Landing yourself a support slot with an out of town band isn’t easy but it’s a great way of showcasing your music to a whole new audience.  To increase your chances of landing the gig you need to understand how gigs are arranged. The two main possibilities are:

1) By a promoter.  If a gig has ‘STB PROMOTIONS PRESENTS’ somewhere in the promo blurb, poster etc. then a promoter will be the person to approach.  They will have independently hired the venue and booked the band direct.  There is no venue involvement  in terms of how the night is run, though the promoter might rely on the venue’s local knowledge at some point.

Opening up as support act is a great way to find a new audience.

2) By the venue.  Here the venue books the band direct.  The band gets paid either a flat fee or a percentage of the profits at the end of the night.

Sometimes you might have to contact the venue (the box office is normally a goo) to find out exactly who is ‘running the show’.  Once you know who to contact, approach them expressing your interest and give them the following info:

• Your genre/influences (you’ll need to make sure you’re a good match musically).
• Website (so they can get a good overview of your gigs, activity etc.).
• YouTube/Soundcloud links (so they can watch/listen to you in action).
• Social media channels details (to see what sort of an audience you have).
• Press kit/EPK (so they can see what other people have said about you and how you present yourself).

What you will ultimately need you be able to do is show the promoter/venue that you have a reasonable fanbase that you can market the gig to. If you haven’t been overplaying your home town/city too often this hopefully shouldn’t be too much of a difficult task.

Further Reading: How To be A Good Support Act

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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