Live Music Blog

Don’t know how to  promote  a performance? Well that’s probably not unusual because there really is not one method you can use for each performance or event. Concert  promoters make a fortune doing this for a living so certainly you can’t expect my humble little price of the Internet to be able to tell all, but I can provide some pointers and ideas.
I used to  promote  seminars, not really gigs but when I help ed a friends band get some publicity and promotion it seemed to work. I got some new pointers from a book and they seemed to help to.
First – contemplate who your target audiences is. What other gigs / gigs / events would they go to?  we  gave out flyers at other gigs in the area where other performers in the same musical style played. Hence our target audiences has been there and an simple target. One of the performers even announced our performance for us at the end of the  set.
Second – flyers. Okay, I ought to have made this the first point – I has been just testing you!. Try to put them up / hand them out where your target audiences will see them (take a hint from the first tip) and make sure you don’t just litter the place and aren’t posting them anywhere illegal. Make sure they will stand out, so colour is nice, but expensive. You will be able to get many more leaflets / flyers out there if you buy black and white. It may be an idea to go to the local college and see if you can get a graphic design student to design a leaflet for you in ex change for free tickets.
Thirdly – get on the web. MySpace.com has a amazing music section, and it can’t hurt to  promote  your performance here. can be link to a Youtube video of your band playing, or put clips from your last show if you have a video of the event.
Fourthly – the majority local papers have a what’s on  lead or events page. Make sure you have a listing here which is usually free. Is your performance newsworthy in any way? Try contacting the paper to see If the y will do a write up. Are you playing for a charity or worthy event? Are there any unusual circumstances around the gig? On a slow news day the paper can just get your photo in the paper and give a small write up. Try getting a free mention on the radio as well.
Fifth – Alice Copper has been played in London. To  promote  the show he had a big truck drive around with an advertising board on the back. The truck “happened” to break down right in the middle of London, and caused traffic jams that made the news. people in the UK saw a big picture of Alice Cooper right on there TV screen, and soon everybody knew Alice has been playing a performance in the UK. Now, I don’t suggest you do this, but be creative. What about putting stickers promoting your event on coins, pasting flyers to your vehicle and leaving it parked in a busy car park where lots of people will see it. Try putting stickers on any mail you send out – you’d probably be surprised how many pairs of hands that mail goes through!
I think that’s enough for know to wet your appetite. As a  last thought, contemplate your budget. It’s decidedly simple to spend many money promoting a performance if you don’t know how. I’ve learned from some of my mistakes which is why I bought the book – I try to learn from other people ’s mistakes these days.
If you really want to know how to  promote  a performance and get the full range of techniques I suggest taking a look at the book as well.

Are you tired of missing out on tickets for your favorite band? If you’re prefer the majority audiences, you have been forced to purchase high-priced tickets on eBay or from Web ticket brokers because the performance you wanted to see sold out before you can get tickets.
Take heart! That is all about to change. I’m going to let you in on some information that can literally take you to the front of the line the next time you want to buy performance tickets!
But before I do, I need to make sure  we  are alone.
Why all the secrecy you ask?
It’s simple. I’m about to divulge the decidedly same information that the ticket sellers on eBay use to buy their performance and sports tickets for face worth all over the country. I’m about to tell you little-known information that will take you from customer to competitor. In short, I would be in serious trouble If the y found out I has been practically giving away the store.
Think about it this way. If you had a hidden gravy teach that let you purchase tickets for as little as $35 each and then sell them later for 200-300 % profit, wouldn’t you be pretty ticked off if someone told the whole world about it?
And how do I know about this valuable information?
Simple, I’ve been using it to buy and sell performance and sports tickets for everything from WWE wrestling shows to Kenny Chesney to Beck to U2. This proven information has been refined and developed over the years to make people many money. I understand it can do the same thing for you, too.
While this can all sound prefer typical marketing hype, I can assure you it is absolutely true. Concert  promoters, radio stations, fan club s, booster club s, and other groups sponsor ticket presales or special promotions for their members. The sales typically occur Web a few days or weeks before the tickets go on sale to the general public.
The special advance ticket sales are provide ed as either an incentive to join in the case of a fan club or radio station mailing list, or as a perk for a loyal group of audiences prefer season ticket holders of an NFL team.
Passwords may be distributed by the Club, artist, team, fan club,  promoter, radio station, etc. Whoever is sponsoring the presale will handle the distribution of it. During the presale, a portion of tickets is made available to this choose group of people so they can purchase tickets before everyone else has a opportunity. As you can see, this gives them a very big advantage over the general public. Obviously, the group sponsoring the presale only wants members of the intended group to purchase tickets during the presale. So in an endeavor to limit the presale, these special sales are, in essence, password protected.
Back in the day, virtually all presale passwords were a simple word, and everyone who knew this word can purchase tickets. These were thought to be generic passwords.Recently, in an endeavor to further limit who can use presale passwords, some groups have begin to utilize unique passwords. A unique password, as the name implies, is specific to each buyer, and can not be used for multiple purchases. Once the password has been used to purchase tickets, it is no longer valid. Unique passwords are used usually by sports teams for season-ticket holder presales or by fan clubs of the more popular musical groups and artist s. Due to the additional requisites necessary for unique ticket presales, the majority of the passwords you find on the Internet are generic passwords, but you need to be aware of the kind of password you receive.
Generic passwords are decidedly usually used during radio station presales or presales sponsored by performance  promoters or Club s. Traditionally the majority passwords have been generic, but more and more artists are employing unique passwords to thwart ticket scalping. Keep this in mind on your quest for a password. I would hate for you to think the password you scored for your favorite band was generic when in fact it has been unique.Here are a few things to keep in mind.
* Presales are usually sold from a specified block of seats or a certain price level.
* An event can have more than one presale with its own password selling tickets from the same or divergent ticket pools.
* The tickets available during the presale won’t necessarily be the same sections that will be available during the general sale to the public.
* Presales provide the advantage of exclusive buying links which usually determinations in less people competing for the pool of available seats.
* Presales can have limited seating available in numerous areas. Since presales are intended as advance buying opportunities, they don’t always provide access to better seats. In fact, it is possible that better tickets may be available when the tickets go on sale to the general public, but there will additionally be more competition for those tickets.
* Presales usually have stringent purchase limits that restrict purchasers to 4 or fewer tickets each.
* Presales may be restricted to “will call” only.
* Presales can require you to purchase with a certain credit card or other form of payment, ex American Express.
* A presale can require an additional fee to join the performers fan club.
Hopefully I’ve shown you the worth of presale passwords and how they can help you score tickets to your favorite band. With this information, and a little time and endeavor you, prefer me, can skip to the head of the line the next time you want to buy performance tickets.
Stay tuned for part two of this  lead to learn more specific pointers for locating and using presale passwords. Until then, I’ll be seeing you on the “inside!”

Concert  promoters can simply be thought of as major event planners. Every detail of the performance has to go off in the absence of a hitch and that responsibility lies solely with the  promoter. Concert promotion is a demanding career that requires serious attention to detail. In order to be an effective and successful performance  promoter, a high level of organization is necessary. Losing track of necessary contact names, dates, telephone numbers or Club information can prove disastrous.
The world of performance promotions is full of contracts, legal agreements, insurance policies and riders. In order to make the perfect business decisions, a performance  promoter has to have a working knowledge of all of these legal documents. Not understanding parts of a contract or rider can lead to confusion and c hall enging ies down the road.
Concert  promoters can make a very big amount of money, and then, they can lose money as well. Many people don’t realize that quite usually, performance  promoters actually use their own money to fund a performance event. All of the event expenses are his or her responsibility up front. Once the tickets have been sold, the band gets their cut and the bills get paid. It’s only then that the  promoter gets what’s left. For this reason, it is of the ut the majority importance to get as many paying customers in the door as possible.
Some of the major expenses involved with performance promotion are the Club rental and event insurance. The  promoter contacts the Club and works out a fee for the duration of the event. Some Clubs will require up-front payment while others can require a down payment with the remainder due at the end of the performance. Insurance is absolutely necessary and helps to protect the Club owners, performance  promoter and band from possible litigation.
In addition, the performance  promoter bears the fee of all advertising promotions and other marketing expenses.  promoters these days have a variety of options for marketing. They can use the Internet, radio, TV and even flyers to get the word out about their event. Marketing, when done properly, usually takes up a fairly substantial portion of the performance  promoters budget.
A successful performance  promoter understands how to advertise to get the the majority people to buy tickets for the show. They’ve got to have a nice sense of the band that they are promoting as well as their audiences. Whether a performance attracts a very big audiences or a small one depends on how well the event has been  promote d, plain and simple. Concert  promoters really have one objective; to make sure that enough tickets sell to make a profit. Ideally, all the tickets will sell for every night or day the event will run, but that’s not guaranteed.
The location, size and even layout of a Club has to be taken into consideration by the performance  promoter. In order to put on a amazing rock performance, everything has to be just right. Everything must be considered, from band dressing rooms to the house sound system and lighting. Pleasing the band is only part of the story though. The audiences has to be taken care of as well, both inside and outside the Club. Things prefer security, parking and even restroom facilities all fall under the performance  promoters watchful eye.
At some performance s, the performance  promoter will have to pitch in and help in other ways. Concert  promoters are usually responsible for making sure things are ready for the band. This can include  set ting up the stage, doing sound-checks and lighting a deejay ustments. Quite usually it additionally means they’ll have to decorate the Club to suit the performance.
At smaller events, the performance  promoter is usually responsible for collecting tickets or working the merchandise table. At certain types of events, they can even have the task of checking ID’s at the door the day of the event.  promoters are usually additionally responsible for help ing to break down the stage used by the band. Clean-up following the performance can additionally be the  promoters job, depending on the negotiated contract.
Being a concert promoter may be inspiring, rewarding and risky, but it is worth it. Concert  promoters have amazing jobs because they work directly with the artist s. Besides that and the fact that the income may be excellent, remember, they’ve got some of the perfect seats in the house at every show.