Continuing from last week’s post on how my band’s first show went, I’m going to cover more successes and mistakes I made at the show and promoting the show. At the very end, I cover the costs of this promotion and what my band made from the show.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Despite what I thought was enough practice for the show, I was all over the place. My fingers didn’t want to cooperate on my bass, and I was messing up notes left and right. During one song, I completely lost track of where the root note was, sending my vocals to some key that had nothing to do with the song. It sounded awful! Then, I pretty much threw out my voice by the middle of the set and had to struggle for notes.
So, no matter how ready you think you are for a show, it pays to practice even more than you think is necessary. Combine that with a good warm-up routine before you get on stage. Also, drink plenty of water and use a potassium supplement to prevent your hands from cramping up.
Still, the main thing to help you play live shows better is to play more live shows.
YouTube promo video
I took songs from all the bands on the bill that night and put together a show promotion video on YouTube. The promo video was around a minute long and just had pictures of each of the bands’ logos while their song clip played.
The promo video didn’t get many views, about 40. Still, I think this video was far more effective than fliers. The big mistake I made with this video was not creating it earlier. I put it up about a week before the show, so it didn’t have time to really sink in with people.
Another mistake I made was not adding annotations to my more popularly viewed YouTube videos. An annotation is a little bubble you can add that pops up over your video. A well placed annotation saying where we’re playing next could possibly spread the word about a show. The best thing, you can keep re-using your best viewed videos to promote your upcoming shows. I need to do this in the future.
Back to the promo video, I wonder if there was a way I could make it more interesting? It was a bit…blah. Just showing logos and clips of music might not get enough attention. Maybe a series of entertaining videos leading up to the event? Future experiments to try!
Fliers Suck
I stood out in cold, torrential rain putting up fliers for a few hours. I put them in front of every place that I thought would be remotely interested in my band’s music.
Result? The fliers were either gone or covered up within a few days. The same thing happened to my friend’s band. They put up fliers, and the next day the fliers were all gone or covered up.
Maybe in a smaller town than Seattle fliers would work. But, for Seattle, they just plain suck. It’s not worth the hours of effort. A band is way better off making extremely targeted Facebook ads than putting up fliers. And it costs about the same. We spent about $20 on the fliers. I’m very serious saying that money would have been better spent micro-targeting the zip-code of the club on Facebook.
Recording video of the show
I really screwed up on this and was only saved by our guitarist. I put my video camera up to record our show. However, I forgot to press record on the damn thing!!!
Luckily, our guitarist just got a new camera and was extremely excited about filming the show. He got all the footage, saving me from missing recording our first show. (Thank you, Jimmy!)
Still, even if I hit record, I would have been making another mistake. Our cameras were placed at basically the same spot in the club. I should have placed the second camera somewhere else entirely like on the stage. This would give multiple points of view of the show and allow me to splice together more interesting footage.
When a camera sits in one spot and doesn’t change the point of view, even the best show looks boring. I’m going to attempt always putting the camera in a different position on stage. After a few shows, I’ll have enough footage from different view points to create a compelling live video that doesn’t suck!
Recording live audio
I completely dropped the ball on recording our live sound. I was going to record from the mix board. However, I brought every cable known to man except the one little adapter I needed to connect to the sound board.
I felt dumb.
Still, the sound guy told me the sound direct from the board wasn’t that good. It made the room sound good, but that sound doesn’t translate to a good recording.
So, I need to save up for a simple little Zoom recorder. It provides a great stereo recording of the room and doesn’t need to be plugged into my laptop. Then, I can also plug into the soundboard and get a 4 track mix of our show.
Live footage with a quality recording means I could make either a live album or a DVD to sell at the merch booth.
Still, the big drawback is I use my laptop to record from the sound board. I’m really nervous someone would steal my laptop or spill something on it. I’ll need to think about this more. I’ve been eyeballing this 4 track Zoom recorder that would solve all my needs. I’m just out of money!
Crowd interaction
Crowd interaction is where I need to do a ton more experimentation. I think there’s a lot of magic I can do here, but I haven’t quite wrapped my head on what I want to try. I just know I want to break people out of the “I’m going to stand here with my drink and bob my head.”
Still, there were two things my band did that got people going. The first thing was pretty much by accident. There was a song I still hadn’t written the words to! During rehearsal, we just make up a subject, and I improv. So, at the show, I gave the crowd the choice of what they wanted the song to be about.
And a great thing happened! The audience started yelling back and forth at each other about what subject they wanted! It was hilarious! So, I split the difference and sang about both. People were still yelling out their subject after the song ended! Fun!
The second was easy, just play a cover tune everyone knew!
In the past, I wrote a song that had a crowd chant. Since no one heard the song before, I got a bunch of posters and wrote the lyrics out on them. When the chant came, I passed out the posters to everyone in the audience. They all held them up during the chant and then they ripped up the posters after the chant was done.
I need to do something like that again.
Bottom line, crowd participation is fun! It makes your show memorable while giving people an excuse to relax and let off some steam. If your band only stands in one spot and plays your songs perfectly, guess what? People can play a CD at home and get the same experience without paying extra for beer.
Email Sign-up
I completely screwed up the email sign-up form. I printed it out, but I didn’t put it out with the merch stand. I didn’t encourage people to sign-up, even when I was giving them a free shirt.
Next time, I need to get that email sign-up form out there and well lit!
Call to action from the stage
I was so excited by the first show, I completely blanked on giving out a call to action from the stage. I didn’t tell people to meet us at the merch booth. I didn’t tell them about the pay-what-you-want plan for the shirts. I didn’t even say we had a sign-up sheet to get notified of our future shows.
In the future, I need to bake in the call to action. I need to mark it down on the set list so I don’t forget to do it during the show.
Learn to spread out content recorded from shows (fan overwhelm)
Over the next few days, the guitarist published all our live songs up on YouTube. Normally, this is great. However, it was done all at once.
So, after they were posted, we had nothing more to share. The better choice would have been to slowly roll out the content. One song from the show once every few days.
When we unleashed them all at once, it basically amounts to overloading our fans. They’ll gladly watch one video. But ten videos back to back is unlikely. People like short-form content, things just a few minutes long. When you overpower people, they will ignore what you put out there.
So, despite our excitement, we have to hold back on what we publish. Plus, I think it’s a good idea to hold things back, not release everything. That way, down the road, you have something special to share with people. “Never before seen! From our very first show!”
Overall Results
My band made $48. Which, honestly, is great for our very first show. However, here’s how much I spent getting ready for this show:
$200 T-Shirts
$60 Stage Banner
$50 Stickers
$100 Lights and gadgets for the merch booth
$20 Fliers
$5 Beer promotion
—————————-
-$445
+$48 from the show
—————————–
-$397
Of course, that’s not a completely fair assessment of how much money I’m out for the show. The stage banner and merch booth lights will last for years and multiple shows. The t-shirts and stickers will last for a few more shows. If I remove those things from the cost, here’s the breakdown:
$20 Fliers
$35 Free t-shirts
$5 Beer promotion
————————-
-$60
+$48 from show
————————-
-$12
Since I didn’t push my email signup, I got zero emails to push people to my Facebook or Twitter page. Still, from the show, we gained an additional 4 or 5 Facebook likes.
In the future, I really need to push the email signups. That’s truly the best way to connect from the show to your online presence. To make more money, I really need more merchandise. Money isn’t my focus, right now, but, still, I realistically need money to both create more merch and get money towards quality recordings.
A Bit More
There’s another cool thing that I got results from, but I will save that for next time. Hint: Getting the attention of music blogs using Twitter.
Great post! There’s so much here to learn from. I second you on the fliers thing. We’re based in New York City, and it’s actually illegal to post on most public property! Fliers blow. Where they might work is going around to other similar artists shows or shows at the same venue you’ll be playing and directly handing small fliers to people attending.
Hey, Stephanie. Thanks for the cool convo on Facebook, btw!
Heh-heh! I almost got arrested fliering in a different city. I didn’t know fliering laws were different from city to city in Washington state!
I’m not so positive on the effectiveness of fliers handed out at other shows. They usually end up forgotten in my pocket and destroyed in the washer dryer. The big win with handing out fliers is just talking about the show with others and making a connection with real human beings.
Otherwise, the only useful place I can think of for fliers is at businesses that allow you to post on their walls. Again, I’m still not sold on how effective that is.
Thanks for commenting, Stephanie! And thanks for sharing your videos demonstrating the Zoom!
Regarding the call to action/merch booth – what worked for my band (a hundred years ago) was to announce the merch table location, what was available, and that I was headed that way in 3 seconds – follow me! Since I was a very animated lead singer, I was easily identified by the audience, so after that announcement I would jump off the stage and make a b-line to the merch booth. Unfortunately for the rest of the band, it was their job to break down. The price to pay for merch sales, I guess. Did I mention the pitcher of beer on hand to fill the glass of anyone who purchased an item?
As a mailing list backup, you might consider a QR Code linked to your newsletter signup page with a sign that reads something like “Got A Smart Phone? Join The Mailing List!”
Nice! I started forcing our singer from my last band to do that. Right after we hit our last note, I’d yell at him “MERCH BOOTH!”
Unfortunately, there’s no lead singer in Shiplosion. We have to break down our equipment before getting to the booth. Hmmm….maybe me and the guitarist can trade off loading out each other’s equipment while the other tends to the booth.
Thanks for giving me that idea, Don! (And the pitcher of beer idea!!! I’m stealing that!)
Damn, you are full of great advice. I didn’t even consider a QR code at the merch table! You win the promo award for the day!
The QR code idea definitely works, just make sure you make the sign & code big enough for people to see from a distance. That way it’s easy to take that picture/read it. Another thing that works great is to have a T-Shirt with your band logo on the back & a QR code (and if you wish your band name, think visibility & design here) on the front. Put the T-shirt on during a show or straight before you are about to socialize, and all you have to remember is to stand up straight and smile when people want that fan picture. Those pictures then get shared with friends and so does your QR code.
TheMusicMan81
Are there any metrics or studies on that? I’m not so positive that people will scan the QR code from a digital photo. Has this actually worked for you or a band you know? Not saying that it doesn’t work, I’d just like a bit more data before I cover myself head to toe in ugly QR codes! :)
A walking QR code on stage might do the trick ;) Seriously though; There was a high school band who used this with success (on a small scale of course). They had a show at their school and they had their lead singer wear a T-Shirt with a QR code on it (he got the job since the other band members were all behind an instrument of some sorts). Naturally, since almost everyone in the audience knew the band more or less personally, the enthusiasm was very high on the night.
When their set was over the singer announced two things. First that they had recorded some songs and that they where available for free by scanning his T-shirt, and secondly that everybody should come over to the stand the band had set up. There weren’t any merchandise available but they had written a big sign which stated: “Wanna be a rock star? Get your rock star picture with the band!” and also a couple of guitars for the audience to wear for the pictures. Every one thought this was ‘Sooo cool!’ so it resulted in a ton of pictures being taken (with the lead singer in the midst of it all), then later shared & talked about with other friends, creating quite the local buzz and ultimately the band ended up being approached by a couple of other schools to do shows there as well.
Of course, a blurry picture taken by a cell phone from a distance won’t make people able to scan the QR code properly, but the band had thought of this and teamed up with a friend who took high quality pictures (with focus on the lead singer and his QR code) during and after the show. Then they shared those pictures and reminded people again of the free music they could get by scanning the code and now they had added a bonus on the landing site; The live recording of the show, which then added to the buzz amongst their friends/fans.
As I said at the start, this was only on a small scale, but the happening did create a buzz and got a small momentum going, so it is doable.
Key features:
- Proper (cool) content on the landing site, to make people want to share it.
- A clear & visible (big enough) QR code on the T-Shirt.
- Have someone you know take pictures as well to ensure there are at least some pictures of good enough quality (It’s a good idea do a training photo shoot in advance).
- Share your own pictures with your fans.
- Communicate clearly that there is something (special) to be gained by scanning the QR code.
TheMusicMan81
P.S The band no longer exists, but that’s not the fault of the QR code experiment ;)
Nice! Those are great results! I still can’t bring myself to wear QR codes on stage, though! haha! But I like the “rock star picture” campaign. That sounds even more fun than the QR code.
Thank you for sharing such a detailed report. I’m sure this will help people reading.