[00:00:00] James: Welcome to episode 165 of the Bandhive Podcast. It is time for another episode of the Bandhive Podcast. My name is James Cross and I help independent artists tour Smart. This week on the show, we're gonna be talking about how you should book shows for your bands because even though this is a relatively simple process, it's something that a lot of artists might not get quite right, or maybe they don't know where to start, and that's absolutely fine.

[00:00:25] James: If you're new to the game and you haven't done this before. Don't worry about the things that you don't know. You have to learn these things. That's normal. This is why Bandhive exists. We're here to teach people the right way to do things, and in this case, we're gonna be talking about booking shows. So whether you've booked zero shows or you've booked hundreds of shows, This episode is gonna be beneficial to you in some way, because maybe it's going to add that last little tidbit of what you need to book more shows.

[00:00:51] James: Or maybe it's going to give you the whole framework because you didn't know where to start. So join me as we dive in on this episode to talk about [00:01:00] why booking shows the right way is so important for your band. Because really, if you're not playing live, you're not gonna have great chances of any staying power.

[00:01:11] James: Online artists, yes, you can go viral and that's fantastic, but if you're not playing live, you don't have a long career ahead of you because playing live is really where the money is at in music. So you need to be able to do this, and if you can't, you're gonna have a tough time.

[00:01:26] James: For this episode, we're gonna assume that you're just doing one-off shows. You're not putting together a tour, so we're gonna ignore routing and budgeting and everything that goes into planning a tour. And we're just gonna say the first step is to identify target venues.

[00:01:38] James: This is really important because there are different types of venues That might suit your band, your music, and your style better than others. So let's say for example, you are a hard rock band, a bar or a club is gonna be great. A coffee shop, not so much.

[00:01:52] James: Don't play the coffee shop. But if you're an indie acoustic act, coffee shop, great bar, maybe [00:02:00] club. Yes, probably Because yes, indie bands do play clubs, but it all comes down to the demographics of your audience and the location that you're playing, the area that you're playing.

[00:02:09] James: Because let's say Montpelier, Vermont, if you're an indie rock act, you probably would want to go to, it's Not Sweet and Melissa's anymore. It's the Rusty Nail. That's a place you could play. You wouldn't wanna play Charlie O's, which is kind of like a sports bar, not really a fit for an indie band or an indie acoustic act, but hard rock band.

[00:02:28] James: I would not say go to the Rusty Nail. Instead you can go to Charlie O's. There are different options and you know, Montpelier only really has like three places that do music. It's really small, but look at your market and you can see what venues Would be a good fit and which ones wouldn't be by looking at the other shows that they have there.

[00:02:47] James: If they have a lot of bands or artists in your genre, that's probably a good. you can find this all out by going to their websites, checking their social media, reading reviews. So if you go to Indie on the move, for example, they have a [00:03:00] database of venues for independent artists, which has gone downhill in recent years, and I'm working on a better solution.

[00:03:06] James: But in the meantime, You can go there and look at the reviews and see what's going on. Then use that information from these multiple sources to see which venues you want to contact and how you can refine your pitch to them to get the best chances of getting booked and actually having a good show. Then once you've done that, you can reach out to that venue either directly or if there's a third party promoter they use, you can reach out to that promoter.

[00:03:29] James: Introduce yourself, your band, and ask them about booking a show. Hopefully you'll hear back in a day or two, but if not, I would follow up After about a week, and then if you still wanna hear back, do it again another week after that. And if after that third email, you still haven't heard anything, give 'em a call. If their number is available, call them. Say, Hey, we emailed a few times and haven't heard back. If it's a no, that's fine. Just give us a no and we'll ignore you for the rest of our lives.

[00:03:54] James: you don't have to say that exactly. But that's basically the point you're making now assuming you do hear back and it's [00:04:00] not a no, you're gonna get what's called a hold, which essentially means this show is not confirmed.

[00:04:05] James: But we're not gonna book anyone else on this night without checking with you first to see if you still want the show. Now, at the bigger levels, there's this whole system of multiple holds and holds and challenges and all kinds of stuff.

[00:04:16] James: But realistically, for a small venue, you're probably gonna have one hold, and if somebody else wants it, you'll get an email saying, "Hey, do you want this? Or, can you release it to somebody else? Because we need to know." that said, a hold can end in three different ways. One, you say, yes, we want a show on this date.

[00:04:35] James: Send us an offer. Two, you say, no, we don't want that show. Drop the hold. Or three, the hold gets challenged and somebody else gets the show because you say, no, let them have it Or maybe you just don't reply, which looks really unprofessional, so you should always reply if your hold gets.

[00:04:50] James: But let's say that you are going to go ahead and book the show. That means now you're going to finalize the details. So the date, time, ticket, price, [00:05:00] anything else that goes into the show, which there's a lot of things, and specifically the offer. So what kind of deal you're getting? Is it a flat guarantee?

[00:05:07] James: Is it a door split? Is it a versus deal? Whatever it is now versus. typically higher levels of venues. But you never know. You might still get offered one. So anyway, the main things are a split deal is you're going to split the door income after expenses, or a guarantee is you're gonna get paid this amount of money no matter what. If there's one person or a hundred people, you get this amount of money. Typically you can make more money off of a split deal than you can a guarantee because there's more risk for the venue on a guarantee.

[00:05:35] James: but at the same time, if you're not confident in your ability to draw, a guarantee might be more beneficial for you. Now, the caveat is you don't wanna burn bridges. So if you bring five people and your guarantee was $200, That doesn't look great and you're probably not gonna get asked back. So be sure that if you're getting guarantees, you can actually make it worthwhile for the promoter to at least break even, if not, make a nice chunk of [00:06:00] change for their profit. While you're negotiating, remember that it's not you, the artist against the venue or promoter.

[00:06:05] James: You're working together to put on an event. And a lot of artists have this idea that promoters are terrible people and they're just out to screw over artists. And you know what? Yeah, some of them are. But if you go into every negotiation with that attitude, you're gonna get worse deals. You need to go after.

[00:06:22] James: The good deals by being nice and professional, communicating well, communicating clearly throughout the whole process because the more red flags the promoter or venue sees, the less likely they're gonna be to give you a good deal or even care about you. if they don't care about you or your show, they might not put in as much effort.

[00:06:41] James: It might be a subconscious thing, but you want to do everything you can to stay on their good side, which means not having that adversarial attitude of no, all promoters and venues suck. They're just out to get bands and make money. That's not what it is. A lot of promoters, put on shows because they love shows, they love live.

[00:06:58] James: Now the show [00:07:00] is booked, it's negotiated. You have a contract. Ideally, all that is in place. It's time to promote the show. So as that show is coming up, you need to promote it to your fans and followers. If you don't do this, then no one's going to show up. It is not the promoter's job to actually bring people to your shows.

[00:07:18] James: Now, I get it. They are called a promoter, but hear me out. They promote the event. However, they do not have your fans. People don't go to shows to see a promoter. They go to shows to see a band that they like. So unfortunately, the name promoter is kind of wrong, but that's what the name is and you cannot take it literally.

[00:07:38] James: You have to take a step back and say, these people are here to see me. I am able to contact my fans through hopefully an email list, or at the very least, on social. And it's my responsibility to let people know that this event is happening and they should come to it. So I'm going to invite them. I'm going to spread the word.

[00:07:58] James: I'm going to put in [00:08:00] effort on this. So whatever you do, go out there and talk to people now. There are so many strategies that you can use for this, and we just a few weeks ago did an episode on the topic. It was number 162 5 proven strategies to fill venues.

[00:08:15] James: So go listen to that episode. That was just three weeks ago. So scroll down in whatever podcast app you're listening to, or go to Bandhive.rocks/162 and you can find that episode. Again, that's Bandhive.rocks/162 because let me stress this. Let me be clear. People do not go to the show to see the promoter.

[00:08:37] James: If you think the promoter is going to get your fans to show up or get random people to show. That's not how this works. And a lot of artists seem to think that is a promoter's job is getting random people who've never heard of you into a venue to see you. No. That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, to be honest.

[00:08:56] James: But so many artists expect that. I'm sorry, but that's not how it [00:09:00] works. You go see a big show. You know what the promoter does? They run ads, they email their people on the venue email list or their own email list, and they do lots of stuff like that. But guess what?

[00:09:13] James: That all comes out of the show budget for the split that that artist is getting, which means the artist is effectively paying for that. those are expenses that the promoter gets reimbursed for. So if you're expecting a promoter to go out and do that kind of work, then you need to accept that they're going to take those expenses and pay themselves back.

[00:09:33] James: You're also expecting that your fans are actually gonna show up when they see those ads or when the promoter sends out those emails to their list. And this is why. It's also just as much your responsibility to get people through those doors because again, your fans, people who are interested in your music are the ones who are gonna be showing up.

[00:09:51] James: It's not gonna be random people. The chances of that promoter having somebody on their email list who knows you and likes you if you're an independent [00:10:00] artist, are fairly small. And this is why it's your responsibility to let people know you're playing a show.

[00:10:06] James: And in episode 162, 1 of the main things I talked about was reaching out to people directly one-on-one via social media, dms or personal messages, whatever you wanna call them, and telling them, Hey, there's a show on this day we would love to see you. Make this personal, not just a copy paste.

[00:10:23] James: Literally DMing every single person in the area that you know, and I've done this personally myself, just like right now, as of the week I'm recording this, which is a few weeks ago. It's Wednesday and I'm promoting a show on Friday, and the band has done a stellar job. There's less than 10 tickets left right now.

[00:10:41] James: This is a local band, but it's almost sold out. That's amazing. and it's a combination of the band going out and telling people about the show and me messaging people that I know like that band, because again, they're local. So I have lots of friends who like that band and I'm literally DMing every single person I [00:11:00] know who enjoys that band or I think might enjoy that band and saying, Hey, come to this show.

[00:11:05] James: And we're literally almost sold out as of the recording. There's nine tickets. That is amazing. We might actually sell out before the day of the event, and if we do, that's fantastic. I would love to have sold out up on that sign that we have outside the venue because you know what? If you can say you sold out a venue without any walkup sales, that is impressive.

[00:11:27] James: Literally a hundred percent online sales before the day of the show, advanced tickets. That's the way to. so to wrap all of this up, what you need to do is identify your target venues, make sure these are the right venues. Then you're going to research the venues that you want to play.

[00:11:46] James: then once you've targeted the types of venues you want to play, you find the right venues, specifically which ones you want to play, what other artists play there, that kind of stuff. After that, you go through the hold system. Then you negotiate [00:12:00] details once an offer has been sent, and then finally you promote the.

[00:12:04] James: These are very important steps to actually booking your shows. And if you don't do it or if you skip steps, you're gonna end up not having the best show possible, and you always want the best show possible because that means more fans for you. Who wouldn't want that? Now, I do have several other episodes that you can check.

[00:12:24] James: On similar topics which dive more into detail on various subtopics of booking and playing shows. So I'm gonna rattle these off, But there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 episodes of the Bandhive Podcast that I think you should check out. So here they are, number 39. This one's an oldie red flags you can't ignore when booking shows.

[00:12:45] James: Booking your first gig. That's number 39. You can find it at Bandhive.rocks/ 39. That's Bandhive.rocks/numbers 39. The second one is number 64, playing shows, understanding venues and their staff, because a lot of [00:13:00] people really don't understand how venues work. This is a great episode to check out if you wanna learn more about who you're dealing with at venues and why, because different people do have different roles, and if you know who to talk to, you can often get your problem solved a lot more quickly than if you're just asking the first person you see who works at the venue.

[00:13:19] James: That one you can [email protected] slash 64. That's the number 64. The third one is number 83. booking and playing 150 plus shows a year while working a day job with Troy . Millette and the fire below. That was a really fun episode and you know, Troy was playing 150 plus shows a year before the pandemic in 2021, he played about 142, so that's during the pandemic, you know, the tail end of the pandemic, but still the pandemic 142 shows and he has a full-time day job that is impressive.

[00:13:51] James: Literally no excuse. I don't care what you have in your life. If Troy can play 142 shows while working a day job full-time, so [00:14:00] can you, because that is incredible. So you can find [email protected] slash 83. That's Bandhive.rocks/eight three. The fourth one, number 126. Wanna book more shows? Follow these three tips, so that one you can [email protected] slash 1 26.

[00:14:17] James: That's 126. the fifth one is how to open for more established acts. This is a huge one if you wanna start opening for national bands. And I mean, who doesn't? It's just fun. Maybe the pays not as great, but you're gonna have a blast. And these are great networking opportunities, And you can find [email protected] slash 127. That's number 1 27. The sixth episode is 141 playing shows versus playing the right shows because yes, you can play the wrong shows and it can be detrimental to your career. You don't want to do that, and at best it's just a waste of time. So find [email protected] slash 1 41.

[00:14:58] James: The seventh and final [00:15:00] one is 1 46 Help. The venue is trying to steal our merch. Spoiler alert, they're not, but you can find it and hear the full [email protected] slash 1 46. That's the number 146. All seven of these episodes are also in your favorite podcast app, whether that's Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or.

[00:15:18] James: Anything else under the sun, they are all there. You can find those, but they'll also all be linked from the show notes at bandhive.rocks/165. That's episode 165, so Bandhive.rocks/165, and you can get the links to all of these episodes, plus episode 162, which I mentioned earlier about how to promote your shows.

[00:15:40] James: To wrap this all up, please, if you're going to play shows, which you absolutely should, make sure you're going through the process the right way so you can have the most effective and efficient shows possible.

[00:15:53] James: That does it for this episode of the Bandhive Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening. I really hope that this episode has given you some insight into how you [00:16:00] can properly book shows and avoid upsetting promoters or venues and just make it the best show you can possibly make it by getting people to come to your shows, because there's nothing better than that playing to a packed room.

[00:16:14] James: That is fantastic. Go out there, do your absolute best, and also let me know how it's going. You can do that by going to our Facebook group, which you can search for Bandhive on Facebook, or you can go to better band slash group and that will automatically redirect you to our Facebook group. Now, once you're there, every single episode we put out has a discussion thread that you're welcome to join in, and I would love it if you do so. Let us know what you do to book shows and how that's going for you.

[00:16:41] James: Again, that's better.band/group or by going to Facebook and searching for Bandhive. We'll be back with another brand new episode of the Bandhive Podcast next Tuesday at 6:00 AM Eastern Time. Until then, I hope you have a great week. Stay safe, and of course, as always, keep rocking.