What makes a marketer/musician/businessman/individual truly “great?”
This is the ongoing debate I’ve had with a friend of mine. He believes greatness (particularly in the political arena) is defined by being “the smartest person in the room.” I disagree.
It’s not just about being the best, smartest, or fastest, or knowing the most notes, or helping others. Greatness is also defined by your limitations.
Can you look at a situation, acknowledge that you can’t pull it off alone, and bring in the pros? Can you hire for your deficiencies rather than just employ people who think like you? Do you play with musicians who are better than you or strive to be the best musician in any project?
I am TERRIBLE at arranging music. I like to write tunes and noodle around a bit with it but when it comes to arrangements I’m lost. Back in Chicago I discovered an awesome piano player and arranger. No matter how uncomfortable I felt with his suggestions, I did my best to implement them because I knew he had a skill set that I did not have.
It is hard to stifle yourself when you disagree with an idea, but sometimes that is exactly what you have to do to grow and become great.
Other Random Stuff
(This is a follow up to my post “How to Supercharge Your Band’s Bookings.” You can read it on Steve Nixon’s blog.)
So you got the gig. Awesome! Now you need to make a good impression and get booked there again. If you draw well, this shouldn’t be a problem. But what if your attendance has been spotty? Here are a few of my favorite techniques as well as a word of caution.
WORD OF CAUTION: You can’t expect to spend $0 on marketing and promotion and have a successful show. The venue needs to see that you are spending your own time and money to promote a show – you’ll earn a great deal of respect from them. My fan recruitment techniques necessitate spending at least your first night of earnings IN ADVANCE to get butts in seats. You will make $0, maybe less on your first couple of shows. However you’ll gain professional respect from the venue and your next gigs will pay out in spades.
These techniques fall in to two categories: “More Fans” and “Less Cost to Venue.”
Less Cost – “Insure” Your Gig
If you have a performance contract, request from the venue that you get paid $0 unless you bring X number of covers. If you don’t have a contract, refuse to accept money from the venue owner if your draw is less than stellar. I have turned down money and it resulted in a second chance every single time.
Less Cost- Drink On Your Dime
Many venues comp food and drink to band members. Lots of guys abuse this, particularly at smaller venues (bars, irish pubs, blues clubs, etc). When your waitress arrives, turn down the comp and tell her that you want to carry your own weight. Which brings us to…..
More Fans – Tip, Tip, Tip
The best way to promote your band is to get the venue’s staff working for you. Most musicians are cheap. Waitresses are used to this. They are also frequently the gateway to another gig. So tip the crap out of them. At our first show at a bar outside of Chicago, our draw was ok but not stellar. We took entire $550 check and make sure the wait staff and bartenders were each tipped out. This worked out to $50-$75 per person. It was really really expensive but paid off. We got our “second chance” one month later. The staff promoted our band to every single person they saw for an entire month. When we showed up to load in the bar was already turning people away at the door and their patio was jammed. It was one of the best Fridays in the bar’s history. The booking agent called me that Monday and faxed in a performance agreement for 1 Friday per month for the next 12 months at $650 per show. Not a bad night, and our $550 investment yielded a return of $8,350 plus merch sales. Ten months later we booked an additional year at $750 per show.
More Fans – Party Bus
Although we had a decent fan base in the city of Chicago, tons of our fans were suburbanites. We had a big show at Hard Rock and needed to bring our ‘A’ game. We rented two charter busses, one from the north side and one from the south side. Pickup points were suburban bars that booked us regularly. (Of course they appreciated that since it increased their bar receipts for that night.) Everyone met, bussed in to the city, watched our show, partied, and went home. That night we made 3 venues happy – Hard Rock and the two pickup/drop off locations. We spend $1,000 but it was offset by “passing the hat” for the bus drivers’ tips, on-bus merch sales, and future bookings at the suburban bars.
More Fans – Use Craig’s List
Craig’s List is a great place to get fans, but don’t use the musician forum. Don’t use the activities forum. Use the jobs board. Post an ad that you’re looking for girls to come out to your show and that they’ll get free drinks and/or a few bucks for 1-2 hours’ work. Make sure you let the venue owner know that you would like to run a tab for some VIPs to ensure that it’s ok with them. Ask the girls to bring friends. Then have a friend with a camera take pics, post ‘em on your band’s web site and watch the single guys flock to your shows!
Other Random Stuff
My good buddy Steve Nixon was kind enough to publish a guest post in which I talk about why most local musicians suck at getting booked and how they can change all that. You can read it here. In addition to being a great keyboardist, teacher and arranger, Steve is an example of what goes right when you combine marketing and sales skills with raw talent.