… a blog post from Chairman’s Corner.

Hey hey hey everybody. I’ve been on a bit of a booking kick lately, as I’ve been working to play some shows outside of my hometown – so today’s blog post is about exactly that.

While utilizing a booking agent can be extremely helpful (and booking a tour by yourself may seem quite daunting), there’s most definitely a strong sense of accomplishment that comes with booking shows on your own. Of course booking requires a great deal of focus and persistence – but it can also be fun. Establishing a tour route is not totally unlike piecing a puzzle together. You might even make some great contacts along the way.

When focusing on a particular town to play in, I typically start off by asking folks for suggestions on bands to play with, venues to perform at, bookers to contact, or all of the above. Sometimes a bit of internet research can also help to answer these kinds of questions as well (a search on rock clubs in any given city may quickly yield lots of results). I’ll reach out in any way that I can (email, phone, messaging on apps, website contact forms, even public posts on social media if needed). Other musicians who have already played the town in question are often likely to have ideas, or they’ll usually at least know someone else who does. I’ve found that if you contact enough bands and venues in any given town, usually someone gets back to you at some point – and quite often they genuinely want to help. As a result, I usually hit up as many bands & venues as possible!

When hitting up bands and venues for the first time, I include the date that I’m looking to play, a brief description of the band, and a quick video link (so that folks can get the basic feel for my project’s overall musical experience). I also include my band’s official site (which includes links to social media, Bandcamp, a bio, pics, more music and vids, etc). These days, many bands have a Linktree page that’ll direct folks to everything (instead of an official site), which totally works as well.

Sometimes, you may get a response from someone that is unable to help – but they can provide you with other contacts or suggestions to pursue. If they don’t provide you with other ideas, then feel free to ask for them! Not unlike cold calling, the more leads that you can follow up with, the better. You may even stumble upon some happy coincidences as you’re reaching out to folks. Perhaps a venue that you want to play on a certain date is already booked, but the scheduled performer is someone that you’ve recently been in contact with (about teaming up for a show). In such a case, you can reach out to the scheduled band about joining up with them at the venue in question (which just might possibly work out)!

Just like anything else, putting in the hard work with booking can get awesome results – as long as you stay focused. If someone doesn’t respond to a message, just keep contacting folks until someone does (once again, persistence is everything with this stuff)! It can certainly be humbling at times, but once you’ve put that puzzle together, it’s one hell of a feeling.

Cheers,

Jeffrey “Chairman” Couch

Music lover, creator & collector

chairman@spinneymedia.com

Chairman currently enjoys freaking out & creating panic with his spastic rock band Nasalrod, which is based in Portland, Oregon. He created this blog to share his serious love of music, the arts, and physical media.