How To Book Gigs For Musicians! (Bands, Rappers, New Artists)
In this post we talk about how bands, rappers, and new musicians can book gigs and shows.
Keep in mind that booking your first show will be a lot harder than your 10th show, but it gets easier over time.
Once you start to get one or two gigs, booking shows will become sort of a snowball effect. Before you know it you will be turning down more shows than you are accepting.
How New Musicians, Bands, Rappers Can Book Gigs
1. Look In Your Inner Circle
What this means is think to yourself…
Do you have Friends, Family, Co-Workers, Friends of Friends, Friends of Family that are involved in Music in any way?
If the answer is Yes, you need to get in touch with them.
Straight out ask them “Hey, I am trying to book shows, who do I need to talk to or what do I have to do?”
People who are already involved in music that you personally know, are going to have the best chance of being able to get you a Gig. Especially when you are a new Artist or an unknown musician.
2. Get involved in your Local Scene
As you start to go to shows and get involved in your local scene, see if you can help out in any way.
If you have any skills, for example, you are a good songwriter, you are a good sound engineer, you are really strong and can lift music equipment… literally anything you can do to provide value at the gig.
The more people start to see you at the shows and the more people start to see you involved in the local scene, the more they are going to recognize you, become familiar with who you are, what you do, and the fact that you are a musician that they can book for gigs!
3. Offer to Open the Show
When new musicians, rappers, and bands are going to book their first few shows, they probably are not ready to headline the gig, so being an opener to a show that needs another band, rapper, or artist is the perfect opportunity for you.
Now if an Artist does let you open, be sure to thank them, the venue, and the staff helping out.
This stuff is super important, because you need to make a great first impression. Show everybody that you are respectful and someone that they want to work with again and again.
These are long term relationships that you are building for years and years to come, so treat them that way.
4. Call and Email Venues To Book Your First Show
You can book gigs with 3,000 music venues with Top Left Booking.
When you do this, you want to make sure that you are short and sweet with your email to music venues.
You want to ensure that you have a link to your music.
You can use sites like Distrokid to upload your music to 150+ stores like iTunes & Spotify.
Your introduction email needs to be great when you are booking a show for an artist or rapper.
Your email should include:
- Who you are
- What day your are trying to book
- Why they should book you
Example Email:
“Hi, I am this person, I am looking at this day and This is Why I am valuable to be performing at your venue.”
If you are NOT trying to book a specific date, you can also email a music venue and say, “Hey, just seeing if you need any openers for any dates”
Try to be more flexible on this especially if you are looking for your first show.
5. Have Recordings
If the venue doesn’t know what you sound like, they don’t know what they are booking.
It’s that simple.
You need to have a representation of what you are going to be doing for your performance.
6. Don’t Complain
Booking your first show for a band, rapper, or artist is gonna be a long and maybe even hard process at the beginning…
BUT you are going to get your first show!
And WHEN you do get your first show, if it’s not exactly what you pictured, don’t complain about it.
Be grateful, say thank you to everybody who allowed you to do this.
Just because your first show doesn’t go great, doesn’t mean that your next show is going to be the same, you can use your first show as leverage to showcase that “Hey, I have performed before. There were 50 people that came out. Now, I can get booked up at the bigger venues that I want to!”
That’s how to book shows and gigs for a new artist, band, or rapper.
If you want to book with 3,000+ music venues all over America click here so we can help you!
