I remember back in my college days, playing a gig on an empty stomach. If I was playing Anna's Restaurant in Pearisburg, VA, I would get to eat from the buffet halfway through my performance. Many things have changed since then. Enter: family, regular job, home maintenance, and a list of music students. Exit: time to practice, time to market myself, time to relax.
About six years ago, I loaded up my Plymouth and moved to the Louisville area. This was my opportunity to grow and expand in ways that the limited population and industries of West Virginia did not offer. Louisville has a very active music scene with very busy musicians. Here, I am outlining how I have squeezed myself into the scene in the past couple of weeks. This is far from professional advice, just some simple do-it-yourself ideas.
Utilize the Internet
The easiest thing to do is to create a profile on the free sites such as MySpace, Facebook, or ShoutLife (a Christian site). Take a tour of other musician's pages. When you see/hear something you like, send them a message and ask how they did it. I have learned a ton of things by asking.
You can use search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and Lycos (my favorite) to search for venues in your area. The first thing I look for is an email address for the manager. I often find a music booking contact. Sometimes I will find the manager's name and use a search engine to find their email or phone number.
I have scheduled several shows on very short notice using this technique. I used to call, stop by, and come back with my instrument for an audition. Now my web profiles have my resume, pictures, and music videos, as well as testimonies from my former customers.
Get On the Phone
Don't be afraid to call a venue you want to play at. Just tell whoever answers the phone that you would like to speak to the person that is in charge of booking musicians. Sometimes I begin by asking if the place even has musicians perform there.
I spoke to someone last night that told me they've kept the same musicians for the past 15 years. They keep the same core customers that come to listen to the same people every time. Another manager told me that I need to drop off a hard copy resume. They did not want to look at a website - they wanted a CD of my music and to meet me in person. Every place is different.
Get In the Car
Head to an area with a lot of coffee shops and bars that might have live music, such as the Highlands or Frankfort Avenue. You can get out of your car with a notepad and write the names and addresses of all of the places you are interested in. Tonight, I am going to have some cards printed that advertise my band, CD, website, and booking information. I plan to walk into some of these places and drop off a card for management. The busy managers don't have enough time to talk, but the busy places are the places you want to perform.
Find a Good Printing Company
If I remember correctly, Budget Print in Jeffersonville said they will print 40 of the aforementioned cards for three dollars (black and white cardstock with no art charge). If you are not good at creating an attractive layout, their art charge is at least seven dollars. These are handy tools to pass out at gigs because you can list the websites that your CD can be purchased from.
I used Kingdom.com to print my CDs. I saved money by not ordering the cases -- just the cover card, tray card, and color-printed CDs. The size costs more than the weight to ship; in this case they are less expensive at Wal-Mart. I burned my own CDs using a freeware program called Audacity to maximize the volume and export the songs at 320kbps instead of 128 (the default). Now my music is as loud as any CD I can get at the mall.
