Indie Artists: Time Be Your Own Booking Agent

09-May-2020 By Leave a Comment

Via Luca

Indie artists, it’s time to drop the Booking Agent

No one knows better than indie artists how frustrating and stressful it can be to book shows, tour, and perform. Hiring a booking agent may seem like the easy answer, but if the royalties aren’t exactly flowing in yet, you might not be in the financial position to do this. What to do, then? Let’s not forget that we are the DIY generation, we do it ourselves. Here’s how to book your own shows.

Perhaps you’ve made a list of all the venues that would fit your music, sound, and style, and yet it’s nearly impossible to get them to give you a decent time slot. You will most likely get an 11pm weeknight spot or a 3pm Sunday afternoon one, and we all know that no one is going to miss brunch to catch your new band at what promises to be an empty, desolated venue.

When you ask for a better, higher profile slot, the booking agent usually says: “Well, how many people can you draw?”. If the answer is more than 20, then you’ve got yourself a Friday night show. However, if your response is anything less, you’ll have to wait patiently in line until your following is bigger.

Which brings us to our next point.

Book others, to book yourself.

How is a band supposed to grow a fan base if the only shows they can play occur when people are watching Netflix or in a yoga class? Good question indeed. Those who manage to bring a good crowd are those who are either already established or have a lot of friends in town. Venues are not going to bet on a new indie artist nor are they looking for the next big act to feature before they blow up. Venues want to break even. They want to see the money they spend on a typical Friday night come back in full, and if possible make a little profit.

Be your own booking agent. Look for an equally unknown band that shares your ambitions, ethos, and sound and put a show together. Perhaps, pick a less reputable venue in your town; smaller and more intimate is ideal. Make sure you market the show as a party; a night to have some fun and enjoy some live music. Startups like Sofar Sounds have built a brand around this exact experience and platforms like youbloomConnect match local indie artists with one another, making it easy for bands to come together and book.

Each band will bring their friends, and if you advertised the event properly, their friends will bring other friends looking for a fun night.

Play the show, distribute some t-shirts, have a beer and repeat.

One of two things will happen. You will either get a call from the bigger venues looking to book your band or you won’t need them anymore because your fan base has been growing without their help.

You should hope for the latter.

About the Blogger

Luca a freelance writer, blogger, musician and songwriter. Born and
raised in Italy, his passion for Rock n Roll made him move to London where he
lived for one year and gained a certificate in Songwriting from ICMP.
Luca relocated in NYC in 2014 to pursue jazz music and liberal arts at the
The New School from which he graduated in December 2017. Luca currently
resides in Nashville, TN

Super-Fan: How To Engage A Solid Fan Base

06-May-2020 By Leave a Comment

(Post Via Josey Dunbar) Contrary to popular belief, a super-fan is not always a crazed group of followers or a die-hard groupie. Josey Dunbar explains to us how all brands have super-fans. They’re a key component in building and sustaining a successful career by engaging a solid fanbase.

How do you build one that attracts a super-fan (s).

The term ‘Super-Fan’ refers to an individual who supports a brand and everything that the brand produces. Artists depend on super-fans as a bedrock of support. When on tour, a band can trust that their super-fans will show up, buy merch, and by tweeting about the show long after it’s over. When bands establish a healthy base of super-fans, they are establishing a continuous body of support that can last throughout their careers.

From Starbucks to your local coffee shop that plays nothing but bluegrass, all brands attract super-fans. This comes down to the fact that people are drawn to originality. Every brand needs its own niche to attract a sustaining number of super-fans.

Who will your super-fans be?

Before a company, artist or individual can successfully attract, engage, and retain super-fans they must have a well-established brand. At the end of the day, there are billions of different people in the world with trillions of different interests; this means every brand that successfully markets a clear and individual niche has a high likelihood of attracting super-fans.

Whether you’re trying to market your sound or attract a wider demographic of ticket-buyers, your brand begins with your unique offerings and intended audience. Detecting what sets you apart is the quickest way to identify the basis for your brand.

After establishing a solid brand with individualized characteristics that will attract super-fans, the task becomes maintaining engagement from those fans. This maintained loyalty is often seen when artists create personal relationships with fans and release a steady flow of their branded product (shows, recorded music, etc.). In addition to establishing these bonds, the branded product must retain its super-fan as the brand grows.

Joining a community with inter-industry connections can make a huge difference too. Today, a lot of artists are finding security in artist networks, like youbloomConnect, which help bands grow their fanbase and develop their brand through artist-partnering and co-marketing tactics. Definitely check out our guide to how youbloomConnect works if you want to learn more about our strategy.

Ultimately, developing a brand comes down to originality. Pursuing what sets you apart and working to maintain relations with super-fans as your brand-base expands will ensure your success in the future marketing of your music.

youbloom is a platform that helps you as an artist to grow, sign up here and find out more: https://www.youbloom.com/artist-apply

Local Music Promoters: How youbloom Will Impact CityReps

06-Apr-2020 By Leave a Comment

CityReps are at the core of what we do, and they play an instrumental role in creating our global network of local music promoters and thereby riveting live performances across the board. However, it’s not just a one-way street. There are plenty of ways in which youbloom gives back to a whole host of our local music promoters we work with aka CityReps. Let’s get right into it:

1. Expand your reach of artists, vendors and music industry professionals

While you are already skillful in your field, you will now tap into your potential of positioning yourself as an absolute expert. Your magnitude of reach in the music business will be global, cross-cultural and multi-dimensional. The role of CityRep involves liaising with every stakeholder in the business, thereby helping you in creating your own global network.

2. Time to take the lead: you manage your own army

Being a CityReps involves micromanaging a team of individuals locally, who will support you in putting on shows. You’re the head honcho for your city, which means being CityRep allows you to develop your skills in inspiring and motivating those around you to create the best live music experience in town.

3. Monetise your efforts

youbloomConnect gives you the opportunity to monetise every show you curate. The more shows you do, the better the chances are to monetise.

4. Build your repertoire

Your title as a CityRep with youbloomConnect not only gives you an opportunity to learn, grow and hone your skills, but your contacts as well. While you’re playing the role of a local music promoter, your reach, however, is going to be global. Building your expertise and network are some of the key perks of being involved with youbloom!

To find out more or sign up as a CityRep, click here: https://www.youbloom.com/cityrep/

If you want to learn more about the youbloom community follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

youbloom reserves rights of selection process.

Independent Artists: Internet Helps Bypass Gatekeepers

02-Apr-2020 By 1 Comment

The internet is a sea of opportunities if used optimally, and more so for emerging and independent artists. If you want to scale up and expand your reach, the internet is a great place to help you as an artist to bypass gatekeepers. An emerging culture of music streaming, as opposed to physical sales, has steered this ship in a direction where independent artists can freely carry out their artistic expression on social media platforms to attract an audience. Never before has it been this viable for alternative cultures such as underground music and art to surface and grow without necessarily having to budge for bodies of authority. This blog post will discuss how you as an independent artist can bypass those gatekeepers.

Use Facebook and LinkedIn to find Journalists to Write about your Music

As a matter of interest, magazines and tabloids are in an unrelenting search for new content all the time. All it requires from you is that you make yourself visible to them on social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. To top it over, owing to the culture of a close-knit community, music journalists and music promoters will often work in conjunction. Not only would journalists write about you, but chances are that they might add you to their recommendation list to promoters. Though you’re busy writing the best music you can, it may be worth finding the time to make yourself heard on these social media platforms.

Follow Promoters on Twitter and Instagram

Promoters spend a lot of time on the internet, start following them TODAY. Start interacting with them, comment on their posts, establish a personal connection. Smart usage of the internet can help you secure gigs.

Send Newsletters to your Fans and Promoters

Newsletterring is a very effective approach to maintain fan exclusivity and retention. The idea behind this exercise is to establish a very personal rapport with all parties involved, where you as an artist show how much you care for your fans. Imagine the sense of suspense and exclusivity that comes with being part of a secret gig around the corner. This sentiment can be created by advertising your show through newsletters to a selected list of your fans.

Use Online Communities to Spread your Music

Online communities are certainly a very crucial part of building online visibility. One of the ways to spread your music on digital platforms is to share your music with fellow musicians, which always creates a room for opportunity. Collaborating with similar artists is a great way to build your repertoire and Facebook’s communities feature makes this much more lucrative. Here’s a full blog post on building an online community of fans.

youbloom is a platform that helps you as an artist to grow, sign up here and find out more: https://www.youbloom.com/artist-apply/

youbloomConnect: Get Matched With the Gig of Your Life!

17-Apr-2019 By Petra Cugalj Leave a Comment

Get Matched With the Gig of Your Life!

Now-a-days we’ve been hearing an awful lot about all these dating apps: you go through a bunch of various people, you swipe right on the ones you like and hope to get matched with the love of your life. But what happens if we take this idea and put it in the context of the music world? Make sure to keep reading to find out.

….

The Perfect Match

Here at youbloom, we call this concept “Artist Matching” and it works pretty much the same way. Well, minus the swiping part. youbloom designed it specifically for artists, bands, and talented people, to make sure you get a perfectly tailored gig every time!

Creating The Global Music Village

It might sound complicated, but it’s really not. We do most of the work for you! Once you’ve signed-up as an artist with youbloomConnect, we search the youbloomConnect database to find artists similar to you. At this point, we consider the music genre, location, musical goals, etc. After the initial due diligence, you’ll be notified of the person or band we think you’d match well with.

Now For the Fun Part

Let’s just say both of you accept the match… this is where all the fun begins! In a nutshell, you promote the band you matched with and vice versa. Then, you perform together. Perhaps, you’d work together. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll hit the road for tour together and most importantly you might make a friend for life! Helps you build a music network and co-market with fellow artists around the world. Not only will you grow your fan base, but there’s a good chance you’ll make connections within the music industry along the way. It will create countless opportunities for you and your band to play your music, tour and get paid!

The Bigger Picture

This is how we help the independent music industry connect and how we create The Global Music Village! So become a part of it today! Sign-up as a youbloomConnect artist and get matched for the gig of your life!

Cheers to live music!

If you enjoy this blog about music and want to know more about youbloomConnect be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. As always thank you for reading and being part of “The Global Music Village.” – youbloom: The Global Music Village