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BOOKING GIGS-

Well, first we need a presskit, What's in a presskit? What kind of kit do you need?
[url]http://www.getsigned.com/jeri75.html[/url]

. Clubs
Most of the booking personnel I've known over the years are busy people working in cramped offices with staff crowded behind desks stuffed into the same room. There is barely enough room for the file cabinets, let alone the hundreds of promotional packets that arrive each week. This reality demands that you make your statement quickly and succinctly. These people don't have time to read through a lot of paper. If you can't make your case in the first page, it is likely that they won't make it to the second, third or fourth pages where you've hidden all the "good stuff." The music has got to work double time and the first cut they play must drive them to listen further. If you primarily play clubs, your marketing begins before you even record your CD and create your promotional materials. Armed with the knowledge that you are soliciting the attention of people with very little time and short attention spans by necessity, your materials must hit their mark in an instant. Now you can plan the promotional pieces accordingly.

The One-Sheet is a great tool for this audience. Club bookers don't need a pocket folder full of paper that they will probably toss since the pocket folder doesn't fit in a regular sized file cabinet. A well-designed 8 1/2 x 11 page one-sheet is the most effective method of getting your point across to the club booker. On the front, include a short bio, a photo or the CD cover, a quote from a great review and the act's contact or booking information. The back of the one-sheet might have some additional quotes from reviews or even other club bookers; a discography, (list of your other recordings) if any; a list of some of your recent choice gigs; a list of radio stations that are currently playing the CD. If you add some information about the current CD such as song titles and times, recording information and backup musicians, the same one-sheet can be used to pitch the CD to radio as well. When doing a radio promotions campaign, you only need to send a cover letter, the CD, the One-Sheet.

Once you get the gig, the club will need photos and if you have them, some pre-written press releases. The One-Sheet is also great because it provides a concise biographical paragraph or two for the club's publicist to readily use without searching for the information or spending the time writing something new. The photos and press release can be sent along with your contract. If you have ready-made flyers or posters you can send those at the same time.

2. Theaters and Performing Arts Centers
Although the booking personnel at these venues are no less busy, the stakes are a bit higher and the requirements a bit more demanding. These folks often need to fit their bookings into a programming season and are looking for a slightly classier package incorporating more information. Slick or coated stock paper raises the bar and offers an attractive first impression. Pocket folders are acceptable here but don't over stuff them with frivolous paper. It costs you more to create and send and again, they won't have the time to sift through extraneous matter to find the important and persuasive information. Your bio should be concise and no longer than one page. Keep your type point size 10 point or larger. Edit if you think that a reduced point size will allow you fit more on the page.

Additional information such as lists of previous gigs, discography, awards, radio and television interviews and shows can be incorporated onto one general information sheet. Include a condensed quote sheet that takes the best comments from reviews you've received on one page. This allows the publicist quick access to information they can use for their season brochure, flyers and other publicity tools they will create using your material. All individual sheets should have your contact or booking information. Your photo should also have contact information. Promoters often only need a few posters, it doesn't make sense to send more than they'll actually use so ask before sending.
Theaters usually have a publicist on staff or working for the venue. They may request multiple copies of your CD, your photo and your pre-written press release. If you are on a label, work out a deal with the label for a below wholesale price for promotional copies to promote gigs. You can often work with the label's publicist to have promotional copies sent directly to local radio and print media when promoting tour dates. Either have the venue publicist contact the label or supply the label with upcoming tour date information yourself.

3. Print Media
Newspapers, magazines and newsletters are all trying to cram lots of information into finite amounts of space. Here again you want to get the biggest 'bang for your buck'. If you are going for a listing, simply send a short press release and your photo. When you send a great photo you may be lucky enough to get a caption beneath the picture giving the details of the gig. You may, however, be attempting to entice an editor to do an entire feature on your act. That takes phone call finessing and a fuller press packet. Mostly you need to have a good story that the paper's target audience will find interesting. If it is a daily paper, the audience is a very diverse general population. Your cover letter and press release need to extol the uniqueness of your act, your upcoming event or the release of the new CD. Include your CD when looking for a review or if the CD will enhance your chance of landing the feature or the interview. If you are simply promoting the gig, the press release and photo are probably enough.

Each media outlet has requirements for submission of materials and often there are multiple editors who are responsible for various sections of the paper, magazine or newsletter. Call first to get an understanding of the hierarchy or get a copy of the magazine or paper before submitting your material. It is always better to send material directly to the appropriate editor.

4. Radio
As I mentioned earlier, the CD and a one-sheet are the perfect promotional tools for radio. If you are creating a one-sheet specifically for radio, you might consider getting quotes from other radio music directors or DJ's who have positive comments about your CD that might entice other music directors to add the CD to their playlist. It is also very important that song titles and exact times are clearly printed both on the one-sheet and most importantly on the back of the CD cover. The one-sheet for radio should be more focused on the CD with recording information, backup players, perhaps ordering and distribution information, the CD cover rather than or in addition to the act's photo and a short bio of the act. When promoting a new CD, coordinating all of the graphics for both the CD and the one-sheet add a distinct organized look and allude to your professionalism. Radio personnel need just enough information to share something about the act and the recording with the listening audience. If your graphic artist is particularly clever, they might design the one-sheet to fold neatly into the CD case so it will always remain with the CD.

Keep your information concise. Provide user-friendly materials to spoon-feed your targeted recipient your most influential information. Tell your story quickly so the receiver gets an at-a-glance overview of who you are without having to work at it. These are key factors when attempting to win the attention of bookers and media personnel. There's a lot of competition out there, so make an impact with your materials so you can get you the gigs, get the interviews, get the reviews and get the airplay. Good luck!

Here is an article from [url]http://www.hitme.net/useful/interviews/blacktips.html[/url]
What makes a good presskit? If you're doing press on your own band, the big mistake I've seen is putting too much stuff in the presskit. Don't include the calendar listing from the Village Voice the one time you played CBGB's. Every band has played CBGB's. It's not a big deal. If you don't have a lot of press, don't feel the need to fill up the kit. Don't even announce that you were on some "Best Unsigned" CD compilation. I save those CDs, and often notice that years later I've still never heard of any of those bands.
If you don't already have a lot of press and a buzz going, just send out a tape and a bio. That's ALL that matters! If you do have a bunch of good reviews, excerpt the best lines so you can fit five reviews onto one page. Unless it's a rave review in a substantial magazine, just do a quote sheet for the bulk of them. I only need to see two or three pages to get the gist. Don't think "it's my one shot, I have to send them everything!" As a band goes on and gets better press, start weeding the smaller reviews out. There's no need to keep adding and adding. Save xerox costs. Save trees. Put together two pages of good stuff.
Most editors get 50-70 kits a day. They don't have time to sift through a 20-page package. They often skim your pressclips, save the bio and throw the rest away.

ON THE BIO:
Call someone at a label or a magazine and ask if they can send you some bios they've received. [Derek's tip: the labels' web sites and AOL sites have all their acts' bios online.] Read plenty of other bios and get some ideas of what to do, and what NOT to do.
The best bios I've seen are the ones that are written like a story, written editorially. Some small publications will run the bio as is. Knowing that, try to write it as editorially as possible. Check out some stories that people have written for magazines you like and get an idea for what makes a good lead. Remember the times you read all about an artist you had never heard of, just because the article was well-written. Put a couple descent quotes in there. Don't make the whole thing descriptive, like "The band is from Pennsylvania, where they all met in high school, blah blah." Nobody really cares. If you've got a local angle you can mention it, so that if someone from Pennsylvania is doing a story, they can pick up on that. If your lyrics are really interesting, excerpt a couple lines.
If you don't have a lot to say, keep it to one interesting sheet. You don't have to talk about the record. Show that you could do a good interview, cuz that's the most important thing. Every editor is reading a bio, going "Would I want to talk to these people?" If it sounds like they give good quotes, or you have interesting anecdotes, they'll want to talk to you. Realize that the first paragraph of your bio is like the first song on your tape. If that doesn't catch their interest, then the rest won't either. What makes the band a little different? If your mom is playing maracas on the last track, put it in the bio. Sure! Why not? Whatever you do, don't call yourself your hometown's "Best Kept Secret." That's SO awful! If you can't write your own bio, get someone to write it for you.
Your bio is your calling card. As long as your tape is good, and your bio is good, you're in fine shape. Everything else is kind of gravy.

ON PHOTOS:
Whenever a band does photos it's usually the weakest part of any band doing their own publicity. I see these horrible photos that some guy's girlfriend's next-door-neighbor's little sister's babysitter's dog-walker took. And it's usually a bunch of incredibly ugly 40-year old guys who are balding with ponytails standing in a row wearing leather. What they don't know is that a lot of magazines collect these really horrible photos and put them up on a hilarious "Wall of Shame." If you're not a good-looking band, don't ruin your chances by someone looking at it and getting turned off. If you're sending to a good magazine, they're probably not going to use it anyway, so put "Photo Available" on the package, and if they need it, they'll call.
If you are going to be doing a photo, spend some time and money on it. If it's not a great photo, don't send it out!
Get something really clear. Really imaginative. For God's sake, don't shoot yourselves standing up against a wall! Get a visually interesting background. A car, elevator, washing machine, anything. Make it high contrast black and white, never just shades of gray. Do this test: Take the photo and put it on a really crappy photocopier - the one down at the Indian deli. Put your copy back on the copier, and copy it again. Copy the copy of the copy. If you can STILL make it out, it'll probably reproduce OK in fanzines or reduced down to one square inch.

Now, I'm going to cover the things you ideally need to stop being screwed and to make sure everything goes ok.

1. A letter of confirmation, containing all the details, what bands will be playing, what time, the venue, payment e.t.c.

2. A contract copy, this will be the same as the letter, except it will have legal mumbo jumbo on and terms.

3.A Rider , This will sound weird, people ascociate the rider with a bowl of colour co-ordinated sweets, but really it is a list of things you need the venue to provide so you can play at your best, this isn't the time for extravegance, the venue will simply cross off anything they feel isn't needed, specify items such as free water e.t.c. Small items that will actually help.

It may also be an idea to put a note in somewhere about what you need in terms of technical preformance i.e. do you need the engineer to program lights? e.t.c.

Now, I am aware that many venues simply work by verbal contracts, this is bad, always get a written contract.

1) It makes you look more professional
2) It stops anyone from getting screwed.

On tour, you especially don't want a "misunderstanding" to occur, if a venue won't give a contract, Don't play, any venue that refuses a request to enter a written contract is obviously up to something dodgy.

Band Members.

A common mistake people often make when auditioning band members is to give them the place right away.
Even if you have no other applicants, let a week or so go just in case, the last thing you want is to hire a medicore player one week, and then turn down a great player the next because the slot is full.
It may be possible to provide two auditions for the musician, meeting a group of people who will be watching you with scrutiny will be nerve wracking for all but the best of us, so naturally, they will not play to their best, so always remember to give them a chance.

My band had a practice last satuday, it was my first time doing vocals, I however, had the reassurance that in my mind, I'm in charge, and if anyone pisses me off they shall be fired, but I know I didn't sing to my best, because I was nervous.

What should you play?
Well this depends, if you've just started a band, it's best to arrange to do a few covers (read: 2 or 3) We don't want to wind up at the YMCA playing covers for the rest of the career do we?
Always have some material on hand or a half written song to try out their creativity.
Anyone can play along to Metallica, you don't want someone who can play metallica, you want someone who can write music.
Hopefully, the few covers should loosen everyone up, then you can start on material.

If you are an established band with recordings already, then it's obvious, get them to practice your songs, provide recordings e.t.c.
But remember to be forgiving, you've can play the song whilst debating the pros and cons of STV (Subjective Theory Of Value), they probably are still a little fresh with the song, they may not know exactly when the bridge comes in e.t.c.

There are many places to advertise for musicians, the internet, however, is hit and miss.
Some sites are good, others are not, for example, I wouldn't give mx's classifieds a thumbs up, it just doesn't seem to work.
But then there are other sites out there that allow band pictures, and have much easier interfaces, it's really just a matter of testing the water.
Advertising in music shops is always a good method, don't forget to include an easy to remember email address.
Few people come into town with a pen a notepad, many times I've just dismissed ad's because I can't remember robot_chris+2k@lycosubermail.brs.com
Make it short and to the point, What you want, What style you play, What age, What area and any special notes (i.e. Bassist needed for Funk rock band in Whitby, 16-18, No timewasters, Band has self-produced e.p. and is currently preparing to tour)

Another method is word of mouth, tell your friends to be on the look out, we found our drummer because he was a friend of the bassists friend.

One final note, Make sure you get what you advertise for, if you advertise for a hard rock bassist, don't take a bassist who wants to play jazz, it sounds silly but often musicians simply apply for bands out of enthusiasm.
"I don't really like metal, but I want to be in a band"
It will lead to problems.

As before, suggestions for the next issue.