First Gig is all about Who you Know - On MySpace

First Gig is all about Who you Know – On MySpace

Posted on 06. Apr, 2009 by refe in MUSIC INDUSTRY

I was talking with an artist this weekend about his career, and he told me about some of the trouble he’d been having getting that first gig. Although he had previously been part of a band that played out on a regular basis, it has been a few years and most of his connections have dried up. Now he is starting from scratch and not having much luck. He’s got quite a few things going for him – a unique catalogue of material, a lot of talent and he knows how to put on a good show – but he’s contacted just about every venue in town and nobody seems to want to take a chance on him. Everybody asks the same thing – do you have a Myspace page? He gives them the address and never hears from them again. So what was it about his Myspace page that was driving them away?

From the venue’s perspective, MySpace really is a great resource. Because of the culture that has built up around music on MySpace, a band’s Myspace page is now a pretty reliable place to get a feel for whether or not they’ve got a decent fan base. All a booking person has to do is log on to an artist’s page, check how many people have connected with them, and maybe listen to a track or two if it looks like it might be worth it. If the artist has several thousand friends and most of them leave messages like, “I love this music more than my own Mother,” there is a good chance that they are able to get a few people to show up at their gigs. If quite a few of these friends are from outside of the artist’s local scene, it shows that they should be able to draw a crowd for even out of state shows. Lot’s of friends = lot’s of tickets.

Here was my artist friend’s problem – he hadn’t really understood the importance of MySpace, so he didn’t spend much time developing his presence there. With fewer than one hundred friends, he wasn’t making much of a case for himself when booking people visited to check him out.

It was clear that this was one of the factors preventing him from landing a good show. After we talked he decided to fix the problem, so he spent several hours finding people that he thought might be interested in his music and invited them to be his friends. In two hours he nearly doubled his connections and is now well on his way to building his presence on MySpace – and his credibility with venues.

It seems pretty basic, but if you want to make money as an artist or as a band, you HAVE to have a MySpace page and it HAS to show that there are people out there who like you and want to see you perform. If you take the time to do this well, it can be one of the best ways to land those first few shows.

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Tags: bands, gigging, MUSIC INDUSTRY, myspace, networking

5 Responses to “First Gig is all about Who you Know – On MySpace”

Nick Siegel

06. Apr, 2009

i couldn’t agree more. it’s pretty amazing how easy it is to connect with people on myspace. finding artists that are similar to your style and adding their friends as your own is a great first step. its good if you can find people and other bands to really dig your music but really it’s almost more important that both of your friend totals have just increased. you’re helping each other out. so as far as getting the friend total to an acceptable amount according to venues, bands aren’t as much in competition with each other but rather in support of one another. it’s a win-win situation. the more friends the better both of your chances to get shows.
refe

07. Apr, 2009

Bands should be networking with one another and their fans as much as possible anyway, right? Why not do it where it leaves evidence?
susan

07. Apr, 2009

I had no idea that myspace had become such a huge (and necessary) networking tool for musicians. It seems like a huge step in the right direction though – though kind of a crude tool maybe?
Dj Silvio

05. May, 2009

its true!
I scored my first gigs off of MYSPACE.
I landed my first radio show in Palm Springs, CA that way ( I live in FL ! )

the thing is profiles on Myspace, facebook & othe4r industry based pages help you get familiar with the types of artists making the grade & the fans who are looking for something unique & new.

I suggest have your main page & a band page then get your friends to host a fan page dedicated to your art.
http://www.waxdj.com/djs/6254
enjoy some of my cds to promo~!!
Ian Clifford - 'Make It In Music'

12. May, 2009

I couldn’t agree more.

Not only is your MySpace presence essential for building connections with fans (by which I don’t just mean adding friends but actually creating a creative / accolyte relationship), but it is the key destination for ALL industry professionals.

It is the modern equivalent of opening the demo envelope and making a very very snap judgement about a band, possibly even before the CD had gotten into the machine.

The booker, A&R man, agernt, PR or prospective manager want to see friends, daily plays, but, more importnat than anything, interaction and commitment. That means getting your fans to use your comments section to talk back to you about what they love about your music and your shows.

This interaction itself leads to the real bonding of fan to artists as well as giving the industry professionals the evidene of your viability that they are looking for in the first few seconds that they hit your profile.

We cover this in great detail in our guide at http://www.makeitonmyspace.com

Don’t be fooled – MySpace is absolutely CRUCIAL to your success and you need to master it.