I’ve heard a few bands recently complain about the lack of out of town gigs.   All their shows seem to be ‘small’ local gigs and the out of town ones are not only few and far between they are those terrible ‘ticket deals’.  These are the shows where a band has to sell a certain number of tickets or lose money. Well, let’s work backwards to try and solve this issue shall we.

To get gigs in new towns and cities you have to create demand in those areas.  You do that by building up an audience and a fanbase in those locations.  What’s the best way to build up an audience in there?  Well, you need a marketing plan which identifies music media outlets in that area (radio stations, blogs, Facebook groups covering music in that town/city etc).  Once identified you ensure that you target those heavily with your forthcoming music releases and other content (videos etc) creating exposure and awareness for your music in these locations.

In addition, you also need to pay to show your best content on Facebook to people who won’t have heard of you before but who fit your ideal fan demographic (read more about that here). You should do that in all the locations you want to play.  The great thing about Facebook is you can pay to show your stuff to people whose musical interests match your musical output.  You’ll also need to show them good quality gig footage along the way so they can say ‘they seem like a great live band, I must go and watch them’.  Is it all starting to fall into place now?

Building a fanbase isn’t a thing you can do overnight, especially outside of your home town.  It’s about continually and steadily growing and cultivating an audience and developing a relationship with that audience.  Once you’ve done that, then you can start to monetise that audience and get them to your shows.  Most bands and musicians want that NOW but sadly it doesn’t work like that.

So, if you want to get on the road, the formula is this.  Identify your intended locations, identify your target audience, identity your media outlets and get marketing!

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

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