Steps to promoting a new band?

[jmstone]

I know that there is another thread about social media, but this question is more general - what do you think are the most important steps in getting an originals band (who are reasonably well rehearsed and ready to play good songs) up to the point of having "proper" fans (i.e. not just friends and relatives) coming to gigs, with a mid-term goal of getting some reasonable gigs supporting semi-famous indie bands?

We have some nice songs (IMO - I didn't write them, so I guess I am able to say that?). So far, the demos have been done on the computer - so drums are from a machine, most of the parts are not played by current members of the band, but the songs still sound fairly polished (probably not up to the standard that you would shell out money for tho?):

[url="http://facebook.com/riverfury"]http://facebook.com/riverfury[/url]

Clearly the FB page needs a lot of work. Maybe we need to record as a band? Single? EP? Maybe we need to hand out flyers to get people to come to gigs? Get podcasts? Create merchandise?? Get an agent/management? Get a producer? Get signed??

I guess there is no simple solution to it, but I would really appreciate your thoughts about what the most important steps are, and what can be left til later. As I see it, the most important first step is getting some "real" fans - but how to get to that point seems a little unclear!

James

[JTUK]

Promoting any band is a real slog and you need something to set you apart.

Bands are two a penny and there is only so many times you can hassle your mates to turn up. Sooner or later, you'll have to
have a compelling reason why people will come out and support you.

Had a very good laugh recently when a local band wrote up their own press review... it was truly stuff of delusion..but the point is, they have to go and deliver against that...and that is where it all becomes obvious.

Mates will only trawl round the pay to plays a few times.

[jmstone]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1318582792' post='1403905']
Promoting any band is a real slog and you need something to set you apart.

Bands are two a penny and there is only so many times you can hassle your mates to turn up. Sooner or later, you'll have to
have a compelling reason why people will come out and support you.

Had a very good laugh recently when a local band wrote up their own press review... it was truly stuff of delusion..but the point is, they have to go and deliver against that...and that is where it all becomes obvious.

Mates will only trawl round the pay to plays a few times.
[/quote]

Yeh - I totally get that.. But perhaps you could expand a bit more on the promotion side apart from "it's an incredible slog", which I kind of guessed?

For instance - do you think getting a decent recording is the best approach? Playing lots of gigs? (this seems problematic in view of the "getting friends along" problem you allude to). Trying to get podcast/blog/radio exposure? Publicity stunts??? Something else?

J

[Skol303]

It all depends on what genre of music you're playing, the demographics of your target audience and ultimately the scale of your ambitions - eg. getting more local pub gigs or wanting to be on a world tour of major arenas in 2012?

Generally speaking, if you're playing rock/pop/dance music aimed at a younger crowd then the way to go at the moment is (allegedly) social media and what's known as a "Direct-to-Fan" business model:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-to-Fan

I used to work as a music journalist during the '90s and had friends in A&R... back then it was all about bands trying to get coverage in traditional print media (NME, etc). Times have since changed and although such media are still important, they're less important than they used to be. Why? Because "kids" nowadays get more and more of their information from online sources - and increasingly, from their own friends and social networks.

Here are a few videos that touch on this subject and might be useful (or not...):

Direct-to-Fan
http://www.propellerheads.se/mmm/index.cfm?fuseaction=eventinfo&EID=34

Promoting your music via SoundCloud
http://www.propellerheads.se/mmm/index.cfm?fuseaction=eventinfo&EID=7

Getting your music in TV/film/games
http://www.propellerheads.se/mmm/index.cfm?fuseaction=eventinfo&EID=15

The big 'thing' you need is - and I hate to say it - a "unique selling point" or USP. Something that sets you apart from the mass of other bands trying to do the same thing. That's much easier said than done. But as someone who used to read dozens of press releases from bands each week, I know for sure that it can be the difference between getting noticed and not. Avoid over-selling yourselves ("The best new band of 2011" = bad); try not to under-sell yourselves too much either ("Johnny and his mates like pubs and eating pizza" = bad) and if appropriate, try to inject an element of humour... unless, of course, you're a gothcore/doom outfit, in which case humour might also = bad.

Hope that helps and good luck!

[burno70]

Mailing lists are a good way to advertise your band and try to drum up regular, non-friend based, support. You have to capture audiences names and emails (right after your set) so you can advertise gigs direct to potential fans. Just make sure you don's start annoying prospects by bombarding them with crappy updates - just stick to gigs and recordings. On the down side you have to go around asking people for details which, personally I hate doing - although there may be someone outgoing in your band, or a friend of the band, who may enjoy this aspect.

[BigRedX]

IMO social media is important but it does little to attract new fans - it's there to keep your existing fans entertained and informed.

If you want to grow your audience beyond your friends and family you still have to do it initially by the traditional means. That's by being entertaining and different when playing live. Supporting bands who already have a following that may also be interested in your band. Have some stuff you can give away to people who are interested in your band - badges and stickers are good - and help them remember who you are, plus people like free stuff. Get a mailing list together and collect email addresses at gigs, and make your newsletter interesting. [url=http://www.dickvenom.com/newsletter_oct_2011/newsletter_oct_2011.html]Here's ours[/url] which we do once a month and send to everyone on our mailing list.

In the end though it's down to getting coverage from other people. No matter how interesting and informative your website and Facebook pages are, a good review on-line is worth so much more.

Edited October 14, 2011 by BigRedX

[JetKing]

Our band is in a similar situation, we too are having a bit of trouble extending our range beyond our circle of friends. We've held a few gigs recently that were well supported by our mates but any support slots we've done have had a poor crowd so no luck there. We made it to the final of a fairly big battle of the bands that would have helped if we'd won as the prizes included recording time, support slots and radio play but unfortunately we didn't win. We're now concentrating on getting an EP recorded over the winter and plan to spend a bit of money on promotion when it's time to release it next spring.

Just as an aside we've discussing the fact that being based in Northern Ireland doesn't seem to help. There have been a lot of bands that seem to be on their way up, getting radio play etc only to peter out. We think this is because they don't make an impact on the mainland UK scene and therefore can only go so far before they stall. Hopefully next year we'll be in a position to challenge this

There's some useful info on here that hopefully be of use to us as well.

[CalJock]

Hey all just thought I'd throw my thoughts into the ring. I've spent the past two years promoting shows, managing bands and putting out a couple records as well as playing my own stuff. I also just graduated from uni where my dissertation was on this kind of thing. So hopefully I'm not completely full of crap.

The best tips I can think of to help (that I've seen work) are;

I think the real key to expanding your fan base and getting recognized outside your group of friends is just to play as well as you can, every time you play. When you do a gig, even if there's only one or two people there, play and perform as well as you can. Growing a band is a battle, you can't win by just sitting there and plotting things out on the internet (although by no means should that kind of thing just be dismissed).

Play out of town as much as possible, because then you're always playing to people who haven't seen you, and all it takes is to win one person over, they'll tell their friends and it can grow from there so every time you play in a place you should gain one or two fans (at least)

Get good recordings and use them. This i where the internet comes in, get some good quality recordings (but don't spend all your cash doing so) and put the some place for free download, not just streaming. Don't record every song you have, but make sure you've got two or three. I've met a bunch of people who were won over to a new band because they were able to stick the bands stuff on their ipod and listen to it on the bus. Stick the recordings on cd's and send them around, to radio stations online, local, international, whatever just send them around if you've got good songs and recordings someone in some backwoods station will like it and play your stuff.

Promote your own shows. It's not hard to do if you have a bit of sense about you and are willing to take the risk financially. Find bands that your friends will like, and that will hopefully pull a bit of a crowd on their own, (depending on the length of the gig you probably want 3 or 4 other bands and at least one of them from out of town) get your friends along so there's some audience and the other bands should (hopefully) bring some as well, and seeing as how you put the bill together fans of one band should like the others, and it creates opportunities for doing gig swaps, and if you're lucky a bit of cash. The problem here is that you might lose a fair bit of cash.

I think it could probably all be summed up like this though.
Always play and perform to the absolute best of your abilities, and try to create, look for and offer opportunities for music and other musicians.

sorry for a bit of long and rant-like post.

[Marvin]

Someone told me Steps are reforming

--->coat.

[Lozz196]

The one thing I`d say is steer clear of being obviously trying to be funny. There are bands that are "whacky" such as The B-52s, Madness etc, but that is natural to them, and doesn`t seem forced. If I see a band that are pushing the humour thing, I usually find it`s at the expense of their musical abilities. Not always, but often. And the other side to that is if people see you as a joke, no matter how good you are, the first impression lasts.

[charic]

Probably not got much to add as I'm going through a similar thing at the moment but I'm finding reverbnation much better than bandpage and it's a seperate site too.

Merch stores, selling cd's etc etc.

Very cool stuff