Getting your band heard

[orangeespoom]

x

[mutmoo]

Tour like crazy.

[snipelfritz]

Play really loud.

[jfrey]

Have your stuff reviewed on blogs, play a lot of shows, social networking, etc.

[Bassus Sanguinis]

What kinds of samplers and demos You would buy? Think about the latest two ones You got for free and didn't care to even check. Answer these question honestly and start from there to build the appealing looks and stuff.

Carry always a dozen or so demos with You. They are even today a way better business card than a simple flyer with bandcamp/myspace/website address. Always ask a friend to take care of selling Your demos at Your gigs and/or spread flyers. If there's not much actual merchandise to sell, share a booth with the other bands playing that night, they might have more stuff to sell and help them taking shifts standing in there - their fans might buy Your pin and demo, too, out of interest.

When You go to see bands or go to festivals, promote Your band. Spread the demos in the audience, speak them into wanting to pay for it a bit, give free copies only to the cool dudes that You think You might want to network with later. Spread flyers of Your next gigs in town in the bars. Spread the stickers X times as much compared to the actual demos, and if You give them to people, give everybody one extra to give to his friend that didn't make it to the gig.

Most importantly: be a cool dude. Assholes have to work twice as hard - and they are still hated for their effort. Promote Your band to the guys from other bands, in the dressing room n on gigs. Be interested and You'll learn interesting and useful contacts and stuff. Be humble and easy going, but never let Yourself be pushed around. Even if You get to open for a bigger name and it turns out their promoter/singer/lead guitarist/tech is being an asshole on Your bands expense and You'd risk Your share of ticket income or something. Fuck that. Retaliate immediately - verbally, preferably - after telling somebody You're not going to put up with the asshole.

[Bellyheart]

Play shows

[orangeespoom]

x

[Adoom]

PLay shows, ask people to spread the word about you, be nice, spread the word about them, be nice, give your record away for free, be nice.

[orangeespoom]

x

[Ghost Hip]

Play shows, Get photographed playing at those shows. Our culture is a visual one and they want to see stuff. And all the other stuff these guys said. And rehearse/practice as much as possible, unless your thing is being unorganized live.

[D.o.S.]

Don't suck.

[Bassus Sanguinis]

Play shows, Get photographed playing at those shows. Our culture is a visual one and they want to see stuff. And all the other stuff these guys said. And rehearse/practice as much as possible, unless your thing is being unorganized live.

That IS a good point.

I highly suggest always publishing live pics from all gigs /(and perhaps with fans or from dressing room or from the road) on Your bands forum and myspace or whatever. If You have a show to sell, at least give them a good show but even better if You can make it visually interesting. If You've got a photogenic group, this can be every bit as important as having a tech/sound/lights guy.

Ask a friend to do it or learn to do it. Before I started playing the bass, I used to follow my friends band everywhere they went in the late 80's-early 90's, designed their t-shirts, demo covers, back drop, did the photo shooting, pushed the demos, and brought the drinks and siggies and replacement instruments on stage and helped with packing and unpacking the stuff. Or perhaps You can offer the gig to an art student that does it for cheaps? Leave an add in the nearby school/uni info desk billboard. Or if You already have a fan frequenting gigs, have him/her do it. Give him/her the credit and pay (at least the expenses and drinks) for that if needed. Worked great for my old band. And the wacky pics from the road/ hotel /van You can take by phone Yourself.

Publish as many pics as You like, but don't flood it unless there's something going on in the pics. Action and expression are - in my opinion - more important than keeping cool in the pics. Even if You're not looking all that cool in the background of the pic but Your photogenic frontman in the pic is on fire and the bass player dives in the audience- publish! Even if the bass players hair is funny and his wild eyes go wandering off the camera but the mic stand he just kicked is in mid air - publish!

[rfurtkamp]

Figure out a nice synopsis of 'what do you sound like' or 'what type of music do you play' up front.

Having a good answer to that will get people to actually consider listening to what you're handing out or to visit your site.

You can hand out all the samplers or stickers and cards on earth but if you can't pitch it in one line, you're probably in trouble.

[Mike]

Speaking as someone who hasn't been in a band since the last millennium...

One thing I would suggest is, if possible, make sure your music is legally playable online without paying royalties.

I host an online (political talk) radio show, and I am always on the lookout for new music to play during breaks. The problem is that we aren't able to afford royalties to the big licensing organizations, so we can't play music from any act that associates itself with BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, etc.

There are quite a few little radio shows like mine that don't have a huge listener base, but do have a loyal following, and only play open license music.

Something to consider.

Mike

[Doodahman1969]

Don't suck.

^

and/or just get mad weird/ be an interesting trainwreck


preferably all 3