There’s always a lot of chat from artists about whose responsibility it is to get people to pay to see a gig.  A line that is trotter out quite often is “He’s a promoter…he should promote the gig, it’s not my job, I’m the artist”.

How many bands view promoters.

As an artist I’ve just started a small UK tour.  Here’s how the responsibilities of marketing this tour are shared between the promoter and myself:

Promoter

• Distributes posters and flyers to venue
• Contacts blogs, local newspapers, local radio stations for coverage etc.
• Markets through own social media channels
• Uses paid advertising on Facebook to people aren’t fans of the act
• Uses own mailing list
  

Artist/Band

• Arranged interviews with three BBC Local Radio stations in towns where we are playing
• Uses own mailing list
• Markets through own social media channels
• Uses paid advertising on Facebook to boost posts to fans in the towns where we are playing

I’m not saying this is typical but it gives you an idea of how much as an artist I am involved with marketing my own events.  Marketing, isn’t all the promoter’s responsibility, it’s a partnership and that marketing partnership includes the venue too!  

I think it’s your responsibility as an artist to market the event to your fans, it’s the promoter’s responsibility to market the gig to everyone else. If you as an artist leave it all up to the promoter, you’ll only have yourself to blame if the numbers aren’t great!

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

Twitter:  @60secondmm

Facebook: www.facebook.com/60secondmusicmarketing