Band promotion, tips and tricks?

[setyouranchor]

So the band I've been working with are starting to look at properly promoting their EP. I'm friends with the band anyway, so I dont mind giving them a hand finding people for promo shots, artwork etc

They have the usual facebook and myspace, but facebook is their main source of fans. They have a pretty decent local following but want to expand and start really pushing themselves.

However, they're changing their name. New facebook page, myspace, pics, sound, you know the deal. I've told them to big their old page up ("BIG NEWS NEXT FRIDAY GUYS" sorta thing) then release the new page, with new pics, artwork, and a song. However, they think its a good idea to just put an EP teaser up with parts from each song?

The band also talked about leaking their own EP on blogspots to get their name out. A lot of kids use certain blogspots these days and hear about bands on there. What do you think about this?

What are your guys thoughts on getting more fans, bigging up new songs, promotion techniques, favourite websites to use, etc. Just a general band promotion discussion.

 

[setyouranchor]

bump?

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Dude... I am no expert, so I will leave the suggestions for those who know.

Either way - here's a bump.

 

[tempe]

I would say hype a facebook announcement to get the fans across, hammer everything they have an online presence with about that news, otherwise people won't work out the band has changed name haha. Name changes are usually a terrible idea, unless the original name really, really sucks. As for getting themselves out there, the blogspot idea is good, but instead of just mediafiring it. Get them to link to their Bandcamp where they can set up the EP for free download, simply because that way they can get track who's downloading it. It also gives you the option of making people give their email address or not, which is a great way to develop a mailing list. I honestly would just make the music widely available for free, people are going to steal it anyway if the band is remotely popular. If they are pressing CD's, a great way to push them is combo them with a shirt, and do some sort of preorder of package deal. Say an EP and a shirt for $20 (don't know what that is in pounds but say do it for around 10 -15). Set up that through either big cartel or something really simple.

If they don't go to a lot of shows, and arent all chummy with whatever scene they are in, get them to do that. Make friends with other bands, get to know all the promoters. Become friends with them. Offer to help them run door at shows or hand out flyers or whatever. You need to make your local promoter think of the band next time he has a big show coming through.

I think thats all I've got!

 

[ForgotenWarrior6]

Record a CD of professional quality.
Make in studio videos for youtube.
Make music videos. (Youtube is probably the most important, because if you make something that goes viral, you could become HUGE)
Gig.
Get a following on facebook or your own website.
Gig some more
Stay in touch with fans and other fans. It's a huge pet peeve of mine when other local bands want you to go to their shows but they never have the time of day for you..
?????
Profit

 

[DanLights]

Record a CD of professional quality.
Make in studio videos for youtube.
Make music videos. (Youtube is probably the most important, because if you make something that goes viral, you could become HUGE)
Gig.
Get a following on facebook or your own website.
Gig some more
Stay in touch with fans and other fans. It's a huge pet peeve of mine when other local bands want you to go to their shows but they never have the time of day for you..
?????
Profit

This. And I think it's of vital importance to always keep in touch with your followers, people like it to be personal nowadays, and it's so easy to do it through facebook or Twitter. Don't just post plugs on shows or releases all the time, also post comments about anything in life, opinions (be careful with politics though, touchy subject and many might disagree and come to dislike you), even talk about other bands that are friends or that you like, and always answer if any follower posts on your wall, messages you, etc.

 

[setyouranchor]

Thanks a lot guys, some really cool points!

Anyone else?

Edit: Just noticed the free bump Chris thanks bud!

 

[Vinny]

Use FaceBook just like how MySpace was used-
Create a "StreetTeam" facebook account for your band, make it an admin on your page so it can suggest the page to friends, add anyone and everyone, and send out suggestions to them. Classic MySpace style spam. And it works to get your "Like" count up... Lol

 

[Sloan]

INTERNET
http://www.artistdata.com is one of the most useful tools I have found recently.
They have a fucking feature that sends show submissions to local media two weeks before your show. it's killer. Not sure how good it works yet, but hell, that's the first place i have found that has done that automatically. it's a pain trying to find local media on your own and submit shows by hand.

INTEGRATION
setup artistdata to shoot your shows to facebook, myspace, reverbnation, eventful, and everywhere else. it has improved my search rankings for my southern rock band a HUGE amount, we are listed all over the fucking internet.

link your few sites so that you only have to update one. i update artistdata for shows and it goes out to everything. i update reverbnation and it shoots out to myspace,facebook, and twitter. there is a twitter feed on our official site as well, but i use posterous to update the main content of the site. site is based on wordpress so it's dynamic and has basically a blog front page. posterous lets me send updates via cellphone or email that include video or images (hosted via posterous). it's very easy to update everything this way.


READING
I HIGHLY suggest martin atkins (ministry, pigface, etc..) book TOUR:SMART. It is the best music biz book i have ever read.

MERCH
gig a lot, but only gig if you have merch to sell. we recently bought 50 shirts just to try selling them at shows (we play covers at bars too). within three shows we had covered our expense for shirts. the rest of the money is 'profit' and we're not even halfway through those shirts yet.

some reasons for merch:
profit
reinforce your name/brand
introduce interest via walking billboards (fans)

ADVANCE SHOWS
I hardly work a day job, so I've used that to my advantage. These past two weeks have pretty much me just making contacts with venues and promoting the fuck out of shows. I also have been making fliers for the band and mailing them to venues that we play within the next 4 weeks. I also send a note with the fliers to let them know that we have contacted local media - never give the venue an excuse to blame you for no audience. Do everything you can to shift the blame to the venue so you have more pull when it comes to payment negotiation.

PAYMENT NEGOTIATION
Note: this is for deals with no deposit
I have a new policy as of this year that says if I don't get paid, then I use what I didn't get paid as a fee to either A: to punch the club owner in his goddamn face or B: break as much shit equal to the money owed to me. That's no joke. As a general rule, most venue/bar owners I've met are shit and will try to rip you off, if they fuck you over, don't stand there, get something out of it. This works if simply calling out the guy doesn't.


WORK YOUR ASS OFF
There is so much shit to do when running a band, and when you think your done, your not! You have to play shows, promote shows, design merch, sell merch, keep fans updated, and so much more it's not even funny. But if you keep it up and start getting good guarantees, you can quit your day job and make a living. At the point I'm at now, if I were able to travel and do four shows a week I would make more than my day job. Unfortunately, that can't happen since everyone is working weekdays we can't travel out. Kind of a catch 22 eh?

 

[DanLights]

Great post Sloan, you rock!

 

[setyouranchor]

Great post Sloan, you rock!

+ fucking 1!

Thats a lot dude Awesome post