Our philosophy at ʻRound Midnight is to fill the bar ourselves and not rely on our bands to bring their own crowds. We expect our acts to do their fair share but ultimately, the responsibility lies with us.

Having said that, a local band thatʼs done a decent amount of promotion will add an extra 20/30 people to the bar and as a result, get booked here more often. I’ve been a professional musician for 10 years and Iʼve noticed that the bands that actively promote themselves are the ones that get the record deals, tours, management, etc. Unfairly or not, bands that rely solely on playing the gigs, rarely get far no matter how good they happen to be.
These tips certainly arenʼt a definitive A-Z of promotional tools but instead, just a couple of the really essential ideas that Iʼve picked up as a musician and, more importantly, as a bar owner and music promoter.

Whether the gig pays £600 or £60, promote it like it is the last gig youʼll ever do. Just because youʼre making no money from the show, doesnʼt mean that you donʼt want as many people watching as possible. A packed house almost always leads to something else whether that be an offer to play at someoneʼs wedding, a feature in the local paper or best case scenario, a record deal.

Always send the venue several good quality posters. The better the poster, the more passers by will stop and look at it. At least 30% of our weekly cliental come in because of the posters in our windows. Likewise sending the venue a bunch of fliers for them to stick around the bar beforehand works wonders. When people are in bars, they ALWAYS read whatever happens to be on their table.

Wherever youʼre playing, find out who the music editor of the local newspaper is and send him an e-mail asking for a feature or a mention youʼd be surprised how often they agree and even if they say no, youʼve only wasted a couple of minutes trying. The same thing goes for local radio stations.
If you can financially afford it, try not to do more than one gig a fortnight in the same area. Itʼs more important to play once to a full house that twice to two half full rooms.

Make sure you have a website,myspace page, youtube channel, Bebo account, Twitter, Facebook, etc, etc, etc…. Itʼs mostly free and is used for a reason – it works! Make sure you hand round a mailing list sheet during your gig. So many bands donʼt bother and I think theyʼre missing a trick. You canʼt expect every member of an audience (thatʼs been drinking) to remember your band name, website address and next gig location. Get their e-mail address and once a month/ week send out a band newsletter.

Have something to sell at the gigs. CDs are the obvious merch but thereʼs also t-shirts, lighters, plectrums, etc all with your logo on. Ordering these products in bulk may cost a bit initially but in the long term, youʼll make a profit. The classic example of a musician that promoted himself well is Moby.  Whilst everyone around him was busy doing as many gigs as possible, he supposedly spent his most of his time promoting, making contacts and focusing exclusively on special one-off shows. Not quite sure how he paid the rent at that time but it worked out ok.

Hope these help…!
Michael.

PS – One more thing… be weary of venues that insist on you bringing the entire crowd. It means that the “promoter” isnʼt doing his/ her job right.