Fanatic
Despite what some arrogant musicians may think, they didn’t make their own success. The fans did. If there isn’t anyone listening then there would be no need for bands to make the music. If fans didn’t buy CDs there would be no money for tours or incentive to continue to write new songs.
With this in mind one of the most important elements for a new band is developing a solid fan base that will buy recordings, tell their friends about you, and pack your shows. This is a simple process for a signed band; their label has the money and people to adequately promote you to a much larger audience.
But for bands that act as their own promotion and management, getting the word out about your group can be a difficult task. Things have improved as new technologies have emerged including the proliferation of free web profiles such as those offered by Myspace. On this site a band can add friends to their profile and send out bulletins detailing show information and recordings. Bands can also post several songs that can be heard by anyone who stumbles onto their page. Myspace is truly becoming a one stop advertising machine that can reach a wider audience faster.
But just using this site doesn’t enable you to get people to go to it. You have to get your name out there first so that people know about your band and go to the profile rather than hoping that people will accidentally end up there and like what they hear.
With a small budget and no representation, this is where the aspiring musician has to put his time in. What’s the point of spending money on recording if you aren’t going to get people to hear it?
In late January or February my band will be ready to begin our own promotional campaign. To begin we will try to get some free press in local publications, and hopefully a CD review. This will require us hitting the pavement and plugging a short feature story on our band. Reno also has an entertainment publication called the Reno News & Review that often covers local bands and would be a perfect candidate for this type of article.
The next task –getting airplay – is a crucial part of promotion but the most difficult part to obtain. We hope to go to KDOT 104.5 and get one of the dj’s to play our material. The problem with this is the fact that stations have pre programmed schedules and are not apt to play your material over that of an established act. This station, however, has at times played local band’s recordings late at night.
Finally, we hope to talk with some of the club promoters throughout the city and hopefully convince them to let us play when larger touring acts come through. Often times local bands are used to open a show, such as at the New Oasis. This would help get our name out to fans of certain genres that come to see a bigger band but maybe become interested in us as a result of the performance.
Ultimately promotion comes down to time and hard work. Although creating the music is an extremely important part of being a musician, promoting that music is often overlooked and should be considered an equally crucial step. Fans make bands.
Hear some new stuff on my podcast.
With this in mind one of the most important elements for a new band is developing a solid fan base that will buy recordings, tell their friends about you, and pack your shows. This is a simple process for a signed band; their label has the money and people to adequately promote you to a much larger audience.
But for bands that act as their own promotion and management, getting the word out about your group can be a difficult task. Things have improved as new technologies have emerged including the proliferation of free web profiles such as those offered by Myspace. On this site a band can add friends to their profile and send out bulletins detailing show information and recordings. Bands can also post several songs that can be heard by anyone who stumbles onto their page. Myspace is truly becoming a one stop advertising machine that can reach a wider audience faster.
But just using this site doesn’t enable you to get people to go to it. You have to get your name out there first so that people know about your band and go to the profile rather than hoping that people will accidentally end up there and like what they hear.
With a small budget and no representation, this is where the aspiring musician has to put his time in. What’s the point of spending money on recording if you aren’t going to get people to hear it?
In late January or February my band will be ready to begin our own promotional campaign. To begin we will try to get some free press in local publications, and hopefully a CD review. This will require us hitting the pavement and plugging a short feature story on our band. Reno also has an entertainment publication called the Reno News & Review that often covers local bands and would be a perfect candidate for this type of article.
The next task –getting airplay – is a crucial part of promotion but the most difficult part to obtain. We hope to go to KDOT 104.5 and get one of the dj’s to play our material. The problem with this is the fact that stations have pre programmed schedules and are not apt to play your material over that of an established act. This station, however, has at times played local band’s recordings late at night.
Finally, we hope to talk with some of the club promoters throughout the city and hopefully convince them to let us play when larger touring acts come through. Often times local bands are used to open a show, such as at the New Oasis. This would help get our name out to fans of certain genres that come to see a bigger band but maybe become interested in us as a result of the performance.
Ultimately promotion comes down to time and hard work. Although creating the music is an extremely important part of being a musician, promoting that music is often overlooked and should be considered an equally crucial step. Fans make bands.
Hear some new stuff on my podcast.
posted by in2thegapagain85 at 5:39 PM
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