Syracuse Ska Forum

http://www.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_3703787

An article talking about the various problems of promoting from the Denver Post.

In a good article, that was the paragraph I wish more up & coming bands could understand most. All venues, indie promoters and concerts charging money are business enterprises.

Allow me an analogy that might make some of you wince, but its a fair one I'd argue. A restaurant with mediocre food but that is constantly filled with paying customers will be around for a long time and can pay its employees well. A restaurant with really great food, but very few customers buying it, will struggle financially, pay its employees less and will close soon. Is great food a good promotional tool to get more business? Absolutely. But the bottom line is getting paying customers in the door and if you can't do that, the great food alone will leave a handful of people raving about your genius when your place is closed down and the other place is booming.

Bands that don't aggressively promote themselves or ally themselves with someone who can will never be in big demand, no matter how great they are as musicians, sorry. I've lost track of all the venue bookers and indie promoters that have told me countless times, "yeah, I know that band sucks, but I gotta put them on shows, because they bring paying customers in the door."

Work at your music, because its your reputation.
But also work on your promotion, because its how you'll get paid.

It really is hard to find kids that genreally enjoy every band we get. It is a lot easier to know that if we get certain bands on a bill, 30 or 40 kids will show up for them alone. Especially with high break even points, you gotta throw the big draws on.

With the fledgling scene we ahve in Rochester right now, we can only afford to get one or two bands on a bill of four or five without risking losing money. One of the thigns Twitch and I are concocting now is a Street Team, with one or two kids at the varous schools in the area to get kids out to shows that they would only know about if a band told them.

The article also brings up the good point that bands have to pay their dues ebfore they can be considered headlining material. You gotta work at it and scrounge on the fourty bucks that we can give you before you will start makign real money. It really isn't even about how many shows you play it is how consistently you draw big crowds.

Very good point. Consistency is everything. I've been booking shows since October 2000 and I'm still at it, because I've been consistent in my business dealings. I called Kevin Gunther today and he was happy to hear from me, because we've been doing business for years now and we both know what to expect from each other.

I've made mistakes, sure. But I always fix them. My biggest mistake was not communicating with local bands better about show finances. I think we've addressed that and things are now going smoother, both directions. Some promoters hide who they've booked, but I don't. Ask bands I've booked and you hear the same things, 5+ years later. Ask me about bands I've been booking for years like Westbound Train and The Know How and you'll hear a consistent story. Some of us are in this for the long haul.


Again, I'm amazed how many bands don't get this simple concept. You legitimately befriend people who hook up your band and then you stay loyal to those people. The whole music business is based on that.

Bucket of The Toasters and I had mutual respect before I ever booked them the very first time. And we've simply built on that foundation. I just really don't get these young bands who ask for shows, show up to play and then disappear until they want another show. I don't know any decent bands or promoters who work like that, sorry.