When you have hot music and you have a stage performance ready to show, its time for you to book a show. Live performance is one of the many streams of revenue produced by you the artist, and probably the most important. Live performances offer you the opportunity to test your music in front of a live audience, build a fanbase, gain media exposure and sell your product.
You will need copies of your mastered cd or demo, a well packaged press kit, and a listing of venues in your area that showcase talent (
like the listing below). Now, you can book with a venue one of two ways, (
1) you can contact the booking agent of the venue via phone or e-mail, or (
2) contact the promoter for the night with which you are looking to perform. You will have to send press kits to every venue that you intend on showcasing in. Follow-up within one weeks time if the booking agent or promoter has not gotten back to you. If you are just starting out, I would suggest that you contact the booking agent first. I feel that it is so much easier to find out all things going on with the venue, allowing you to get to know the music scene in your local area. A good question to ask the booking agent is for referrals to promoters that cater to your music. Be sure to negotiate a deal that is beneficial to your career. Once the details are negotiated, have an entertainment attorney look over the contract before signing it(
A listing of Los Angeles area Entertainment Attorneys, and other music industry contacts, can be found in "The Los Angeles Music Industry Connection" Book. Ask me how you can get the book). In the beginning, you may not get paid and worst yet, you may lose money in the process, but this is all a part of the promotional opportunity called, live performance. To offset the money you may lose or to fatten the purse you may take home, have cd's and other promotional items ready to sell. Word of mouth is the best marketing tool you can use, and you may have an audience that is there to see another act, but enjoys what they hear from you. Invite friends, family, business associates, co-workers, friends of friends, friends of family and most importantly, press and music business execs.
Promote, promote, promote. Every show is a chance for you to get closer to your ultimate goal, super stardom. Perform to the best of your ability and have fun. After the show, find the booking agent or promoter and settle up according to the deal you negotiated. There will be no greater feeling than getting paid for your first live performance, especially if you rocked the joint.
- A closing tip, have someone to record your live performance so that you can see what the audience sees. This tip will help to ensure that your performances are progressively getting better, and that you are happy with the product that you are putting on the stage.
- Have a someone you trust to keep a count of the guests there to see you. It helps with your accounting when its time to settle up with the promoter.
Last, but not least, be sure to keep the lessons learned in this experience. As an artist, you will perform many times before you reach the ultimate success. You may be doing this for yourself in the beginning, but the experience will last a lifetime, and I've learned that lifetime experiences prepare you to be the most successful in the future.
