Tips for Musicians

1. "More than Paper"

Have you ever noticed as your walking down the street that it would seem a hydrogen bomb made up of paper flyers went off next to every Live Music Venue in the city covering the street from sidewalk to lamp post in a barrage of Band Flyers?

There is a better way to promote your live shows for all you ground pounders that make up the wonderful and much appreciated street teams other than pasting show flyers on every available space you come across including the backs of each passing pedestrian, try an audible flyer. Just think about it from your own perspective, are you going to pay more attention to a bands up coming show if you were handed the average show flyer we see everyday which doesn?t give you a clue to who the band is or what they sound like, or a Audible Flyer CD with 1-3 songs and a couple press photos of the band that you can check out in the car or at home on the computer? Put together a basic and cheap CD with photos and music from your band and on the case or sleeve of the CD have info on your upcoming show so that when the person listens to your music and likes what they hear they then can come see you play Live and that is all there is to a simple and effective alternative for your outdated Flyers.

1. "Making Waves"

Don?t underestimate your local music community and their interest in discovering new talent right out of their own backyard because most radio stations, news papers, promoters etc. love to add your upcoming show to their listings. Start gathering a list of contacts from your community that might be able to help promote your show via the Internet or even a phone book, it might take a couple phone calls, emails and probably even a couple NOs before you have some numbers and names of those willing to help out but you never will know unless you try. The next time you have a show coming up and have a couple weeks to promote it, call up those contacts with the details of your show so they can list it and you are sure to have more music goers attend.

2. "Working Together"

The last thing you should be thinking about your fellow musicians, are that they are a rival to compete with. When you think the term ?Battle of the Bands? you might think that bands are competing against each other but that shouldn?t be the case, after all isn?t all about the music and not about winning? Ok so maybe you don?t necessarily like everyone out there in the world of music, in fact in a lot of ways being involved in your local music community as an artist can bee similar to high school all over again. All that he said she said unnecessary talk about each others music and performances can get old real quick and benefits no one. Instead of fighting over gigs and refusing to play with one another you should be more concentrated on cooperating and networking together to make ideas such as a local music festival come true.

1. "Quality Vs. Quantity"

When it comes to getting your lineup together think Quality over Quantity, all it takes anymore to really get your music career rolling is just one good song and then of course the rest is up to you to from there. Although it is still important to keep the creativity flowing by always working on new material, just be sure not to make every new project part of you line up because lets face it no is going to want to come out and see you play when it sounds like you gave your instruments to a class of 6th graders all with A.D.D. and couldn?t make up their mind which 3-90 songs they liked the best.

1. "Getting Started"

Great, so you have collected enough musicians to start your own rock band and put together a lineup that is sure to rock the socks off of anyone listening?but where do you find the listeners?

One of the first things any newly formed band can do to help get their rock stardom off the ground and moving forward is to start building your loyal fan base, this doesn?t mean litter the streets with flyers or painting your bands name over billboards but rather starting with those who love you for who you are already Yes I am talking about your family! Once you have your first show in place be sure to give an invite out to everyone one you know already such as friends and family, these are the fans that will make it out to every show and give you support that otherwise might not be found from the 10 strangers you practically kidnapped off the streets and dragged into the venue kicking and screaming. Give it a shot and the next thing you know they will be telling their friends that your music is worth coming out to see live on a Friday night and over the course of a year or two your loyal fan base will have been created?depending whether or not your music doesn?t sound like someone scraping a chalk board with their finger nails but HEY even some people like the sound of that as well.

2. "rading listeners"

Have you ever thought about how many new bands you are introduced to on a weekly, monthly or even yearly basis? That? right more than you can remember which is exactly our point.

Promoting your music online can be down right frustrating and even discouraging at times which is why we encourage bands always to try and work together rather on their own. A lot of work goes into promoting your band on the internet and is simply just too much for any one band to do on their own and for those of you that don? have helping hands to run your bands Myspace page and webpage it is even more difficult. Try contacting a couple different bands that have a similar sound to yours and ask them to swap banners with you, the chances are that if someone likes their music they will no doubt enjoy yours as well and to bring us back to our opening comment we always have room for one more new band.