I teach several seminars on songwriting, touring, and technology. Here's the outline for my seminar on Booking & Promotion. I taught this seminar at the BMI offices and CMJ Conference in New York, FullSail University in Orlando, DiversaFest in Tulsa, and the MidPoint Music Festival in Cincinnati to name a few. I've created a podcast series based on this outline and you can hear some recent episodes in the player on the right hand side of this page.
Booking & Promotion Seminar
Required Startup Items (Hard Copy and Digital)
1) Professional CD (in sound and appearance)
2) Action Photo in color & B/W
3) Artist Profile One-Sheet
4) Matching Business Cards & Letterhead
5) Postcards/Flyers
6) Booking Contract
7) Performance One-Sheet
8) Press Reviews
9) Website with band name as domain name
10) At least one compelling story
11) A systematic way to do research, organize, and stay on task
Optional (Recommended) Startup Items
1) Stickers and other Merch (hats, t-shirts, cups, etc…)
2) Venue and media contact lists
3) Gear, posters, sampler CDs, sales displays, table tents
Steps To Success
1) Rough Out Your Goals (assign dates)
a. Who are you… who do you want to be by ______________
b. What are you… what do you want to be by ______________
c. Where are you… where do you want to be by ______________
d. Goals without dates are just dreams. Write down your goals and assign dates
2) Brainstorm 20 ways to accomplish your goals
3) Define yourself, your story, your value proposition
4) Do your research
a. Target audience, fan base
b. Appropriate venues (play where the people are)
c. Appropriate media targets (print, radio, tv, internet, retail)
d. Realistic service area and scope of offering
i. How far can you travel
ii. How much will you charge
iii. How often will you perform
iv. With this research in mind, define the venues to start calling for the booking process
The Booking Process
1) Call the venue, qualify that you’re speaking to a decision maker, say who you are, why you’re calling, and what’s in it for them. Be courteous, professional, concise, and upbeat.
2) Ask if a specific date or very small date range well in the future is available for you to perform. If the date is open ask to be booked on that date tentatively pending review of your promo kit.
3) Confirm mailing contact and address to mail kit, ask for email an address for your records. Mark down to send kit and follow up in one week.
4) Repeat
5) At end of day, prepare all the kits to mail them the following day
The Promotion Process
Once you have the gig, ask venue if/how they promote and provide any materials they need, and ask them for their media list.
1) Print Media
a) Contact media outlet
b) Confirm where to send event calendar listings and preferred delivery method (email, fax, mail, internet form). Confirm submission deadlines
c) Ask for names of writers who might be interested in writing an article about your type of story. Be ready to state story concisely
d) Mark down when and where to send materials & follow up
e) Repeat
2) Radio – all of the above and ask for studio appearance day of show
3) TV – same, particularly for morning an/or afternoon news & talk shows
4) Internet – Submit shows to Jambase, Musi-Cal, MySpace, Broadjam, and every other website you can think of, including your own and the venue’s.
5) Research every band in the area that’s like you or might like you on MySpace, PureVolume, Broadjam, Google, etc… and contact all of them
6) Ask your street team members to poster, flyer, and PLAY your music for people
7) Email all your fans in the area
8) Repeat
9) If you have budget, you can advertise judiciously with radio spots, TV spots, Print Ads, Direct Mail, POO Retail displays, sampler CDs, co-op compilations, etc…
Gig Execution
1) Be early. Make sure you have everything you need (gear, merch, contract, promo materials, email signup, pretty girl to man the table). Don’t suck EVER. Rock the place.
2) Decorate the stage, make it your environment
3) Talk with the people in the audience before, during, and after the show. Be an ambassador
4) Take pictures from the stage during the show and post them on your site
5) Promote during the show, the merch table, your website
6) Have at least one band member walk off the front of the stage at the end of the show to help sell merchandise immediately
7) Make buying merchandise as simple and convenient as possible. Take cash, credit cards, sell package deals, link it to a mission or cause, etc…
8) Load in and out on time, thank the venue, the fans, and the media that helped you