creative deconstruction

Number One Way to Make Sure Your Band Fails

Posted on 03. Jul, 2009 by refe in STRATEGY

There’s no secret formula to insure that your band will be successful, but I can tell you one fool-proof way to guarantee its failure: stop gigging.

It’s so basic, yet I have been consistently surprised at how many bands come to me looking for help getting their careers off the ground who treat gigging as a chore. When it’s time to pound the pavement and book a few shows they procrastinate. They focus on reworking their songs, doodling potential album artwork, updating their MySpace page – anything – and come Friday night they’ve got nothing lined up. Fame and fortune are postponed another week and they’re left wondering why their career still hasn’t taken off.

There’s been a lot of talk recently (on this site certainly) about the need for bands to connect with listeners and cultivate a fan base that will launch them to the next stages of their career. There are a lot of ways to do that. Social media platforms like Twitter and MySpace have been getting a lot of attention, and really can be excellent tools to engage with listeners. Yet, these tools are just distractions if they aren’t supplementing the connections you are already forging with live audiences.

The artist/fan relationship puts down roots live. They can see your face, and you see theirs. They get to watch you screw up, and you get to watch them move along with your music. It’s loud, it’s messy, and you share it with every person in the room. You can’t reproduce that in a recording, and you certainly can’t reproduce it in a 140-character status update.

Gigging takes work, but it’s not a chore – it’s your job. Every aspect of an artist’s career is built on live performance, and if you forget this you are setting yourself up for failure.

Tags: gigging, social media, Twitter