The Universal Law of Local Bands and Club Owners

Before you can have any success on the road, your local band should conquer its hometown. Consider it a testing ground. You’re close to home, your friends are there to support you, and you already have contacts with local venues (hopefully).

The best way for a local band to gain popularity over a large area is to start small and expand that circle gradually. It will take some time for word of mouth to spread. If you try to bite off more than you can chew, without the proper marketing behind you (ie: a record label and lots of money) you’ll end up shooting yourself in the foot.

By expanding your area slowly, you will build contacts and become a sort of “local band out of town”, giving you the home court advantage everywhere you play. For this reason, I will refer to groups as local bands, even when they are playing out of town.

Chances are most of your gigs will be in clubs or bars. It’s very important that you understand a few basic principles to put you on firm footing, which brings us to…

The Universal Law of Local Bands and Club Owners

Clubs and bars are in business to make money. Everything you do is just buying you time, until a more profitable local band comes along. Sorry… that’s just the way the world works.

Can you blame ‘em though? They got into business to make money getting people drunk, not to save the whales or pay your car insurance!

Here’s what you can do to work with the system, instead of trying to fight it…

Now that you know what club owners are really interested in, you can do a better job of communicating with them to get what you want.

When you come into town for the first time, tell the owner that with a little exposure, you can build a good crowd and keep those people coming back. If he thinks there’s a good chance he’ll make money in the long run, he’s way more likely to do some music promotion for you. This can literally make the difference, between success and failure for you. Let him know that you want to build a following, and you’re willing to work with him to do whatever that takes. Don’t tell him you’re the hippest new wave of disco fusion metal…

c he doesnft care! -Unless, of course, he happens to be very into disco fusion metal ;-)

Remember, I said that the main factor in getting a club to help with music promotion was profit, not head count. If a local band only draws a hundred people, but every one of those people rings up an eighty dollar bar tab, you’re sure to be a hit everywhere you play!

At the end of the night, if the club owner happens to pay you personally, ask him how business was. Don’t press the issue, just let him know that you’re concerned that he does well. Managers and owners like to know that you’re on the same wavelength as them.

Here’s a surprise: Do the same thing for the bartenders… ask them if they did ok. Believe it or not, they can be the strongest promotional force you can have. Often, owners will ask employees for opinions of the band. If that weren’t enough, consider this…

There may be anywhere from fifteen to a hundred people who call a venue during the day to ask about the entertainment later that night. Do you know who picks up the phone?

You guessed it! If those bartenders like you, they’ll have great things to say about you over the phone. That’s fifteen to a hundred people who might not have come otherwise…

c and it didnft cost you a penny--- the wonders of word of mouth promotion!

If you work hard at these relationships and keeping in mind what motivates each of these people, they will help you out along the way. On top of that, you’re still going to have to do some promotion yourself. If you’re on a label, they’ll take care of most of this for you (for a hefty cost!) Otherwise, you’re going to have to go it alone.

Don’t worry, it’s not as hard as it sounds. Unsigned bands can still make something happen. You just need a little bit of knowledge behind you to take your local band to the next level.