My band are playing a regional theatre next week, finishing a short Summer tour.  The week after this same venue is hosting another show featuring several Britain’s Got Talent finalists.  How is my show comparing in sales with these TV show finalists?

It’s fair to say that there’s quite a difference and my outfit have sold way more tickets.

How can a small DIY outfit like ourselves with virtually zero national exposure have greater sales than a collection of entertainers who have had masses of exposure on one of the UK’s  most watched television shows?

Well, I think this helps to illustrate that the huge audience and goodwill of these talent shows don’t always transfer to the contestants once the show has finished. The shows are a ‘brand’ and people have an affinity for the brand more so than the individual contestants. Once the show is finished, the acts fall off the public’s radar. Who needs the old bunch!

‘Exposure’ in and of itself isn’t always enough. It’s nice to get exposure but successfully leveraging it if difficult, especially when you have no control over the platform the exposure is on.

What matters for DIY artists is to take time to build an audience and whilst doing so build a meaningful relationship with that audience. Yes, it takes more time and a LOT more effort but as you can see with the direct comparison of sales it can work out a whole lot better!

We’ll be talking about building relationships in this weeks 30 Minute Music Marketing episode.

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

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