I want to continue where I left off in the last article about getting yourself organized for this new month of music marketing and promotion. If you would like to read the previous article, CLICK HERE. Thank you SO much to those of you who responded with kind words or additional resources for musicians and songwriters.

I’m going to assume that you have fully organized your computer desktop, and that all your music and lyrics (that is, your complete music catalog) are ready to “go to bat.” Everything should be ready to shoot out to companies online, and you should also be working on having enough songs for an EP or a full-length album for instant pressing. Now, let’s get you performing.

***Barnes & Noble has the ONLY music promotion book that will show you how to launch a successful music career, REGARDLESS of your age. Don’t want to wait for the book, and don’t own a Nook? You can ALSO order an Instant Download by clicking here.

If you have prepared and polished that one magic song I told you to prepare for a live show, you will do an open mic night. The open mic night will only serve as a “decoy” for getting the actual gig. Assuming you have not yet begun to automate your club bookings using a site like www.onlinegigs.com, or that you are still short on finished materials, you had better have that magical “one song” just about fully rehearsed and ready.

5 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN GETTING A GIG:

1.) Go to: www.openmikes.org. They have a database of clubs with open mic nights each week from all over the country, so you should be able to find one in your area. The Songwriters Guild of America also has a database. If you are in California, you would visit: http://www.songwritersguild.com/open_mic_cal.htm. There are many other databases out there as well.

2.) Find an open mic night that is near you, and to your liking. The smaller the club, the better, because you will eventually want to pack people into the club.

3.) Have one song ready to perform (perhaps a second or third as back-up), go to the open mic night, register in the line (get there early and you won’t have to wait).

4.) Put on a kick-ass performance and bring on a standing ovation.

5.) Even if you don’t get the standing ovation, if the performance was solid, go right back to the booking table immediately after the performance, tell them you’d like to put on a show, and that you will pack the place with customers. Ask them to book you on the spot for a future date. Have a CD and bio with you (with contact info). You have just turned an ordinary open mic night into a fully booked gig.

More to come.

(C) 2010 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved. Paul Alexander Music: http://www.PaulAlexanderMusic.com – The Official Home of Paul Alexander Music.

There was a time when musicians and bands had to physically approach a prospective venue to play at, find the booking person, introduce themselves, tell them they’d like to play, hand them a press kit with a CD and bio, and then play the time-consuming waiting game for a response, despite numerous follow-ups. To make matters worse, this method was once considered the “correct and ambitious way” of doing it!

Many booking departments can and will book musicians or bands instantly if they’ve heard of them or if they just “sense” that they have it together. This has happened to me, though I wouldn’t bank on it as a regular strategy, because a lot of your trips will be “wasted.”

***Barnes & Noble has the ONLY music promotion book that will show you how to launch a successful music career, REGARDLESS of your age. Don’t want to wait for the book, and don’t own a Nook? You can ALSO order an Instant Download by clicking here.

The (even more) primitive way of getting booked at a club is the “snail mail” press kit to the booking department. Some musicians and bands still do this, as pointless as it is, since the odds of actually getting booked at the club as a result of mailing a press kit are about equal to the odds of getting a record deal through the mail AND getting struck by lightning on the same day.

I’ve worked at a huge hollywood club, I’ve seen how piled up the booking office is with press kits all over the floor, the piles of CDs scattered about the room’s furniture, the overly-inundated and exhausting look from the booking person. I know that it really only comes down to several CD’s that were probably given to the booking person by co-workers or friends.

You need to think of an Internet approach to things; a laptop approach to things. The Internet automates so many tasks, and as a teacher, I can assure you that this “younger” generation has no idea (or too often takes for granted) the potential of this particular “type” of “media” that just a generation (or two?) before had no knowledge or access to it. What does this translate to? AUTOMATE your club dates.

There are several choices out there for automating your club dates, but one such example can be found at: www.onlinegigs.com. This site enables you to automate your bookings and promotions (and management of both) all from one place. You can start booking your gigs entirely online.

More to come.

© 2010 – Paul Alexander for: www.MusiciansCompanion.net – All Rights Reserved.