Where and How Do You Find Band Booking Venues?

You may well have asked yourself this question if you're not yet playing all the band bookings you want

Certainly I've been asked it by a lot by the bands I work with.

Some bands (and solo artists)think they should try and persuade local venues to start hosting Live Music nights. This is possible but will need more persuasion and effort than simply finding those venues which already feature live bands and then introducing your act to them.

 

So where do you find potential band booking venues to play? 

It's incredibly simple when you think about it, but these are the ways I've used and recommend to others and more importantly which should give you  most success.

1. Other bands websites.
Search for other bands in your area and then check out the "Gigs" section of their websites. These will often include venue phone numbers.

 

2. Search for "Live Music venues Chicago" (or wherever you're aiming for)

3. Scan music and local press for music event/night ads

4. Keep your eyes open when visiting any town you'd like to target. Ask around while you're there for venue details

5. Networking. Talk to other musicians you know. Swap details so that if they're offered a gig when they're already booked up, you can pick it up for them. (You'll probably need to offer to do the same for them in return).

You may not believe it now, but when you start to build your reputation and numbers of gig bookings, you'll be grateful for a substitute band you can offer to venues if you ever have to cancel. This can enhance your reputation as reliable and professional even when you're letting a venue down.

Remember:

* Build a long list of potential venues to target. 

Aim for 100 over time. If this sounds a lot, remember you should be sharing the finding of venues amongst ALL band members. So a total of 100 is only 25 each. Just make sure you each focus on different towns or regions to avoid any duplication. If you're as solo act try to recruit a friend or two (who ideally don't live too close to you - to widen your target area)to help you track down potential new venues
 

* Always keep adding to your list.

Times change and some venues will stop hosting live music. Others won't be interested in your act. So, to continually maximize the numbers of band bookings you can aim for you can play - keep adding to your list of venues.

More band Booking Tips

How to Start Band Booking Before You've Formed a band

Someone asked me this week what they could do to prepare for band bookings  - before they'd finalised the band line-up.


The answer is there's plenty any act can do about getting gigs before they're actually ready to play them.


Obviously once you have your line-up in place it's all about rehearsing the music and show. While you're still doing that though, in my experience there are two key actions you can take:




 
1. Spend this time looking at your competition and working out what's different (or what will be different) about your band/act. Your USP if you will. This will pay big dividends when it comes to pitching your act to venues

The Band Booking Difference
 


2. Collect as long a list as you possibly can of the potential venues you'll approach for gigs once you're ready. Getting a venue to say "Yes" when you approach them is a numbers game and the longer your list of targets the better.


Find Gig venues

Band Booking Venue Ideas

Doing these 2 things will save you a lot of time once you're rehearsed and ready to roll... 

Can Any Act Get Band Bookings?

The short answer to this is "Yes". You don't actually even have to be able to play a note to be able to convince some venues to give you a band booking. 

All you have to do is pitch enough venues in the right way. 

Getting paid, not being booed off  stage and booking a follow-up gig though of course different matters...

The fact is, frequent and regular band bookings and gigs for solo acts don't only go to the greatest musicians or even the best "performers" (there is of course a difference between the two).

Give me a band that's keen to learn how to pitch themselves properly to venues ahead of one who are "only in it for the music" every time.

Of course, we're all in it for the music  -or why else do it?  However, you need to get yourself heard, and one of the best ways to do this is by knowing how to get band booking after band booking for yourselves...

Band Booking Tips

3 Band Booking Keys

Some good band booking stuff in this post here  from Chris "Seth" Jackson who describes himself as:

" A bass guitarist and composer. ... an average musician, working a day job as a software engineer, in pursuit of fulfilling my life’s dream of being a self-sufficient musician."   Chris' aim is to "share the ups and downs of this adventure and, hopefully, find great techniques that everyone can use to achieve success in the extremely difficult world of music".

He's right about one thing, band booking can be "extremely difficult" especially when you're not sure how to approach it.

 3 keys in particular stood out for me on his post:
 

1. Prepare BEFORE trying to book by making sure you have a demo and decent online presence.

2. Crucial to be able to talk about bringing people into the venue. Building up your friend/fan base on Facebook is a great way to work on this even for bands who haven’t gigged yet.

3. Venues get so many approaches all the time it’s vital bands to hone their message to cut through “all the noise” as you say. Bands and acts that understand why they’re different, and who are able to quickly and clearly communicate this will always stand out from the crowd

Here's Chris's post and the blog is worth spending some time on overall if you're struggling for band booking inspiration

http://howtorunaband.com/2011/05/20/how-do-i-book-my-show-part-1/

More Band Booking Tips here

Are You Too Original to Get a Band Booking?

"Isn't DIY band booking just for Covers bands?"

You may have wondered whether the same techniques for how to get gigs apply to original artists as well as covers bands.

The general answer, very definitely is "Yes".

The outline of your overall approach to
successful  band booking is the same no matter what you play.

Having taught both original and cover bands and solo artists in more than 15 countries how to fill their gig diaries I can give you some additional insights though.
 

Certainly when you're starting out, ie before you've got a name of any sort or a good fanbase you'll find:

-  There are more venues for acts who play covers material
-  You'll get a lot less private party/function and corporate work as an originals-only act

 3 tips you can draw from this as someone playing your own material are:


1. You need to get building your fanbase as early as possible in the gig-getting process. 
This will both help you persuade venues to give you that initial gig, and the more  new customers you can draw when you do play - the easier it will be to secure follow-up appearances.

Get more people to your gigs

Build your band fanbase with Social media


2. You'll have to work that little bit harder than a cover band might, to locate enough venues to target
You use all the same techniques though and as ever it's only a numbers game. Scroll down the piece below for more ideas to improve your success with band booking venues



3. You'll increase your chances of at least that first band booking at a new venue if you include a cover or two in your shows
Some acts have a hard time "swallowing their pride" to do this. Really though, name me a global superstar act who never played the odd cover or two (at least in their early days) to get the crowd into them? have a look at the info below  if your pride is choking you:

Covers and original bands

There's no such thing as a "Natural" Gig-Getter

In the UK they have a saying to describe someone thought of as a "natural" salesperson, someone who should be perfect for pitching their band to venues. This kind of individual is said to have the "Gift of the gab".

I'm not sure if there's an equivalent phrase in the US (anyone know?) but another suitable description for this kind of person as far as I'm concerned would be a: "Bullsh*tter".

If you're an introvert and the thought of pitching your band (or anything else for that matter) scares you, you're in good company.

Many of the hundreds of musicians around the world that I've taught to fill their gig diaries are (like me), dedicated introverts.The fact is that pitching your band is genuinely no more difficult to learn than is mastering an instrument or learning the lyrics to that new number you've never heard before.

Can you remember how intimidating that guitar, keyboard or dumkit seemed when you first tried to get any recognisable noise out of it?

Who among us are "natural" musicians? Did'nt we all have to learn from scratch?

So, there's no reason gig-getting should be any different. And it isn't.

Like most things in life, the prizes go to those most committed to their own success - not the most "naturally" gifted....

Get started band booking here

Could You be Your Own Band Booking Agent?

You might have seen an eye-opening  post on another site recently about how to become a band booking agent.

What amazed me was the statement about needing "very little capital (money) to start - just a stack of business cards and a simple website"

Wow.

Contrast that with the investment needed by the musicians themselves in gear and time needed to learn to play, write and rehearse.

But the writer went further. Actually, many band booking agents apparently don't  even bother to go to the "lengths" of investing in said simple website or  business cards. They still though, take a 15-30% cut of the gig fee of course....

The writer of this post says that the only"skills" that anyone needs to succeed as a band booking agent are:

1. Being a "Social butterfly" (because you need to spend time at the venues wording-up the management)
2. A love of music
3. A knack for salesmanship

In fact, many semi-pro and amateur bands have found out that:

1. You can do all your "wording-up" via the phone, newsletters and a website that gets found
2. The only music you need to love is your own
3. The ability to sell your band or act is no different from the ability to play an instrument. Most people can learn how to do it.

There are of course many great band booking agents out there and it does them no favours to suggest they don't need anything much to be able to succeed.

On the other hand, you could always learn how to do your own band booking and keep the 15-30% of your gig fee....

Here's the post I mentioned above