tips for touring

as stated in my last post, touring and playing shows is important.

here are some tips on creating buzz associated with your shows:

- call the local radio station of the city you’re going to, and ask them to play one of your songs (from your completed CD) while you are in town. don’t blanket all radio stations; target the station that plays the type of music  similar to yours. also, if you successfully accomplish some the other tips in this post, radio stations are much more likely to play your music if they’ve already heard about you from somewhere else (hearing about you from a friend, reading about you in a local publication, etc). if you can’t get a local radio station to play your song, try the college radio stations.

- call a local record store of the city you’re going to, and ask if you can make an in-store appearance to play a handful of your songs. (some stores may have rules as to their capacity, the number of songs you can play, and the type of equipment you’re allowed to use, etc.). it’s also in the store’s interest to promote you, since they’ll be bringing in extra foot traffic. that may mean exposure on their website and having your poster up in their window for a few days. if the store isn’t selling your CD, they may let you bring CDs to sell anyway since you may be bringing in extra visitors to their store. (hence, the importance of having a complete record!)

- target some messages to your myspace/facebook friends in the particular cities you will be visiting, and asking them to come out to see you. it’s free and easy. you can even book shows through myspace.

- call the local alternative press newspaper and ask them to put a blurb about your visit. most of these thrive of getting the inside info about local music, so if you call well in advance, they’re likely to say yes.

- get organized and make sure: your myspace/facebook messages are sent, record stores and radio stations are called, you packed enough merchandise, you know who will be managing/selling your merchandise, you have at least some blurb in some news print (even college newspapers are OK), and you are bringing all other promotional materials.

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lastly, try not to play at 2 different places in a single visit to a single town. a venue  will be pissed off if you are playing at their venue one night, and another venue the next evening a few miles away. those people who attended the second show could have potentially gone to the show at venue #1, and you may have undercut their profit. they won’t like that. if they’re letting you play at their house, they want to max out your profitability.

~ by cafenotes on December 30, 2008.