Do This 1 Thing To Get Better Music Gigs
“Do you know what it’s like, to be on the bill and to play for 15 minutes and the only people there to see you are the other bands and their girlfriends! Don’t talk to me about Rock and Roll. I’m out there in the clubs and on the streets and I’m livin it! I am ROCK AND ROLL!”
Chazz, Airheads The Movie
You’re Not Alone
Performing to an empty venue is horrible yet I did it again and again. We would invite everyone we knew but our friends had already seen us perform so why would they come again? Also most of our online fans were not in our area. So we tried to get on gigs where bands had bigger fanbases than us.
I’d secretly hope that the other bands would bring their fans and we could win them over. But sure enough at the next gig, they didn’t bring anybody either, the promoter is now pissed, and the bartenders want to close early since they will not make any money.
“The Bands and Their Fans” Loop
The problem is for most local gigs, the bands bring their fans and once the band is off the stage, their fans leave. Your fans watch you perform but leave after you finish so nobody ends up supporting the other bands.
Nobody grows new fans.
Once I noticed this behavior, I knew there had to be a better way to get gigs where there would be people I didn’t personally know and didn’t know any of the other bands.
Finding A Built In Audience
One day I saw a favorite local band of mine perform at a Free Public Event that was hosted by the City Government. I thought to myself, none of these 1000s of people walking around know this band, yet they are stopping to listen because they are entertaining and have great songs. They came for the event to shop at local vendors and got some free entertainment with it.
The solution was so simple.
Book gigs that have a big built in audience. Seek out Free Public Events from The City Government, State Government, Local Communities and Non Profits and see if they need any entertainment.
Lots of people show up to Free Public Events as they usually provide good local food, cool vendors to shop and a nice stage for performances to speeches.
I vowed to never play a gig unless there was already a big built in audience. I would not sell tickets and I would not pay to open for a bigger band.
With these new rules in place, the easy part was finding public events in our local area but the hard part was booking these type of gigs.
If you’d like to learn more on how we booked these gigs, determined our niche and got continuous bookings, please read my Article — 7 Steps To Get Better Gigs
Conclusion
There are many ways to build an audience these days. Maybe this post shows my age as I’m an Elder Millennial but as someone who has always performed live and showcased my talent on a stage, I knew that focusing on Public Events that draw their own big audience would be the best way for us to gain new fans. If you’d think you or your band would be a good fit for these type of events, I’d encourage you to try and seek them out. It may be a long road but if you have a passion for performing live in front of lots of people, it’s definitely a road worth taking. We searched Public Events ran by
City Governments
State Governments
Local Districts
Nearby Counties
Chamber Of Commerce
Local Non Profit Organizations
Local Community Events
Farmers Markets
From these bigger gigs, we have been able to gain new fans, play outside our City and actually tour and built great relationships with Event Coordinators, Stage Managers and Fans that get us continuous gigs in front of lots of new people every year.
If you made it this far, I hope you found this helpful. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment if you have any questions or similar stories of your own.
