometimes, just changing the material can transform an act. We've seen new bands hit the road hard for a year and come back with a whole new confidence and understanding of how to capture and hold an audience. We've seen some bands, filled with highly talented players, insist on playing only their originals and no covers. Unfortunately, some great players aren't very good at songwriting and so the act never quite catches on and builds a following. Just throwing in a couple compatible covers here and there can excite a crowd and get people interested in your original music. People don't usually dance to music they've never heard before. In one case we know about a band that is very successful as a retro-1980s cover band and then under another name (and less cheesy costumes) plays all originals. They way they get the best of both worlds is to book both acts to play consecutively on the same night. A great example of this is Hank Williams III. He plays a set of old covers his grandfather made famous, then after a short break he comes back on stage with the same band plays a set of in your face punk. The set of covers provides income and brings in big crowds who then get exposed to his original stuff. To ease the pain, we've heard that some bands who must play covers in order to pay the bills will not waste time learning any cover songs that take them longer than 10 minutes to learn.

We hope this will help you understand and remedy some of the most common reasons people don't come to your show.

More detail on some of the above topics and related articles and podcasts can be found online at RockOnColorado.com

Making the Most of Low Paying Gigs

By David Barber
RockOnColorado.com

Every band has to take low paying gigs from time to time. It may be a new venue/market where you don't have a following yet, or it's a benefit for a worthy cause that you are pleased to volunteer for, or just one of those nights where very few people show up and the venue doesn't want to pay you. Whatever the situation, you need to make the best of it. Here are a few commonly overlooked things you can do to make that crappy gig a little bit more tolerable.

1. Sell Your Merchandise. Always bring your merch with you to each and every gig, no matter how small or inconsequential the gig may seem. If you don't have any merchandise (CDs, T-shirts, Hats, etc.) You are missing out on an important revenue stream. It does take some cash and time (especially for a good CD) to get merchandise for resale, but it will almost always pay off. Start with a logo. Hire a graphic artist (or ask your family, friends, or even fans if any of them would be interested in helping out the band. You probably know someone already who has the artistic talents you need) and make sure it's done well. Plaster that logo everywhere, on T-shirts, CD inserts, hats, even underwear. Price it at around double what it cost to have them made and you are in business. There are many companies in your area that will gladly help you put your logo on almost anything. Do an Internet search for "promotional items" and you'll see what we mean. We like to deal with Comich, Inc. for the nontraditional items (like calendars, pens, and golf tees) and Red Eagle Design for cool embroidered hats and shirts. But you can always ask other bands in your area where they are getting good deals on their merch. (Prices vary widely, so shop around).
   Denver singer/songwriter Wendy Woo once played a gig at a coffee shop, where there was no cover charge and no pay from the venue. She sold hundreds of dollars worth of merch and turned the gig into a lucrative success.
   Benefits and similar all ages events are terrific for selling merch. Kids who aren't allowed to buy beer will instead spend their money on CDs and T-shirts. We've seen local bands sell out all their merch at nonpaying, all ages theater gigs where they were opening for a national act.
   Don't forget to mention from the stage where in the room CDs are available. As a door guy this author has seen a lot of people leave without buying anything because the band only sold stuff at the end of the night. Fans will ask the door man, the waitresses and bartenders where they can get a CD. If the answer is "I dunno." You're losing a sale.
2. Build your mailing list. It's as easy as a clipboard, paper and pencil. You should always try to build your mailing list at every gig. How often do venue booking managers ask "How many people can you bring in?" If you can reply with "our email list has 7,000 names on it," they may be more interested in booking your act. A mailing list is invaluable to keeping in touch with your fans.
   The best way to get people to sign up is to have a band member walk around the room after each gig or during set breaks and personally invite people to sign up. If that becomes too much hassle for the band, recruit a friend, family member or fan to walk around during the set and ask people to sign up. (If they walk around selling CDs as well, you're gonna sell more of them.)
   Email lists can be a hassle to maintain manually and can land you on spammer lists if you aren't careful. There are many solutions that you can find yourself with a quick search on the Internet. Commotion Music Promotion, Inc. offers bargain priced email list management for bands or any other business.
3. Make an Impression. A great big logo on the bass drum head is a good start. A 6 foot wide banner hung as a backdrop is even better. Nothing frustrates us more than when a friend or colleague tells us about this cool new band they saw recently, but whose name they can't remember. By the end of your set, everyone in the room should know your act's name. Don't be shy. Repeat it at the start and end of every set. Mention that you have merch available, and ask the audience to please sign up on the mailing list. And above all: play your heart out!
   You never know who will be in the room. Even if it's a sparse crowd and there doesn't seem to be much energy there, play like it's a sold out stadium show each and every time. If you're not into it, then learn to fake it. Believe me, there are acts on the road right now who make their living by pretending to have a fantastic time on stage, even when they are deathly ill (Country Dick Montana of the Beat Farmers died while performing on stage after a long and painful bout with cancer.)
   Love.45 used to play hotel gigs in Denver, before they were signed, in order to help them pay for studio time and the cost of mailing out hundreds of promo packs. One night we attended one of these gigs where the crowd was pretty lame. But there was this one guy, in town to visit relatives, who was blown away. So what? It turned out that he worked for a major label and said he would go back home and tell his boss and anyone else who would listen that the band should be signed. Nothing came of that encounter, but you never know.
   The now defunct band Sucker was based in Vail, CO. At one gig they impressed a software exec. who was in town for a snowboarding vacation. The result was enough money to record and video one song that ended up being used in a popular Nintendo game. They even included the video as a bonus in the game.
4. Be Professional. OK, so it's one of your bread and butter gigs where you usually draw a full house, but this night it's half empty because of bad weather, a big playoff game, or something else you can't control. Do NOT let this affect the way you play. Play it just like the house was full. Fake it if you have to, but smile and act like you're having the time of your life. Do NOT get drunk, play sloppy, take long breaks and quit early because you're in a bad mood. Do NOT get mad at the door guy, the booking manager, the opening act, or any of the staff because you didn't get paid as much as usual. Force yourself to smile and say "Thanks." Remember, the venue staff only made half of what they were hoping for, too. It's not always easy, but it's very important. There are bands we won't mention who have worn out their welcome in an entire region due to years of repeated unprofessional behavior. It doesn't matter if you are the best guitar player since Jimi Hendrix. If you act like an asshole or a prima-donna all the time, word will spread and you'll be lucky to get coffeeshop gigs.
   

Most of this stuff is just common sense, but it will help to take your act to the next level if you can deal with the lousy gigs as well as the great ones.

This blog and many more are available as Podcasts at: www.rockoncolorado.com/podcasts