Getting gigs and promoting yourself

Getting Gigs, Promoting Yourself and Stuff.
It really isn’t rocket science and if you put yourself out there you’ll get the gigs. The number one thing for artists to realise is that us bookers on the front-line are concerned more with how many heads are going to roll in the door rather then how brilliant a band sounds. Harsh, I know, but it is the truth for emerging artists. I would enjoy nothing more but then to book great bands, playing music I enjoy, but reality needs to be adhered to from time to time. A booker’s job is to assure their venue of a financial rewarding evening. The next thing is that most bookers will be more impressed if you’re willing to do the hard work and put a line-up together. Going to a venue booker with a set line-up and a claim of how many numbers you will pull, in most cases, gets you in the door. Be aware that an Irish themed pub is unlikely to book metal bands, but if you’ve got the heads then you’re in for a chance not that I would expect that any themed venue is about to ‘flip flop’ on their image. I hope you understand that the point is that you are not selling your music to a booker, in most cases you’re selling potential bar revenue. This is all beginner stuff but the basics are all the same in the big time. You may be trying to get a gig at a small pub or convincing a touring company that you’re worthy of a national tour, it’s all about whether or not people are going to come see you perform. A couple things to remember is that if you promote yourself and fill rooms the industry ‘biggies’ will notice you. The music industry, although not very organised, has a pretty intense grapevine and you want to get in on it; industry people such as major agents, labels and publishers find their artists via ‘word of mouth’. All these types of people generally accept demo recordings and jazzing the release up is advantageous although this is not the way an artist is going to be taken up by a major agent or a publisher. So, get together with other bands and put line ups together, get your friends down to your gigs, don’t gig too much – keep your friends and fans fresh, create an image for street press to write about, be personable and have enthusiasm, do volunteer work for places like Vicmusic, Liberation and Shock; just get out there. Your greatest promoting asset is yourself, meet other bands, talk to people; this is a business and although you may not look like a businessperson (may you do), you need to adopt the systematic values of one. Gerard Schlachecke, from Premier Artists adds that when he wants to make a decision on an artist, he looks to see “Would the band have fans that would die for them”. Okay, you need fans, but there’s a benchmark to aim for. A former publisher Colleen Zulian said that they like artists to be polite and have a point of difference. Others in the industry say they like to see people be themselves and didn’t mind a bit of carnage and attitude. The thing to remember is that bookers, agents and publishers are real people that are in business and in many cases they’re self-employed with families, bills and mortgages. Ask yourself, are you viable? If the answer is ‘yes’ then you prove it.