HERE'S A great START UP PLAN TO BUILD A FAN BASE

[weatherbill]

David Hooper will be all over this.......
YOU can CHECK OUT MY PLAN AT www.thegrooveagon.com

If your band has never gigged out, or you're an artist who needs help, this is what you do

What you do, is find a few bands that are in the same genra as your band. You tell the other bands that doing a combined concert is far better exposure than seperately because you're pulling people from 3 or 4 different bands in one night, which when talking to club owners is good because they don't care how rotten your music is, so long as you can pull a crowd to help pay their bills.
So never gigging before with my band, we've put this thing called thegrooveagon together to jump start our fan base, at the same time, helping other bands as well.
Of course, I have a deal with the bands that whatever money comes in, first goes to promo costs, which for me advertising the Grooveagon, will be about $450 to $500 (1/4page flyers, local music paper add, posters,etc)
anything after those costs are covered will go equally to the bands (but probly be nothing), but I told them, they're not in this for the money, but to build a fan base and that is the big attraction. Plus if you got a gig at a good club, that's a plus because bands have a thing for clubs that have held big name acts that have come thru, so shoot for an off night when booking this kind of gig and once proven, then you can negotiate a better night, like a friday night.
Give it a catchy name and have a few other bands rotate in to expand the fan base. Build community with it, don't just be greedy and selfish with it. Rotate yourself out of it after a few times and help other bands.
If you do this, it will come back to you!Then rotate your band back into it.
It's gotta be like once a month so it sticks inside the fan base head. Plus, the kids love to gather and to know that they'lll see some of the same people that were at the previous events, but this can't be if it's like every 3 or 6 months. A monthly merged band gig like this adds the consistency factor, which is needed for building community.
And here's a secret that will bless all the bands. An industry A&R guy is more likely to come out to such a gig because he can see 4 bands in one night instead of like 1 or 2 bands.
So plan it out. Get about $500 together for promo, some bands in your genra, and you'll need lots of time to do all the graphics for flyers and posters and putting up a web page on it and get a live recording set up along with someone you know who has a digital video taping set up, so when you do your event, you'll have mp3's of yoor band merged event along with MPEG video. There;s somethign about mPEG video that's very moving. Just go to Robert Randolph and the Family band's home page and you'll see what I mean. Man, he's the hottest thing right now!
Good luck.............bill elder, nashville, tn www.weatherbill.com

[tanlith]

Not a completely new idea, but still brilliant!

Sometimes it's the real old tricks that, when dusted off and polished up, shine the brightest.

- Tanlith -

[CyanJaguar]

This would work great for a band whose members I am friends with.

They cant seem to be able to write wildcards so they need all the help they can get.

[Dani Pace]

You've got a good idea, I just wanted to add one tiny bit of insight.......If you can get some organization, club, civic group or even a charity to sponcer the gig a lot of money can be saved by allowing them to handel the promotion and publicity for the event. This will not only save you a few bucks it will also gain you some favor in the community and improve public relations, especially if the gig goes off smoothly.

[Blue Bear Sound]

One more bit tiny bit of insight -- it's spelled "GENRE"!!!!!!!

[Beyond]

So what do you do when there are no other bands in your genre?
We're the only band in the city that plays our style...

[CyanJaguar]

Originally posted by Beyond
So what do you do when there are no other bands in your genre?
We're the only band in the city that plays our style...

make sure that your songs are wildcards and you wont need other bands.