Which, oftentimes, is the most annoying thing a concert promoter can hear.

Most times, I try to take sort-of a “soft sell” approach to marketing my shows. I’d rather be polite and gentle about it than annoying and over zealous. Facebook posts usually go up when a bigger show is announced, about once a week for calendar updates and then again the day-of the show to give a last minute reminder. Obviously, every show is different and, depending on how big the show is or how well (or not well) the show is selling, I’ll push it a little bit harder. But more often than not, I’m somewhat conservative with the marketing of Greenbelt Events shows.

Even with the email list, we’ll only put out two or three emails per month. I don’t know if that’s helped or hurt our unsubscribe rate, but we maintain a pretty decent open and clicks percentage.

But we’re thorough. The website is updated daily. Our email list has a solid number of subscribers and a respectable open rate. Our street team hits a 30 mile radius with plenty of posters and handbills. And we do our fair share of print and radio advertising.

So when someone tells me that they didn’t hear about Band X playing somewhere until after the fact, I scratch my head. The public is bludgeoned with information about things to do and places to go almost every minute of every day. Nearly every single THING that happens has an event invite somewhere on Facebook. Be it baby shower, rock show or community art day, each one of my friends probably gets as many event invites as I do…which is a lot.

So how does one sift through the clutter and hear about great live music events coming to their city? Here are a few of my personal favorite tools that allow me to never miss a great show when it comes to town…

1. Songkick – I LOVE Songkick. It works like this – install a weightless little app on your computer, it syncs to your iTunes (or whatever media player you use) and sends you automatic email updates whenever an artist in your iTunes library announces a show coming to an area near you (you specify where you live and what radius you want to hear about shows in). It’s free and simple and pretty accurate. And with most people having dozens of gigs worth of music (har, har), you can specify how often you want to be notified of new events. (I have mine set to weekly).

2. Jambase- It’s been around for years. And oftentimes, I’ll forget just how great Jambase is for finding shows in virtually any city I visit. But the neat thing about Jambase these days is the location detection on the main page that displays concerts coming up in my immediate region. I don’t need to enter my zip code or subscribe to anything (but I still can, if I choose to) and dozens of shows in an area about sixty miles around is displayed right on the main page. Combine that with some live show reviews, giveaways and ticketing services, it’s a nice, robust place to find out what shows are coming to town.

3. Pollstar – It’s bland. And more of an industry go-to site. And considering how much money Pollstar charges for a subscription to it’s print or web publications, one would think the site would be much more slick than it is, but Pollstar is an industry standard for not-quite-mainstream live and touring music news, industry trends and tour announcements. Again, a search by city option makes this site quite useful for even a moderate live-music fan. And despite it’s bland appearance, Pollstar often has more of the commercial and bigger-name acts listed, often many months in advance of the date and sometimes even before a tour is officially announced.

4. Venue Websites, Stupid – There’s always the obvious way to find out what music is coming to your town or city: look at the venue’s website! In this region, Chameleon Club, The Brass Lantern, Reverb, Crocodile Rock, Spy Club, Championship, The Strand Capitol, Whitaker Center, State Theater, Gullifty’s, The Abbey Bar, Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Cornerstone Coffeehouse and dozens more list their events daily.

Obviously, visiting venue websites one-by-one on a daily or weekly basis could become time consuming. So, the final suggestion on this list (and my personal favorite way) of ways to hear about live music events near you is…

5. The good, old fashioned email list subscription – Any venue worth visiting has one. And any band worth seeing is either playing those venues or probably maintains its own mailing lists. Sure, sure…everyone gets tons of email, but with folders now built into Gmail and Yahoo and Hotmail, it’s simple to just add those email addresses to a specific folder in your inbox labeled something creative like “live music email” or “venue emails” and they’re sitting there…ready to be digested by you at your leisure.

Seeing live music is fun and easy and, in most locales, in no short supply. You just need to know where to find it. What are some of your favorite ways of hearing about live music?

I’m writing this post to clear up some recent misconceptions about the radius clause that’s in place for The Abbey Bar and bands who wish to play it.

Seems like some of you are reading too deep into this and I want to clarify some bullshit that’s been floating around out there.

First- since I began booking The Abbey Bar over five years ago, I have had the “radius clause” rule on the books. Only recently, however, have I had to enforce it.

You see, it seems like a simple-enough thing. But clearly, some of you like to hypothesize and sensationalize every bit of information that gets incorrectly disseminated.

A band – regardless of their stature – should not ever play the same city more than once every six to eight weeks- minimum. When I was booking Herbie a few years ago, we all agreed that they should not be playing Harrisburg more than once every three months or-so. The reason for this is simple: there aren’t enough people in this region to support you playing two or three bars in the same town every month.

And you know what? For virtually every single local Herbie show, there were no less than a hundred and fifty people out for it.

Certainly, there are exceptions to this rule. Specifically, cover bands. Many of the small taverns and pubs have acoustic duos or cover bands that are on a seemingly monthly loop in their room. Those bands are generally playing to the regulars at the establishments who frequent the place and don’t necessarily need to bring a crowd.

Also, from time to time we will host a “residency” which is designed to break a band in a market. Remember J Roddy and The Business? Remember Cabinet? Now, whenever they play Harrisburg, the room is packed.

Original acts, on the other hand, are presumably trying to break out of the region and (hopefully) become able to tour the national circuit. And while it’s necessary to hone your craft on your home turf by perfecting your live show, you’re not doing anyone any good by playing the G-Man on the 1st, Ceoltas on the 13th and Gullifty’s on the 22nd. I don’t care how great you (think you) are, your fans aren’t going to see you three times a month.

Bands need to create demand for their product. And by making your show available in every bar in town nearly every weekend, what incentive does your fanbase have to go and see you tonight? They think – “man, it was a long week. I don’t really want to go out tonight. Plus, they’re playing next weekend too right down the street. I’ll catch them then.”

Whereas if you only have one area show planned per quarter and have been promoting it as such, there’s that much more urgency for your fans to make it to that show.

And then there are numbers – if you play a different bar in the city three times per month and get thirty people out specifically to see you at each, wouldn’t it make much more sense to play ONE place every two months and get over a hundred out to that one show? Especially if you’re playing for the door.

A radius clause for any venue just makes sense. While I have a great relationship with nearly every other venue in the city, we have all agreed that we don’t see the value in booking a band who’s already on someone else calendar that month.

Believe me – I LOVE working with the local bands. And we have always paid them well, treated them well and promoted them well. But why would I, as a booker or promoter, want to water down my efforts by knowing that we’re not going to get the turnout that we should because the band wants to scoop up every hundred dollar gig they can?

This post can go off into several directions (loyalty, integrity, dedication) but I’ll save those lessons for another time. If a band wants to get paid well and be treated like the business that they are, they need to ensure the venue which is booking them is going to get the most bang for their buck. If I book a local band for a show in January, I want to see it being promoted in November. I don’t want to be just another room they’re playing in the city.

And if a band sees it differently, that’s fine as well. There are plenty of other bars they can play.

See, from what I’ve read, it usedta be that EVERY show was a “door deal” (how a band gets paid from a gig; usually a percentage of the total gross of the ticket sales or walkup at said band’s show is what the band earned for the night. $10 dollar ticket, 100 people paid, 75% of gross, the band earns $750.00.) Seems fair, right? This way, everyone is somewhat vested in the gig. The agent wants the band to earn as much as possible so he gets a fatter ten percent and therefore pushes the label and the publicist to help push the show in the individual market in tandem with the local promoter. And the local promoter wants the show to crush because, regardless of the turnout, he’s making twenty five percent (or whatever the deal is) of gross.

But that’s the downfall in the door-deal as well. It’s an honesty issue with the promoter.

From what I’ve read and heard, it usedta be that the local promoter settled the show honestly.

“There were 500 people here. They each paid ten dollars to see the show. Our agreement is that you receive seventy five percent of the proceeds. Here’s $3750 for you and $1250 for me. Let’s go do a shot!”.

But somewhere along the way (presumably sometime around the blizzard of eighty two) promoters started being shady.

“Hmm. The band’s up there playing. The tour manager is getting head on the bus. I’m gonna go settle. But lemme get another drink first. And do a quick bump. Let’s see here…WOW! Five grand! That’s…that’s some fucking cash! And man, my rent’s late. And my old lady needs a new pair of shoes. And MAN that’s some good blow. Well, let’s see here. They’ll never know if I tell them that only three hundred fifty people paid. That’s an extra…well, shit! that’s an extra fifteen hundred bucks for me!”

And soon there after, the bands started getting hip. Knowing there were five hundred in the club but they only got paid for three fifty. And the agent had to call the promoter and there was no email or slick communication available like there is today. So they duked it out on the phone. But what happened? Nothing. The band got fucked and went on to the next club in the next city and probably dealt with the same shit from the next guy.

Fast forward thirty years and we’re smack dab in the middle of the worst depression and economic downturn since the nineteen thirties. And what’s the first thing people cut back on in questionable economic times? Luxurious spending. Going out to dinner. Watching something On Demand instead of going out to a movie. Saving that fifty or sixty bucks they’d spend going to see a rock band they’ve never heard of at a place that’s going to probably be too loud, too far or it’s too cold and rainy to leave the house.

So here we are with more music touring the country than ever before and more Pitchfork buzz bands and Brooklyn is overflowing with plaid shirt wearing indie rock kids who make a slick video, get a couple hundred thousand views on YouTube and all of a sudden, the agent thinks they’re worth 100 paid on a Sunday night in Cleveland or Peoria or Charlottesville or Harrisburg at a $10 ticket so he quotes the band at $1,500 plus points and meals because they’re in a bus and have a tour manager and a merch guy and a drum tech….

Certainly there are bands that are worth every penny and a guarantee is almost more of a formality than anything. There are certain bands in every market that come with such a guaranteed buzz and hype from either the latest release or because they are simply that awesome that putting together a sellout offer is a no brainer.

But what about the up-and-comers? The bands that the average show goer is taking a chance on? Probably every club in America that has twenty or more nights per month of entertainment has two or three “anchor” shows – shows that either probably will or will have a great probability of selling enough tickets to make the night worth it for everyone involved – but what about the up-and-comers? Maybe a few people know the name but not that critical mass that fills a room on a Sunday night when the show is up against the Eagles and The Steelers and Boardwalk Empire and The Phillies (fuck, had I known the Phillies were going to do so well this year I wouldn’t have booked a single show for October!). What about those nights?

Sure, a band needs to eat. And one would hope that the promoter or the booker will do everything he can to make a night work -but the times they have been changing. And the consumer is much more well informed and has myriad options of spending his money. And seeing a band at a club or small venue is a COMMITMENT. Getting bodies in the door to spend their time, their hard-earned money and their Friday, Saturday or Sunday night instead of doing that myriad other things gets increasingly more difficult when some of the bigger promoters gouged prices SO high that the public physically revolted this past summer (A share of Live Nation stock is now trading at $9.77.) How much was the total of the service fee of the last ticket to a Live Nation show that you saw? Probably twelve? Fifteen dollars? A share of LiveNation stock now costs LESS than a service fee to one of their shows. Because they took AS MUCH as they possibly could from the public. Twenty bucks to park. Ten for a beer. Tee shirts? FORTY FIVE! And the service fees? Fifteen bucks a ticket? Shit, the show almost didn’t even MATTER!

And that was this past summer.

Nearly every show in a LiveNation arena or stadium had some sort of crazy giveaway involved because nothing was selling and the public became hip. They waited until the day-of to get a five dollar ticket in the parking lot. Or, in a lot of cases, FREE tickets.

And then, back in Peoria and Charlottesville and Harrisburg, local promoters are trying to get an agitated customer base of several million to come back to the clubs and buy tickets in advance for bands that might not have quite broken yet, but are undoubtedly quality and amazingly talented bands…

—–

I was at a conference last week with a pretty solid crew of regional promoters, agents and PR firms. It was small, maybe forty guys. But those forty guys were responsible for probably four or five hundred thousand tickets to their various festivals, band’s shows and events this past summer.

And on the second day of the conference, we talked as a group for about three and a half hours about how to increase ticket sales to live music events of any size.

And while some great ideas were bounced around, noone had the silver bullet. There’s no one thing that’s going to get more bodies in the door. But starting with taking some pressure off of an already stressed promoter who’s up against myriad competing factors is a good start. Relationships are built and trust is earned, not given.

But it starts with trust. The agent has to trust the promoter is going to push a show as hard as he can and genuinely exhaust every avenue of promoting that gig. He’s going to flyer other shows and advertise in the monthlies and reach out to the bloggers.

And then the tour manager has to trust the house manager that he’s going to settle on the actual number of heads paid through the door and that nineteen eighty seven called and they took their cocaine back.

And the promoter has to trust the agent is going to push the publicist to work his market in tandem and get some ink and send the posters and help pinpoint each market’s “superfan”.

And then, maybe prices can come down some for the general public. Because a promoter in a tertiary market doesn’t have to worry about whether or not the Phillies are going to make the playoffs because, on a door deal, everyone gets paid what they’re worth when everyone’s honest.

And then maybe more people will come out more frequently.

——————-
PS- I wrote this post while working the door for a double bill at The Abbey Bar. It’s a Sunday night. The Phillies are playing. So did the Steelers. Pretty sure the Eagles did too. There’s a new Boardwalk Empire on and it’s the season finale of Mad Men. We had ten people paid tonight. It was a seven dollar door. I won’t say what the guarantee was for the bands, but I can assure you it was more than seventy bucks.

Hot Buttered Rum, Hackensaw Boys, Cabinet, Hillbilly Gypsies, Mason Porter and lots more.

And lately, we haven’t been seeking it out much. But I met a dude in LA a couple of months ago who told me about CORNMEAL.

Have you heard these guys yet?

Here’s a taste. (And yes, they’re at ABC on July 15 – be there!)

We want to feel it.

We often need the chemical release that we get from being in a packed, dark, sometimes smokey room listening to five or six people onstage strumming guitars, pounding drums and picking a bassline underneath lyrics that reach the depths of our souls.

And when we find it, we scream it from the rooftops. We evangelize and preach the teachings of the singer downstage-center.

Sometimes it’s a quiet ballad. Sometimes is a loud, chaotic metal song. Other times it’s a standard, 122BPM pop song that surfaced after four records. And this is the thing that ties us all together.

We fight and bicker and debate Republican vs. Democrat ideals.

Riots ensue when a baseball team wins a world series.

Football fans often get into fist fights and barroom brawls when their team loses (or, oddly, wins)

But when we’re all at the club, standing in front of the stage and the house lights go dark and the intro music comes through the speakers and a collective body of people gets that feeling inside our chests akin to opening a present on Christmas day when we were seven years old and the guitarist jams that opening chord and, with that single combination of notes, a ninety minute set of songs moves us and we laugh together and cry together and get angry together and reflect together and get inspired together, that’s what rock and roll is all about. That’s what keeps us working our shitty jobs to earn enough to pay the rent and then travel by car or bus or plane or foot to the next show.

It’s hard to explain, really, what exactly constitutes a successful band. But it starts with honesty.

Genuine, non-imitating, inspired rock. The singer writes some lyrics and the guitar player comes up with a melody and the bass and drums keep the rhythm and then they show us their goods- they want to play for us and we want to listen. They want to tell us what they think and we’ll either agree and embrace them and tell EVERYONE we know about this band…or we’ll turn up our noses and move on to the next record from the next band.

Everyone gets a chance, you see.

Everyone has an opportunity to rock. To tell their story. To audition their music to us. And we always listen. But we don’t always believe it.

But when we do…it’s like no other pasttime that I can write a metaphor for. Sure, lots of people have a favorite baseball team. Many people have a their star writer or columnist. Actors, soap stars, football players…but EVERYONE has a favorite song. That one song that comes on and brightens your day. Makes all of the bullshit seem that much more manageable.

And that’s why we listen. And buy. And share.