I want to continue where I left off in the last article about getting yourself organized for this new month of music marketing and promotion. If you would like to read the previous article, CLICK HERE. Thank you SO much to those of you who responded with kind words or additional resources for musicians and songwriters.
I’m going to assume that you have fully organized your computer desktop, and that all your music and lyrics (that is, your complete music catalog) are ready to “go to bat.” Everything should be ready to shoot out to companies online, and you should also be working on having enough songs for an EP or a full-length album for instant pressing. Now, let’s get you performing.
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If you have prepared and polished that one magic song I told you to prepare for a live show, you will do an open mic night. The open mic night will only serve as a “decoy” for getting the actual gig. Assuming you have not yet begun to automate your club bookings using a site like www.onlinegigs.com, or that you are still short on finished materials, you had better have that magical “one song” just about fully rehearsed and ready.
5 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN GETTING A GIG:
1.) Go to: www.openmikes.org. They have a database of clubs with open mic nights each week from all over the country, so you should be able to find one in your area. The Songwriters Guild of America also has a database. If you are in California, you would visit: http://www.songwritersguild.com/open_mic_cal.htm. There are many other databases out there as well.
2.) Find an open mic night that is near you, and to your liking. The smaller the club, the better, because you will eventually want to pack people into the club.
3.) Have one song ready to perform (perhaps a second or third as back-up), go to the open mic night, register in the line (get there early and you won’t have to wait).
4.) Put on a kick-ass performance and bring on a standing ovation.
5.) Even if you don’t get the standing ovation, if the performance was solid, go right back to the booking table immediately after the performance, tell them you’d like to put on a show, and that you will pack the place with customers. Ask them to book you on the spot for a future date. Have a CD and bio with you (with contact info). You have just turned an ordinary open mic night into a fully booked gig.
More to come.
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