Hey John, nice to see you guys are still doing the band thing. Ironhorse is still active and we play occasional gigs but would like to play more. As you point out, marketing is critical and we hate to do it! I notice this is part 1, do you have future videos planned?
Yes, I have show management and performance management. There is a posted response by @scott21113 that is pretty darn insightful! I am going to be down your way during Christmas, by the way. Multitracker is supposed to have a new version coming so, whenever that is released, I will go into that, as well. The last of my 4 part videos is Staff management and business aspect of management staff-wise. How are you guys doing? Good to hear from you!
John - great video. Totally agree with not playing gigs for "exposure." The only unpaid gigs my band would perform were animal rescue charity events our members felt strongly about and a couple one-offs for the families of a local musician who passed as a memorial event. We played at least one shelter fundraiser event each year for a decade, considering our gig fee an in-kind "donation" for tax purposes related to the band operations. We likely booked the same amount (8-10 shows) from individuals who attended and secured us for a wedding, corporate event, etc. We did not however perform "audition" shows for bars or venues and never performed for "the door" cover charge collection. After paying our sound guy and management fees each person in the band (5 piece) earned on average $145 per man for 517 shows in the last 13 years in a major East Coast city. We created a marketing strategy and strategic plan for our band and worked it to a tee every year. When I left my replacement had a buy-out fee of $2,500 to pay me for my portion of the goodwill (backing tracks production, future bookings, social media presence, etc.) and assets (stage banners, merchandise). Basically, they were paid half of each gig take as a "sideman" payment until my "buy-out" was paid off - then they became a full 20% shareholder and particpated in the full gig take split.
@@CaliforniaCreedence John - our band member who created the majority of our sequences for backing tracks had a contract for ongoing payment from every show for 3 years after they left because the remaining and new members did not want to do a one-time lump sum for them. The time and effort that went into track creation and customization is substantial and as the band switched from Ableton to Stage Traxx they were very glad they were paying that fee to keep themselves covered. It also helped when they lost their bass player for 2 months and the backing tracks were modified to cover for the bassist. No gigs cancelled and the gig $$ flowed. Just more food for thought if that is your role in the band.
Really useful info... A couple questions. When you say "paid marketing" what do you think has worked best for you? ... And second question is about playing for free. When would you say it's convenient to do that? ... Thx so much John!
Hi Alex, thanks for the encouragement. Also, hi Jeff! You know who you are LOL! Sorry this is long! Our paid marketing is The Bash who have been very good about getting us leads. The main thing, is that if you set up with Bash, be sure that you have some video of your band live. The best video for marketing would be about 4 or 5 1-minute videos of your band playing different songs at different gigs. Some bands have videos of either, all from one gig, or different gigs but the same song. When you have a Bash profile with different media per gig, people feel more comfortable hiring you. This brings me to the next question. If you are lacking media and need a few free gigs to get your video to put up on social media or the Bash for future paid gigs, that would be okay. The problem with undercharging or playing for free is that (believe it or not) customers interpret that as you not being a very comfortable band who doesn't value your talent, because maybe your band is not that good. However, if you say to a venue, "We charge no less than $500" then their thought process is "okay, this band believes in themselves so they must be pretty good." You would think venues who get a free band would be thankful and respectful to your band, but as time goes on, it is exactly the opposite. We no longer play for free, because we don't need the media for marketing, and we decline any offers less than $1,000 because we know that we are an excellent band. Venues who pay, appreciate that kind of confidence. If they just want a free band, trust me, folks don't respect the band that much. We even have gotten offers to play gigs for "exposure" at some pretty nice events, but, through the years, those are only good for video and never generate paying customers. Free gigs, we interpret, as the customer saying, "we do not value, at all, what you do as musicians." Also, forget the 501 (c)3 offers from "non profit" benefit shows where they say, "you can write it off on taxes if you play for free." Nonsense, they are still saying, "We do not value you as musicians." That's insulting IMHO. Hang up on them and move on LOL! Again, thanks for the encouragement and questions!
Hey John, nice to see you guys are still doing the band thing. Ironhorse is still active and we play occasional gigs but would like to play more. As you point out, marketing is critical and we hate to do it! I notice this is part 1, do you have future videos planned?
Yes, I have show management and performance management. There is a posted response by @scott21113 that is pretty darn insightful! I am going to be down your way during Christmas, by the way. Multitracker is supposed to have a new version coming so, whenever that is released, I will go into that, as well. The last of my 4 part videos is Staff management and business aspect of management staff-wise. How are you guys doing? Good to hear from you!
John - great video. Totally agree with not playing gigs for "exposure." The only unpaid gigs my band would perform were animal rescue charity events our members felt strongly about and a couple one-offs for the families of a local musician who passed as a memorial event. We played at least one shelter fundraiser event each year for a decade, considering our gig fee an in-kind "donation" for tax purposes related to the band operations. We likely booked the same amount (8-10 shows) from individuals who attended and secured us for a wedding, corporate event, etc. We did not however perform "audition" shows for bars or venues and never performed for "the door" cover charge collection. After paying our sound guy and management fees each person in the band (5 piece) earned on average $145 per man for 517 shows in the last 13 years in a major East Coast city. We created a marketing strategy and strategic plan for our band and worked it to a tee every year. When I left my replacement had a buy-out fee of $2,500 to pay me for my portion of the goodwill (backing tracks production, future bookings, social media presence, etc.) and assets (stage banners, merchandise). Basically, they were paid half of each gig take as a "sideman" payment until my "buy-out" was paid off - then they became a full 20% shareholder and particpated in the full gig take split.
@@scott21113 Wow! I am going to have to refer back to this. Lots of great ideas about buying out the band! Thanks!
@@CaliforniaCreedence John - our band member who created the majority of our sequences for backing tracks had a contract for ongoing payment from every show for 3 years after they left because the remaining and new members did not want to do a one-time lump sum for them. The time and effort that went into track creation and customization is substantial and as the band switched from Ableton to Stage Traxx they were very glad they were paying that fee to keep themselves covered. It also helped when they lost their bass player for 2 months and the backing tracks were modified to cover for the bassist. No gigs cancelled and the gig $$ flowed. Just more food for thought if that is your role in the band.
Really useful info... A couple questions. When you say "paid marketing" what do you think has worked best for you? ... And second question is about playing for free. When would you say it's convenient to do that? ... Thx so much John!
Hi Alex, thanks for the encouragement. Also, hi Jeff! You know who you are LOL! Sorry this is long! Our paid marketing is The Bash who have been very good about getting us leads. The main thing, is that if you set up with Bash, be sure that you have some video of your band live. The best video for marketing would be about 4 or 5 1-minute videos of your band playing different songs at different gigs. Some bands have videos of either, all from one gig, or different gigs but the same song. When you have a Bash profile with different media per gig, people feel more comfortable hiring you.
This brings me to the next question. If you are lacking media and need a few free gigs to get your video to put up on social media or the Bash for future paid gigs, that would be okay. The problem with undercharging or playing for free is that (believe it or not) customers interpret that as you not being a very comfortable band who doesn't value your talent, because maybe your band is not that good. However, if you say to a venue, "We charge no less than $500" then their thought process is "okay, this band believes in themselves so they must be pretty good." You would think venues who get a free band would be thankful and respectful to your band, but as time goes on, it is exactly the opposite. We no longer play for free, because we don't need the media for marketing, and we decline any offers less than $1,000 because we know that we are an excellent band. Venues who pay, appreciate that kind of confidence. If they just want a free band, trust me, folks don't respect the band that much. We even have gotten offers to play gigs for "exposure" at some pretty nice events, but, through the years, those are only good for video and never generate paying customers. Free gigs, we interpret, as the customer saying, "we do not value, at all, what you do as musicians." Also, forget the 501 (c)3 offers from "non profit" benefit shows where they say, "you can write it off on taxes if you play for free." Nonsense, they are still saying, "We do not value you as musicians." That's insulting IMHO. Hang up on them and move on LOL!
Again, thanks for the encouragement and questions!
@CaliforniaCreedence Awesome! And one more question if you don't mind... Have you tried Google ads?... Thx so much
@ We haven’t! I will look into it! Thanks!
@CaliforniaCreedence thx so much!