Nurture
Your Contacts to Maximize Publicity and Bookings
  By
Jeri Goldstein, Copyright 2006, The New Music Times, Inc.
In
any business, your contacts are your life's blood! They could mean
the difference between getting booked in a choice club, getting
reviewed in a major market rag, getting that record deal or getting
your song covered by a major label artist. Don't get me wrong, talent
and all of your efforts thus far play a major role. But, from my
experience and from so many stories told to me by other artists,
managers and industry professionals along with historical accounts
about industry luminaries, dropping a name or two can get you in
the door. With that in mind it is so important to build solid relationships
with your contacts and nurture those relationships to benefit your
future career.
In
my article, "Why Networking = Success," I demonstrated the importance
of relying on contacts you have already developed to help you connect
with their colleagues. This contact expanding technique is particularly
important as you broaden your base of operation from your hometown
and begin touring to neighboring cities. Calling upon your hometown
contacts in the media and business to help you gain access to their
contacts in other markets, can speed up your success in those new
markets. This process, works wonders on a career when your relationships
with each and every contact you make is carefully nurtured. When
you treat your contacts as part of your growing industry family,
they respect you and feel comfortable and are willing to help when
they are able. Take your contacts for granted and you will run into
many dead ends and wait long hours for calls that will ultimately
not be returned. I suppose it is a matter of industry manners.
Here
are some of the things that you can do to develop good industry
manners and networking common sense to aid in your career development...
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.
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In
addition to being an invaluable resource to independent artists,
Onlinegigs gives organizations such as agencies, record labels,
publicists, etc. the ability to handle information on a whole
roster. This is simply done by setting up each band or artist
as a performer. When any tasks are set up or a performance
is added, the related performer is chosen from a drop down
list. Onlinegig's powerful filtering capabilities gives you
the ability to view activities just by performer or narrow
it down to select activities such as "unsigned contracts".
You can also post your roster's touring schedule on any website
by using the remote tour date widget creator under the "my
account" section.
