Tips From 40+ International Jazz Promoters

43 jazz festival & venue promoters around the world took part in a survey for Jazzfuel about how they discover & book artists. Here’s the super short round up…

(If you’re reading this as a promoter and have another point of view to add, please feel free to post in the comments section at the bottom of this page)

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Promoters Promote & Musicians Invite.

Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and remind ourselves what we want from live music. Mark Knight is the founder of Right Chord Music, a company set up to bring the discipline of brand marketing to band marketing. In this article Mark critically examines the way grassroots live music is promoted. Mark identifies the roles of the key stakeholders and suggests how they could work together more effectively in the future.

Let’s start by reminding ourselves what is important.

What musicians and managers want from live music:

• An opportunity to grow their fanbase

• A chance to showcase their new material

• At atmosphere conducive to great live music; sound, lighting and staging

• An appreciative and respective audience who want to listen to their music

• Fair compensation for the entertainment they provide and / or opportunities to sell their music

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Musicians, Should You EVER Pay-To-Play?

Payola, in one form or another, is as old as the music business:

Labels pay radio stations to broadcast their music, producers pay DJs to spin their records in the club, and promoters ask live bands to pay-to-play at their event.

And it’s always been a hot topic amongst musicians.

So if you’re an artist, should you ever have to pay-to-play?

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How to Open for a Major Artist/Band

There are a few ways to make sure you get to open for a major artist in town:

1. Develop a consistent reputation with promoters in your area that you can pack out whatever venues you play. Part of getting this great buzz about your music is getting into local press or radio stations (usually with the help of a publicist), being proactive about promoting your shows, and demonstrating that you’d make a good fit for the show.
2. Buy your way in. Either you’ll be asked to sell a minimum number of tickets (and pay the difference if you are short) or pay the performer up front.
3. Enter a random contest that you have no control over (sometimes local promoters or radio stations have a contest for local artists to enter), but the results usually have to do deal with option #1 (how much of a buzz do you have).

The first option takes time, energy, and hard work. In the process, you’ll gain the respect of the local music industry. You’ll build true fans that will come to other shows, buy your merchandise, and support your career. It’s the equivalent of a business building solid, regular customers. If the act you’re opening for likes you, you’ll be invited to do future shows with them and they’ll probably encraouge their fans to support you.

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How to Book Your Band’s Tour, Step-by-Step

I believe that good information should be spread and even though I do booking for bands, I’m not afraid to share, step-by-step, how I go about this process. That’s what this music blog is all about, partnering up with artists to take the next step. I hope this helps your music career.

This is a more concise version of an earlier post which you can read here. I recommend you read that one too.

Once you’ve decided that you want to and are able to tour (and you’ve figured out the why’s), it’s time to plan the how, when, and where’s. This is what I do.

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10 Success Strategies for DIY Musicians, Managers & Promoters

In the spirit of holiday gift giving, I’d like to give you a new, six-page report called “10 Success Strategies for DIY Musicians, Managers, Promoters and More.”

Use this direct link to the PDF file to open and print it. (If you want to access it later, be sure to save the file to your hard drive or favorite ebook reader.)

I encourage you to share this free report with anyone you feel could use it. After all, that’s why I published these 10 DIY music strategies - to inspire and empower music people who really need to GET these principles.

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