How pushy do you need to be to actually get booked in places that don't know your band?

Vintage-T · December 2022

Just after a consensus of approaches here.

I'm firmly in the camp of get in touch with a venue (depending on location that would be in person, phone or email) give them everything we can in terms of pitch, music promo ability etc, then kinda wait to see if they get back to us.

I find venues are usually very receptive on initial contact, but then in most cases we never hear back, feeling it's then just lip service.

Should I be changing approach to pestering, or is this tactic likely to piss off venues or promoters?

I'm sure there's a balance of a message every now and then to keep reminding them of us.

I think we're certainly decent enough to play the level of venues we approach, and at more than one we've played before and gone down well.
I'm sure we're doing something wrong, or are crap, or not personable enough etc etc, but with 2023 looming and a debut album to get out and gig, I figured it's worth seeing what others experiences are.

We're also based in Cornwall which is crap for getting away on tour anyway....so many challenges

midiman1962 · December 2022

30 plus years ago I was recording and playing in an original band ( obviously that makes me a bit of a dinosaur now.
we worked on building a local following that then opened doors in terms of providing a rent-a crowd for pubs and venues. Then you can move onto bigger venues.
Material and image need to be in line with genre.
not sure If this helps and hopefully someone will be along to advise who’s a bit more up to date.
in my day a lot of promotion was done by fly postering but now you have social media so shouldn’t we’d to run away from the police like we did back in the 80’s

EricTheWeary · December 2022

I think it’s worth letting them know you are still alive from time to time. Bands often don’t last long so they might not think you are current or your contact might coincide with them having a cancellation. Maybe every three or four months?

Probably not two nights before Christmas though.

theatreanchor · December 2022

Know your worth, know your worth, know your worth.

If some promoter won’t book you, move on. Find your audience.

Nil desperandum.

PS KNOW YOUR WORTH.

shufflebeat · December 2022

theatreanchor said:

Know your worth...

Also, know the venue from the venue's point of view. If you're what they've told themselves they're looking for then you're really pushing an open door - and vice versa.

roberty · December 2022

It was easier before covid. I'm really frustrated now with messaging promoters. I'm going to start booking my own nights in 2023. We can bring a fair crowd

theatreanchor · December 2022

shufflebeat said:

theatreanchor said:

Know your worth...

Also, know the venue from the venue's point of view. If you're what they've told themselves they're looking for then you're really pushing an open door - and vice versa.

Yes, absolutely. There’s no point in trying to access venues that don’t suit you. It gets tiresome.

roberty said:

It was easier before covid. I'm really frustrated now with messaging promoters. I'm going to start booking my own nights in 2023. We can bring a fair crowd

I think that’s a great idea!

roberty · December 2022

@theatreanchor and build networks with other bands. Not that hard. Promoters are meant to make it easier but that's not happening for me right now

theatreanchor · December 2022

roberty said:

@theatreanchor and build networks with other bands. Not that hard. Promoters are meant to make it easier but that's not happening for me right now

YES. This is absolutely the way to do it. Full disclosure : I’ve not gigged in about 15 years, but can remember the pain of booking gigs and dealing with promoters.

Danny1969 · December 2022

The trouble with instant communication and the ability to distribute media instantly is it kind of devalues it ... because anyone can do it. When I was starting out we actually went to the venues, talked to the staff, had a beer and chatted to the promotors. Basically got on first name terms with people then hustled for the gig. I still think there's value in that now. I'm in an originals band, a tribute band and a couple of covers bands and for us most gigs are still booked the old way. On the phone or talking directly to the venue / festival management.
It has to be said some people are better suited to getting gig's than others. It's not my area of expertise but in each band there is someone who is very good at speaking to people in person and getting gigs. I mean the singer in my main covers band used to sell 100K franchises to people, so he didn't find getting us booked for decent money much of an effort with his silky skills.

26.2 · December 2022

Yes go to the venue, talk to the staff, maybe see a band there. Tell them how many you’ll bring and agree how it’ll be marketed. Don’t undersell yourself.

Stratavarious · December 2022

You need to be proactive. and do it better than all the competitors. Don't rely on electronic comms, get the key contacts and speak to them directly and follow up. Always know your availability so you can offer dates very quickly.

We are booked out solid for 14-18 months now.. so our problem is responding to requests. Agents don't book that far out. So you can actually be too good at it if you want variety and to be responsive.

HAL9000 · January 2023

We haven’t done it yet, but we’re considering spending time making some professional video of the band. That way when we approach venues we can easily give them a taste of what we’re about. Hopefully it helps promote the band, but also saves wasting time if band and venue aren’t a great fit.

shufflebeat · January 2023

HAL9000 said:

We haven’t done it yet, but we’re considering spending time making some professional video of the band. That way when we approach venues we can easily give them a taste of what we’re about.

On that topic - I've got into the habit of making mutlitrack recordings of the band and have created a template in Reaper that I can dump the files into and pretty much guarantee a decent starting mix for tweaking.

The plan is to video occasions where the venue is impressive or the crowd ambience is good. Two or three good phone cameras on stands or in safe hands should be useful if the audio's decent.

PolarityMan · January 2023

Promoters are lazy tossers for the most part so just because they didn't get back to you doesn't mean they wont book you. Follow up again and chances are you'll be top of mind when they do need to put together their next bill.

Because promoters are lazy tossers generally they change at venues quite a bit so sometimes emailing back in 6 months can mean getting in touch with a different person who will book you.

jeztone2 · February 2023

I think it’s better to book a venue yourself with some other local band. Promote and see what happens. I’ve just formed a new originals band with some gents of equivalent age. We’ve agreed to avoid 5 band bills where your thrown onstage with no sound check alongside acts of disparate genres with no audience crossover. It’s lazy promoters and poor audio quality that’s killing live music IMHO.

Vintage-T · February 2023

Managed to actually arrange a 3 day tour, hopefully build a relationship with the venues and go back. Looking to play with lots of local bands of a similar genre this year to try and kick start the Cornish rock scene. There's some great bands but everyone is too used to just doing their own thing I think, needs some collaboration.

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How pushy do you need to be to actually get booked in places that don't know your band?

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