7 Ways not to Get a Band Booking

Someone emailed today me a blog post called:

"7 Ways to destroy your music career"

Points there you can't argue with like:

1. Your musical destiny being in your own hands - not circumstances outside your own control. believing the latter is a great excuse for giving up without really trying

2. You don't need to be born with the "gift of the gab" to be able to promote your band (in fact, it's probably better if you weren't...)

3. Promote regularly not sporadically. This will mean you'll do more promotion and get more comfortable about doing it and better at it as you progress.

Anyhow, in the spirit of 7 things not to do, (and at the risk of heavy sarcasm) I thought I'd offer my

7 Ways to Ensure you Miss Gig-getting Opportunities

1. Only have a small list of target venues. This will ensure the odds are against you. Also, as you'll need to ensure a higher % of success to fill your gig diary, each contact will be more pressured than if you had a larger number. Success in any particular venue will matter far more.

2. Don't do any research on other bands who play where you'd like to. You can then have no idea what makes you different or whether you're suitable for a particular venue

3. Don't rehearse.Obviously a shambolic performance will go a long way towards making sure you don't get asked back and word gets out amongst potential fans (see link at foot of this post for more help with this)

4. No co-ordination of gig-getting. Double-booking yourselves through lack of communicating or having to cancel because various band members aren't available on the night in question are key here.

5. Don't bother with a demo. Or if you do, pick any 3 tracks, no matter how similar and burn onto a CD with no identifying markings.

6. Keep the forthcoming Gig a secret No press releases or Facebook announcements. Perfect for a badly attended performance and loss of money for the venue. In fact, why bother trying to build a fan base at all?

7. Minimise the risk of being offered further gigs on the night No onstage advertising of band name or website. No flyers or cards left on tables, no verbal mentions of who you are or where you can be reached. Refuse any private work you might be offered and certainly don't ask the venue booker for repeat dates when you come off stage.

That should do it.

Oh, and here's a link to an earlier blog of mine about how to ensure a negative performance on gig night itself...

More than 7 ways to alienate your gig crowd