Offline
Bronx, NY

How to get people to come to your shows: ask Jenn for help tongue

Offline
Brooklyn, NY

ONLY IN NEW YORK, RICARDO.

Offline
Tokyo, Japan

The Chiptune alliance tour I THINK has used street teams in the UK. Give free tickets to a couple of people and get them to flyer the afternoon of the show.

Also, how about at the end of the show saying "thanks everyone for coming, we are really interested in getting more people to come, if you have any ideas, collar one of the staff". or have a little suggestion box or something? The punters may have ideas you haven't thought of, unlikely but possible I guess.

Offline
Tucson, AZ

How has twitter not been mentioned yet?

Use the twitter, people.

Offline
Melbourne, Australia

hehe I reckon half of our twitter followers are from overseas, but good point! smile

Offline
Brooklyn, NY

Don't deny the power of the RT !

Offline
ad-hell-aide

Hey dosPrompt, I don't have anything at all to add, I just wanted to say that I always marvel at the level of effort and commitment that you go to when organising shows, and in my honest opinion it pays off quite well. Thanks so much for doing what you do! big_smile

Offline
Melbourne, Australia
little-scale wrote:

Hey dosPrompt, I don't have anything at all to add, I just wanted to say that I always marvel at the level of effort and commitment that you go to when organising shows, and in my honest opinion it pays off quite well. Thanks so much for doing what you do! big_smile

Aw thanks Seb! I don't see any point having you guys cme to town to play little shows. We're trying some new avenues this time around (eg there is a HUGE (700 person) LAN that weekend which we're going to poster at so hopefully we can get some new regulars

Offline
New York City
mushpot wrote:

Wow, I feel a little weird reading that about PR people. I will not bring friends to a show if I didn't think they'd like it. I'll take a beer, but don't expect me to bring my posse.

If you read what I posted with a bit more detail, you will realize what I meant is to recruit a bunch of people that are frequent show attenders and offer them rewards, as possibilities allow, progressively. How do you know your friends won't like the show? Why not try? That's pretty low confidence.
Doesn't seem like PR people down here work the same way as you, because you seem to be doing press work also, which is not something a PR does here (that's what the press agent is for). Besides getting press exposure, what else it is your task? PR people here are in charge of inviting people to the show. That simple. And that was what I suggested, I think the best people who can invite and express the apreciation for a show are those who already love the show.

OK a good read on Wikipedia notes the sociological difference here:

Wikipedia wrote:

Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics.[1] Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that provide a third-party endorsement[2]

That's what we call here a "Press Agent", not a PR.
What would you call what I described? A host?

Last edited by akira^8GB (Jan 13, 2010 11:51 am)

Offline
nɐ˙ɯoɔ˙ʎǝupʎs

I think the answer is getting me to play, right SoundBytes Crew?

I think a PR/Street team of sorts would be a wonderful addition to SB parties!

What about getting some food in the place! Mex Fest gig?

Offline
uhajdafdfdfa
akira^8GB wrote:

What would you call what I described? A host?

I think they call it a "street team" here in the UK. Lame name, I know.

Offline
Melbourne, Australia
10k wrote:

I think the answer is getting me to play, right SoundBytes Crew?

I think a PR/Street team of sorts would be a wonderful addition to SB parties!

What about getting some food in the place! Mex Fest gig?


Tom, did you get drunk and have Mexican food?

Offline
Unsubscribe

The best way to get people to your shows is to play a shit ton of other shows.

Offline
Brazil
akira^8GB wrote:

That's what we call here a "Press Agent", not a PR.
What would you call what I described? A host?

We call them "Promoters" here. I have a friend who worked as a promoter of a venue. Free passes, free drinks, all he needed to do was to bring as many people as he could.

Offline
Los Angeles, CA

I've only been playing shows since October so I don't claim to be an expert in this shit, though I've been getting a lot of show offers lately so I guess I'm doing something right...anyway,

Rather than trying to set up straight up chip gigs, try doing some shows with already established artists first. Doesn't matter the genre, though it shouldn't be incredibly far from what you're doing. I mostly play with Rock / Punk / Metal / experimental bands, and at each gig I've played, I've had no problem drawing a crowd and getting people dancing. Maybe it's using the "Woah! He's making music with a Game Boy!" thing to my advantage, but it definitely works.

The problem with trying to set up a "chip night" in an area with a small chip scene / following is that if people aren't familiar with that kind of music, then they're not going to know to come out. I see flyers and show listings all the time for genres and styles I know nothing about, and thus, I don't go to those shows. But if you can build a reputation for yourself as an artist, I'd imagine it's easier to set up whole gigs dedicated to chip music and get people to come out to them because they'd be familiar with your music from seeing you at other gigs. It expands the listener base as well.

It really helps to have friends involved with whatever local music scene you're trying to get into...my success has all been based in Phoenix AZ, which sucks because I don't live there, but I have a good number of friends in the music scene there and they've been doing a lot to get my name out there by inviting friends to shows and stuff like that, also passing my name along to promoters. So while social networking and flyers and stuff like that have definite advantages, it's easier to start off with word of mouth and then move to those things once you have a small following.

Offline
Melbourne, Australia

The thing for us is, Celsius and myself can't go out and play with other people, we're promoting a show featuring other people rather that ourselves, which means we can't piggyback off existing shows. We're not trying to promote artists, you know?

Another suggestion that I just thought of  and I can make is you don't necessarily need to promote it as a "chip" show. If you're promoting a night where your headliner does say D&B (that happens to be chip) advertise it within D&B communities as well. Just because the "instruments" used are different, doesn't make it any less D&B and it can open you up to a whole new world of potential fans