3 Ways To Send a Bad Pitch Letter
If you’re like me, you’re probably sending out email after email to venues, radio stations, and blogs, in the hopes of booking a show or getting your music reviewed. It can quickly become very old! But as someone who also wears the editor hat (while writing and maintaining this blog), I get alot of [...]
Pros & Cons of Playing No-Cover Shows
Given the unmatched popularity of a recent post we published, ”AN OPEN LETTER TO VENUES THAT EXPLOIT THEIR MUSICIANS“, I thought it would be worth posting some observations from playing in venues that don’t charge cover. This blog may be more applicable to singer/songwriters and bands that play to “listening audiences” in theaters, galleries, and intimate [...]
An Open Letter to Venues That Exploit Their Musicians
The below post has earned quite alot of attention over the last seven weeks. Full-time saxophonist, Dave Goldberg, wrote an honest letter to venue owners addressing their disregard and exploitation of the working musicians. The post is powerful and I asked David if I could republish this article on Grassrootsy. I’m hoping that you’ll read this [...]
Pricing yourself. How do you know you’re doing it right?
Today’s question comes from Pittsburgh jazz artist, Maggie Johnson, who also happens to be the founder of JazzSpace – a foundation created to keep the art of jazz alive in the Pittsburgh scene. THE QUESTION: Pricing yourself. How do you know you’re doing it right? THE ANSWER: This is a really excellent question that I think [...]
The Best Way to Book a Tour
Booking is hard. Here are some valuable tips on how to hopefully make things a bit less stressful. If you have other tips, post them in the comments section. 1. Start with the Weekend Where do you want to spend your weekend? Book your Friday and Saturday gigs first? Its likely that these will be [...]
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. [...]
If At First You Don’t Succeed…
Today’s post is a simple letter one of our readers, Josh Sanders, sent in after reading last Wednesday’s Post, “Booking: Writing the Perfect Email Pitch“. Its a brief story about patience, persistence, and the frustration that comes when venue’s don’t respond. Hey I saw and read this…it particularly hit home because of an experience [...]
More Tips on Booking Your Band
Last week’s post “Booking A Show – From Start to Finish” got alot of feedback! I guess there are some things that you just learn by experience, but knowing them ahead of time never hurts…especially if they can give you the extra advantage. Bassist Seth Jackson who runs the blog How to Run a Band [...]
A New Approach For the Tired Musician
So about this idea… I’ve been noticing more and more how important the connection between audience and musician is. So very important. Fanbridge even alluded to it (from a slightly different perspective) on their blog yesterday. When I take off my marketer hat and put on my musician hat, I realize that my fans are my [...]
An Interview with Joe Squared – Things Every Venue Wishes You Knew
Todays interview is with Daren, booker of Baltimore’s Joe Squared and member of Disco/Pop/Hip-Hop Group, Claire Hux. Daren shares an overwhelming amount of knowledge with readers about how venues run and how to book and successfully promote your show. The below information will certainly make you re-think the way you or your band operates. It’s [...]
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 [...]
Beating The Summer Slump – Getting People In the Door
The Metropolitans at The Gallery Crawl One of the biggest challenges I’ve ran into is trying to get people out to shows in the summer…especially when the weather’s nice. It might seem like a trivial thing…but there really are ways to work around this. STAY OUTDOORS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE If you can help it, [...]
Creating a "One Sheet"
So what is a “One Sheet”? It’s a music term. Literally its one page of information about you, your music, your acheivements and anything else that is helpful in “selling” your product. By selling I mean selling the idea of your music and/or selling physical copies. Music PR Writer, Heather McDonald says it best… “A one [...]
FAQ’s and Recapping the Last Two Months of Blogs
I’ve gotten a handful of similar questions from different people in the last few weeks – people asking the same questions. Here are some popular ones. 1.) “Question… i’m really trying to find places to play here in town. but it’s quite difficult. Could you please name some places where you feel that me [...]
