The Play’s the Thing… Even If You Play Your Music For Free.

Get out there and make music!

The most important thing to do when beginning a career in music is to play live. If you’re not established yet, don’t be afraid to play for free. This is the best way to promote your band or yourself. The kind folks here at the Music Marketing Center are going to help you figure out how.

Check your local newspapers to see if there is a fair, festival, or open mic night where you live. Those are perfect places to get started and lots of successful musicians and bands have gotten their careers of the ground that way.

Try to find places to play where the people are likely to want to hear your music. But, if you can’t find anywhere that has the right audience for you, don’t worry about it. If the usual audience is wrong for the type of music you play, try to bring your own crowd… Don’t rely on the venue’s usual crowd. Promote the show yourself and target your promotion to your audience. Even if one person stays to listen and likes you, that’s one person more than you had before you started. And that person will tell others.

If you play an event, make sure that your name or the name of your band is on all of the promotional materials. That’s a huge step to marketing your music.

If there aren’t any events in your town, put on your own show. That’s right, just like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney (yeah, I know… I’m showing my age here - actually, that stuffs even older than me. You can even do your show on property that you or your friends own and not pay a thing.

Most towns issue permits for public gatherings. So if you can’t have a gig where you live, see if you can get a permit to play in a park near by. Permits aren’t too expensive and the publicity will be worth it.

Playing for free is a good, low stakes way to practice. It’s very different playing in front of an audience than in your basement or garage with just your band or a few friends listening. It will give you confidence so that when you play for a bigger audience. You’ll be prepared.

This entry was posted Monday, October 27th, 2008, 9:56 pm and is filed under Self Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. Comments are open. Pings are open. You can use this trackback URl.