A way out of the catch 22 of needing to book more gigs to book more gigs
Every band or a solo musician wants to perform. Getting out on the stage and playing the tracks, feeling the reaction to your music and getting instant reward of a crowd enjoying your art is the pinnacle of being a musician. But to get to the point of playing shows being your actual full-time job, you need to streamline the process of booking gigs.
Most established musicians have a booking agent arranging their performances, negotiating fees and looking for new opportunities to join festivals, galas, concerts, etc. Besides the 5–10% cut (most often — 10), booking agents also require an artist or a band to have their own fan base before they would start working with them.
Basically, up-and-coming musicians and bands are facing a catch 22 of struggling for ways to book gigs when they are unknown and needing a booking agent, but to get a booking agent they need to be able to book gigs on their own!
“Most agents will not consider working with artists unless they have proven themselves as a live performer that can bring out fans,”
explains Rory PQ in his article on getting noticed by a booking agent for Icon Collective.
This means that you need to learn how to book gigs on your own. And lucky for you, Show4me Music Interaction Network has a handy tutorial! Thank us later:)
Step 1. Create a marketable portfolio.
Decide what your music brand is all about and develop a portfolio to reflect your image.
Write your artist bio, description of your music and the genres you play, inspiration behind your art, accumulate a collection of media — headshots and promotional photographs, photos and videos of your live performances, nurture and grow your fan base using social media or specialized music networks, like Show4me.
It’s particularly important to have your live performance portfolio ready — where and when you performed, how many people attended and media to support that. Make sure your performances are varied and exciting to avoid your potential partners getting bored looking through your list.
Step 2. Work on building a fanbase.
Nina Simone’s long-time manager Raymond Gonzalez shared in his recent interview for Show4me that beginner musicians need to create a strong fan base to get ahead:
“There is not enough promoters to take risks, so the artists have to do a lot of their own work. They have to be their own press agent, their own producer… They produce their own albums. Once they make it, a real promoter takes over after that. But because they don’t have the public yet, so they have to create that public, in order for us to develop and go a step further.”
Decide on the platform for your dedicated fan hub and put the effort in developing it — posting updates regularly, sharing your music, holding contests and Q&As, posting behind-the-scenes videos, making exclusive announcements, distributing merch, etc.
Step 3. Take all the shows you can get.
Once your portfolio is looking good, you have a presentable online portfolio and a fan hub, it’s time to look for performing opportunities.
When you are just starting out, it’s natural to look for gigs locally, but from the first days of your work as a musician, be ready to travel for gigs — this will expand your performance portfolio, help you practice and let you start earning on your craft faster.
To look for local gigs, make a list of places where your style of music can fit — venues, art galleries, pubs, bars, coffee shops, malls, festivals. Join open mic nights, joint concerts or contact touring bands to find out if they’d like you to open for them in your local venue. Contact the venues to inquire if they’d agree to let you play their less busy nights.
Escalate the level of your gigs as your career progresses.
Step 4. Crowdfund your shows.
No, you don’t have to launch an Indiegogo or Kickstarter campaign to cover the cost of holding your own show or concert. You can crowdfund for a show via concert pre-order model, i.e. fans pre-order tickets to your planned show before the date and location are set in stone and production expenses are underway.
This risk-free model allows you to float show ideas for any amount of attendees — from 10 or 20 to thousands — and see if you can get enough fans to pre-order the tickets. Once you meet your minimum budget to cover the production costs, you can commit to the show and start actually putting it together. This protects you from losing money on gigs and you don’t need to take out loans or twist into a pretzel to prove to venue managers that you will be able to draw a crowd.
Sounds exciting? Go to the bottom of this blog post to learn how to do it in Show4me platform for musicians — it’s a free platform, only fans contribute, if they want to, any fees are success-based, meaning no way to go in the red with the tool. The house always wins, but this time because the tools are excellent, not rigged;)
If successful, your concert and show crowdfunding campaigns are going to be a part of your online portfolio that any manager, promoter, agent or label can browse, get introduced to your music and check out how engaged your fan base is and accurately estimate your potential in the music market.
Conclusion
You may not sell out stadiums just yet, but there are ways for your to build up your music career without a team of professionals backing your every move. A lot of professional musicians make a decent living by organizing a lot of their own shows, taking care of fan and media communications and generally being a music entrepreneurs just like any small-scale entrepreneur in any industry these days is — wearing multiple hats and killing it. So why not you?
Try the steps we recommend above and share in the comments if you have any additional insights on booking gigs without a, ahem, booking agent))
Want to find out more about booking a booking agent? Go to the extended version of this post with industry insiders’ insights and extended explanations of each of the listed steps here.
