How Independent Artists Get Booked For Their First Live Show or Gig

Why It's Harder For Artists To Make Money

If you're an independent artist today, you know that the chips are stacked against you.

It seems like every from music labels, streaming services, managers, promoters and venues take advantage of our love to share our music.

How so? Many artists today don't expect to be paid for their music and yet, continue to produce music just for the love of it.

So, how can an independent artist get ahead and truly build a strong fanbase that will help you succeed in your music career?

This may come as a surprise to you but we've found that doing live shows is the best way to build a fanbase and earn more money.

Image this: your a young artist just starting out and you want to get your music heard by as many people as possible.

You begin by doing what everyone else is doing: submitting your music to Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon music using a music distributor.

"We did a blog post about UnitedMasters and whether it was worth it and if you can make money"

Next, you go to social media to promote your music which will likely result in burnout. Sounds familiar, right?

The Old (Hard) Way of Getting Booked For Live Shows

If you want to get booked for your first live show, I'll warn you that it will be fucking hard.

Most people don't want to risk their money on an artist that isn't guaranteed to make them money.

In the past, you would need to know a promoter or booker personally to even get your foot in the door. It's unfortunate, but it's the reality of industry.

What can you do if you don't know a promoter or booker? You'd have to basically cold call or email them which is a method that has a high failure rate.

Finding The Concert Promoters That Will Take a Chance on You

Although the internet has made the job of finding their contact info, the downside is that every other artist can also find this info.

Most promoters and bookers get a ton of emails which means they'll be overwhelmed and less likely to respond to you.

If you do get through to their email, they'll be looking at your past show history and music to see if they like you and can make money by booking you.

If they like your music, they may give you a shot. This is rare but we've seen it happen.

Some bookers only deal with higher level artists unless they are looking for openers for nationals. We'll do another post on why you want to stay away from opening for nationals.

Even though you odds are bad, you should still send your info anyway. You might just get them interested in your music and want to give you a shot.

Finding Music Venues That Work With Independent Artists

find the venue

get on a show they are already throwing

or book the venue yourself and put on the show

venues may not be responsive and your emails will not be responded to

on their website, they will have a booking email or form, you can send it but don' t get your hopes up

without a past show history, it's unlikely they'll take a chance on you

TF fisrt show was at a college venue and they sent in all their stuff. But he attended the school so that was an advantage

Some artists will put the money up to rent the venue and it can costs thousands of dollars

Breakdown

minimum venue rental $1,000 at $20 tickets... you need to book other artists and you almost become a booker/promoter

are you willing to risk your money? is it worth it? maybe if you have a plan

if you don't have a plan, you'll lose a lot of money

Finding Booking Agents (Bookers) To Get Live Shows

Betting On Yourself And Paying For The Venue

Building Up Your Music Buzz

can you build a buzz in your school or city? how many people know and talk about you?

if you have enough buzz, promoters and bookers will seek you out

The app that changes live music

Qoncert has changed everything for independent artists.

All you need to do is download the app and click a button to request a show

all artists will get their first show, we give everyone the opportunity

if you continue to build your fans, we'll help you move cities and put on a tour

youll get consistent shows when you're ready to rock the stag again and again

the key is to grow and control your fanbase

dont expect us to bring your fans for you! this is to your benefit

if you've put your music on spotify, you know that you don't control or know who your fans are

so how can you tell them about your shows or sell merch to them?