Get Out There And Promote Your Band’s Gig

There is some leg work in promoting your show, but there are plenty of ways that are easy and low cost.

Contact local newspapers, web sites, radio and TV stations in your area and tell them about your gigs. Ask if you can give them an interview. Here’s a little secret. Media outlets need lots of content. They chew it up and spit it out constantly. And interviewing you will help them get that content. Often, they are eager to promote you because they need the material. In other articles, we’ll discuss in depth how to work with the media to promote your music.

Print up flyers on your home printer and hang them wherever there’s a community bulletin board such as a library, supermarket, or post office. If you belong to a volunteer group, make an announcement at the next meeting or put it in the newsletter. If you are a member of a house of worship, put it on the bulletin board and ask if you can put an announcement in the order of service. Put up flyers on telephone poles (if allowed).

There are lots of ways to get people to come to your gig.

You can invite other bands to play with you. Here’s a tip: don’t play first because not everyone has arrived yet. Don’t play last or everyone may leave before you come on. If you are a major attraction, playing last is ok, but if there are a bunch of bands, try to get the middle spot or just before the headliner when the crowd is the biggest.

You can also have a battle of the bands. You can have a contest. How about a singing contest where the best vocalist gets to guest star with your band? Yeah, just like American Idol. In fact, if you have the kind of music that particular crowd enjoys, use American Idol in your music promotions. Most people love that stuff.

Or, how about other contests? A songwriting contest and your band will play the song written by the winner. You can also have a t-shirt designing contest. Have the participants design a t-shirt with your band’s name on it. Your band will use the winning design on your merchandise - give the winner a free shirt. Most bands pay a lot of money for a great design. You can get a few for just a few samples. You can also have a contest where the winner gets a free music lesson with the musician of their choice.

You can also give stuff away. Shirts, hats, all kinds of stuff preprinted with your name on it. It’s dirt cheap to make short run cds these days. Create a special one to be used as a prize, limit the number of them, and make it a collector’s item.

Often, when you play for free, you can tie it into a ’cause.’ Major charities will often sponsor musical gigs by unknown bands, and you’ll get a ton of publicity.

On top of that, you’ll get people who come to your show just to support the charity. You’ll get promoted by the cause you would like to support. Even if you have been paid to play in the past, it’s worth it to play for free because it keeps your name out there and you will make new fans. You never know who is listening to your music and how that person can help you towards realizing your dream.

In other words, play your music as much as you can to anyone who will listen. And, whenever you play, promote the hell out of it. This is the absolute best way to pull together a following, which will draw the attention of the record labels and get your music onto the Ipods of tons of music lovers.

This entry was posted Thursday, October 30th, 2008, 7:50 pm and is filed under Self Promotion, touring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. Comments are open. Pings are open. You can use this trackback URl.