The Anatomy of a Merch Table: What Sells & Why
After playing so many shows and talking to so many people after a shows, it gets easier to know what kind of fan will buy a specific item from your merchandise table. We thought we’d write a post based on our own observations. Let us know what you think and definitely add your input. [...]
Email Marketing – A Few Things You Should ALWAYS Do
Below are a couple things that I’ve found make for a more successful e-blast to your subscribers. Be sure to subscribe to other people’s newsletters. You can learn alot from seeing what other people do. And if you’d like more tips on Email marketing after reading the below, check out the Email Marketing – Making Sure People Read [...]
10 Tips for Writing a Good Email Newsletter
Be personal. Just do it. People appreciate hearing from you, not a robot! Check for broken links and broken facts. Nothing sucks more than sending an email to a few hundred or a couple thousand people only to find that you’ve sent the wrong information of faulty information. Put the most important at the very [...]
Does It Really Matter When I Send Out Booking Emails?
THE ARTIST: Joshua Sanders (New York, NY) THE QUESTION: A couple of weeks ago I read a post from your archives. It said that most emails are read on Wednesdays (based on an email seminar you attended). Does that imply that an email written on Sunday is less likely to get read, or that important emails (i.e. [...]
10 Things I Learned from my 10-day Tour
Ok, so it was an 11-day tour, but 10 sounds better. 1. Think Locally. You don’t have to put 5 hours of driving between every show. That’s lame. Put show 1, 2, or 3 hours apart. You’ll minimize your driving and have more time to lay low in between gigs. Just because you’re on tour [...]
DON’T DO THIS: 10 Things You Should Never Do When Promoting Your Music
DONT… Spam others people’s walls with your event, video or website. We wouldn’t put this down as #1 if it weren’t still happening…alot! Now there’s a difference between telling a few people and posting the link on 100 fans walls in one day. Don’t use other people’s Facebook accounts like their your bulletin board. Post [...]
David Wax Museum & The Mailing List
It’s a topic we visit more than any other topic on this blog – The Mailing List. I had a chance to see David Wax Museum at an outdoor concert over the weekend and was almost caught off guard (in a good way) when they took literally a minute out of their set to tell [...]
How to Get Fans for Your Band – 4 FREEBIE Methods
credit: Shane Kelly (ballinascreen.com) Today’s post is contributed by Chris Rockett, a regular Grassrootsy reader, music consultant, and writer for PromoteYourMusic.net. So we all have music to promote but so what! If you don’t have actual fans, you don’t have anyone to promote to. Here are some tips from Chis on how to essentially “collect” fans. [...]
Learning Your Listeners
The saying goes like this: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. Occasionally, when I’m at a show, or shortly after a show, I notice how various audience members respond to my merchandise table. Here’s what I’ve observed… Type A Listener This individual likes what they hear. They buy the album immediately, sign [...]
Do You Have Any Tips on Successfully Booking Shows?
THE ARTIST: Via Linota Lancaster, PA THE QUESTION: My CD release party is coming up and I’m going to need to start playing as many shows as possible to get the word out. I noticed you are booking a lot of stuff. Just thought I might write and ask if you had any suggestions for [...]
Mailing Lists & Social Networking
Think of Your Mailing List as a Gateway Drug. If you’ve read Grassrootsy for any amount of time, you know we stress the importance of having a mailing list at your shows. Well, given the rise of Facebook and Twitter among musicians, your mailing list might not be the most important way to communicate with [...]
Why Won't People Come to My Shows?
I dunno… But lets try and figure it out. In last month’s Grassrotsy Reader’s Poll, many of you said you’re biggest frustration as an artist is getting people to come out to your shows. I half expected the most popular answer to be money-related so I was definitely surprised. If you think about it though, fans = money. In other words, if [...]
Hey, What Day is It? Email Marketing & The Workweek
Are you planning your music marketing according to specific days of the week? You should be? Check out this post for sure-fire ways to make the most of your online promotions. Monday It’s Monday! Do you know who’s watching you? Monday is considered the day of fresh information. Everything is new new new! Consider this: the average 9-5er [...]
Getting People to Sign Up For Your Newsletter
The Newsletter is the single most important part of being a musicians (ya, I’ve only said that 10,000 tims in this blog). Can you imagine what would happen if major artists didn’t have newsletters? They’d make only a fraction of their normal income. For example, I get Death Cab For Cutie’s emails in my inbox all [...]
Looking Professional Even When You’re Not (or are you? i just can’t tell!)
First impressions! Make a good first impressions and then make sure your 2nd, 3rd,4th…impressions are all consistent with the first. For the average singer/songwriter, coming across as a professional might seem difficult, but here are some simple things you can do to set yourself above the rest. GET A HEADSHOT Have a few decent-looking photos. Headshots…full-body…live shows…etc. Just nothing tacky. And no yearbook-type [...]
Planning Ahead – The Key to a Successful Show
I’m currently working on a trip to Baltimore so the idea of planning and thinking ahead is fresh in my mind. I’m thinking on average that shows are booked anywhere between 3 weeks - 2 months in advance (on the local level). Assuming that this is true, how are you going to promote your show. First, its important [...]
Drawing Traffic to your Website – Part 1
There are so many ways to draw traffic to your website(s)…and they all work. The basic rule is to update your website as often as you want people to visit. Don’t expect people to visit your site regularly if there’s nothing new to keep them engaged. DEFAULT IMAGE Change your default image (facebook) regularly. Weekly. [...]
Perception is Reality
It took me a while to figure out what my first write-up for this blog would be. But I’m going to start with something that will probably tie together any subject matter covered in this blog. Perception is Reality. I should preface this by saying that you wont be reading anything extremely profound but just some things [...]
