How to Put on a Show - CBR-Style

2. April 2010 by admin.

There have got to be a thousand ways to coordinate a killer show, this is just our formula at CBR.

Did I forget anything?

Step 1: Get a Line-Up 

Find at least three bands/performers willing and able to do the show. Make absolutely SURE that they can do the show before proceeding. Get their contact info, including phone numbers, Facebooks, and emails (i.e. anything you can use to find them in case they are late and making you nervous, or if there are changes in the schedule). Make sure they can get in touch with you by any means necessary as well in case there’s news on their end.

Decide on the door price and any age restrictions.

Work out with the venue any drink specials or special concessions for the night.

Decide when the door opens and how long the show will be.

Decide how the money earned at the show is going to be divided. If possible, put it in writing. People act funny once there’s money involved.

Is your show themed? If so, talk to some people who are not you about the theme you have in mind and get their feedback.

Step 2: Make a Poster

                       Pick a theme for the poster. The theme doesn’t have to have anything to do with the show itself. It could be circus-themed, or have an old, beat-up feel to it. Or the night could be themed and the poster themed to match. Try to be original. Go online and research some pictures, text, and other media that may strike your fancy. Send these ideas to the person making the poster and tell them the info you need on the poster.

                       Basic Info:

                       Who’s playing?

                                           Age (18+, 21+, All Ages)

                                           Cover ($3-7 is normal)

                                           Drink specials?

  Will there be food/free stuff?

                                           Doors open at…? (Often somewhere between 8pm and 10pm)

Step 3: Spreading the Word

                       Make a Myspace and Facebook event for the show. Invite everyone you know, and remind them to invite their friends too. Add as much content as possible to the page. Links, pictures, videos, and comments on the wall are extremely important. Post the flyer you made as the profile picture. Be attentive to what is being posted, but try to not saturate your name on the page. If a hater posts, get rid of it. Period.

    Get at least 100 copies of your flyer printed.

If necessary (dependant on size of show and venue), get club flyers made. This will entail the person who designed your flyer designing a smaller two-sided flyer in the same style.

If necessary (dependant on size of show and venue), get posters made. The posters will likely be the same image as the flyers, only bigger.

If necessary (dependant on size of show and venue), contact the media. Try to get performers on to interviews before the show, and try to get the media to come out to your show to promote it.

Try and find new ways of getting the message out. Street performances and serenades, flyers given out with pizzas (5 Star and Dominos do this), and hundreds of other ways of getting the word out can and should be utilized.

Get a street team together to help you with promotions and paper-bombing the town. Having more people involved means more creativity. Just make sure they’re people you trust to get the job done right.

Make a plan for how to attack flyering the town. Having a plan will make things much, much easier.

Be sure the performers are promoting their own show. Field any angst from a performer about the terms of the show in private, and, at all costs, prevent a performer from sabotaging a show in order to get their way.

Step 4: Check on Merch

                       Should there be merch for this show? If so, why haven’t you ordered it yet?

                       Find someone to work the merch table for the show.

Step 5: Stuff to Do in Preparation for the Show Itself

                Make a line-up for the show. Who’s playing first? Second? Third? How long is their set? Find out if they have any guests coming on stage to play a song or two with them, and if they are doing any covers.

                       Check with the Venue to see if they have a license for performers at their club/bar/restaurant/field/whatever else to play covers and use samples. If they do, great! If they don’t, request that bands not play covers unless they have clearance (permission of the label and publisher of the original song).

                       If there will be food/free stuff, make sure you order it.

                       If there are drink specials, make sure you double and triple check on the deal with the Venue.

                       Do the performers have a special bar tab? Yes? Find out exactly how much that is and tell the performers. No? Find out exactly why and tell the performers.

                       Make sure the Venue has the appropriate sound equipment for your show and coordinate the equipment between the bands/performers that will be in the concert.

                                              Do you have…

                                                                     … A PA System?

                                                                     …Enough microphones and cords?

                                                                      …Enough equipment cords?

                                                                      …Enough music to cover the full amount of time you set aside for your show?

                                                                     …Something/Some way to play music in between sets?

                       Ask the artists if they have all the equipment they’ll need for the show, and if there’s anything special they’ll need that they don’t have.

Step 6: Important People

                       Door person. Get one. They are your cashier and bouncer. In fact, get two.

                       Do you need more than one bouncer? Just asking.

                       Merch person. They’ll be sitting with the merch all night and talking to fans, so make sure they’re trustworthy and cool peoples.

                       Photographer. Without the photographer, no one will be able to relive fond memories, or kick themselves after missing the show and seeing how much fun everyone who went had.

                       Videographer. Not required, but if the show is going to be special in any way, the performers may want a video of it for their press kit or website. Or just because it was awesome.

                       A Smart, Non-Drunk Person. For the duration of the night, an intelligent, problem-solving person who can walk in a straight line, count, and deal with any issues that arise is a must. This person needs to be there from well before the show to well after it, making sure that everything is as it should be for the Venue and the artists involved. Level-headedness in the face of loud, artistic chaos is key. This person could even be you!

                       Bartender. Always, always be nice to the bartender.

                       Sound Guy. Hey, the sound guy may not be with you, but having him makes or breaks your show.

Step 7: At the Venue

                       Make absolutely sure your bands arrive on time with all their stuff. The “stuff” part is very important, and, having discussed what they needed before the show, you should be holding up your “stuff” end of the deal, too.

                       Have a sound check.

                       Double-check that the information that you got on the special bar tab for the performers is right.

                       Make sure that the door and merch person are manning their stations and not making out in the back room. Unless you are the door or merch person, a secret rendezvous mid-show does you zero good. And even then, you made a commitment!

                       If you are drinking, make sure the smart, non-drunk person is around you at all times. Don’t piss this person off.

                       Be sure to remind the artists to give proper thanks to the Venue, the bartender, the other performers, and anyone else special and present at the show (into the microphone).

                       Try not to let your performers get drunk before or during their set. While funny, this can yield disastrous results.

                       If a performer is under 21 years of age, try really hard to keep them from drinking.

                       Uphold the terms of the show at all costs. Also, try not to break the law.

Step 8: After the Show

                If you are not the cashier, double-check their numbers. Count the door money, then have the smart, non-drunk person count it too (if you are that person, count it twice). Divide the door according to the terms you made with the performers in Step 1. Remember, there’s no crying in baseball. If people don’t like their share, remind them of the agreement they made at the very beginning.

                Make sure the performers pay their tabs, if applicable, before they leave.

                       Look around you. Do you see equipment? Find who it belongs to and be sure they take it with them. If they have, unfortunately, already left, pack it away with your equipment and call them immediately to let them know you have it and make a time for them to retrieve it.

                       Don’t forget your equipment.

                       Check on the Venue before you leave. How did they do at the bar that night? What did they think of your performers?

If you want, tip your bartender/s. Remember what was said about bartenders in Step 6.

                       Talk to the merch person and, if necessary, check inventory and collect money.

                       Make sure everyone is paid before you leave.

                                              Did you pay the…

                                                                     …Sound guy?

                                                                     …Merch person?

                                                                      …Door guy?

                                                                      …Performers?

                                                                     …Venue?

                                                                      …Photographer?

                                                                      …Videographer?

                                                                      …Bouncer/s?

                                                                      …You?

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Jumping the Shark: Barely-Educated Theory #1

2. April 2010 by admin.

I have a few barely-educated theories I would like to share with the class over the next few blog posts. I realize that I could be completely wrong, but based on the research I’ve done, the music industry is barreling steadily in the direction I am about to outline for you. Hopefully you will find these theories helpful. Hopefully you will go out and find your own theories.

Barely-Educated Theory #1:

I think that CDs are a dying breed, and the CD-focused Big Music industry is waning right along with them. I can get a CD’s worth of music on iTunes at half the price. Music publishers tout the fact that they can market music to the far corners of the music industry as well as maintain your copyrights. You can do both of those things with the internet. Music distributing companies base their prices on their ability to get your CD into major record stores across the country. Not only do you not need that anymore, you can do it with the internet. Record companies claim to support you and protect you, but you can pretty much support and protect yourself on the internet.

CDs comprised 65 percent of all music sold in the first half of 2009 compared to paid digital downloads, which comprised 35 percent of music sales. By comparison, paid digital music downloads comprised just 20 percent of sales in 2007 – growing to 30 percent of the music market last year.

- NPD Group Study, August 19th, 2009

For the full Zero Paid article on the new NPD Group Study, click here. For the very short PDF of the NPA Group Study, follow this link.

To me, this quote does not have statistics that discourage my hypothesis, despite the negative spin on the numbers. The music industry may not be rid of CDs, but its well on its way. 35% is nothing to shake a stick at. I think we’re heading to a new era where musicians, not huge corporate juggernauts, drive the music industry.

Audio4cast agrees with me:

…Labels should be working hard to drive traffic to their Internet radio partners, who should be emphasizing music download sales to their audience and realizing revenue from that as well. Creative collaboration is the path to sustained profitability in digital music’s future.

- Audio4cast, June 24th, 2009

 

MediaPost also agrees with me, though they take a gloomier and possibly more realistic approach:

While the digital boom sounds like good news, it presents a gloomy picture for the music industry. The Forrester study, titled “The End of Music as We Know It,” notes that new digital sales revenues won’t come close to replacing the lost CD revenues. From a high of $14.2 billion in 2000, total revenues will shrink to just $8.6 billion in 2012, if Forrester’s prediction holds.

- MediaDailyNews, February 20th, 2008

For more information on Forrester’s “The End of Music as We Know It”, click here (for further proof that wisdom is never free), or here (for some sweet charts).

MediaPost’s blog post, as well as everything I’ve read from Forrester’s study, tells me that there will be less money to go around, and I predict that it will not be taken from the musicians. I think that Big Music is going to bleed dry.

Times Online is even less optimistic:

The idea that niche markets were the key to the future for internet sellers was described as one of the most important economic models of the 21st century when it was spelt out by Chris Anderson in his book The Long Tail in 2006. He used data from an American online music retailer to predict that the internet economy would shift from a relatively small number of “hits” - mainstream products - at the head of the demand curve toward a “huge number of niches in the tail”.

However, a new study by Will Page, chief economist of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the not-for-profit royalty collection society, suggests that the niche market is not an untapped goldmine and that online sales success still relies on big hits. They found that, for the online singles market, 80 per cent of all revenue came from around 52,000 tracks. For albums, the figures were even starker. Of the 1.23 million available, only 173,000 were ever bought, meaning 85 per cent did not sell a single copy all year.

- The Times, December 22nd, 2009

For the full article from the Times, here’s the link, and here’s a link to Chris Anderson’s blog (he’s on hiatus from his blog right now, but it’s a good place to get the gist of his theories).

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, despite the unhappy situation of Big Music, the internet is creating myriad possibilities for musicians and their dedicated representatives. Besides Myspace, sites like ReverbNation (which I swear by) offer (with Premium membership) online distribution, online press kit makers, information about your fans, 25MB of song storage, the “most powerful email marketing platform on Earth for musicians“, an extremely sleek and sexy website builder, the most advanced widgets on the planet, and a whole slew of amazing free features. This one flabbergasting site has sections on promotional tools, how-to’s on viral marketing (viral stunts, by the way, are damn near impossible to manufacture), statistics and tracking, ways to earn money, a whole block of the site dedicated to Venues, and a killer following. It is used by “over 500,000 artists, managers, record labels, and venues to grow their reach, influence, and business across the internet,” according to the About section on the ReverbNation site. Check out their About section for more information on ReverbNation.

Also, check out this helpful blog post, or this one, for more suggestions and information on online sources for musicians.

Call me an idealist, but I think I’m onto something here. As musicians and independent labels take their passion into their own hands, they see less and less of a need to allow a bullying middle man to get between them and their music. Soon to be gone are the convoluted licensing processes, and confusing, expensive distribution and publishing deals. Record labels are going to have to swallow their big budgets and swollen prides and start catering to the talent they claim to serve. Now begins the rise of the little guy, the niche markets and incredible hidden talents that the big record labels didn’t think would sell. The revolution is on the horizon. I hope you’re ready, because once it comes, we’re never going back.

Posted in MCPS-PRS Alliance, iTunes, mediadailynews, mediapost, music publisher, internet sellers, hits, digital music, digital boom, distributor, download sales, Forrester, niche markets, NPD Group Study, times online, theironics, widgets, Will Page, Zero Paid, The Long Tail, the end of the music industry as we know it, record companies, press kit, record company, royalty collection society, sustained profitability, creative collaboration, Chris Anderson, Earl Robbins, reveling session, Guerrilla Music Marketing, marketing, Marketing and PR, record label owner, music industry, independent label, Gainesville, lawful music sharing communities, mistakes and triumphs, casey robbins, music business, myspace, barely-educated theories, Audio4cast, Barely-Educated Theory, Big Music, blog, Web Marketing, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Direct, promotions, Podcasting, Reverbnation, This Business of Music, twitter, Cardboard Box Records | No Comments »