How to lose money at a gig: a recap on the Gigdoggy Showcase!

Ok so as some of you may know, we hosted our first Gigdoggy Showcase on Saturday 18th at the Club Lambi in Montreal. I am now going to take the opportunity to do a little recap on the event, how we organized and how it played out.

The context of our Showcase

Before launching our Fanteraction™ platform (which by the way still hasn’t officially launched – we will open it on May first so stay tuned for Friday’s post on the matter), we were working on a gig management platform to help gig-swapping bands coordinate their efforts to set up their shows. This project is on hiatus for now, meaning we have stopped developing it, but you can still set-up an account at www.gigdoggy.com/gigs and use its existing features.

Anyways, the whole idea of the Gigdoggy Showcase originated with this gig-swapping website as we planned to use it to organize the event. It did help a lot as many logistical tasks were discussed and centralized within our showcase profile.

Once we decided to shift our focus on the Fanteraction™ service, we just took advantage of the gig to promote our up-and-coming idea and to deliver a party full of sonic delights.

Finding the bands

Well that wasn’t that hard actually. We found one band through this blog, 2 bands from Montreal via personal acquaintances, and the three other bands through Craigslist. For Craigslist we just posted an add in Montreal saying we were looking for gigs, and in the days to come we had filled our bill.

Finding the Venue

We needed a nice room to rent that could contain more or less 150 to 200 people. We found Club Lambi via one of the bands on the bill, The Angry Parrots that had already played there before. The venue was $350 for the night, for three bands, and $25 for any extra band (sound engineer fees). So basically we were preparing to cash-out $425 just for the room.

Organizing the logistics of the gig

By logistics I’m referring to promotion, pre-sale tickets, handling compensation between bands, setting up the technical rider for the sound-guy, selling merchandise and employing a DJ and some VJs.

Pre-sale tickets:

As mentioned above, we used our gig management platform to deal with some logistical tasks. Everything that deals with tickets sales and ticket pricing is in our showcase profile (http://www.gigdoggy.com/gigs/paisible-2009-02-04-03-52-07 – click on “12 comments” on the top right side of the “Ticket/Presale” section to expand the conversations).

Compensation:

Well we decided to divide everything evenly between bands at the end of the gig. Not much else to add here.

Promotion:

Offline promo:

• We depended a lot on word to mouth to get people attending. We didn’t do the offline flyer routine at all, and I just put up 20 posters near the venue to grab people’s attention, but apart from that, with six bands on the bill we were pretty confident we would have a good turnout.
• We wrote two press releases (one in English and one in French) and sent them out to major media listings. Don’t think it bared much fruit but we did get featured in some concert listings online and offline. You can download the english press release here.
• Thanks to a close friend who had a contact at CBC news, Greg got interviewed in front of the Club Lambi, and the clip was broadcasted on the CBC channel right before the 7pm news. Check out the clip here.

Online promo:

• We made a facebook event just to get the word out, and used it to have an overall idea of who was attending.
• I also wrote a post on the gig on this blog and promoted it via Craigslist.
• We subscribed to a very cool site called ArtistData that automatically updates a band’s gig schedule on all major social networks and calendars.
• Geoff Marshall from the Angry Parrots produced a great video gig flyer for us that we promoted via Facebook ads with a CPM model. We made it run for three days at $20/day (you choose your model and the your threshold price). We got something like 400 000 impressions for a total of 100 click-throughs. Don’t think it’s really worth the money :)
• We also used twitter to get a couple of people to attend.

So all in all, I would say that probably 95% of the people who came were close friends and relatives of the bands that played, and I’m leaving 5% out just to pretend that most of our efforts maybe helped out. The turnout was around 120 people at the peak of the event and felt a little disappointing. Also I would like to add that on that particular night, the frigin’ Montreal Habs were playing and most certainly contributed to a few dozen people not coming. Plus Boston totally owned them that night…

Technical Rider

Now this was a tough one. Having six bands on the bill obviously doesn’t help. All of it was done via email and an excel sheet that you can download here. One thing I thought of doing on the day of the gig was printing the tech rider for the sound guy just in case (I had only sent it by e-mial beforehand), so I had to re-arrange the spreadsheet in order for it to be displayed nicely on A4 sized pages. This may seem like a detail, but its an important one. Only 15 minutes before sound-check had I realized that my beautiful color-noted tech rider was dismantled into twice as many A4 sheets ’cause of this printing issue. In Excel you can of course set your borders as you wish for printing, but for the sake of the sound-guy it’s best to give him something nice with clean normal-sized font letters.

Selling Merchandise

Before the gig we had set up a big table with all the merch right by the main entrance. Most bands had merchandise, and most of the merchandise were comprised of t-shirst. I don’t think the bands did to well on that front, at least we didn’t although we had a pretty cool design. So yeah, we lost money on with the shirts and we’ve decided to blame the recession.

The DJ and The VJs

We thought that having a DJ perform during downtimes we keep the party going and it did. We got very lucky with the VJs as they accepted to come over the day of the gig! That was cool: they set up their projectors and white panels around the stage and did their thing all night long. It truly added a nice atmosphere to every set.

Conclusions

Well on the party side of thing, the night was a success and everybody seemed to really like the ambiance as well as the bands. Me and Greg spent the whole day more or less managing stuff so it wasn’t really a night out for us, but still we had a blast. Now on the budget side we were in the red. All bands got paid $85 (including us), so if you only consider the venue cost, which originally was $425 but got priced down to $300, we were already loosin’ money. Add to that the cost for the t-shirst ($200), pre-sale tickets ($12), DJ ($40) and VJs ($40) and you realise we are indeed newbies in event organization.

But hey, we weren’t in it for the money and this was our first gig. Take away the Habs game, two bands on the bill (six is a lot…) and level to entry price to 10 buck and we might have broken even. Maybe by selling more shirts we could’ve of made a profit. And besisdes, for a six-band bill, all bands were pretty satisfied with their $85 (although one very big hassle was to know who sold how many pre-sales – this is certainly something we’ll keep in mind for our future shows).

So there you have it. If you have any questions on how to lose money at gigs, give us a hollar. And if you got any suggestions on how to become profitable, please let us know.

A warm mruff to all the bands present at the gig and to all our readers.

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Why bands should consider playing house concerts

Why house concerts?

Playing bars, pubs and clubs isn’t the only way to host a live show. You don’t always have to cope with the usual business aspects of booking a gig in some rut negotiating with a ill-tempered club owner paying you peanuts (kind of extreme, but you get my drift). There are alternatives, and one of them is performing a concert in the comfort of somebody’s home (or your own by that matter).

There are very interesting advantages to trying this out:

• You usually get to plan it how you want.
• Most house venues demand donations ranging from $5 to $20. In many cases the people hosting the show leave %100 of all proceeds to the musicians. Let’s do some quick math: $15 donation/entrance fee with 40 people attending will net you an easy $600 for the night, merchandise not included.
• The people hosting these shows are PASSIONATE about music, so most will leave you all the earnings, plus throw in a free cooked meal and possibly a place to stay for the night.
• These concerts engage the artist and their audience in a level of intimacy that’s incomparable with a traditional venue. This can lead to healthier fan relationships and of course (sorry to always lay down the cash concerns) better merchandise sales.

A couple of websites so you get the idea:

This one site called Concerts In Your Home is a resource/community for artists and hosts. Hosts can search more than 500 artists on the site, and artists can search detailed profiles of more than 200 house concert presenters in the US, Canada, UK, even Australia and New Zealand. Most performers play blues, folk and acoustic styles, so nothing too extreme. Anyways most places don’t have a PA so musicians prepare acoustic sets.

In the same vein we also have HouseConcerts.com. Here the model is a bit different as this site proposes a listing of people who offer their homes to host shows.

For Canadian house concerts you can also  check out www.acousticroof.ca.

There is also houseconcertsyork.co.uk who conduct these events around York, UK.

Besides ‘Concerts In Your Home’, most sites are pretty local and isolated, but by surfing through the web you’ll find tons of them. The house concert movement is definitely stirring.

A couple of quotes so you get an even better idea:

I’ll leave you to some quotes I gathered talking with some house-concert-aspiring-ministrels:

I haven’t done that many house concerts but the ones that I have done have been some of my favorite shows. I generally feel that I’m “at home” and playing for friends. Pay is generally as good or better than small venues. Success level, attendance wise, seems to relate to the host’s knowledge of his or her environment and enthusiasm in promotion. I absolutely love playing house concerts and I’m very grateful for the trend.
Ronny Elliot – www.ronnyelliott.com

I think they are awesome and a lot of times way better than a club gig. People are actually there to hear you which is not always the case in most clubs. Each house concert is run differently, but for the most part, it seems typical that they charge anywhere from $5 to $20 at the door and a lot of times give the artist %100. Some take a percentage, it just depends. Artists also get to sell merch in an intimate environment, compared to a club where that is nearly impossible. I love these gigs and wouldn’t mind supplementing them for clubs gigs altogether (ok, maybe not completely: most home concert throwers have their own guest list, so I could not omit clubs altogether or else a lot of fans would miss out on live shows!)
Rachel McGoye – www.rachelmcgoye.com

I’m finding myself playing more and more house concerts, though I have not given up on live-music in public settings. The appeal is pretty straightforward, provided the host and audience understand the
casual-but-professional dynamic (or are at least willing to follow): low overhead (save, of course, the benevolence and spirit of the host!) and thus much better pay (even 10 people at $10/head makes for a better night than many places’ll guarantee!); great environment in which to connect and interact (vs. noisy pubs, for instance); not nearly so lonely if attendance is light or I’m not as known in a particular community; etc. Word is out, though, so presenters are becoming bombarded just like everyone else in the community.
Wes Weddell – www.myspace.com/wesweddell

And to conclude, here is an extract of ‘The Complete Guide To House Concerts‘ Kevin Kelly (author of the renowned ‘1000 True Fans‘ manifesto) promotes on his website:

At the end of every house concert, at least one person will approach you because they want to set-up a concert with you at their house. And once people find out the Suzie is going to host one, many more will want to show you off to their friends and family too. Before the night is through you will be in the lovely position of adding several names and numbers to your house-concert file and following up with them to book a firm date for each show.
When you play bars or cafes, it is frequently a struggle even getting the booker on the phone. With house concerts you are constantly juggling plenty of gig offers, which come with guarantee money, a guarantee audience, and a minimum of hassles. What could be better?

Apparently there is a booming market for these shows, so if your set can be performed acoustically it seems pretty worth while to give them a shot.

We’ll be posting other quotes on this subject shortly, so stay mruffed.

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Gig revenue and schedule strategies with “Ain’t Yo Mama” (part 2)

This is the second part of our chat with John Wilder, Ain’t Yo Mama‘s guitarist (the first part is here). Here he explains how his band makes money with gigs, as well as the type of scheduling they put in place to optimize their earnings.

How they deal with gig-revenue and merchandise sales:

What does the above net me a night? In our area if I do all this and follow through, I can usually draw 250-300 people.

• When we handle the door we charge $7.50 a head, that’s $1875-$2250 a night.
• Some clubs give us all the door, some I have to give up to $300 to get the venue, but if I go back usually I get it free the second time.
• I’m spending around $300 on ads, swag to the girls.
• I don’t account for all the running around I do.
• And don’t forget merchandise. You need a full complement of stuff to sell people. #1 is a cd. Even a cd of covers is worth $5. T-shirts, we have sunglasses, beer huggies, lanyards with backstage pass on them. I’m currently trying to find some guitar pics with our name on them.
• You need stuff starting at $1-$2, all the way up to t-shirts for $15-20, I found these cheap tote bags that we stuff with a bunch of stuff for $30, and yes people will spend the money. Last Saturday we played a wrestling event and sold $660 worth of swag. Get some kind of merch to sell. At our gigs we gross $400-800 in swag sells.

As you can see our band can gross around $3000 a night in places where you might get $300. It’s all in how you handle it.

How they manage their gig schedule:

Another thing is we don’t want to play an area more than one time in a 3 month period. If you play the same place over and over you just become a house band making $60 a member a night. Currently we are working a 4 city area and looking to expand. I’m only scheduling club gigs every 3 weeks, but the band winds up making more in one of these gigs than we would playing 3-4 gigs a month the traditional way.

Concluding words of wisdom:

Remember this is a business, to be successful you must treat it that way. Most people are so protective of their music, like its so special, well Im here to tell you its not. There’s thousands of other bands playing almost the exact same thing that you are. Just start thinking about what you can do to stand out. Don’t take the rejections personal, just move on to the next thing. And DON’T, I REPEAT, DON’T BURN ANY BRIDGES, the people you cuss out over not booking you or listening to your music may pop up again and again in the position to help you. Bite your tongue and go cuss a tree or something, and never badmouth anyone in the business just mention oh yeah hes a great guy even if he is a jerk. He could be hiring you in the future. I know most of these things from mistakes Ive made through the years.

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Gig promotion strategies with “Ain’t Yo Mama” (part 1)

Had a little chat John Wilder, guitarist of Ain’t Yo Mama, on his band’s gig-promotion strategies. This is how they do it.

How they deal with concert promotion:

I approach club owners different than most people. I’m not looking for a gig for a hundred bucks in their club. I’m looking for a venue to hold a show in. Most of the time I get the venues for the door. Some resist and I have to eat crow.

1. The first thing I do after getting a date at a venue is come there one Saturday night between 11pm and 1am and see who the party girls are. I get to know them and give them a couple of t-shirts, some stickers, and a cd. I tell them to wear the t-shirts to all the clubs they hang in particularly the venue we are playing in. I go in the men’s restroom and put stickers above all the urinals, and instruct the girls to do the same in the woman’s, and also to put them in any restroom they happen to go to.

2. weeks before the show I go visit the local newspaper and inquire about running some adds for the gig. Then I ask for a free story or writeup in the paper, if you buy a couple of adds they will do whatever you want and papers need special interest stories to fill space.

3. We make up large posters for the show and place them in Wal-Marts, grocery stores, high traffic mall areas and if we can get away with it around other clubs or venues.

4. We are developing an email list, and  everyone I see or meet I mention it to them.

5. I also call the local chamber of commerce office and inform them of what is going on.

6. The weekend before the show I take piles of flyers to my party-girls and have them plaster them on cars that are in the parking lots between 12-1am, I figure this is the peoples cars I need to get at.

You have to take a shotgun approach to getting people. If you are just starting you can count on friends, but over time no matter how good you are they will get tired of going to the shows. I catch a lot of flack about being a sexist on here, but I give 90% of my personal attention to the females to get the word out. Why cause if you can get the hot girls the guys will follow, did everyone read that? Bring the women and the men will follow.

I’m working on a bigger show for later this fall where we will start using radio ads, also I have some friends that own a furniture business that may, and Im keeping my fingers crossed, they may sponsor us and pay for advertising and provide us with a TV or Appliance to give away at the shows. In my case the Band is called Aint Yo Mama, before the last set we are having the AYM “HOT MAMA” contest, we pick 5 of the best looking women in the house get them on stage and judge them by crowd response with our soundman’s db meter. The winner would then draw a ticket out of the bucket for door prizes like the TV or appliance.

If you are in the music business somehow you have to separate yourselves from the pack. It doesn’t matter how good you music is or isn’t, what matters is getting attention to your band.

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Discrevolt: How bands can promote their digital sales with download cards

In one of our merchandise topics, we had suggested that distributing songs in a digital format at shows could have some potential but the process was most likely hazardous since you would need a laptop handy and ask your fans to bring USB sticks. The idea is far-fetched but one company found the solution to spin it in the right direction.

Discrevolt is an online music store that offers a very cool distribution method for bands who want to level the field for their digital sales. They manufacture unique download cards that bands can sell at their shows, or simply give away for promotional purposes. This makes sense in the current state of affairs as CDs aren’t as viable these days. Digital music formats are making major head-way sales-wise but due to their intangible nature the product is not easily promotable in the offline world. These cards sort of make up for that as they are customizable. Bands can create and submit their own designs and have them printed. This encourages a new form of collectible items fans can relate to. When bands meet and greet with their fans after the show they could hand away these cards creating healthy post-gig buzz.

I find this to be a great solution bands should consider. Mp3s are rising very high but CDs are not dead and vinyls are still in the loop. People need to see and feel their product so cutting the cake in two gives you download cards. They very well may become the next big thing

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What type of merchandise should bands sell at gigs?

Disclaimer:
Before we start off on this article, we’d just like to point out that gigdoggy is not as of yet playing gigs and selling tons of merchandise, so any knowledge we are passing on here comes directly from other bands who were gracious enough to share their insight with us (and from our experience as concert-goers who have dropped many-a-10$ on t-shirts and CDs in the past).
Also, we know that a lot of musicians don’t care about making money from their art, and more power to them.  As we see it, merchandising is something that bands that ARE trying to make living from their music should consider, and the following article offers a few ideas that we think would work.
We’d love any comments or feedback that would let us know if we’re on the right track!

In our last article we had fun thinking of ways to market your merchandise to your audience, now we’ll look at what you can sell them once you’ve got them to your merchandise booth.

What can bands sell at shows?

As a consumer and as a fan, I buy merchandise at a show for 2 reasons:

1. The item is original, useful and/or trendy.
2. I am feeling impulsive, and buy the item for it’s souvenir value, even though it may be overpriced.

Concentrate on the impulse buy and try marketing what your audience will relate to.

Let’s assume the band is good…
Merchandise is simple. Make designs (or products) that cater to the bands demographic. Also, if the band isn’t famous the design should be first, rather than the name. People will buy a cool cheap shirt, even if the band is average. Keep them under $15.
Kevin – www.myspace.com/kevinjardine

This applies not only to t-shirts but to everything your demographic might have an interest in. For example if you’re a reggae band you can sell hash pipes. If you’re a classic rock band, try selling zippos . If you’re a heavy metal band look into ash trays with little skulls. Anything your demographic likes having you can try selling.

Design is essential. The poster that you are selling should be able to sell in a store to someone even if they had never even heard of you – and if that means the name of your band isn’t even recognizable, then be it. As long as someone wants to hang it on their wall, that’s what counts. Same applies for shirts.

A problem with t-shirts is you really want people to wear them, and lots of times the gals got shirts for free. You’ve just got to hold the line and not give too much away.T-shirts can be made for around 6$, I think you could charge 20$ for a nice one, also that’s a nice round number for change. We did a outdoor festival and sold 50 of em one time, most gigs you could count on selling 5-10, so it could be an extra 60-200 dollars a show if handled right. We had a merchandise table just like the big shows and we usually hung a couple of shirts over the pa speakers and mentioned them all night long. Local shows cds sell for 10$.
We plan on using our first few gigs money to build some inventory of things to sell. I think the more things you have the better, anything from a dollar for a bumper sticker up to 50$ for some sort of tour jacket. You want something for everyone to buy. We have a sound guy who we may cut in on the profits to entice him to sell stuff and to leave the mix alone.
Like I said just watch the giveaways cause they will kill you on profits, and everyone is your biggest fan when they want merch.
Jw 123 www.bandmix/jw123

Since a lot of fans are musicians themselves, instrument-related merchandise is a sure bet. Knowing that half of the attending people will be guitarists, you could probably sell guitar-picks in addition to giving them away. I buy picks every time I get the chance, especially if they have a cool design (they make me play better a whole lot better). www.intunegp.com sells a bundle of 144 custom picks for only $40. That $0.27 per pick. Very cheap. Sell them at $1 and your making almost a %400 profit. Taking this guitarist idea a bit further, you could team up with an artist that does embroidery and sell guitar straps. Buy a strap and get a pick for free. Better yet, sell a songbook with the chords and lyrics to your songs. The process is time consuming but do it once and you’re set. I’m sure those guitarist fans would respond positively to such a product. I know I would.

Partnering with one or more local artists who create art that is pertinent to your audience (for example, graffiti-type prints if you’re a DJ, watercolor paintings for a more mature crowd etc) could be a good way to “mashup” art-forms and generate sales. See it as outsourcing your business and split the revenues. 

Let’s not forget the music

However you make ends meet, whats important is getting your music through to the people. Display the album of course, but don’t forget one or two sets of singles (considering they bought a ticket to see you play plus a couple of drinks, fans will prefer spending $4 on your 3 best songs then $12 for the whole album). Why not sell one or two songs with all separate tracks so your audio savvy fans can have fun remixing your tunes?

Merchandise links

By googling you can find everything you need (we went ahead and did that), and to save you some time here are a couple of links you can look into:

• weneedmerch.com: Custom t-shirts

• bandwear.com: t-shirts, posters, business cards, buttons

• curlyandspike.com. Good screen-printing prices here – check them out

• shirtsforbands.com: Custom merch with a cool editor.

• StickerGuy.com: Specialized in sticker printing. More or less $25 for 250 stickers (2.75″ x 2.75″)

• BusyBeaver.net: Great place to order buttons and pins. 100 colored pins for $100.

• Intunegp.com: As cited above, this online site specializes in production of guitar picks.

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How bands can market their merchandise at live shows

Selling merchandise: are bands barking up the wrong tree?

For bands that don’t have a steady fan-base, selling merchandise at gigs may seem presumptuous.”Who the hell wants to buy a t-shirt with the name of some random band that they’ve heard for the first time” is probably the reasoning that leads most bands to keep pushing off this activity. Add to that all the logistics (the cost of production, shipping and handling) and bands will wait until they “get bigger”. So are unestablished bands right to not jump head-first in the water? If they focus on portraying their name and logo above all they are. Fans are a picky (and often poor) crowd, but they WILL buy products that for some reason (either aesthetic or emotional) strike a chord in them – and that’s what indie bands should try to capitalize on. Focus on selling products that people will genuinely want, regardless of whether they are fans of your music or not.

Ways to present your merchandise

At the risk of sounding overly capitalistic, the goal here is to make money, and you shouldn’t be afraid to dissociate the products you are selling from your music – view the gig as an opportunity for you to make a sales-pitch to dozens of potential customers.

One way to do this without sounding desperate or like a salesperson is to present your merchandising efforts as a fund-raising activity, whether it be to record an album, go on tour, or pay for your doggie’s veterinary bill. People are more willing to spend money on a specific cause than on the band’s beer money, and will probably relate to your poor-musicians-that-need-to-make-some-extra-cash-to-pay-for-studio-time situation.

A good way to get people interested in your merchandise is to follow this band’s advice:

One of the best things we have done is to get one of our band mates hot girlfriends to work the merch table. Semi-buzzed guys can’t seem to say no to a babe asking him to buy a t-shirt. We also send that hottie out to get names on our mailing list…that stuff works great. If you don’t have a band mate with a killer looking girlfriend work it hard yourself. Be relentless and disciplined in working the mailing list. Make sure after every set either you or one of your band mates cruises around the club saying hi, talking to the patrons and asking them to sign the mailing list. While you are doing that, you tell the patrons to check out your merch table on the way out cause you have some really nice t-shirt designs and your CD is there as well. Make sure at least one of your band mates is parked at that Merch table. Merch is vital but that mailing list is key. I would say that 30 names on a mailing list is better than a $10 t-shirt because of the law of large numbers. Right now, we are averaging a consistent showing of about 5% of our mailing list at any given show. If I can make that a solid 5% of 20,000 names as opposed to 2,000 names, we win. We win because we can play in about any room we wish and it is there we get to sell more merch. So, sell your merch but more importantly sell yourself and your live show.
Cool Days End – www.myspace.com/CoolDaysEnd

Give them an incentive to visit the merchandise booth in the first place: have a hot charismatic bitch (calm down there, we’re doggies remember ?:) manning the booth, give out some guitar-picks with your logo on them, or set up a laptop and tell people with USB sticks to come and get MP3 versions of your songs for free. While they’re uploading your music they can check out the merch. Also, set up a few of the posters that you are selling around the venue, with an indication that they could be purchased at the merchandise booth – if they look cool, this will certainly attract people.

Sales at merchandise tables are an impulse buy, so the answer lies within this question:”What could make someone impulsive enough to buy merchandise at a show?“
A few factors come into play here:
1. Know your audience.
Does your audience spend money? Do they pay your cover charge and do they spend money at the bar?
This is important. If your guest list at each show contains more names than the phone book, you’re in trouble. By constantly guest-listing folks, they are going to expect freebies from you at every turn. Once you’ve established that your price is ZERO DOLLARS, you are never going to be able to raise your prices. Who would pay for something that they are getting for free?
2. Give your audience a reason to buy your merch.
To be blunt, be a good band. Write good songs. Play in tune. Sing in key. Have a drummer that plays for the song and not his own ego. This applies equally to guitar players, bassists, keyboard players….everyone in the band. Don’t be drunk or stoned when you play live. Practice, practice, practice and be tight when you play live. Make your audience want to buy your merchandise. Arcade Fire is a great example of this; hard work and good songs will sell your merch for you.
3. Be gracious with your fans. If they buy merch, they like you. Don’t disappoint them by acting like a douchebag rockstar simply because you’ve just played a show. Anybody can get a show. Thank them for their patronage and be genuine.Tim Van Den Ven – www.timvandeven.com

Of course none of this will bring in any money if the products you are selling are not hot.
Don’t forget that most items bought at shows are impulse purchases, and the more original, useful and/or trendy your item, the more fans will be willing to buy it and justify it through its souvenir value.
In our next post on merchandising we will suggest what to sell at shows.

Woof to the Mruff !

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Why bands could consider sponsorships with brands

Branding of the Bands

We previously posted a topic on why bands should consider music licensing as an alternative revenue model – here’s taking it a step further. Brands are starting to open up their doors to independent acts. We already had top shot mega stars in bed with brands (think Michael Jackson/Pepsi venture, 50 Cent and Jay-Z in a footwear deal with Reebok and even Axl Rose’s deal with Dr. Pepper for the release of his album ‘Chinese Democracy’ that has been in development for the last 17 years). What we are now seeing are lesser known artist hopping on the band-wagon. For instance, Apple, which had previously used U2 and Feist for iPod commercials, now chose a young unconsolidated singer Yael Naim for the release of their MacBook air commercial. In the experimental dance community, Groove Armada have just settled with Bacardi. The marketing deal encompasses recordings, touring and audiovisual content. A Barcardi representative cites:

“Essentially we are taking over the role of a record label, producing the music, promoting new music, and the artist is playing at our events.”

Brands thus can represent a good alternative to traditional record labels: they got money and they’re promotion gurus. Of course the branding will have to stay subtle enough so that the band’s image stays intact. Not many bands would agree to have a big Coca Cola sticker right on the bass drum, but hopefully brands won’t head that way. Here is an interesting article on the subject where a member of an indie bands muses:

“It’s as if we’ve suddenly become aware of the truth behind the smoke and mirrors of the record deal. Most artists now understand how the business works and who their fans are. That is always going to be valuable to a brand. It’s certainly a freer, more equal relationship. Record companies have to own everything, because their whole model is based on selling records – ‘Is it a hit, will it make us our money back?’ If brands do nothing other than free musicians from the tyranny of needing a radio-friendly smash to have a career, it has to be a positive.”

Brand your band !!

Also, consider literally branding your band. All bands do this to some extent but not all see it as something crucial for their commercial success. I mean making a good quality logo, putting up decent posters, gig swapping with appropriate bands, handing out not only flyers but business cards, perfecting your personal live sound. Everything you do to make your band go a step forward should help people remember you and you only. Branding is the art of association and the more things your fans associate you with what they relate to, the better. That’s why selling merchandise is so important. A t-shirt bought at a concert doesn’t only stand for something to wear with a cool design, more importantly it represents a souvenir, an impalpable sensation of a past well being that you made possible. Merch shouldn’t only be for the money and the promotion; it should help your fans identify their everyday lives with your music (when using or wearing your merchandise that is).

Here’s what Clif, who hosts the cool critical music blog Music in 2d has to say:

“The one thing that artists who hope to make any money via the web need to realize right now is that the people who will profit in this industry are those that monetize the attention that the artist generates. Companies desperately want to reach the people you reach. And the more people you can reach consistently, whether they buy your music or not, the more valuable you become. Whether that means revenue sharing, sponsorship, etc – or perhaps it enables you to sell something else – is up to the artist to decide.”

Mruff!

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What bands have to say about the music industry

Check out these insights on what it’s like to be a musician trying to make a living out of one’s art. These are for the most part not “major” artists (yet), but probably at a level most of us dream of being, which is that of paying your bills with music.
As one band quite honestly puts it:

“You can’t keep making records if you’re not making any money.You’re trying to feed yourself at the end of the day. I’d love to do it just for the love, but you’re getting older and you gotta make ends meet. I’m not gonna lie and say that record sales don’t mean anything – if you’re selling lots of records, you’re charting; if you’re charting, you’re played on the radio. if radios are playing you, you’re selling more records.”

What’s interesting is to see how this traditional model, based around radio air-play and record sales and being displaced by music 2.0, is viewed by the bands being interviewed.
Illegal downloading is mentioned quite a bit, but not only in the negative way one would expect from a band – the exposure it gives the groups internationally is something that potentially outweighs the adverse effect of not selling CDs, and most bands recognize that.
Adapting to change shouldn’t be as hard for the bands as it is for the record companies – all the new services available to musicians on the internet are giving them the chance to distance themselves from the pill offered by A&R scouts.

And let’s face it. Bands are making more money off merchandise, licensing and touring than by selling CDs through a traditional record label. Check out Dick Dale if you don’t believe me. As for selling the music, the 16-year olds that discovered Napster are now 25 year-olds with disposable income that are still only a click away from any song they want, but this time on iTunes.
Good stuff.

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How some bands make money off their music (1)

“Do we live off of our band? Well, not entirely we still have jobs but were working towards it. Best business model…well there is no silver bullet. It takes money to make money and it takes a bit of success to get free money. Obviously a record company ideally would provide you a front for cash but if you guys can get a good enough recording out to get played on commercial radio you might be surprised as to what you can get in terms of a government grants and loans. I Know the province of Quebec puts a lot of money into the arts so go to the provincial web page and see what they have to offer. Apply as often as you can. Money is a bitch and until you establish yourself you will always be burdened by it. Try to play shows with other good bands so that you can make cash off the door which hopefully means merch sales. If you don’t have a following then get creative…poster the free ways or high traffic/traffic jam areas. Its hard work so you cant be scared, just get out there! Posters! posters! Posters. Play shows but dont play too many our you’ll saturate your market. I cant say which model is best. No two bands go about getting a record deal the same way, other than working hard…really hard. It usually takes a band 10 years to full understand what to do. Once you guys get rolling and are touring within your province and nationally you should seriously consider “incorporating” your band into a business. Once your rolling tour wise I would focus on finding out who the “booking agents” are cause thats who can make your exposure to new audience climb drastically (there are pros and cons to that, mainly in the form of tax breaks but remember you will have to pay taxes). Remember that if you guy want private investors (record companies, booking agents you have to show them first that you are willing to invest in your self…good disc, tour often and build a fan base. I’m not sure exactly where you boys are at with the band but if your not touring and bringing in crowds don’t worry about too much, just work towards it. Don’t over shoot or you will be disappointed”.
(Texas Blood Money - www.myspace.com/texasbloodmoney)

“I’ve found it pretty hard to quit my day job when I first started. With all the money you need to invest in recording, producing, duplicating CDs, and getting merch together, it turns out to be a huge amount of money you need. So, unless you have an investor, you’ve gotta work. However, I’ve made some decent money from playing shows when I can. If you declare it as a business with the IRS, you’d be amazed at the things you can write off for your craft. Instruments, strings, fuel costs, classes, you name it. Merch sales definitely help a band that’s out on the road. Sometimes you can double or even triple what you make from the door on merch sales alone. It’s also very important to get your merch out in your home market. T-shirts and bumper stickers add a lot of buzz when they’re seen in a certain area over and over”.
(Mogote (Brain Probus) – www.myspace.com/mogote)

“I definitely think most of a bands revenue comes from playing gigs. the merchandise sales at the gigs usually helps get that extra gas and meal money, especially if your’re on tour.
Even the bigger signed acts don’t make that much from record sales. By the time everyone has gotten their piece of the pie there’s little left for the band. I think most of the focus should be on getting good paying gigs”.
(Dany Santos - www.myspace.com/santosdrums)

“The most consistent form of making money is the shows. We have made a deal with our promoter, after selling 20 tickets at $10 a piece we get the rest of the ticket sales. this is a great deal because at the end of the day it is up to you on how much money you really make by the effort you made to sell tickets and get people to come to your show. We’ve also booked venues before and even though it may be more expensive (sometimes less) all the profit is yours…you get to pick your set times and for how long. we are just getting to purchasing merch. Our goal with that is to make somewhat of a profit with it, most importantly to break even and still sell our products at a reasonable price. Hopefully an EP on the way and that should rake in some cash”.
(The Svens - www.myspace.com/thesvens)

“It all depends on what stage of your career you are at. There are a lot of “Indie” bands out there that rake in more cash from album sales than some signed artists to a major label (although the vast majority of indie labels are owned by the majors!).But let’s look at the initial stages of an Indie bands’ career.Record sales at gigs can increase the bands’ income by up to 70% depending on the venue.Don’t ever forget that CD’s are a souvenir at gigs and the listener can play your music any time they like and remember who you are, as well as show their friends what a great band you are.Also the CD cover can hold a lot of information,like contact numbers, website addresses etc, a lot more information than say a T shirt could offer.The band would have to have quite a solid position in the market to justify merchandise being bought. Would you wear a T shirt with a name or brand that you hardly know? At the initial stage of a bands’ career, the secret is to get the name out and always keep in touch with the fan base to make that baby grow. Once that has been consolidated, the sales end for merchandise will be in the bag”.
(Annonymous)

“Have Good Merch (and lots of it). It can be a night maker, or at least fill the van up with gas so you can get to the next gig”.
(Chris – www.bandmix.com/chris2203)

“Festival circuit, sell your products. Forget bars”.
(Irminsul - www.irminsul.biz)

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