The Secret To Advancing Your Music Career

This is something to consider. You/your band is doing really well and you have some extra cash to blow and you want to use it to help further your career - what should you spend it on? 

A. Spend it on advertising

B. Spend it going on tour

C. Hire a publicist

D. Hire a lawyer

E. Hire a college radio promoter 

And the correct answer is…

D. Hire a lawyer

Are you surprised by the answer? You shouldn’t be. Truth is, in the world of entertainment, the attorney is king in many ways. They are the silent force behind every deal and advancement. They are the music industry’s silent gatekeeper and its best kept secret (and probably safe to say, best weapon).

An entertainment attorney wants their client to succeed - it means more money for them. It's not just reviewing paperwork, negotiating contracts, and suing people (if needed). They are well connected within the industry and can easily make career-advancing connections for their clients. They are also aware of many of the things that are happening within the industry. If a client of theirs has been offered a deal, they’re able and willing to solicit other offers for their client so that their client can get the best deal. They also help you re-negotiate for better terms if you’ve proven yourself to be a commodity with your work. The entertainment attorney is also one of the main go-to persons within the industry for career guidance and advice. Sometimes, more so than the manager.

Below is a story from Minh Chau, an artist, producer and entrepreneur, about  how key an entertianment attorney really is.

I was at an ASCAP event where there were several great songwriters/producers on the panels (it’s obvious I’m an ASCAP member).  I remember one particular panel, during which “the secret” was leaked. The hit songwriter (I can’t remember his name) said that he didn’t have a manager and that you didn’t really need one. He went on to say that the key person to his career success was his attorney. He said, “the lawyer is king in this business.” When I heard this, I thought, “You can’t be serious.” But when another hit songwriter/producer backed his statement a little later on during the discussion, I had to pay attention. I haven’t forgotten it since. I went back and did more research and what he said was true. Why hadn’t anyone told me about this? All the countless reading I’ve done, videos I’ve watched, and God-knows-what. But, I was happy. At least now I know. And now, you know.


It may not be a route for everybody, but if you're business oriented when it comes to your band and want to see it succeed, it's definitely something to consider.


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What Are Fans Willing To Spend Money On?

As a musician it's important to know your target audience. You don't want to be trying to get your country band into a rap club because chances are you won't do well. You want to be playing where people want to hear your music. Likewise, you want to be selling your fans things they actually want. Don't invest a lot of money in products that aren't going to sell. Do you think anyone really wants to buy a coffee cup with your band name on it? Probably not. But something like t-shirts and stickers make sense.

Below is advice from a fan about what they're willing to spend money on as a fan. Yeah somethings you might be able to get for free, but isn't it worth it to fork over a few bucks to help support your favorite artists? Check it out.


Things Fans Will Pay For:

The music. First and foremost, many people will (and do) voluntarily pay for digital music, even if they don’t have to. This might be because it’s easier to use iTunes than BitTorrent. Or it might be because they want to support the artist. Or both.

CDs and merch. Atoms, not bits. You can listen to NPR for free. Do you pledge them money to support the programming, or for the This American Life DVD? I regularly buy merchandise as a way to support artists. I buy CDs at concerts, because I know the money goes directly to the artists (and because I can listen to them in my car).

Relationships. Anything signed or limited-edition is not just about the article itself—it’s about expressing a relationship with the artist. And relationships aren’t fungible.Jonathan Coulton and Amanda Palmer are two excellent artists who have close relationships with their fans, who in turn support them.

An experience. The canonical example of this is, of course, the concert – whether it’s $5 to see your favorite local band or hundreds of dollars for an arena show. But this also includes things like doing ’shrooms in a Lamborghini with your favorite drummer.

Something unique. A commissioned song is one-of-a-kind. It’s certainly worth something to the recipient.

A narrative. What’s a story worth? Apparently, quite a bit. The Significant Objects art project posts thrift-store finds for auction on eBay, along with the back stories. But the back stories are fictional, and are described as such. Nevertheless,  the items go for substantially more than their market value.


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Ten Questions To Ask Yourself To Be Successful

Whenever it comes to making goals for yourself in any aspect of your life, it works best if you sit down and actually write a physically list. Yeah, yeah, you know what you have to do.. but are you actually going to do it? Visualization is key. Below are some really important questions to ask yourself when you're striving for your music career. Read through them and make yourself a list based on your answers. Don't worry, you don't have to share it with anyone. This should be for YOU!



Question #1: Do I need validation in order to feel that my music is good?

What factors do I use to rate my musical output? Are these factors productive and healthy, or are they holding me back from taking risks? Who do I trust to give great feedback on my music and why? When writing do I think a lot about what different people are going to say or think? How do I think this affects my songs?

Question #2: By what terms do I measure success?

When thinking about success and my music career do I use a scale based on internal goals and surpassing them, or based on the market and my position in it? Do I have a balance between internal goals and external position? Which element is more important to me? Why does one element (internal or external) weigh more than the other to me?

Question #3: As an entrepreneur and business owner, what are some of my biggest weaknesses?

What are areas I realize I am struggling in or I fear that I will? Why do I feel this way and is it justified? How do I plan on improving my skills in this area and ensuring that this weakness does not get in the way of my career development? Are these weaknesses tied to particular insecurities I have due to past experiences? How do I ensure I don’t let these insecurities make bad business decisions for my career?

Question #4: What elements of my career bring me the most stress?

Can I handle those elements always being present? What tools do I have that can help me manage this stress? Why does this element cause so much stress?

Question #5: Do I trust and believe in my partners (band mates, team etc.)?

Do I have any doubts that they might not be on the same page? How will I address these feelings if I ever did? Do we all envision the same ideal situation for our career success? Do I trust them to represent and share the same morals and standards with me? Do I enjoy hearing their feedback and asking their help when it comes to my career? Do they challenge me in healthy ways on a regular basis? How do I communicate my needs as an artist and human being to my team? Is it a constructive work environment?

Question #6: Do I believe I can be the biggest artist/band in the world with unwavering confidence in myself and my team?

This question is hard to admit, but sometimes to achieve big scary goals you have to say things that may sound a bit crazy. I truly think that, to be the biggest band in the world, you don’t get there by believing that you’re not ever going to be there. You need to believe that you are going to get there and can.

So… Can I be the biggest band in the world? What raises doubt and gets me down? What or who can help me keep on track in these moments of doubt?

Sure one could argue that it’s healthy to have some doubts to help propel you forward but there is a difference between some small doubts and a big gloomy doom monster lurking in your gut. Ask yourself, Do I have a big gloomy doom monster lurking in my gut?

Question #7: Am I ready to really truly work and give everything to this dream?

Is there anything holding me back? Are there any side projects, other careers, or back up plans left open ended that I need to tie up? Do I care what my friends and family think of my career choice? Do I enjoy working all hours of the day and night? Am I ready to really develop a serious work ethic and push through the aspects of this career that are unenjoyable? What am I willing to sacrifice?

Question #8: Is there a point in my career where I see myself hanging my hat up?

What is that point and why? How did I arrive on this idea? If I do have a hat hanging moment, what will I do after the hat is hung?

Question #9: How do I want my writing and songs to affect people?

In detail, what do I want my listeners to think? What if they think or say the opposite? What would be the most flattering compliment someone could say about my writing?

And most importantly…

Question #10: What are the values I will consider when making hard career decisions?

What are the most important things for me when it comes to making a mark with my music? Will I always keep those at the forefront when decision making? What could potentially challenge those values down the road? In what order will I consider these values and why?


Good luck!



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Best Time Of Year To Release Your New Album?

At one point in the music industry, January was thought to be the "dead zone" for releasing anything new. With all the holidays that had just passed, who in their right mind would be thinking of buying MORE stuff? Well take a look below at the best times of the year to release a new album - there are a lot of things to consider first!

January Boom
In the last few years there has been a big push to get major label artists to release their music in January. For years, January was considered a dead zone in the industry because holiday sales were low and the chances of a record making it big and staying in people’s minds between January and the next big push of holiday sales was almost zero.

Having said that though, that opened up a new market for artists with staying power. Adele and a few other major names (Lana Del Rey, Arctic Monkeys, The Maccabees) knew that they had some clout and would be able to capitalize on the “lack” of new music in the January season to make marketing easier and cheaper to do.

Indie Advice: January is a pretty good month for indie music because music bloggers are fresh off the high that was “The best of the previous year” articles that they spent all of December posting and are looking for something new to talk about. Since bands don’t send them much right after the holidays, you’ll have a pretty good chance at getting placements. Having said that though, if your goal is to ride the Christmas-buying wave and you don’t have a STRONG following, releasing in January means you’ll be irrelevant by March and come year end, no one will even know your name.



February – May
Here’s where things start getting hairy. Spring is PRIME album release time for “indie” bands. I use the term “indie” loosely because here I’m referring to bands who are most likely to be playing festivals. Obviously, Adele doesn’t play festival gigs and is more of a mainstream artist than someone running the festival string. I digress.

Spring time is horrendous for competition. It’s when the new year is in “full swing” and bands are looking to get their records out so that they have something to push through spring and summer tours, as well as to help keep a band relevant to land festival gigs.

Indie Advice: If you’re thinking of releasing in this time period, you better be damn sure that you’ve got some money to break through the noise with. Blog advertising costs go up around February to May because big name artists are also going to be fighting for the same space as you. You’ve also got to worry about people’s listening span. With so many new records to listen to from big name acts, bloggers and fans will be a bit tough to sway to listen to your own stuff. Avoid Spring if at all possible. Release a single or a new video, but don’t let your whole record out just yet. Play some shows, sell your old CDs, build hype, etc.

June – August
Things start to calm down in the summer months (or winter if you’re in upside-down land. Aka Australia). But that still doesn’t mean it’s optimal time to put your record out. If blog coverage is your goal, there’s a good chance you won’t get a whole lot of love. Summer is festival season and blogs will be quite busy covering their favorite acts at big festival dates. Obviously, festivals don’t run the entire 3 months, but the bigger taste-makers tend to favor posting about bands who will be performing at festivals (because that’s the “news” of the stories and press releases that are sent to them).

Although, despite it being festival season, smaller blogs tend to have a harder time getting new content to write about. Although submissions still come in, because the bands that “matter” have already sent in their new album information, blogs are struggling for content if they can’t make it to Bonnaroo or CMJ in New York City.

Indie Advice: Summer is a solid time to release. Don’t expect to get a lot of placement on ForkPitch, but smaller blogs will be all-ears as usual. You can get away with releasing in the summer if you have the time to promote heavily. It’ll take a bit of extra attention to grab the ears of college students and young people who will be attending festivals. New music doesn’t stick very well in this time period because of how music-heavy the summer is to begin with, but you won’t be competing with bigger name acts for promotional space as much.

September-December
Finally, the winter season. As I mentioned earlier in the article, the winter months are generally best for major label artists trying to ride the holiday wave. Obviously, as an independent artist you’re probably not very worried about how well your album sells during a specific time of the year, but rather if it sells at all. September-December is ignored largely by independent artists because there’s no summer-touring involved, nor is there a winter tour they’ll be supporting either. Going out on the road when there’s snow on the road is generally a no-go for anyone, which is why September-December is the quietest period in the year for album releases.

Indie Advice: If possible, release your record in this period of time. Obviously, you won’t be able to go out on tour in support of the album, but because you’ll have your album broadcasting to open ears, you may be able to follow up with a single/EP release in the early part of the following year to tour behind. When you’re an indie, exposure is what counts the most in the beginning, so having a solid footing to build off of when you’re trying to compete for more/cheaper advertising space on social media sites is crucial. If this is your first or second album release, use the safety of September-December to build a repertoire with blogs about your music.


Don't forget a lot of the above information is based on touring schedules. If your band has no real plans to tour, just about any time will work for releasing a CD. But it's still good to think about!


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Network - It's All About Who You Know

It's true, and it goes for more than just music. It's an unfortunate part of life that talent isn't always a factor. Even in the job market, fresh young college graduates are finding a harder and harder time getting a job. Your degree can only get you so far. Let's say you and Joe Schmoe apply for the same job, but you went to Harvard while Joe Schmoe went to a Anywhere University and the person conducting the interviews also went to Anywehre University, 9 times out of 10, Joe is getting that job. 

It's important for musicians to network. Make contacts, schmooze at gigs because you never know who you're going to meet, who you'll make friends with, and who your friends are going to know. Below is a great story from Derek Sivers, creator of the online CD Store "CD Baby" about how he got into the music industry all because of making connections early on in an unexpected way.



When I was 18, at Berklee College of Music, we had a guest speaker named Mark Fried, who was an executive at BMI - a big music company in New York City.

He walked into the classroom just before class began, and I heard him ask the teacher, “Oh, I thought we were going have food.”

The teacher said, “Oh, no, sorry, I thought you ate already! Didn’t you have lunch?”

Mark said, “Damn. No. And it’s a two hour class. Oh well.”

Hearing this, I quickly ran out of the room and called Supreme’s Pizza, asking them to deliver three large pizzas to classroom #115.

45 minutes later, the pizzas showed up. I gave one to Mark and shared two with the class.

He smiled at me and said, “Good move. I owe you one. Here’s my card. Call me any time, and let me know how I can help. When you come to New York City, I’ll be happy to meet up.”

For the next two years, I took him up on that, sending him my new songs for feedback, and he’d tell me his insights and advice about the music industry.

When I told Mark I wanted to move to New York, he said, “Send me your resume, and I’ll find you a job.”

Sure enough, a few weeks later, I got a call in my dorm room from Julie Gengo at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing, saying, “We need someone to run our tape room, and Mark Fried said we should hire you. Can you start Monday?”

Just like that, I was in.

Because I was working inside Warner Brothers, it was easy to meet everybody in the New York City music scene. Every person I met connected me to many more. A few years later, it was no problem to move to Los Angeles, because I now had a huge network in LA, through one degree of separation.

Now it’s grown worldwide. Whether I’m visiting Iceland, Shanghai, Rio, Japan, or Silicon Valley, I’ve got a wonderful network of connections to call on, and people worldwide who can call on me anytime. Usually we know eachother loosely - having only traded a couple emails - but those quickly turn into real friendships.

All because I bought a pizza for a stranger.




It's not as hard to open doors for yourself as you might think. So take that extra step, because you never know how much someone might be able to help you in the future, or what you might be able to do for someone else. There's lot more information in the original article so don't forget to check it out!





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Songwriting - Why Originality Matters

All musicians do covers. It's an easy way to practice and and you have the original song as a guideline to know if your'e doing it right. But what about when you're trying to get your music career off the ground? Do you stick with covers or move on to writing original songs? I'm sure people have asked you,"do you write your own songs?" 

Any musician can do covers, and that's not a bad thing, but writing your own songs says a lot about your intent, your ambition as a musician, and can really help showcase your talent.

Are you an artist or a mimic?

Artists often believe their work is original because of something they do. Or because of the way they do it. But nothing an artist does is as distinctive as who they are. Originality isn’t developed as much as it is discovered. Like any coming of age, the process of finding one’s creative voice is a journey.

Writing original music is a way to make you stand out from the crowd.  Your chances of writing accessible songs are greater if you keep your ideas “universal” (songwriting code for “clichéd”) than if you set them apart. But cloning the work of other songwriters will also make you easy to forget. It's a matter of finding the balance between originality and accessibly. If people can relate to it, they're more likely to appreciate it. 



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Music Industry Email Etiquette

There are a lot of common mistakes bands make when they're trying to reach out to music industry professionals. You want to make yourself noticeable without going over the edge. You only have one shot at a first impression, so make it a good one!

Below is a great article from Seth Herman, founder of RootFire.net and manager of various artists from New Zealand, Hawaii and New York. Check it out, it has a lot of great information you'll be sure to want to follow!

Dear Musicians,

You have fans who love your music. Please treat them with respect.

 1. Your email list is gold. It is the most effective way to connect with your community.
- never send out an email to your fan list (or music industry list) with everyone “CCed”. This is a blatant violation of trust, and you do not have the right to include our email address in such an intrusive way. **If you do need to send out a group email without using an email management program, then “BCC” everyone.
- never add my email to your email list, because you think I will listen to your music, or consider you for support, unless I have signed up for your list. Instead, you may write me a personal email asking if it is OK to include me on your email list, with a few sentences about why you think I would like to be on it.
- stop using ReverbNation to send out email blasts. ReverbNation is fine for baby bands, but the fact that you are reading this blog post and that you found it, means you are willing to dig deeper into the industry.  A ReverbNation email blasts invoke the same feeling of bands using MySpace or Facebook as their website- they don’t get it. Update your email list to Mailchimp or Fanbridge or even Topspin. These emails look nicer, and show that you are on the inside of the industry, and most importantly they work great. *I say “even Topspin”, because although it is a great direct to fan tool, Topspin’s email system is sub-par compared to Mailchimp or Fanbridge.

2A. When writing a personal / business email to an agent, manager, promoter etc, please please PLEASE make it easy for us, and respect the relationship that you are seeking to create.
Tips: write clear info in the subject line. Example Subject: “(Band name) reaching out to support (headliner) at (venue) on (date)”. This way, even if we do not respond to you, we can search for your email for years to come, based on the venue name, or band name. I often try to remember bands that have reached out months after their emails were sent, because sometimes we don’t have gigs on the books in the city you are asking about at that time. If you list your band name and city clearly in the subject line, we can search for your email when we DO have a gig booked near you.

2B. Keep your email as direct as possible. List band name, links, short list of highlights, and recent tour history.

What does tour history mean? It means we want to know the amount of people you are worth in a market. If you played a coffee shop or house party and tell us 50 people were there, we will know that it was a soft ticket show and not turn our heads against you for that. If you did play a hard ticket show for $8 and 37 people paid at X venue - That is NOT bad (honestly).  It shows hard ticket value and is attractive and to the point.
*Do not pad your numbers.  Any good promoter will see through it and have a bad feeling about trust. Your honesty will be with you forever. Don’t mess it up.

Other info to put in your email:

-A Clear description of why you are reaching out to us… AKA what do you want?
-Links to the band’s website, Facebook.
-Links to live video.
-Links to music: Spotify and or Soundcloud.
-List your contact info in the footer of the email, with your first name, last name, position, and band name.
-Spelling and grammar matter.
-Use an email address of your business (management company, agency, etc) or your band. If you don’t have that use Gmail.
-Hotmail and Yahoo mail are indicators that you are not current, and red flags.

-Do not use an email address that sounds immature like greennugz@gmail.com- use a name, or band name. You are running a business after all.

-Do not send attachments in your email- especially songs. These clog up peoples email boxes and slow down our day. If we develop a relationship, you may send this info, but only after we trust each other. If I don’t trust you, or don’t know you, and you send an attachment, I will delete it and likely not read your email.

3. When you receive a response from us asking you a few questions, don’t rush a reply. It’s OK. Take a deep breath.

Please do not see my response to you and get excited, and quickly write “BRB getting info”. That is a waste of your time and mine.

Instead, take a few minutes, take a few hours, take a day or two and put together a tight email with the info that has been requested, and send it when its ready. If I am waiting, I will let you know, but 9 times out of 10 I would always rather wait a little bit longer to get info as opposed to a multi-email exchange where tiny bits of info are sent and time is wasted.

4. Do not change the Subject dramatically within an email thread. If you are excited to talk about something new, or have questions about different subjects and we are already emailing, please make it easy for me. Send a new email with a new Subject that addresses the topic that you want to talk about. This way I will be able to prepare for it and give you a thoughtful response.

5. Remember that we are all people, just like you. It is good to take a second and remember that.

6. Never write an email that says something like “We are trying to break into X market, and we really think your fans would love our music, and if we just had the opportunity to play in front of them we know the vibes would be great and they would love us.”

Every few months I get an email that says just that. The answer is No. We do not owe you any opportunity to play in front of our fans, just because you think they will like your music. The only way we would ever agree to something like that is if we love your music; If we are your fans, and if we are already drawing enough of a crowd that we do not expect you to bring anyone out because the shows will already sell well. 99.9% of bands choose an opener based on a mixture of the quality of music AND the bands tour history in a market. If you are worth tickets and you can show us- you have a measurable advantage and will be considered for the support slot.
7. Almost everyone you will get a response from does not have the ability to bring you to the next level.
I am not able to change your career. That is up to you.

You have to create your own opportunities, and when you do that, people will beg to work with you. The only time that success becomes exponential is when we all meet each other in the middle. Meaning, you bring something to the table that will be successful with or without me. I meet you in the middle, learn about you; offer advice from experience, then TOGETHER we come up with a plan for how 1+1 can equal 4,5,6. This is your art, this is your vision, I am here to help you realize it. The moment you put it on my shoulders exclusively, you have lost one of the most important elements to creating your art, and achieving your goals. 

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Tips For Using Hootsuite For Musicians

If you have never heard of Hootsuite, now's the time. Hootsuite is a great social media app that helps keep all your social media sites organized which, as a musician, you should have quite a few! Hootsuite is just one of several free dashboard apps that can keep your social media sites in order including Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, Instagram and many more. 

Below are some of the great features of Hootsuite, and why you might want to consider it for your social media marketing. 

1. Keeping Track:
One of the most helpful things you can do with Hootsuite is to set up several “streams” of social media information that can be monitored simultaneously. It's nice to be able to see all of your sent tweets, scheduled tweets, Twitter mentions, plus all your Facebook page comments – all on one single screen.

2. Create Twitter Sub-Groups of Followers:
You create these Twitter lists, which can be either public or private. You can even monitor other people’s public lists. You can easily add someone to a list by simply dragging their avatar over to that list stream and dropping it on the top bar of the column.

3. Broadcasting:
You can schedule all your posts at once for a day, a week, or even a month (just be conscious of how often things might change with your music schedule!). You can also use it for broadcasting the same message to multiple social media channels at the same time.  This can be very helpful if you are launching a product and have announcements, special offers on your website, or links to a download that you want to send out all at the same time.

4. It's Cheap/Free:
The basic version of Hootsuite is free, which is a big benefit for anyone on a budget. On the other hand, there are several nice features of the Pro version($5.99 a month) such as custom analytics reports.

5. Mobile Interface:
Schedule posts from anywhere by using Hootsuite on your mobile phone. Great for when you're at a show, yours or otherwise, and want to share what's going on. 


It's worth a shot, so check it out and get all your social media sites in order to be more effective in reaching your online market and posting regularly!




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FLYERING - It's Not Dead!

You might think making flyers for your shows is a complete waste of time and money, but you'd be wrong! When done right, flyering can have a huge impact on increasing your fan base, awareness of your band, as well as opening up the market for your band. Try the 12 week challenge from Music Think Tank. Say you have one show every three weeks or 12 weeks - that's four shows total - try this and see if it doesn't work!


Segment The Market:

Many new bands are thrust into the idea that their town is a market all to itself. So, if you live in Nashville, Nashville is your “market.” And unless your entire market is saturated with your name, you’re doing something wrong. FALSE.

I want you to think of your home town in segments. These can be neighborhoods, college campuses, coffee shop dwellers, you name it. Figure out how you can segment the market that is your home town into much smaller areas and write down 1 location you’d like to conquer over the next 12 weeks.

Overview:

To give you an idea of what it is we’re going to be doing, things break down like this.

• We’re going to play 4 shows over the 12 week period.
• The first 3 of the 4 shows are going to be PAID gigs that will really just be used to get awareness about your band’s existence. The 4th show will be a FREE show that will be at the location you’d like to build a bigger audience (in our example case, Vanderbilt University).
• Although these 4 shows will all be in different locations, we’re going to advertise all of them in the same place: Vanderbilt. This builds a name for the band on the school’s campus.
• We’ll be getting flyers directly in front of students rather than simply posting them around town and hoping people look or handing them to people as they’re on their way to class.
• From a student’s perspective, they’re going to see 4 flyers all for the same band. The first 3 times will all be paid shows that may or may not bring them out to the show and the 4th and final show of this promotional run will be FREE and on campus (much more accessible for them).
• The goal is to raise awareness of the band, get some listeners, and ultimately get people out to shows not only within this campaign, but also future shows.

Preparation:

• Establish 4 places you’d like to play and set-up those shows. This post isn’t going to be about how to book a show or about how to find show support. That’s covered in other articles on this site, as well as elsewhere on the web.
  • Remember, your 4th and final show should be AT THE LOCATION where you’re doing all of your promotional efforts. In our case, it’s on campus. It would be wise to play in one of the dormitories we’re going to be flyering in (more on this later), so that people simply have to walk to the lobby or recreation room instead of trekking across campus. Bring the show to THEM! 
• Design a flyer for each show. An easy website you can use to do that is Flyer Lizard. Sign up for a free account, design a flyer using some of their stock photos and fonts and save it for printing!
• Print 500 flyers for each show. Depending on what type of guarantee you’re getting from the club/venue, a lot of your budget may end up going towards paying for promotion. 500 flyers should cost about $40 in most jurisdictions.

Flyer Design:

Any good marketing strategy (and especially flyering) concentrates on what you can OFFER to the recipient or buyer, rather than focusing on what types of benefits you’ll be receiving in return. When designing your flyer, try your best to appeal to the target audience by understanding their needs and wants and offering them a solution to their “problem.” For this 12 week campaign we’re going to be designing 4 different flyers. The first 3 for the paid gigs are going to look slightly different than the one for the final, free show.

Flyer #1, 2, & 3

What are you doing Saturday night? 

Instead of sitting in your dorm room, come and see some live music!

We’re a local girl punk-rock duo called [Band Name] and we’re playing for $5 at [Insert Venue Name] this Saturday!

You can hear and download their newest album FOR FREE at [URL].

–

Bring this flyer to the show and get $2 off at the door OR $2 off a drink at the bar.

That last little bit at the end of the flyer is KEY! Putting a coupon and an added incentive for the customer is a great way to get them to come out to the show. You’ll obviously have to negotiate with the venue what you can and can’t offer as an incentive to people (and you may not be able to get anything), but venues are always looking for ways to bring more customers through the door, and if you can do that for them with a coupon and a crowd, they’ll probably be on board.

Our flyer accomplishes the goal of offering a solution to the recipient’s potential “lame Saturday” problem as well as gives them a reason to go; There’s $2 off the door or a drink.

Side Note: Just to reiterate, you have to have a different flyer for EVERY SHOW you’re promoting. Printing a bunch of the same flyers looks lame and they’ll more than likely be ignored. Figure out new catchy ways to grab the attention of the recipients each time. 

Flyer #4

This is the flyer that’s going to be for the free show that is hopefully going to be the peak of the campaign. It’s going to be similar to the first 3 flyers. except this time it’s going to be on campus for easy access and it’s not going to cost anything at all to attend.

[Band Name] is BACK!

We’re playing for FREE on campus Saturday night at [dormitory hall] at 9PM. 

We’ve got 2 other bands playing with us as well [Band1, Band2]!

This is the last time we’re playing for a while, so get off of your ass and come downstairs to check us out!

Come and listen to some awesome free music and hang out with us instead of checking Facebook.

Flyering:

Here’s where the fun begins. Our first goal with our market segments is a university. As noted earlier, about 5,000 of Vanderbilt’s 7,000 undergraduate students live in dormitories. That’s quite a few people! Like all universities, there are some dorms that are reserved for freshmen and others that are for those farther along in their education. Find the dorms that have a higher first-year population; Freshmen usually have trouble finding things to do on the weekend so they’re the perfect people to pitch to!

1. Go to a popular dorm and slide a flyer under each door. This means EVERY door you can. If you only printed 500 flyers, then you’re going to be putting them under 500 doors.

2. We’re going to be A/B flyering, meaning the first show will be advertised exclusively to dorm A, the second show exclusively to dorm B, the third show to both A & B and the fourth show to A & B. This doesn’t overwhelm people with flyers throughout the course of the 3 month period and also exposes you to a wider audience

3. If you’re feeling ballsy and have the money to spend, you should also invest in standard show flyers. These are flyers that are provided by the venue for the show itself. These are NOT the flyers that you designed above to slide under doors. Print a few hundred standard show flyers and plaster campus with them. These will be on every billboard, bulletin board, and student desk you can put them on. This is all about name recognition and brand awareness. Very few, if any, of the people you’re flyering to with this part will come to the show because of THESE flyers, but when they go back to their dormroom and there’s a flyer under their door for the same show, they might reconsider. The more someone sees your name, the more likely they are to come out.

4. Repeat these steps for each show that you have booked.

The Numbers:

Finally, let’s take a look at the potential for this show. Obviously, since we didn’t actually run this campaign, it’s impossible to say what kind of turnout we’d get, but given past experience with promotion, we can make some educated guesses.

500 flyers x 4 shows = 2000 flyers. Let’s guess that we see 2-3% return on these. 2 people coming out for every 100 flyers passed out may not sound like a lot, but over the course of 2000 flyers, it’s 40-60 people.

And if they bring their friends out to the show or you have some curious people who weren’t actually interested because of the music or coupons and just wanted to see what all the hubbub was about, you could have close to 100 PEOPLE coming out to your shows, who you can then work your magic on to get them on your email list, pick up some merch, or make friends with.

Following up with this in the coming weeks and months should be even more shows that you call on these new fans to come out to. You may not have to flyer like crazy in the future, but building a nice base to build off of in the beginning is something to be proud of and can do you wonders when you’re trying to land bigger and better gigs. Tell the booking guy at the next place you play “I brought out 100 people to a show on campus, can I play here next?”

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