The new year is a fresh start and here’s ways to get ready for making new tracks with your music in 2024. These four categories can help you focus. Choose one, or more if you are ambitious:
What You’re Playing: Repertoire
- What songs are you playing and why?
- Do you have a set arc?
- Do your songs fit your character or stage persona?
- Do you want to dig in and polish songs you already play? New arrangements, or other ways to make them shine?
- Is there any new music you’d like to add to your repertoire/arsenal? Now is the time to polish it up!
- Original music? Don’t just have a bunch of demos (you wouldn’t would you!?) Have it in a concise format: EP, album, single.
- If you play covers, be very specific and show examples of your repertoire.
- Explain your instrumentation. Why do you choose it?
Where You’re Playing: Booking
- Are you playing places you know you can play easily? This can be good or it can be the same old ___!
- Are you shooting for the moon?
- Are you finding venues that are just right?
- Does each venue prepare you for the next (forward motion)?
No matter where you are playing, you need a great press kit.
Your EPK on your website needs to check these boxes:
- Cool, splashy colorful photo that shows your humanity (yes, oh the humanity!)
- Black and white photos
- Photos which are vertical and horizontal
- A logo or a specific font you always use for your act’s name
- A color scheme for your website and one sheet
- You do have a one sheet, right? This is a PDF that can be read at-a-glance. Even though many places look at your EPK online, having a PDF one sheet which they can view online, or print out, makes their life easier.
- Input list / stage plot
- Contact information
- A summary of what kind of shows you play, and which venues/types of events suit your group
- A good, accurate description of the music.
- Update your bio with current info and use descriptive words that match you to the venues you want to play
- Videos
- A promo reel — this is your “best of” videos in short snippets. Need help making one? Call us!
- Look at EPKs of artists at your level and a little above. Take notes and see what elements you can adapt, steal and use!
Identify places or festivals you’d love to play but think are higher on the food chain right now.
Look at their website and the acts playing there. Look at the websites of those acts:
- What do the acts that play there have in common?
- What stands out about those acts?
- What are their numbers on social media?
- What have those acts done to position themselves to play that venue or festival?
- What skills do the musicians and acts that play there have?
How can you start working towards this, in your online presence and in the presentation of your music?
Keep in mind many summer festivals start booking in January, so get ready now.
If you’re more about having fun, consider:
- What are shows in the past that you have truly enjoyed?
- What made the shows enjoyable? The venue, the people, other musicians, your performance, the vibe?
- What other elements make shows enjoyable for you?
Why You are Playing: Your Mission and Your Message
- What makes you want to perform?
- Who are you reaching?
- What do you want to tell them?
Want to make a music-themed event that has a wider reach? Consider some of these:
- Put together a mini festival (just booking a batch of bands, no big deal!)
- Find sponsors for the event (even as simple as the local record shop’s logo on the flier)
- Combine forces and collaborate with the community
How You are Playing: Attitude and Persona
Take ten different artist and have them all perform the same song and you will get ten different songs. Everyone has a style that they bring to performing. Consider how to do this intentionally:
- How formal are you, or how casual?
- How happy are you, or how moody?
- How focused on the audience are you?
- How much of the show is planned, and how much of it is in the moment?
- How is your clothing connected to your style?
I hope these tips help you gear up for 2024 in your mindset about what types of gigs you are looking for, and in making your online presence shine so that venues looking for an act just like yours…find you! Plus, when sending out info about your act, you can be confident you have all the pieces in place to forge into new successes.
by Hannah Frank, On Axis Music