Finding the Right Venue for Your Live Show
  By
Jeri Goldstein, Copyright 2006, The New Music Times, Inc.
Yes,
it is so important to play as often as possible. It is also just
as important to make sure you play rooms that help move your career
forward. Once again this topic requires you to review your long-term
goals and keep them in mind as you tackle every new aspect of your
career. In this case, selecting appropriate venues can be challenging
but rewarding. The challenge lies in that there are a finite number
of venues where one may play and an infinite number of other acts
competing for those venues. The reward is realized when you begin
to qualify the venues you choose to play, in order to fulfill your
commitment to reach your career goals. This is a different way of
approaching booking.
Keeping your career goals in mind, consider the following factors
each time you approach booking a gig:
1. Know your audience.
I think this is the overwhelmingly most important thing a band can
do, understand and know their audience. When you know your audience,
you are able to immediately determine whether one specific venue
is right over another. For example: Is your audience more likely
to be downloading songs from iTunes or listening to NPR?
If you think you should be playing at the one and only club downtown
that starts most shows at 11pm, and you've noticed your audience
is generally between the ages of 25-50, your audience may not follow
you into that venue. If on the other hand the age demographic of
your audience is 17-25, then attempting to book yourself in the
club downtown may be appropriate. Consider the following factors...
Read the full article here.
Jeri Goldstein is the author of, How To Be Your Own Booking Agent
The Musician's & Performing Artist's Guide To Successful Touring
2nd Edition UPDATED. She had been an agent and artist's manager
for 20 years. Currently she consults with artists, agents and managers
through her consultation program Manager-In-A-Box and presents The
Performing Biz, seminars and workshops at conferences, universities,
for arts councils and to organizations. Jeri has released a 3-hour
seminar on CD-ROM, Marketing Your Act. No expensive conferences
to attend-learn at your convenience to boost your career. Her book,
CD-ROM and information about her other programs are available at
www.performingbiz.com or phone (434) 591-1335 or email Jeri at jg@performingbiz.com. |
An
often overlooked but valuable and timesaving feature in Onlinegigs
is the Web Lookup. All the information that you could ever
want to find or search for on a contact is at your fingertips.
On each contact page you will see the drop down menu that
allows you to search google, people pages, superpages, pinpoint
on a map, and a local search that will let you find record
or music stores, restaurants, and hotels in the vicinity of
the venue. This is invaluable to planning your tour and all
the other necessities on the road. For instance, you can locate
and contact area record stores about promoting shows or doing
an in-store performance. You can use the google search to
find info for the required fields when entering a new record
or update the contact record in the database and receive $1
credit back on your subscription. 
