5 tips to make your unsigned band stand out from the rest
Seven Day Sonnet @ The Fuel Room in Libertyville, IL
After going to a great show this weekend by a local Chicago band called Seven Day Sonnet, I realized a few mistakes that all indie bands make, that they should avoid at all costs. Besides having actual talent, of course, there are a few other things that I think you should or should not do:
Don’t Sell T-Shirts
Nearly all the bands at the show had merchandise of some sort that I don’t think anyone would have bought unless it had a “Budweiser” logo on the side of it and was drinkable. Despite probably being broke, all the bands at the show were still trying to sell some sort of apparel. Now I know that the company I run is geared towards “rockers” and t-shirts so shouldn’t I be trying to peddle my shit to them? I suppose that is true yes, but if I was in a band, and was working some shitty dead end job, there’s no way I’d hand my hard-earned money over to some t-shirt printer to put my logo on some silly hanes beefy t-shirt. Save your money, stay away from the shirts for now.
Don’t Use Friend Blaster
Most bands run their own PR these days, primarily through MySpace. As much as I hate MySpace, it can be used for good, but most of the time new bands use it to spam the HELL out of everyone who’s got a public profile.
I understand it’s tempting to use those Friend Blaster programs when you first start, simply because you can’t get anyone to listen to you, but there’s no quicker way to get everyone to ignore you than to yell louder and louder. As an alternative, I recommend using Myspace as an outlet for networking with other bands, as well as to act as a vehicle for your fans/friends to contact you as opposed to a way to spam anyone who has ever friended you.
$200 bucks towards an identity can go a long way
If you want to look a bit more legit, buy yourself a cheap domain at Godaddy, and try out a service like Crowd Spring to help you with a logo and a simple design. $200 dollars there will get you a lot further than $200 bucks on hanes beefy t’s. If you have enough money leftover, use it to get the best instruments/equipment, not some crappy apparel that only your mom and groupies (girlfriends?) want to wear.
Use your time and money creatively/wisely
I know that it seems weird to defy the predefined rules of rock, but you can party once you’re headlining your first venue. For now, you should try running your band like a business. That means calling up local venues, and putting yourself out there.
Have a simple demo CD, (or better yet a cheap USB stick loaded with music) and make sure to only give it to people who have expressed some sort of interest in your band.
“Bravery is all about people being willing to take a chance on themselves and their ideas: Are you willing to put yourself out there and risk seeing something you invented die?”
You’re going to have to put yourself out there, and email venues and other reputable rock periodicals. You’re going to have to stalk the local House of Blues owner, but putting yourself out there is going to pay off ten fold as opposed to handing out flyers outside of the local rock venues.
Strangely enough, I’m sure you can find some good PR people to friend on MySpace–Send them a friendly, personal message and see what they think of your band.
Assault custom guitar pick
No flyers, try custom guitar picks
One of the best things we’ve ever done for Assault was to giveaway free guitar picks with our logo on them. People are alot less likely to throw those away, and they’re alot cooler than some stupid flyer. Surprisingly, custom printed guitar picks are cheap. I’m willing to bet if you spend about $200 bucks like we did you can get around 1000 picks and they cost about the same thing as a 5×7 post card. (Around .18 cents)
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About the Author
Tim is the co-owner of Assault, and tends to think he can party twice as hard as anyone. Follow him on twitter @assaultEmail this Author | All posts by tim
I like your pro logo idea! Branding is so important these days. One cheap option we used to do is create stickers with our logo and hand them out and slap them up everywhere!
Well, the band may not need t shirts but the rest of do!
All fans like to take memories home with them.
Marc
Great work, great blog. I’m really lovin’ the guitar pick promo idea.
[...] 5 Tips to make your unsigned band stand out from the rest [...]
i like these posts – CONGRATS!! but i gotta disagree with the ‘stay away from shirts’ idea. YOU have to memorialise the transient vibe of a show with something physical…its not always a cd……..i suggest that a band teach themselves to screenprint – its a great way to remove the artistic and the minimum quantity filter from their expression – IF you are making shirts that only cost you $2 – then you can easily GIVE THEM AWAY….remember the tour:smart law FREE IS THE NEW BLACK!!! and, maybe its the only way that the three drunk lunatics will remember you tomorrow – when they wipe the sleep out of their eyes, the strange lipstick off of their faces and the puke off the front if the shirt you gave them.
MAYBE the free shirt will be the reason that the couple of people in the audience bought the cd, the reason that the promoter books you again (his girlfriend loves the feel of the organic cotton girly shirt you made in your basement) or some people just like the clever slogan on the front …..the best selling Pigface t-shirt of all tjme is ‘eat shit you fucking redneck!”
so, i guess for all of the above reasons, i respectfully disagree….but i give you massive marks …..the guy with the t-shirt company telling bands to hold off on t shirts – is punk as fuck and i salute you!!!
bestestest
marteeeen
@marteeeen Thanks for the feedback martin! Great to see you get involved. I’m about 100 pages or so into Tour:Smart and I must say it’s eye opening.
It never occurred to me that you could screen print them yourself, or go the dirt cheap route–the only way we’ve ever worked was to do high quality (and rather expensive) prints.