How to Rock the Audience When They Least Expect It

This is a contributed guide by Nils at Bandologie. “It’s the story of a successful promotional concert me and my band did. The scene? 9:15am in a school break hall in front of shocked pupils.” If you have anything helpful to contribute to one of our sites, contact us here.
Here you can read about one of the most powerful independent music promotion events that I participated in.

At the age of 24, I became a product manager at the major record label BMG. Before that though, I used to play the drums in a heavy metal band for several years.

Like many musicians, we often tried to get local venues to allow us to gig. This though, wasn’t always easy. Most musicians almost beg club owners and bookers to play another gig, but there is a better way: While begging can work from time to time, the only solution to carry on getting gigs in the long run is to get a bigger audience to your concerts. Not easy I know, but true. As they say, “Don’t shoot the messenger”.

Live bookers, club owners, label executives and other music industry professionals have a job to do. These people are not necessarily greedy, but they need to earn from what they are doing. In their eyes, it’s not about how much exposure you’ll get for performing at their venue. It‘s about the organizer’s earnings, at least when it comes to live gigs beyond your own garage and cultural institutions that are subsidized by the government.

In other words, whether or not you’re booked is not normally based on how talented you are. It’s based on the amount of money you will make for the booker and the venue owner. Having said that, even if you’re not a big name musician yet, you can still pull off shows and make them successful.

Example – Event Marketing During A School-Break Concert

So here’s an idea me and my heavy metal band pulled off in our hay day. This is an excerpt from the book “Bandologie – How to Lead Your Band to Success as a Musician”:

Even if you aren’t part of a world famous band, you can still run an original and inventive sales promotion to increase your music sales. Back in the day, my former band and I had scheduled a live show at our local youth center. Few people had appeared at our previous gigs due to our bad advertising in the past, but this time we had an idea.

During my two free school periods, I drove to the school closest to the youth center. I had managed to get an appointment with the school principal there. I handed him our demo tape and press kit, and asked him if he would let us play our heavy metal in his break hall on the Friday morning before our show. He looked a little perplexed, yet agreed: “But only three songs maximum, and after the break, silence!”… Deal!

The school break-time bell rang. We let loose with our first track. The student’s eyes widened: There was a live band belting out music right in the middle of their break hall! By the second song, enthusiastic and surprised students were jumping around, and by the third song a crowd surfer even crashed to the floor right at our feet!

After the third song, I shouted at my band: “Only two minutes left. Quick!” We put down our instruments and spread out our flyers, which were literally ripped out of our hands that day! Naturally, I had also called the local press in advance, and so the following day there was a half-page article, which included a huge photo of us, in the best known newspaper in the area.

I’m sure I don’t have to mention that more people came to our concert that evening than ever before! It was a complete success…

About The Author

Nils, the contributor of this guide, is the author of the book ‘Bandologie – How to Lead Your Band to Success as a Musician’. You can see more information about this book and buy it via www.bandologie.com/book. If you want to know more about Nils himself, check out www.bandologie.com/nils.

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