creative deconstruction

5 Steps to Building an Online Following and Turning it into Gigs

Posted on 16. Apr, 2009 by refe in STRATEGY

I’ve been talking a lot lately about a band’s first gig. The first gig can be one of the most difficult milestones in a band’s career if they don’t already know a few of the right people. It’s a vicious cycle: you have no following because venues won’t book you, venues won’t book you because you have no following. So what is a band to do?

Get a following.

It used to be that the only way large numbers of people could hear a band’s work was for the band to play as many gigs as possible. Playing out is still the best way to gather a loyal fan base (and get paid) but if you aren’t being given that opportunity you have to find other avenues to get heard.

Fortunately, getting heard has been made much easier by the internet. Any band anywhere can make their tracks available for download through any number of online services with a few clicks. It’s still a bit daunting for some artists, though, so I wanted to put a quick list together to help make sense of how to get an online following and translate it into real gigs.

1.  Give Your Music Away
The goal is exposure, right? You are trying to get gigs, not sell records. There is nothing wrong with selling records – except that fewer and fewer people are willing to pay for them – but the best way to get as many listeners as possible is to remove any obstacles between them and your music. This includes cost. Most people will sample a track they’ve never heard of if it is free. If they have to pay for it they will likely pass it up in favor of a band they know they like. Utilize BitTorrent, Last.fm, Pandora, etc.

2.  Connect With Your Listeners
Don’t just toss your music into the wind and pray that it lands on fertile soil. Unless your tracks are that good, cultivating fans takes some follow up. When you make your music available, make sure that it is as easy as possible for them to find you if they like what they hear. You should have a MySpace page, you should be on Facebook, and fans should be able to follow you on Twitter. Better yet, you should have your very own blog with your band’s name as the domain whenever possible. The more your new listeners are able to connect with you, the more invested they will become in your career.

3. Leverage Your New Fans
There is an added benefit to utilizing social networking tools to connect with your fans. I’ve already talked about this in a previous post, but it bears repeating. Venues are looking at how many people are connected with you on these sites, specifically MySpace, and translating that directly into your potential to bring the crowds to your gigs.

4.  Promote Yourself
Once you’ve got people listening to your music and following you around online, you need to make sure the venues know about it. Your promo packet should have everything they would need to find your social media ‘resume.’ The standard demo, photo and bio shtick is not enough to get you a decent gig any more. Besides, if you have this ‘resume’ out there you want them to see it because it shows them that people are paying attention to you and want to see you play.

5.  Close the Deal
If a venue has your promo packet and they’ve had the opportunity to check you out (whether or not they have) you need to close the deal and ask for the gig. Learn to think and act like a good salesman. I’m not talking about schmoozing. What I am saying is that you need to stop approaching the transaction as though the venue holds all the cards. If you have done the things I mentioned above and you have the online presence to prove it, there is no reason why you can’t expect to get a gig when you ask for one. I will talk more about this in a separate post, but the difference between a mediocre salesman and a great one is that the great salesman expects to make the sale.

Hope that helps. Questions? Comments? Feel free to let me know if anybody has any other tips to get new bands where they need to be.

Tags: bands, gigging, music, MUSIC INDUSTRY