need a plan!

[stuckatwork]

Hey everyone,
I'm in a band up in Seattle and I'm completely stumped on comming up with a plan to build a fanbase. We're a fairly new band palyed about 10 shows, just finishing up our CD but when we finally get it finished we've got no one to sell too. We've been playing to empty houses and can't for the life of us get people to come out to shows. I can't tell you that we're the greatest band on the planet and deserve a ton of fans but we certainly don't suck. Every club owner and sound guy goes out of their way to make sure they get in contact with us and and the last guy who ran sound came to our show the next night and has been raving about us. Anyway, blah blah blah, the point is seattle is a big city with a 1000 bands and as far as I can tell a really shitty music scene. I was wondering if anyone had any idea what kind of plan we need to put in effect to start building a fan base. Our original plan was to simi-bypass the local scene completely and try and hire a management company to book us on tour. We've been in contact with one such co. but so far it's sort of fell through due to problems with the manager's current tour. As far as I can tell after many many hours of searching, there are only 3 other artist management companies in seattle that handle rock bands. One guy is a complete asshole and the other is a bitch that's screwed me and friends over in more then one occasion with other bands. I'm thinking now we need to try and hook up with a good established band but the people I've been in contact are all trying hard not to book in seattle(see shitty music scene comment) and we're not ready to travel right off the bat. There are good bands that play in Seattle, just not many and I don't know how to get in contact with them. Does anyone else have any ideas on what we can do? I'm stumped! How do we get the ball rolling?

Thanks,
Jon
www.thevacants.com

[zer0sig]

are there websites or anything like that dedicated to area music? my guess is, for seattle, there probably are. i know on the local site here i hang out on, posts pop all the time for bands who need someone to fill a slot. that would be a great start. also, find bands you might work well with that are touring, contact the club that is having them, send recorded material/promo stuff/whatever, and promote yourselves like hell to get on the bill (maybe having sound guys as references would help here)-you need to talk to the clubs, and finding local sites that bands hang out on would help secure shows with better-drawing locals. that's about all the input i have for now. also, feel free to register yourself with most of the online music sites, just for the hell of it-most don't have noncompetitive contracts, and will work with you for free, taking a little off the top if they make any money.

[donkeystyle]

post stardom depression is very awesome.......i don't know how big they are, but they are definitely established......and they had a record contract w/interscope at one time, so they might be a good band to try to gig with.........i think that's probably the best idea.......find bands that are similar to u that play shows that actually have people at them..........

also u can play in the tri-cities......u know kennewick, richland, pasco...............the only venue u could play at is atomic city records their website is www.atomiccityrecords.com

also i may be setting up a show or 2 in the near future ......i helped out w/one in october, but lost money so i've been kind of reluctant to do it again.......also, you probably haven't heard of them, but senate arcade are also a really good band

both bands i mentioned are from seattle.

[David Hooper]

Originally posted by stuckatwork
Hey everyone,
I'm in a band up in Seattle and I'm completely stumped on comming up with a plan to build a fanbase.

Try www.musicbizbooks.com for a lot of helpful resources.

[TexRoadkill]

Find some similar bands that are doing well and open for them. If you are any good you should be able to convert some of their fans.

[stonepiano]

http://seattlemusician.com/

maybe you can link up with someone there. The calendar looks a lot busier than the www.chicagomusician.com version.

miles

[David Hooper]

Originally posted by TexRoadkill
Find some similar bands that are doing well and open for them. If you are any good you should be able to convert some of their fans.

golocal.mp3.com is a good place to do this.

[clifchamb]

I feel your pain...We have been playing Seattle since 1996 and I tend to feel getting a following is a chickin and the egg question: to build fans you need to play on weekends but to play on weekends at some of the hot clubs you need to build a fan base argh!

What you have done right is build a website. I just downloaded "Plastic Smile" and "When It Rains" and I think they are great Like other posts don't underestimate the web community. Here is our brief story:

Our band is called Chiaroscuro (www.chiaroscuro.net) We started out playing Seattle on Weeknights at 1:00 AM for our girlfriends and the soundman. Even Weekend shows didn't seem to help with crowds much (I would take a Monday night at the Colorbox (RIP) over a Saturday at a few other clubs. At the same time we a more or a progressive metal/thrash style so the scene in Seattle is already a little unfriendly to our style. We started hanging around on discussion groups until a management company in Denmark who frequents the discussion forums took us under their wing. We have also distribution set up with amazon.com, moremetal.com cdnow.com etc. We set up the distribution before we signed with management now this method has helped us sell CD around the world as well as have many reviews written. This helped round out our portfolio.

Since then our CD has been "officially solicited" to many of the record labels that cater to our style of music. Of course they have all said NO but my point is that this is may not help get people out to you shows but may help set wheels in motion for you in the industry after all getting a label (even a small one) to sign you may provode opportunities to tour (just excersise caution on who you sign with Are you all willing to starve a little and tour around to play shows in better cities?

Sometimes we would show up at other bands shows and pass out flyers of ours. My other 2 cents is to build up your following by playing over and over and over. Sooner or later The central will book you on a weekend (they might have already?) Some bands that are not even a good as you Guys bring a lot of people out because they put on a good show> I can think of one that brings their own lights etc and dress really funny. !!!!!!Get a banner to hang up so people can identify you!!!!!. I don't know, people (fans) are just weird around here. Build a buzz with the Stranger review or feature get on some of the Local radio stations (107.7?)

Anyhow I wish you the best of luck you guys have very strong catchy music Sometimes you just keep trying and nothing happens most bands break up after a year or two because they are impatient, work the web to keep you guys (and gal) busy and sane.

clif

[zekthedeadcow]

Repeating the same thing expecting different results is insanity...

I work in the christian music side but I don't understand why secualr bands stay in their home town...Seattle is only one city... To really build up a fanbase you need to cover your region. My old band was from Columbus Ohio but we tried to avoid playing here and only did so probably once every two months.

If places don't have an audience ...don't go back... unless they pay

have as much merchandise as possible... talking variety not quantity here... CD's, shirts, stickers, patchs, pictures, necklaces, posters, etc... I get my stuff from http://www.stickersandmore.com

The most effective way to a fan base is to talk to people and (duh) play well. Arrive early and talk to venue staff... trust me they talk behind your back so make sure they're your friends stay late and talk to whoever may be in the audience.

Have a mailing list and business cards and collect as many names as possible (when emailing don't use the TO: field but the BCC: so a huge list of emails don't appear at the beginning of the message...makes it a little more personal and a lot smaller

have a nice website with NO POPUPS! people hate popups. I wen't a step further and built my own server... http://www.track100.com

be around the merchandise table (if allowed) to sign autographs and so people associate you with being in a band.