Supercharge your Band's Bookings

[Steve Nixon]

Hey all,

Just posted a brand new article featuring a bunch of band booking secrets. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

 

http://www.stevenixonmusic.net/blog.cfm

[RickGoetz]

Thanks for the post Steve. While I agree that many people botch the job of booking themselves by poor presentation either in person or on the phone I think there is a great deal more to it than that. Good thought provoking article though.

[dem'bones]

As someone who will hopefully be booking shows soon, I thought this article was great. Keep up the good work.

[Blackbird 13]

You posted this on the "Backstage With the Band" forum as well, and quite a few of the members there told you what they thought. Since you reposted it here, I'll repost my reply here....

 

 

 

 

 

 

I book my band and acoustic act anywhere from three to five nights a week, but I feel some of what you posted is the wrong way to go about booking.

 

To be fair and accurate, in the past, I have sent emails to places I wanted to play from an email account that is "blackbirdmanagement@", and I have worded emails so there is no indication that I'm in the band, but I won't outright lie about it either. Furthermore, I DO help book other acts on a very frequent basis, so for me, saying I'm representing "bands" isn't really farfetched. Still, over the past ten years, the lines of communication that I've opened up this way have been VERY few, no more then five new contacts this way. I'd recommend this more for dealing with Nashville, New York, and LA than for dealing with club owners and booking agents.

 

The way I get our gigs is simple. Meet with the people that book the bands there. Be a royal pain in the ass if you have to, that's fine. The thing is.. sure, Mr. X might be ducking "band members" at the moment, but he'll be there and available sometime. Find out when that is, and catch him there. I don't feel bad about that, because quite frankly, that agent/owner/whatever isn't doing the band booking part of his job, at least not in my own personal estimation.

 

When I call a venue and get "Mr. X isn't available right now..", my next question is "Do you know when might be a better time to reach him?". If the person on the phone says "Mr. X will be here at 2 on Monday", then I'm on the phone to him at 2:05, as someone said before. If they stammer and stutter and are OBVIOUSLY talking to Mr. X before saying they have no idea, I would take Joe's approach of dressing up a bit nicer than an average band member, and head to the club with a press kit in a briefcase, walk in, find a staff member, and ask where I can find Mr. X. Once you shake the person's hand and have his or her attention, it's a matter of showing them what your band brings to the table. And Mr. X has to be a real piece of work to blow you off now.. he probably won't.. and when he learns (from your introduction to him that "Hi I'm SO AND SO, I represent X BAND that plays at X CLUBS", or whatever fits your situation) that you are (or at least seem) "important", he's not gonna blow you off, lest he hurt his reputation.

 

It's really a simple process to book bands.. just be honest, and establish relationships with these people. A little selling doesn't hurt.. I can't count how many of the aforementioned relationships were established just because I mentioned twenty of the nearby clubs we were playing, or how the band members have opened for Rascal Flatts, the Gin Blossoms, etc.., or how we just played at the *WELL KNOWN CLUB A CITY OVER* and had 150 people last Thursday. No lies involved.. just giving them a REASON to want to talk to me.

 

 

So.. you wanna supercharge your band bookings? Simple really...

 

1. Don't lie. Ever. Period. I've worded things differently, and I don't always open with "I'm the guitar player for X BAND", as much as I do "I represent X BAND", but there's no lie in that, and I'll gladly admit that I play guitar and sing in that band if I'm asked. But lying about anything will make people question just what else you're lying about!

 

2. Meet the person you need to talk to. Face to face or on the phone doesn't matter. You obviously have the internet.. and 99 percent of the people that book bands can be reached in one way or another. Just don't be willing to give up on the first try.

 

3. Give the person booking a reason to go with your band. Joe was right.. you are selling a product. Make sure that whoever you're targeting the product to will love it so much they have to buy it. You should be doing this anyway.

 

.. and that's it. I'm not saying Joe's approach didn't work for you guys, obviously it did.. but I promise you that he lost a lot of work along the way too, from people who can see through the BS.

 

 

 

.. and one final note. When you end up playing to a club and the power goes out, or a hurricane or snowstorm rolls in, or anything else happens that hinders your ability to finish the gig... would you rather be playing for a club owner that you've built a relationship with based on trust and integrity, or would you rather be playing for a club owner who you've lied to your teeth to for gig after gig, and who fell for the BS you pushed on them? I know my answer to that question.....

[GCDEF]

 

As someone who will hopefully be booking shows soon, I thought this article was great. Keep up the good work.

 

 

Did you actually read the article? Pretending to be something you're not and blowing a bun of bull{censored} up the club manager's butt is horrible advice. It looks it was written by somebody taking his own advice and pretending to be something he's not. There's no way that would work as a long term strategy for success. All that will accomplish is you'll burn a lot of bridges and close a lot of doors.

[GCDEF]

 

.. and one final note. When you end up playing to a club and the power goes out, or a hurricane or snowstorm rolls in, or anything else happens that hinders your ability to finish the gig... would you rather be playing for a club owner that you've built a relationship with based on trust and integrity, or would you rather be playing for a club owner who you've lied to your teeth to for gig after gig, and who fell for the BS you pushed on them? I know my answer to that question.....

 

 

I can't see a club ever rehiring you once they discover you scammed them to get in.

[Blackbird 13]

 

I can't see a club ever rehiring you once they discover you scammed them to get in.

 

 

My point exactly!

[dem'bones]

While I don't agree with misrepresenting myself there are still some good ideas and insight in the article.

[GCDEF]

My point exactly!

 

I was agreeing with you.

[GCDEF]

 

While I don't agree with misrepresenting myself there are still some good ideas and insight in the article.

 

 

Where?

[daddymack]

Steve, your friend Mr. Lilly is off base...way off...if this crap worked for him, he was lucky. I also see he is 'an internet marketer'...but no advice as to how to internet market a band, eh? That, right there, gave this up as pointless...

Step 1: What receptionist? The owner calls back and what? Gets you on voice mail? I hope it sounds professional...otherwise, he knows what a phony you are, especially after saying you had a receptionist. BAD IDEA...

Step 2...some people's voices are very distinctive, and people who make most of their deals on the phone will spot this right off. Again, lying...bad idea. Also, your guy admits this worked once when therer was an immediate opening with that agent...so...really, not much substantial material there.

Step 3: Oldest and worst trick ever...because...again, this only works if you can screen inbound calls...and remember your alias...and the mid-call hang-up is about as cliche as it gets....seriously, this is more of a things NOT to do ...

[dem'bones]

Minus the part about representing other bands, unless you actually do. Dressing professionally and acting professionally will definitely be a big part in the selling of the band. A lot of people do not think to do this in any situation in their lives. I think the receptionist part is a bit much.

 

Also the part about being memorable; that has a lot to do with it as well. He has the right ideas, but just the wrong methods to acheive them. I am not taking his article verbatim, but rather as an ancillary for a framework of ideas (i.e. being memorable and being professional).

[daddymack]

Wanne be memorable? That can be a double edged sword...you don't want to be remembered for being a dick, unprofessional, too loud, whiny, always late, crappy sounding...lying...

So here is my suggestion: Have great material, well-packaged, professional appearance, have your act together, show up on time, finish on time, don't take long breaks, don't play too loud, say nice things about the bar and wait staff on mic...they will remember you positively.

No this won't get you in the door, but it will get you asked back

[drewl]

we usually drink at the places we want to play so we can get to know who we have to, they usually like us as people and we get hired quite often since we get to be friends with the owners/bookers.

[daddymack]

we usually drink at the places we want to play so we can get to know who we have to, they usually like us as people and we get hired quite often since we get to be friends with the owners/bookers.

The tried and true method, but there are drawbacks here...$ spent drinking...for one

but how quickly can you expand your gig-base if you have to become 'regulars' at every place you play? Good way to start, hard to sustain.

[3shiftgtr]

This is spam...he has no desire to be part of the community. He is like a lawyer at a car wreck...he's the only one who thinks he's being helpful.

 

Everyone knows that if you follow baldguitardude's advice you are an asshat. Duh.

 

He posted this in Backstage With The Band and he got his ass handed to him, so he ran away.

 

Eff this guy. Read the BWTB thread. He won't be back (unless he's spamming).

 

Buh bye.

[GCDEF]

I'm cross posting here, but I think you should know what we're dealing with. Here's a response from the asshat that wrote that nonsense.

 

Wow, what an ass this BaldGuitarDude is. Read his response here.

 

http://baldguitardude.com/

 

I hope you’re having a great start to your Memorial Day weekend! I’m currently flying home from Dallas, reading a bunch of post from posers as they attempt to flame me for my guest post on Steve Nixon’s Blog earlier this week. I had no idea that it would cause such a stir, nor did I know that one of the largest music forums on the web had so many contributors with limited reading comprehension skills. Although I’m not remotely interested in starting a bunch of point-by-point rebuttals, there are a few clarifications that I would like to make.

 

I. Some knob with the handle “TrickyBoy” wrote the following:

 

“Not to be a dick, but as a professional sales manager, I wouldn’t hire anyone who took this type of approach. {censored}, I wouldn’t trust you to cut my grass. A recap of this article is one sentence: ‘When trying to book your band, lie your ass off.’ This used car salesman sleazy approach drives me crazy in the professional world and I certainly would never apply it to booking our band.

 

In a nutshell, I would tell anyone to disregard anything in this article.”

 

I did a bit of research and found out that our buddy TrickyBoy is a guy named Jason. He lives in the southern portion of the US and, as of last update, is an Account Manager for a small technology outsourcing firm. But hey – let’s take the “professional sales manager” thing at face value and disregard the fact that he could very well just be doing inside sales or telemarketing to pay the bills until his band really takes off. Four things to note here:

 

1. I learned an important lesson about hiring over these last few years. I put down gigging to run sales and business development for a multi million dollar internet marketing company. It went so well that I became president of that same internet marketing company, increased their revenue up by $60 million or so in 36 months and grew the employee base from 8 to 50ish. All before I was 31? That can’t be – according to TrickyBoy I’d never get hired or called back by a single client! I digress – the lesson is this: You can’t teach, train, compensate, or motivate aggression and tenacity. It’s better to start with a salesperson who is too tenacious and mellow them out rather than have an employee who is too tentative. You’ll never turn the latter into a top performer.

 

2. I never said lie. (This is where I first began to question my detractors’ reading comprehension skills.) I said act as if you are booking a great band and that you are the agent for that band, and don’t disclose that you are in the band. None of that is lying unless you think your band is incredibly {censored}ty and are asked directly “hey by chance are you also a band member,” which BTW has never happened to me. Create a sole proprietorship or LLC (as I did) and act as your own agent. No “lies” or “sleazy” there. I also said “act as your own receptionist.” Is there anything dishonest about answering your phone “Joe Lilly’s office?” No. Not if you are answering while you’re at work, aka IN YOUR F’ING OFFICE.

 

3. A “used car salesman sleazy approach” is typically a high-pressure, 1-call type close. Used car salesmen are very short term thinkers. Someone comes on the lot, they close a sale, done. None of my techniques can be applied to that environment. So Jason has either never taken a sales training course or he’s never purchased a car. I’m not sure which.

 

4. Applied correctly, none of your prospects will realize that you are using these techniques. Once they do you’ll have made them so much money that they will think it is funny. More on that below, as we meet another “muso” that we can call NashvilleDoucher.

 

II. .Some other wank whose user name I can’t recall, aka NashvilleDoucher, wrote:

 

“…This is a forum for musicians to HANG. I don’t come here and PROMOTE my band(s), I come here to hang and talk with other musos who are digging in the trenches. This dude is your typical biz asshat. Saw TONS of ‘em in my years in Nashville. And some got work, but once word got around, it was funny how their work dried up. I was a sideman for signed artist for years, and I would NEVER recommend someone for a gig who acted like this. So what happens when the owner finds out your are willing to lie your ass off? He’ll look for a reason to NOT trust you. This is the kind of bull{censored} that gives musicians a bad name…..”

 

1. What does musicians hanging and you not understanding fundamentals of self-promotion have to do with my blog post? Here’s a free tip for you – if you are allowed to promote your band on that forum (if it’s not against TOS), you would be a fool not to. Google LOOOOOVES links from forums to your site. It will help your search rankings and more people will find you and want to know what band they can come see you in this week.

 

2. I thought being late, flakey, not drawing, drinking too much, doing drugs and being an unambitious loser is what gives musicians a bad name…but that’s just me. I’m proposing pretty much the opposite of all that – that you act professional, are punctual, and do you what you need to do to get through the gatekeeper/get the decision maker’s attention – and get booked. Simple as that. That said, I’m sure this guy knows what professionalism is all about with his dozens of bands and side work that he’s doing.

 

3. If you over-book yourself to the point where you can’t draw an audience, shame on you for being a moron. I never suggested you should play rooms that you can’t fill. We didn’t get to my post on “how to get more people to show up to see you be a sideman years ago in Nashville with biz asshats” post. That one is coming soon.

 

4. I would never ever ever ever screw a venue owner out of money. If I booked a gig I expected to be a profit center. We jammed lots of the places we played, and if I overbooked us (which happened a few times while I was learning about audience management), we took our earnings and used them to tip the staff or we didn’t take any money. That’s right. We played for free.That made it REALLY easy for these guys to book us even when we drew just a handful – in fact, we got quite a few opening slots exactly that way. We met a lot of other bands, networked a ton and pulled a bunch of fans over to our group.

 

In short, I guess with all their years of experience in sales and music and business and being flamer dicks on forums, these guys MUST know better how to get bands booked. So you should indeed disregard everything in my guest post, unless, of course, you’d like to play great venues (Taste of Chicago, Buddy Guy’s Legends, Great American Music Hall, Hard Rock Casino), get repeat gigs, fill up your calendar, and start making fans and money. We were able to finance all of our band-related activities including equipment, several CD’s, some small regional weekend-warrior tours, and even put some money in our pockets at the end of the year.

 

But why would you want to do any of that?

 

P.S. The best part – I’m not an exceptional singer or guitar player and I STILL got the gigs and the people to show up! I’m sure NashvilleDoucher can play circles around me!

[3shiftgtr]

Although I’m not remotely interested in starting a bunch of point-by-point rebuttals, there are a few clarifications that I would like to make.

 

And then we get 10 paragraphs of point by point rebuttals. Bull {censored} baldy. If he's so sure he isn't bull{censored}ting people, he should come HERE and go TOE to TOE with the people he seems to think have "comprehension problems". He won't cuz he's wrong, has been called out, and he knows it.

 

II. .Some other wank whose user name I can’t recall, aka NashvilleDoucher, wrote:

 

Funny he can't recall my name, but knows where I'm from.....then at the end you get this:

 

I’m not an exceptional singer or guitar player and I STILL got the gigs and the people to show up! I’m sure NashvilleDoucher can play circles around me!

 

I've heard this guys stuff, and he's right. He couldn't carry my pick to the gig. Not bragging, jus' sayin'.

 

But where he falls down is that I make a damn good living playing/writing/teaching/selling/producing music for a living. It is all I do. And my wife doesn't work (never has in 18 years of marriage) and neither of us have ever had any financial support from anyone...just the music. I have put one kid thru college, and have one in high school and one with the Lord, and it is my music and nothing else that has put the roof over our heads and food in their stomachs.

 

And I must be doing pretty good judging from the FAT on my ASS!!!!!

 

And this self-righteous gem sent me thru the roof!

 

So you should indeed disregard everything in my guest post, unless, of course, you’d like to play great venues (Taste of Chicago, Buddy Guy’s Legends, Great American Music Hall, Hard Rock Casino), get repeat gigs, fill up your calendar, and start making fans and money. But why would you want to do any of that?

 

THis quote is a plea to the doofuses who spend money on what he does to please keep respecting his line of horse hockey. You wanna drop names baldy? The Ryman, The Tabernacle, several Hard Rock Cafes, B.B. King's in Nashville AND Memphis, the Wildhorse Saloon, The Grizzly Rose....should I go on? So If someone doesn't follow your advice, they'll NEVER get to play any cool places huh? Pfft.....

 

We all could just go line by line and just shred him to pieces, but what would be the point? His line of bull{censored} is a massive insult to the many full time pros who hang here. He is just in denial.....

[3shiftgtr]

I couldn't stand it, so I went to his blog and posted this:

 

Nashville Doucher here. Mr. Lilly, just want to let you know personally that I am saddened to see the techniques that you advise to your clients. As a member of the professional music community, I feel that your advice to obfuscate the truth when dealing with the various gatekeepers that we all encounter in this business, is sad. I am aware that you and I will never agree on what "the truth" is, therefore I submit that I am not here to argue or flame. I am here respectfully as a guest.

 

I would like to submit to your dear readers that one does not have to call a club owner and hang up mid conversation to get attention. One does not need to act like they have a secretary when they don't. One does not have to use any of the marginal tactics like the ones Mr. Lilly espouse. I make my living playing/writing/performing/producing/teaching/ as a full time musician. I have played some of the biggest sheds, the best theatres, and the hippest clubs, all the way down to tiny coffee houses. I have played with and been employed by some of the greatest musicians on the planet. I have been a sideman for signed and platinum selling acts, I have released 2 cd's, have had my songwriting used on multiplatinum cd's and I have produced music that has been used in programs, commercials, and movies that if you live in the US, you most certainly have heard. I have written books, authored articles in major music magazines. I am sponsored by a guitar manufacturer, and a stomp box company. Is this the kind of success you are promised to get by using the tactics here?

 

Well, I don't use those tactics. The people I work with that have grammys and platinum records on their wall, don't resort to the kind of sales tactics that Mr. Lilly promotes wither. Granted, there are quite a few that do. And that is fine. I don't associate with them. Neither do the other full timers I work with. Nor any of the part timers. My purpose here is not to get into a whipping match with anyone, I just want to let the readers here know that there is more than one way to do it. And if your integrity level is making you feel uncomfortable resorting to the techniques sold here, take heart. There is plenty of room for talented, driven people that don't play this game, and have plenty of success. I am but one example.....

 

Doubt he has much traffic, judging from what his site looks like.

[JohnMCA72]

 

... Doubt he has much traffic, judging from what his site looks like.

 

 

There are bazillions out there just like him. It's what "Internet Marketers" do.

 

The key to making money on the Internet is to sign up a bunch of other people who want to make money on the Internet. It has nothing whatsoever to do with music (or whatever else your "core" business happens to be).

[daddymack]

closed ...see the BTWTB thread...much more fun. I have advised Steve Nixon to be more judicious in his posting in the future.