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Comment on Facebook Band Pages by Start My Song - Publish Music | Music Industry News & More! » Blog Archive » Promote Your Music with FACEBOOK

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:41:46 +0000

[...] Carlson’s Blog (http://jimcarlson.net/facebook-band-pages/2008/06/) describes some great benefits of having a Facebook [...]

Comment on Brand Building During A Recession by Guitar Dan

Guitar Dan — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:49:13 +0000

I was having another record year until the start of the second quarter. I am a solo entertainer, which helps in good times and bad. Clubs started to cut back and ask for deals. I lost one room because they
cut back all but Friday and Saturday. I lost another when I was underbid on the job: It was far enough
away that I had little room to move. These two venues cost me about $2000.00 per month. It hurt me,
but I was still turning a profit. It’s been getting tighter since then, but I had a plan. I can readjust any
situation in about 90 days. Here’s how I did it.
I knew that the week nights would not likely pick up for a while. I turned my attention to nursing homes
and rehab facilities: there are 20 in my county alone and they’re always looking for people. I need to
net $300.00 per week on Mon. through Thurs. I’m targeting for four 1hr. shows at $75.00 per show.
At this point, I’m halfway there. Previously, I’d gross about $200.00 and expense about $50.00 with
a 100 mile round trip. I will have 4 nursing home shows per week, by years end.
Fridays are never a problem, even in bad times. Saturdays are becoming more difficult to book because a great many players are ‘drasctically’ lowering their prices: A little give is OK, but any more
than 12.5% to 25% is just stupid! You’ll never get it back. If a club owner asks for a 50% cut, he has
no respect for you and the place is probably in real trouble. Look for somewhere esle to play.
Be creative and put some time into your buisness. I find a lot of work, off the beaten path. I also make
a minimum of 10 to 20 sales calls every day Mon. through Fri.. Look for new construction: The smart
guys have their name in before the doors are open. I recently stopped at a restaurant that was under
construction and found out the owner was a venue that I couldn’t get booked at because they had
regular acts for years: I will be starting at their new place in November.
You can’t avoid periodic ’slowdowns’, but you can shorten their length and impact:

1. SELL, SELL, SELL: Make daily sales calls, even if you have a full book. It lets the owners know
your motivated.

2. SREAD YOURSELF AROUND: House gigs are nice, but they WILL eventually go away for one
reason or another. Play as many different places as you can.

3. DELIVER MORE THAN YOU PROMISE: Don’t brag about your following: Most acts don’t have
any. Sell the owner on being able to hold the crowd. One of the most
frequent comments I get is that someone was only going to stay for one
drink and ended up staying for hours.

4. NEGOTIATE HARD: Don’t be to quick to drop your price. It may seem like you’ve made a friend,
but this is buisness. I hear club owners saying that other acts did them a
“Favor” and cut the price: I’m not here to do favors, but to turn a profit.

5. HAVE CONFIDENCE: If you are the best at what you do, you should be able to command a
higher price: even in bad times. The venue is buying a ‘product’ to
increase their profits. Remember that for every venue that closes,
another will open: When will they learn? If you can produce for them,
they will buy your product.

I could write a book and maybe I will. The point I’m making is that most people don’t have a plan.
When hard times hit, they get hurt. It’s no secret why some keep going and others get “day jobs”.
Get a book on how to run a small buisness: Learn Sales, Marketing, Book Keeping and how to
track your numbers. I was sales manager for an industrial chemical company and use the same
practises in my entertainment buisness. If you’ve got your show down, learn to run it as a buisness:
It will save you in the rough times ahead.

Thanks;

Guitar Dan

Comment on The Death of a Blog by Sebastiano Mereu

Sebastiano Mereu — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:02:14 +0000

I also post to the future. It keeps me relaxed, because if I “have” to write, my posts usually get really bad and rather senseless. Since I work in Zurich, Switzerland, but live about one hour away from my office, I usually write in the train to or from work. That makes commuting rather fun

Comment on Five Seconds by blog4net

blog4net — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:25:32 +0000

thats a nice finding.. I have seen that on my website…

Comment on Five Seconds by Boogenstein

Boogenstein — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:32:23 +0000

Yup, according to the logs, 99% of my visitors come via search engines and bypass the homepage altogether.

Comment on Five Seconds by Fear and Parenting in Las Vegas

Fear and Parenting in Las Vegas — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:59:53 +0000

Fascinating. I work in PR and do a lot with the Web. Thanks for the Monday morning head scratcher.

Comment on Five Seconds by Alex

Alex — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:55:14 +0000

Helpful post. Is there any kind of less is more rule or vice versa that people should be aware about when worrying about that first five seconds?

Comment on Musicians and Social Media Networks by Alex

Alex — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:43:10 +0000

I love how this blog starts at step one. I look forward to more.

Comment on Cell Phone Photo Processing by Jim Carlson

Jim Carlson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:05:12 +0000

Just found this article, Lost cameras “phone home” to catch thieves. Need to look into Eye-Fi technology.

Comment on Cell Phone Photo Processing by Darcey

Darcey — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:00:31 +0000

This is awesome…all I have to do now is upgrade my phone (Sony Ericsson W300i) and my digital camera (one of the first Kodak digitals!).