The Ultimate Gig Booking Guide | Phosphene Productions

Booking regular shows is an essential part of being a musician when expecting to be heard by the public, and a question we here at Phosphene Productions get asked a lot about. Though everyone has their own technique when it comes to finding the perfect show, many artists new to the scene should devise a “template” to work by and to keep yourself organized when contacting so many different people.

Our goal in this article is to give you a sort of template to use when beginning to develop your own booking strategy, and by the end you should have all the necessary information to kick off your gig.

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How Bands Can Break Into New Markets

One way to grow your music’s reach is to break into new markets. This could be taken a number of ways: new geographical areas (cities, states, countries, etc.) or simply new audiences in general (by demographic, interest, psychographic, etc). Before you try and expand your reach through new markets, it’s important to take a few things into consideration:

• Return on Investment: What is the cost or effort required to break into this market? Is the return on investment worthwhile or would you be better off using those resources to grow an existing market?

• Goals: What kind of role will this market play in your S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals?

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6 Things You Can Do With $100 That Will Change Your Music Career

Money. Let’s face it: most artists aren’t very good with it. Most of us don’t have much to invest into our music career (relatively speaking), and when we do, we tend to throw it at some random opportunities without a larger strategy in mind.

Take, for instance, submission fees to music festivals. Each year, thousands of artists spend over $100 in application fees or subscription costs to EPK sites, in hopes of getting a show at SXSW, CMJ, Bumbershoot, or other large festivals. Personally, I think festivals are overrated in terms of importance for your career, but if you really want to get in, try reading this guide: How to Get Into SXSW.

You can easily spend $100 on strings, picks, or sticks. You could even buy a cheap electric guitar. Or, if you were riding in my tour bus, $100 almost covers the gas from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA.

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Trends in Booking Shows

Every few years, promoters and venues begin trying new ideas to make their show successful:

Pay to Play

In the 80’s, “pay to play” was a trend that forced artists to pre-sell tickets for their shows to help made up money lost for shows with a low turnout. This is something that still continues today (especially in Los Angeles, where the movement was birthed) and in the UK. The concept is pretty simple: you guarantee to sell a certain number of tickets for your show. However, if you don’t meet the quota, you’re personally liable for the difference. In most cases, even if you sell the prerequisite number of tickets (it can be 15-50 tickets or more), you only get paid a fragment of whatever you sell above the agreed minimum (usually 50%), not the entire batch of sales.

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Making the most out of touring...

I’ve been touring for almost a decade now and have developed some strategies that have helped…….. When we first started hitting the road, we’d leave town in our ice cream van with a bottle of Jack Daniels, some other accoutrements, and just took off for the first city… our plan was always to see which guy in the band could score a girl to like him that night, then we’d all follow her to her house and crash there. Well, that didn’t always work and when we started getting real girlfriends, you can imagine the drama that THAT caused!
 These days, whether I’ve got label money for tour support or we’re going out on our own I follow a few simple rules that end up saving me a crap load of money.

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10 Steps Ever Artist Must Take to Promote Their Tour

Do you have a tour or one-off show coming up? Let’s talk about how to promote it.

Now, I understand that there are many debates on where the responsibility of promoting lies (some argue the venue/promoter, some argue the artist). Those debates aside, let me say this: the time and money that goes into strategically promoting your shows will always provide a good return on investment. Who doesn’t want to gain a reputation as a hard-working artist willing to do nearly whatever it takes to make the show a success?

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How to Use Facebook Events to Promote Your Shows/Tour

If you’re like me, you’re bombarded with Facebook event invitations everyday. Most of them are for events out of town and I end up blocking/ignoring the people or pages that continue to send this spam out. However, every once in a while, I get a great reminder of something: an old friend playing a show in town, a birthday party, a wedding, and so on. It’s not all bad. So let’s talk about how you can use Facebook events properly to promote your gigs. Follow these steps:

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Getting Sick on Tour: Some Eastern Medicine Remedies

Let’s face it. Touring in a band is not the best, safest, healthiest thing to do. You’re stuck in a van with people and germs abound, you’re probably not getting enough rest, and you might be drinking way too much alcohol every night. At the same time, you’re depending on your good health to have strong vocals, be able to put on a killer show, and make it home in one piece. Here are some touring tips from the East on getting quick recovery:

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Little Known Tactics for Greater Touring Profits

For many independent artists organizing do-it-yourself tours, a common question  is, “How can we make more money on tour?” One of the simplest methods: by spending less. Here are some ways you can cut your expenses while on tour which leaves room for more profit.

Whether you’re planning a national, international, or regional tour the goals are the same: earn income while promoting yourself in a familiar or new territory. Reaching out to fans and connecting personally at your concerts are the keys to gaining a dedicated fan base and generating buzz around your band. Admittedly, while overall comfort plays a key role in combatting tour fatigue and  maintaining performance levels, sometimes comfort isn’t an option. If tour expenses are outweighing guarantees, try implementing some of these cost-cutting  travel techniques tailored for the DIY, self-booking independent artist. 

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Interview with Salem on the Risan Project – The International Multi-Media ECO Tour

The Risan Project utilizes multi-media events to raise awareness of climate change and the praxis of alternative lifestyles. The message of the tour is derived from the belief that environmental policy must reflect the acknowledgement of a global climate crisis. Affecting policy decisions begins with knowledge and awareness of the current state of the environment and alternatives to current systems of energy production and usage.

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