A band starting out simply don’t have the luxury of heavy media coverage & radio airplay and so the only way to reach out and connect with new potential fans is to play gigs & lots of ‘em.
Along the way the band should be busy growing their fanbase by acquiring email addresses in return for a free download, reduced ticket price whatever works for the band and fan. The problem with this is that there are only so many gigs to play in your home town and end up playing the same venues every week, so the next logical step for any band is to ‘hit the road’.
However, the reality with this is that touring (even one gig out of town) is a costly process especially for start-up bands. Most gigs in the UK pay the artist based on the number of people they bring, so when a band is playing out of town for the first time chances are they’ll end up paying for the pleasure out of their own pockets.
For 2011 I would like to see more web-based services that allows bands to share gigs with each other, the idea being, “Hey, we’ll come and support you in your home town and you come to support us in ours”. I see this basic principle of gig swapping as a great opportunity for new bands to gain exposure in new towns and cities across the country.
There are services that offer this, such as Gig The Nation but from what I can see they are not seeing the level of usage required to make this concept work.
Why is that?
TweetTags: fanbase | gig swap | live music
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