Today we are going to be discussing your first time hosting an event as a live music promoter in Glasgow's live music scene!
As you might already know, breaking into your local music scene can be really difficult, especially if you have no experience with the live music industry or music scene's as a whole - if you're looking for how you can get your foot in the door, our last post showcased some local networking events in Glasgow for newcomers to the music scene!
Tip 1 - Know Your Audience
Our first tip for making sure you host a successful first gig is making sure you know your audience, this is particularly important when designing the poster for the show! Things to consider are, what genre are the artists you are putting on? Pop/Rock/Metal/EDM? Getting an idea of your lineup's genre(s) will be important in creating a poster that not only will attract people to the show, but also fit the tone of the artists playing so that those who may not know the artists will be able to guess the type of music without listening to them!
Tip 2 - Know Where to Promote your Gig
Our second tip is to know where to promote your gig to! of course physical posters can be useful to let the local scene know about your event, but there are plenty of other opportunities for the free promotion of your event! Whilst many may see Facebook as an outdated source for promotion, posting your event on local musicians and live music pages will help get the word out to those who you know will be interested in the music you're promoting!
Within Glasgow there are a variety of groups that are ideal for this particular type of promotion, such as Glasgow Music Scene and Glasgow Gigs, Musicians, Promoter's and Venues which can be ideal for finding a general audience to attend your show! It is also important to refer back to our first tip from this blog, as there are also many Facebook groups for more niche genre such as Scottish Pop Punk and Ecoss[emo] for those who are into more alternative types of music, it's definitely worth looking out for a group that suits you best!
Tip 3 - Remember, things go wrong!
It's an important thing to mention that everyone's first gig goes wrong in some way, whether a piece of equipment is missing/forgotten about or one of the bands are running late and won't make it to soundcheck.
Whatever may happen, we recommend to take a deep breath and improvise as much as you can, a lot can happen in the space of a few hours but it's unlikely that unless the issue is show-stopping (literally), the chances of anyone noticing any minor issues (such as the door time being delayed, or a band having to do a simple line check rather than a soundcheck) is very small. Issues happen to even the biggest promoters, so it's completely normal to have a few spanners in the works at your first show, just keep going and try and work through it!
Tip 4 - Pay before Profit!
The Ethos of SceneRadar and a vast majority of DIY practitioners agree that profit should never be a priority or even an expectation when promoting live music. Hosting a live event involves a lot of costs, paying the venue, the graphic designer for your poster, any instrument rentals, and most importantly - paying the band that you have booked for the show.
From ticket sales you should expect to cover all of the above before you see any cash yourself, which is sometimes the case but at times it just doesn't happen and you will lose out on money. It is always important to be upfront with anyone expecting money from the show (e.g. the band), especially if you intend to pay them only from the tickets sold rather than a guaranteed advance payment.
Letting the band know in advance how you intend to pay them will prevent a lot of awkward conversations post-gig, and help maintain your own reputation as a live music promoter. A lot of bands will be understanding and won't mind too much if you are upfront with them from the start, but always make sure the artist gets paid before you see any profit!
Thanks for taking the time to read this week's addition of SceneRadar! Remember that for the most part, putting on DIY gigs is meant to be enjoyable and the more you put in, the more you get out of it - take the opportunity to meet new people, chat about music, make friends and connections and enjoy yourself!
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