What To Do Before Posting Your Songs On The Internet

There are millions and millions of songs posted on the internet by aspiring artists that have failed to take the simplest steps BEFORE posting their song.

So what do you need to do?

3 simple steps to protect your rights, and any income from your music.


Step 1: Register Your Songs With The US Copyright Office and National Libraries

If you are not living in the United States, this section STILL APPLIES TO YOU. As soon as you put your music on the internet in any form they will be crossing copyright regions into the United States as soon as a US visitor plays or downloads your song.

If you plan to sell your songs registration with the US Copyright Office is absolutely essential.

The US Copyright Office is part of the US government. They maintain a database of songs with copyright claims of ownership on a certain date. It's cheap at about $35 per submission. Submissions don't need to be a solitary song, you can submit an album worth of material and the cost will still be $35.

There is an online submission site for the US Copyright Office:

Electronic Copyright Office

For further information please visit the US Copyright Office.

Write out Lead Sheets for your songs and then submit them to your national and other important libraries. Submit your lead sheets to, for example: the British Library, Oxford & Cambridge Library, The National Libraries of Scotland and Wales, in the UK, Trinity College, Dublin; and in the USA: the U.S Copyright Office - Library Of Congress etc.

Note:

I would strongly suggest that you write out lead sheets for your songs and then submit your works to the big libraries before sending anywhere.


Step 2: Create An ISRC Code And Encode It Into Your Recording Master

An ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) unique to you and the recording and is added to your track master. It identifies the specific recording of the song as being yours. This makes the job of logging radio airplay and that makes royalty collection much easier.

The RIAA no longer supplies ISRC codes. US citizens should now apply for ISRC registrant codes to the USISRC

USISRC Website: https://usisrc.org

In the UK you should request your unique base ISRC Code from the PPL.

PPL Website. http://www.ppluk.com/

From the base ISRC code you can create an entirely unique code for each recording you intend on releasing.

For general ISRC information please visit
http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/isrc.html

When you send your music (in any recorded form) to a radio station, make sure you include a TYPED PAGE containing the ISRC codes for the submitted songs.

Notes:

• Radio stations do not extract ISRC codes from wav files, MP3 files, CD's or CDR's.
• ISRC Codes are not embedded into the audio files on a CDR
• ISRC Codes are not embedded in MP3 Files when they are converted from wav files
• ISRC Codes can be included in MP3's using ID3 Tags to add information about the song name, artist, copyright etc to be embedded.

ISRC codes are not "embedded" into the actual audio files on your mastered CDR (PMCD, "Pre Mastered CD").

Sending someone a mastered CDR does not automatically provide them with your ISRC codes. You need to supply accompanying documentation.

To encode an ISRC yourself yo uwill need a redbook capable CD authoring program. Both Wavelab 7 Retail and CD Architect 5.2 are capable of doing this. Adobe Audition CS5.5 I understand no longer supports this format but they are reconsidering reintroducing it. Make sure you review the specifications before you buy a product as specifications DO change!


Step 3: Register Your Songs With A Performing Rights Society

Depending on exactly what country you are in will make a difference to which rights society you register your songs with.

To start off with you will need to register with the appropriate performing rights society , and then register your songs with them. When you register your songs you will be able to include your ISRC codes in the song registration.

Many performing rights administrators provide software to easily allow you to register your songs and edit any song information that you place in their database.

In the US ASCAP, BMI and SoundExchange in the UK PRS For Music are common collection agencies. Each country has one or more collection agencies representing songwriters and publishers. There are many more. You can find a list of collection agencies here:

Professional Bodies


Recommended Links

If you would like to talk about this article or any of the points raised please go to:

Songstuff Songwriting and Music Community

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment below!

The Power Of Song Hooks

Many songwriters don't understand hooks. I have seen arguments between writers about the importance of melody versus lyrics to the extent that some claim that lyrics are not important at all while melody is king. Producers that aren't aware that production hooks exist, even though they accidentally create them! Hooks come in all shapes and forms and the more you understand what a hook is and how it works them more easily the hooks can be used in future compositions and recordings.


What Is A Song Hook?

A song hook is in essence something that grabs you and makes you want more. You can have good hooks, bad hooks, weak hooks and strong hooks. You can also have no hooks! A good, strong hook for example is something that gets your attention, something that is memorable and something that makes you want more.

Hooks can compliment each other, the sum of parts being less than the whole, and hooks can compete with each other and so dilute their strength.

Most individuals only have a vague understanding drawn from their life experience of liking and not liking but there are formulae that govern hooks (although some are more like loose guidelines). By "vague" I mean that they don't have a formal understnding of hooks. They have not been taught about them, and perhaps have not thought about them.


Genre

Genre has a large effect on the relative importance of lyrics, but the same is true for all aspects of a song. All have to be at least of a good standard and deliver on some level. What you are looking for in essence is something that supports or compliments the emotional mood the song sets, be that happy, sad, joyous or mournful.

Many writers and bands think of hooks as being the main melody but listeners factor in all kinds of things and each of these attributes and associations can be honed. Each of them can have a hook.


Lots Of Song Hook Types

Lyrics can be thought of on a multitude of levels, roughly divided into:

• story / meaning
• deeper meaning
  
• evocation of emotion
• rhythmic
• imagery
  

Each of these aspects of lyrics has the possibility of being a hook. Each hook has the chance to grab a listener.

the same is true of melody:

• rhythm
• evocation of emotion
• repetition
• range / tone
• variation

or a specific singer and their voice

• evocation of emotion
• tone
• quality
• image

Not a complete list by far (even for those listed) but you get the idea. All have their hooks.

The same is true for each instrument, for the arrangement and the production.

That's a lot of potential hooks.


Make The Most Of Your Song Hooks

As mentioned before, hooks are in part genre dependent and so is the emphasis that is placed upon them. Not so much that an individual types of hook stops working altogether, more that according to genre the emphasis that appears to be placed on them in that context is less. When writing songs it's the writer's job to create appropriate hooks, in the appropriate place. Some hooks work out better when used only once, most however benefit from multiple repetition. Think of chorus hooks. Melodies and key lyrical phrases are repeated to emphasise and reinforce the strength of the hook. Repetition of course helps the hook to be remembered.

A completed song may contain many types of hooks. Ideally you want those hooks to combine in a way that they compliment each other strengthening the link between the song and the listener.


Hooky Songs

Songs are sometimes decribed as "hooky" or "catchy". In the pop market hooky tends to equate to instantly catchy, whereas in other genres there is more of a leaning toward more subtle, longer acting hooks. While changing taste does account for begining to like songs that previously you didn't get, but not always. Sometime the hooks themselves are slower acting, but sometimes just as powerful as the more instantly catchy.

More instantly catchy songs also tend to age faster. Their popularity declines faster. The opposite is also true with songs that take a while to get into tending to keep their popularity longer. There is absolutely nothing stopping songwriters and arrangers from using a mix of hooks to achieve a song with more balance to it.


Lyrical Hooks

In lyrical terms more instantly catchy hooks tend to use common phrases that reflect very common ideas and aspirations. Slower acting hooks tend to be hooks with multiple levels of meaning where the levels of meaning are slowly revealed. Similarly hooks that are more abstract fit into this category. For example, one line that always stays with me is from David Bowie's "Life On Mars":

"It's on America's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow"

It might not seem like a hook, but it is. It is memorable. It provides something you think about and chew over the meaning, yet at the same time it is an abstract and silly image. It is a strong hook yet not the main hook of the song (arguably). It isn't repeated and it is in the middle of the verse. This is because a hook can be pushed on the user by repetition or by placement or both, as in choruses, but abstract hooks don't often work as well like this because the act of pushing them cheapens them. In keeping this hook buried and not repeating it David Bowie left the listener with a long burning thing that could be chewed over and smirked at for a long time. Had it been a main line in the chorus it's appeal would have dissipated far more quickly. Luckily he was full of ideas so the song has hooks of most kinds.

In looking at many new songs across a broader range of genres there is undoubtedly a trend towards shorter term hooks, the more instantly appealing. Many songwriters on songwriting forums regularly state that lyrics are not important and point to this hit or that hit as an example, but they are simply wrong. The lyrics, either by intention or accident, in those hits were appropriate to the market they were selling to. The same is true where lyricists sometimes believe that the lyrics are the be all and end all. Breaking news, they are not.


The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of The Parts

Songs are a unique combination of music and words. Their strength and appeal lies completely in the phrase I used earlier "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." At least a song has the potential to be greater than the sum of the parts! Combine the wrong parts in the wrong way and exactly the opposite can be true.


Take Control Of Your Song Hooks!

Due diligence. The songwriter's craft is in part to do exactly this. So the next time you are writing a song take some time to review the hooks in your songs. Don't rely on accidents happening.

The first step is to become aware of song hooks. Take alook over a range of hit songs from across the years. Look for the hooks. Look for how they have been used to attract attention and to keep it, and how they can create in the listener an appetite for that song. Look back over your material and see where you have used them and where you have abused them. Observation and analysis is a big part of more rapid improvement.

You will only understand song hooks and how they work together if you take some time to look at them and understand them. If you do you can place them with intention, understanding their effect. This makes for muc more effective songwriting and songs that, for the right reasons, are more memorable, more attention grabbing, that make the listeners want more.

Simple huh?


Useful Links

If you would like to discuss this or other songwriting and music related issue, please visit Songstuff, an essential resource for songwriters and musicians. Take part in the songwriting and music community and exchange ideas and views with you r fellow writers!

• Songstuff, Songwriting and Music Resource
• Songstuff Songwriting and Music Community

More next time, until then, take care!

How Do Modern Promoters Manipulate The Market?

So, just how possible is it for a modern promtion company to manipulate the market to buy their product?

Well, let me tell you a little story...


Getting Started With Talent Show Promotion

Imagine your promo company started by setting up a television based talent competition with national coverage. Eventually international, but that comes later.

That automatically gets you lots and lots of promotion just by being broadcast. That is of course the tip of the iceberg. You also go for magazine articles and interviews, coverage by news programs. Fans get behind individual performers, which of course you harness in many ways. For example by setting up the ability for the fans to select the winner by voting on the phone line (which of course you earn a few milllion based on this alone), you set up a website where fans can talk about their acts. Magazines and TV magazine shows have their own chat rooms spreading the buzz too. Lets not forget the social networks. You create a Facebook page so the fans of the show and fans of the acts can interact and be kept up to date.

Sound familiar?


Onto The Next Stage

Yet again you can start releasing recordings of the winners and make a lot of money there, add in releasing recordings of final contestants and a tour of the competitors. Releasing free videos onto a YouTube channel provides some basic viral spreading content, food for the social networks.

This all sounds predictable. You know the message is going to be pushed, pushed, pushed, but at this point manipulation of the market is understandable (if in your face). Is this the extent of what you can do?

Of course not!


Creating Competition and Using It

You underline competitiveness between contestants, creating controversy, polarizing fans, creating more conversation, more buzz, more activity. This increases phone voting with fans voting for people they don't/do like with a frenzy to demonstrate for one singer, against another.

So you develop consecutive independent love hate polarized competitiveness with other acts. They all benefit too with the "Keep ******* from winning!" going strong. In fact highlight an act you would nevver want to win because that motivates the public to vote for even the worst, most terrible acts. Freak show style promotion is used.

This is ideal as there is an "anti-show" campaign running and this gets all the people who hate the show to phone in and vote for these acts to win, ensuring you make even more money!


The Competition Winner! But Wait...

This of course works right up until a winner is announced and you are faced with trying to get a Christmas number one single.

Of course you have had the biggest promo campaign in the country rolling for several months so you definitely have an advantage. You have lots and lots of fans that you can contact fairly easily through TV, radio, internet, magazines to the point you saturate the market place.

How can you squeeze even more from this?


Squeezing Out Some More Money

By underlining some acts that your act will compete with! It pulls out your fans in force to buy the song! fantastic!

So you develop a love hate polarized competition with this other act. They of course benefit too with the "Keep ******* from Christmas number 1!" going strong.

Facebook wars ensue with "make them No.1" and "keep them from No.1" campaigns dominating the network (or at least some neighbourhoods).

This is all done in a very visible way with misdirection being used to keep the target moving in regards the public being certain what is going on, or that they may in any way be being manipulated!


Chinese Bloggers

But wait! Surely there are ways to maximise even this? To make the word spread further?

Of course there is. You can, behind the scenes, hire people to set up blog profiles to blog about what is going on, people to set up facebook pages and interact on social networks. These people are professionals. They can set up multiple "character" pages. Male, female does it matter? They are after all just personas.

This collection of people heighten the excitement, add to the buzz and fuel debates, especially the love / hate campaigns and the freak show campaign. It's simple. They start a campaign, or find a small campaign that normally wouldn't have gone past 10 likes and turn it into a national campaign. It seems everyone and their dog are talking about this show and it's artists!

Surely there can't be that many people doing this though? Well in China alone there were 10 million english speaking students working in this industry and that is only one of the countries with a significant english speaking tech savvy populus.

Of course you have a huge budget, and the investment in 1 million bloggers setting up many accounts and personas really isn't that large in comparison to the return on the investment.

Feeling manipulated yet? These people are not buying records or downloads so there is no direct manipulation of the charts! Amazing isn't it?

Of course your persona bloggers are involved in both campaigns, to the extent that your promo company controls both ends (within a margin of error). No one knows! Ideal.

I mean would you feel manipulated by all this?


But I Want More Money!

But wait, you've missed an opportunity to earn money. Back at the christmas single competition... that's it.. you'll have a share in the market of the anti competition show act so that NO MATTER WHO PEOPLE VOTE FOR OR BUY, YOU WIN!

You're Rich! Richer than rich.

And you all live happily ever after. The End.


Manipulating The Market

Would you feel manipulated by this level of market control by this ficticious show? By this level and type of promotion?

Of course the only way to not be a part of it, to vote against it is not to watch, not to like on facebook, not to phone at all, and not to buy the records.

At least, this for the cynically minded is how it is possible to do such a thing and bears no resemblance to any actual shows or how they operate. This sentence is of course not added to stop someone trying to sue me but it does have that handy side effect. *whistles*


The Lesson For The Independent Musician

There is a lesson here for the less money grabbing promoter. Coordination and timing are so important. Modern campaigns run across multiple media types. Don't rely on people to form opinions based on just the music. Interact, talk to them and don't be afraid to encourage them to help you in your quest to further your career.

Where you draw the line is as much an ethical decision but lets be honest, for many it is simply a financial decision. What is outlined above is an example of what you are up against when you compete against at least some larger organizations.

When you are only interested in the beauty and integrity of your own music it is however a bit of a body blow. At least you might think that if there were great opportunities that so far yo uwere not taking advantage of correctly. More on this to come for the musicians among you.


To Sum It Up For Fans

If you are a fan and stumble across this I encourage you to forward this on so that your fellow fans can be equally well informed!

If you find this article interesting, useful, informative etc then please share it! Like it! Like my blog and please post comments :)

EQ Holes

A common issue with mixing is coping with tracks where there is a frequency overlap. A good example of this is with vocals and a string pad. When the strings are turned up it makes the vocals sound muddy and indistinct, so you boost the vocals and now they are just too loud in comparison to the rest of the mix. You bring the strings and vocals down and the strings are too quiet again. It's a frustrating loop.

The solution is pretty straight forward. Using EQ you cut holes in the less important instrument, in this case the strings, in order to let the vocals pop through. You only need to know what frequencies to cut and by how much.

Both can be worked out by ear but most DAWs now include a spectrum analysis. This allows you to see exactly where the vocal frequencies lie. Then using EQ you cut those frequencies, using a notch filter, in the string track. Use your ears to set the cut level.

This will allow the strings to be turned up without making the vocals muddy.

You will notice the effect on the strings when the vocals aren't singing. You can either manually go through the track applying the effect or a better solution is to only apply the EQ to the strings when the vocals are being sung using a noise gate to trigger the EQ.

You might also find this EQ Frequencies article a useful guide when using EQ. It doesn't exactly cover instrument rangesbut it does give you a guide to frequencies targetted at specific characteristics of each instrument and EQ holes can of course be applied to just those specific frequencies too.

Just a quick post to mention a topic that really deserves a fuller article to explain it properly. With limited time however a quick post is all yo uwill get today with a promise to re-visit the topic at a later date.

Audio Mixing and the Home Studio

Audio Mixing

Audio mixing is one of those tasks that I think works best when done spread over several sessions.

The reason is fairly simple, to help keep perspective on the track. Working too long causes your ears to become tired and before you know it that tiredness skews your mix. Apart from that it's good to leave a track and come back to it to see if the ideas you have been working on truly are working out.

When working on mixes I regularly make a mixdown that i can play on a number of systems, checking that it sounds pretty good whether you listen on an ipod or a car stereo or your home hi-fi. It's amazing how much this simple process of listening on different systems can reveal. The differing frequency responses of the systems and the differing listening environments have an effect, coloring your mix and highlighting potential issues.

Closing the loop you then return to your mix at some later point with fresh ears and fresh perspective ready armed with the lessons learned from listening to your mix on a variety of audio systems.

The Home Recording Studio

More and more now I work on arrangement as I mix. That's the flexibility of having your own recording system. I dread to think about how much it would cost to do something comparable in a professional studio. True it has cost me up front to set up a decent home recording system (and believe me there is still much room for improvement!) but the overall benefit is the luxury of being able to spend time experimenting with recording, mixing and arrangement. Sometimes I write a song and at the same time record it, which for me is definitely a luxury worth paying for. Especially as it is actually cheaper in the long run.

The benefit to my mixes and to the song over all is, in my eyes / ears, like night and day. Creatively it is far more fulfilling and the finished product is far more likely to make it as a "keeper".

Songstuff author Cheryl Hodge captures the evolution from recording studio through home studio towards a professional home studio very well in her article "Protools And Me (The Singer / Songwriter)"

If you write your own songs I can honestly say that the investment of time and money in setting up a professional standard home recording studio is well worth the effort. Go on, benefit your songs and invest in some gear!

The Most Important Asset Towards Becoming Successful In Music

"How To Become Successful" Poll

I recently created a poll under the heading "How to become successful" about what single asset or tool would musicians and artists consider the most important.I see artists promoting themselves in quite creative ways but from discussions between artists I could see that understanding of how things fit together was often a bit confused. Here are the results of that poll.

Voters were given these choices:

• Your Own Website
• YouTube
• Blog
• MailingList
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Myspace
• Access To Forums For Promotion
• Reverbnation
• iTunes
• CDBaby
• Soundcloud

There are quite a few in that list that potentially offer so much to musicians and artists, but only one of the truly offers the most.

Which one would you pick?


Why does it matter?

Surely the combination of these is best? Yes, it is true using these tools and assets together is the best solution but only if they are used together. Artists want to gain and keep fans. Fans buy records, merchandise and they make possible the creation of better recorded songs with better quality videos. They also feed egos too.

The point is, it all depends on getting full value from your tools and assets. Where you spend your time has to depend on what is most beneficial. Your time is valuable, understandably you want make the most of whatever time you spend on something so unmusical as promotion had better be worth it!


What is important?

Artists need fans. Fans buy records and merchandise. An active fanbase helps grow both the fanbase and your popularity. Fans spread the word and recommend you to their friends. Fans need encouraged. Fans need information. You are responsible for getting them the information they need at the time you want them to get it.

Your music and everything about your act has to be provided to your fans in a way and at a pace that they can digest it. They need to know when songs and albums will be available, tour dates and locations, when you will appear on TV etc, and it is up to you to tell them.

In music promotion timing is important, and so is the process. Timing and process are used to form marketing campaigns.

Overall there is a need to control your communication with your fans, whether that is through a website, social media, press, tv, radio, internet radio, email or otherwise. The tools that give us the best coverage, the best control and the most flexibility become your strongest individual music industry asset.

Lets be very clear, it is NOT that you only use one tool, it is that you use the tools wisely. Knowing the most important tool at least helps you put the emphasis of your effort in the right place at the right time.


Growing Your Fanbase

This is a major part of what we are talking about. Getting new fans whilst keeping the existing fans. Even as an amateur artist you need fans. We all want people to like what we are doing and we all wnat those people to come back again, maybe bring some friends who might be interested.


Controlling Communications

This is another major part of what we need to do as artists / labels / promoters. We need to be able to control what we say, how we say it, when we say it, and how it is presented. As we want to communicate at a time of our chosing (to synchronise campaigns for album releases etc) we need to be able to control the time that the message is delivered as best we can.


Durability

We need something that will stand the test of time, where as much as possible WE own and are responsible for method being used. Otherwise we risk being left with nothing should a disaster happen (site closures, changes of policiy or going out of fashion).


The Results

• Your Own Web Site 33.33%
• YouTube 14.81%
• Blog 0.00%
• Mailing List 18.52%
• Twitter 0.00%
• Facebook 7.41%
• Myspace 3.70%
• Access To Forums For Promotion 11.11%
• Reverbnation 7.41%
• iTunes 3.70%
• CDBaby 0.00%
• Soundcloud 0.00%

Social Networks

YouTube, Myspace, Twitter, Facebook, the social networks of our time. Each has it's benefits and drawbacks as far as artist promotion goes. Each gives you the opportunity to communicate with your fans and to grow the number of people who are exposed to your music and to your promotions.

The trouble is that social networks can go out of fashion. You've just spent months or even years building your social connections when the site disappears (mp3.com - ok not a social network but it was the biggest promotion possibility for artists at one time) or becomes unpopular because of band spamming (myspace).

One thing is sure, the majority of websites are only popular for a while, even when they are the largest of their kind. All your carefully nurtured connections are virtually worthless overnight. That is their biggest weakness.

While they have their uses, remember contacts added like this are volatile 3rd party contacts and shouldn't be relied upon.


Blogs

It's a sign of the times that no one thought of their biggest assest, yet it can be of considerable use as blogs get subscribers. In other words you post a message and it is pulled by other sites and blog readers, or notifies via email. People still visit blog sites all the time and subscribe to blogs they like.

Another benefit is that you can import your blog to Facebook and Twitter so from the effort of making 1 post on your blog you can also feed your info to your fans, friends and contacts. Your blog can also be listed on Network Blogs anad Technorati, two main stalwarts of the blogosphere, mixing social networking with blog ranking.


Music Sites

Sites like Reverb Nation (OMDs) allow you to upload your audio files, create an artist page, gain fans, sell your music and gain chart position. Unlike many sites Reverb Nation gives you access to your fan's email address, which somewhat insulates your efforts should the site disappear or become unfashionable.

The big problem with most Indie music sites is that the membership tends to be predominantly other artists. They are not fan centric.

Sites like CDBaby are a bit more focused on fans but they provide less tools for artists and don't provide access to email addresses. The biggest benefit for CD Baby is their integration with iTunes.

iTunes is a mainstream music retailer combining main stream acts with Indie artist releases. Unfortunately they provide no info on the fans you have gained. What they do offer is realistic charting and a broadly used platform that directly interfaces with the most popular mp3 players in the world.

Sound Cloud is still very much in the world of Indie Music, offering uploads and more but saddly lacking when it comes to building fans.


Forums

Forums can be useful, but they require quite a bit of effort to become a high profile member. They don't provide email addresses or fan info but they are excellent places to develop industry relationships, and relationships with other musicians or for getting feedback on tracks in development.

There are plenty music forums out there that do focus on fans but they don't often react well to Indie Music.

Yet again forums as a tool are somewhat volatile. Sites can disappear or become unfashionable.


Your Own Site

Your own site gives you a lot of control, it gives you a place to host your audio and video and fundamentally it gives you a place to call home. The big drawback is that it can take ages to build traffic. They are useful news portals for your music but you have to get people there first. As far as dispersing your promotion messages goes, posting on the site also needs your fans to visit your site first before they get your message. A major drawback (It is better to push your message out at a time that suits you rather than wait for it to be pulled via a newsreader etc).


Mailing List

Mailing lists are collections of email addresses. They give you direct access to your fans (or as direct as you can get). They allow you to push the message out when it suits you. You get to keep the addresses so if the mailing software become unsupported or the mailing server you use goes bust, you are insulated from any damage.

You do need to keep your list up to date as people do change email addresses. This is an ongoing task and with decent mailing software you can deal with this automatically.

You can add sign up boxes to your site and often to other sites too, including Facebook.


Conclusion

By comparison the mailing list beats the other methods hands down. Sure build your Facebook, your twitter, grow your site audience, join forums and music sites, but remember- the gold you are looking for is the fan's email address. The whole thrust of your web sites and web presence should be towards signing people up and getting their email address so that you can keep in contact with them.

Visitors to your site may of course buy or download one of your songs, but once they are gone they are gone, unless of course you get their email address.

Your biggest asset towards success is without doubt your mailing list. Built it and you build a lasting connection directly with your fans.

Having music is of course a pre-requisit!

Become Your Own Promoter - Earn Money and Play Better Gigs

So you're in a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, you can't get decent gigs until you have fans and a track record, you can't get fans and a track record until you get gigs...

This usually means getting poor gigs with bands that don't compliment each other for ages while you build your own fan base playing gigs at the low end of the gigging circuit. Overall you are working at a disadvantage.

Become Your Own Promoter

The obvious solution is to become a promoter and run your own gigs. Hire a hall or small venue and sell tickets to make your money back, hopefully with some profit.

Pros and Cons of Being You Own Promoter

Pros

• You stand to gain experience gigging
• You get to grow your fan list / mailing list
• You have an opportunity to make some money
• You learn more about how the music industry works
• You have more control

Cons

• You have to work
• You have to Learn
• You have to use your imagination and creativity
• You have to put your money and time where your mouth is

Costs

Typically you might have to pay for:

• Venue hire
• PA System hire
• Lighting hire
• Ticket Printing
• Fliers and Poster Printing and Posting and Distribution
  

Some venues will be happy to let you rent some or all of the venue at no cost. They will just be glad to see their venue busy. Others will insist on payment. Some venues may supply lights and PA, even an engineer to work them, other halls will provide nothing at all. You might have the gear to print up your own tickets and posters.

You might also want to find places that will sell your tickets. They will take a percentage commission and will want to know what you are doing to promote your gig.

You should be able to do this a few times before the whole friends family thing begins to tail off. By then you should have a hundred or so people on your fans mailing list, more than enough to recover the cost of hiring many venues (remember many venues you can get for nothing).

Spreading The Financial Risk

If you are confident enough in your own playing ability, take the step of being your own promoter. Of course you can take this further and create events with multi-band line ups. You get other bands to play on the same bill and take on responsibility for some tickets. This has several advantages:

• You pick the venue
• You pick the support bands
• You spread the risk of selling enough tickets
• You get the opportunity to put your music in front of some new potential fans

Spreading the risk is a fairly straight forward thing. You want other bands to bring along their fans. if you just give them tickets they may sell a lot because it's pure profit. Alternatively you could sell your tickets to other bands at a reduced rate. This encourages them to sell more if they want to make decent money. From your stand point this gives you money to go towards your costs.

Setting up the gig is just part of it. The other main parts are promoting your gig and selling tickets.

Promoting Your Gig

This is a pretty large topic on it's own so I'll only touch on the basics here and leave some more detail for another article.

There are lots of ways to promote your gig. There are a few core groups of businesses and people you will work with:

• Local Press
• Music Press
• Radio
• Internet Radio
• Friends

Here you can approach all of these groups from two perspectives.

• A Promoter
• An Act

Write up press releases, there are plenty of online guides for writing a press release including "Guidlines For Writing A Press Release" on Songstuff.com. Put together an Electronic Press Kit, and a real-world Press Kit to provide the press with suitable background information. Check out my earlier article "Create A Killer Electronic Press Kit (EPK)" for some advice on creating an EPK. A real-world kit contains much the same information, only the medium for presentation is different.

Friends are useful, both real world and on the internet. They can help you spread the word. Word of mouth is a great way to get new fans and a pretty good way to sell tickets too. A quick message can be sent to their social network friends. You can even offer to write a basic post that they can customize. Friends may also be willing to help with fliers and posters.

Selling Tickets

Even if you sell tickets to friends and family that could be quite a few tickets. they bring friends etc too and everyone who sees you is a potential fan.

Having a music shop or ticket center willing to sell your tickets is very useful. Any deal will be a negotiation, but the advantages are many. For start people will know where to go (your poster and flier and radio listings will tell them where tickets are available) to get tickets without you needing to be there. Ticket centers in particular are experts at selling tickets and may be willing to offer more of a push for a larger percentage.

Offer bands on your bill tickets at between 70 % to 30% of the face price, they commit to a number of tickets that you stipulate (part of the deal when you sign them up). The percentage will be decided by how many they will commit to, what percentage of overall tickets that is and how much you need to recoup in order to pay your costs. If they commit to a low percentage of the overall seats then they pay more per ticket. Either way they owe you that whether they sell the tickets or not. It is an incentive for them to make money and to get more people to the gig. Ideally you want to be bringing more fans than all the other bands on the bill added together.

If you are the only band on the bill that might seem obviously not an option, but in essence all the band is is an "affiliate". So you could try recruiting "affiliates" locally and / or online. Same deal, they sell tickets they get a commission, the more tickets they sell the higher percentage profit per ticket they will make. This can be a good way to leverage friends of friends, and their friends too.

Grow and Make The Most Of Your Fan Base


Take along a pad and pen and try to get people to sign up to your mailing list with their email address at the gig. Even better would be to do that using a laptop and an online form. One mistake bands make time after time is to neglect their fans. A mailing list of fans is an ideal way to directly contact fans to let them know about upcoming gigs etc. but they are useful in many other ways too.

Getting more people to sign up to your fan list is so, so important. Have people at your gig dedicated to this task alone. They should not sit and stare, they should be actively encouraging people to sign up, so use anyone with good sales skills in this job.

Remember merchandise is effectively an advertisement, a little reminder of your existance in a fan's daily life, so make sure you take along any recordings and merch you have for sale.


Conclusion

My advice is to always put on a better show than most would expect for a particular venue. People will come away more impressed and with the feeling you should have been on a bigger and better stage.

All this gives you fans, track history, and experience which you can use to get on the main gigging circuit, but I would still continue running my own shows like the way I just described, after all it is what big bands do. My two cents is, if you want what big bands have, do what big bands do.

Any money of course that is left over can be stashed away in your band account. "Of course!" I hear you all say...