Indie Music Industry – Focus on the Quality Gigs

Indie Music Industry – Focus on the Quality Gigs-I’m not sure what the indie music business is like in the US, Canada or the UK in regards to playing gigs but I know in Australia we still have venues that pay guarantees for bands to play.

This is great because you know exactly how much you are going to be paid at the end of the night for the service that you are providing. What it also does is lull you into a false sense of security by thinking that the more shows you play the better off you are.

That maybe true if every show that you play has a guarantee but what happens if you have to charge at the door and you haven’t cultivated a fanbase? I learnt this lesson pretty quickly.

In 1995 I moved from Adelaide to Sydney to further my music career and had the opportunity to get my own band “Hot Fridge” together with a couple of really good players and for the first time it was up to me to get the gigs. I considered myself pretty good with the “gift of the gab” and so I went out and got a lot of gigs for the next three months.

I was buoyed by the fact that we were a “working band” but I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. “Hot Fridge” was basically paying to play and we were losing money.

I spent all of my efforts in getting the gigs I forgot to develop a strategy to actually get people to the gigs. When we did play shows in front of a few people we didn’t engage with them enough to get their details so we can communicate with them about future gigs. It was safe to say that my three piece band was not very happy.

I then realised that the most important thing was not how many gigs you played but the amount of people you played to. When this penny dropped I immediately called a band meeting and told the guys of my discovery.

The next nine months “Hot Fridge” was a band that played less but played to many more people. I had discovered the concept of quality gigs not quantity gigs.

Every gig or performance that you do as an indie music band or artist needs to have some sort of reasoning behind it. As soon as you start saying to yourself that the gig is just there to do then you are not doing yourself (and your audience, you potential fans) any favours whatsoever.

I can tell you from experience that it gets pretty lonely up there on stage when you have to charge money at the door and there are only three people (besides the band and a couple of mates that you let in for free) in the audience.

When you’re booking gigs, focus on the quality of the gig not the quantity.