In any case, I played a show at Wine Time last weekend, which I can touch on briefly, but I also hope to mention a few things about advertising for my shows. I wanted to talk about piano lessons too, but I'm planning to include that discussion in a future blog. So really, just a few things about the Wine Time show and advertising, and a little bit of the "et al".
My new relationship
Before making any judgments, you should know that the speaker really made the music sound better. I got feedback from a few friends saying that it sounded crisp and clear, with no distortion, so I was excited and will be renting this system every time I do a performance, assuming I haven't yet bought it. I got a lot of "hahaha's" in the comments from other Facebook friends, but the really funny part of this is that it took a surprisingly long time to make that Facebook profile. I had to go to the original Fabebook home page, pretend to be another person, start filling out all the information (including the gender, which I filled in as "Female"), had to use another email address besides my own (they won't let you make two separate Facebook accounts with the same email), and I had to go to Bing Images to find a picture of a Roland speaker that resembled the one I rented, which was harder than I expected. I then had to sign out, sign into my real account, search for myself, add myself as a friend, sign out, sign in as "Roland Speaker" and accept my own friend request, sign out and back into my real account before finally declaring a relationship with myself, and then go back once again to accept that I was in a relationship with myself and that I, and myself, were indeed in love.
I won't go into too much information about the suggestions I got from my peers, regarding this life decision ("What is wrong with you?" "Have you ever considered therapy?" et al) but I will say that this entire process of pretending to be a separate entity and confessing my own love took an entire 45 minutes on the computer. I didn't add any hashtags to this, although I believe some have started their own... you know, #PASpeakersCannotConsent, #DontYouHaveAnythingBetterToDo, among others.
Some people have said it won't last, but whatever the case may be, the sound system is great and I think I played a pretty good show. A group of my friends showed up as well and showed their support. One of them tried to do seductive poses while rubbing his chest as I was performing, but I'm going to pretend that didn't happen.
Advertising planned for Thursday 4/28/16 (tentative)
In order to book shows I obviously have to put in substantial effort to advertise, and I've done this quite a bit in the past. I don't particularly like doing it, because I'm just not a "salesman" by nature. But until I can throw money at someone (ha!) and actually hire a person to do this, I don't have much of a choice. The few venues in Chico where I've been successful (Monk's, Wine Time, La Rocca, and the Interfaith Council of Chico) all resulted from me simply parking my car, walking around town with business cards in one hand, Demo CD's in the other, and just walking into places. I plan to do this again this week (hopefully Thursday). I rarely get hits from people finding me online, although the people at the Rock House in Yankee Hill discovered me via an ad on Craigslist. However, when I do advertise in person it allows them to go online and find me so they can listen to more of my work. So far I've learned a few key things about this whole process, in case other budding musicians are interested in doing gigs in town. I am in no wise an experienced PR guy, but for what it's worth, this is what I've learned so far:
1) Walking into the place where you want to play, and meeting the person (you know, in person) is the best way to introduce yourself. When they see your face, and your smile, they remember you. I also find it helps to dress up a little. Not super fancy, but professional. Every time I walk into a place to check out a possible venue, I ask to speak to the manager, and when the manager arrives the first thing he or she does is look me up and down. They want to see how serious you are and whether you're really a legitimate, working musician.
2) If you don't have a Demo CD they won't even look at you. Almost inevitably, in every venue I've gone to, the manager or owner always asks for a Demo CD. It's usually the first thing that comes out of their mouths. I also give them my business card so that they have a way to contact me. If you don't have a Demo CD, they won't bother. Restaurant managers are busy. They don't have time to research you on the Internet to try and find a music sample, and they aren't just going to take your word for it when you say "I'm good." A place like Chico, especially, is filled with musicians. Not only is the town filled with musicians but it's also filled with wanna-be musicians. Owners and managers need to hear your music right away before they can even consider dumping a bunch of money to have you sit in their restaurant and play an instrument.
That's the other thing. People are not going to spend any money on you unless they become convinced that they will make that money back, and will make more money on top of that. That means your music has to bring in crowds. The nice thing about fancy restaurants is that they're expensive, and this means that even if your music brings in an extra four or five patrons, it will offset that cost for them and a little bit more. That's what they want. From the viewpoint of the business owner, regular live music will also end up bringing in more customers in general, because the news will go around that the restaurant offers live music, and people like live music.
3) They rarely call back. I found this out very quickly, and I also found this out when I was playing keys in a band a long time ago. We ended up doing a total of four shows in Chico (this was back in 2008 or so) and that was after having to call back numerous times just to remind them who we were. Again, restaurant managers are busy. They have a million things to do, and calling back some salesman-like person, who's advertising his music, who COSTS MONEY, is not going to be the first thing on their minds. I usually wait a few days and then make follow-up calls. I've always had to keep a list of the places I visited, so that I can keep track and call them back to follow up. It usually involves me saying something like, "Hello Mr./Mrs. ______, this is Thorsteinn Gunter. I stopped in the other day to talk to you about providing live music for your guests, and just wanted to see if you'd still be interested." You know, that kind of thing -- pleasant, professional, and not too pushy. Also, remember the person's name! "Hello uh, uh, uh, Mike is it?" doesn't sound strong or professional. If you're a good people-person or have PR experience, none of this will be a problem. Also, instead of calling back to follow through, you can always go back and visit a second time.
4) Pick a good time to visit. Since I tend to ask for the manager or owner, I always try to stop in during a time when I think he or she will be working. This means business days (Monday-Friday) and I never walk in during lunch-time hours or dinner-time hours. This is when they are usually the most busy, assuming that it's a restaurant or similar venue. If you stop by during those hours they might simply be too busy to talk to you. I usually try a 2-4pm window, or maybe a morning window, like 8-10am, when it's usually quieter and there aren't as many guests. I also avoid Fridays in general because they just seem busier on Fridays, and they're usually thinking about the weekend. Many restaurant managers work weekends anyway, but I avoid those days too because that's another time when they are super busy. A lot of this is just common sense and requires nothing more than putting yourself in the shoes of the business owner, who has a ton of stuff to deal with.
5) Be clear about your rate. I've been in a couple of situations when there was a misunderstanding about the rate that I charge for live performances. This can be awkward. I charge what I believe is a very reasonable rate ($35 an hour) for live performances, and most places, especially fancy places, don't bat an eye at this at all. On the other hand, I've run into people who told me this was way too much and that they could never afford that kind of rate. The important thing is to make sure the owner, or whoever is paying you, knows your rate, and that the person you're telling is not just someone at the restaurant. I once played a show where I was crystal-clear about my 35 an hour rate, and I made sure the manager knew about this. But the actual owner of the place never got the information. On the night that I did the show, they tried to pay me $20 for two hours of playing! That's ten bucks an hour, which, these days (in my opinion) is almost insulting. The manager knew my rate, but he never relayed this information to the owner. Again, it's important to be clear. I had to actually tell the owner what my rate was (the $20.00 for two hours was their rate), and even though the misunderstanding was my fault, I still demanded my $70 for the two hours. They begrudgingly gave it to me, so it still worked out -- but again, a situation like that can be awkward.
Pardon me, I need to rant for a second...
While on the subject of being paid for a service, one thing that amazed me in this learning experience is how many people ask me to play for free. There are certain times when I am okay with this, and that is when it's for a benefit or charity of some kind. When I played for the Interfaith Council in Chico, for example, which was a sit-down concert, I agreed to do it for free, but it was for an event that had proceeds going towards the firefighters of Chico as well as the Chico Police Department. That kind of stuff I don't mind doing for free. A good cause is motivation enough for me to show up with my piano and play where they want me. But aside from that, I generally don't do free shows. A number of people have tried to lure me into playing free shows by using the word (and this word makes my skin crawl) "exposure". It bothers me that some people think I should feel "lucky" to be "given this opportunity" to perform my music, and it bothers me even more that other musicians agree to this, for that same lame reason. Musicians should all get paid.
In my experience trying to book shows, I've heard people say the following with regard to compensation:
1) Well, we can't pay you, but you can leave a tip jar. You could get a lot of tips, you know.
2) Well no, we can't pay you, but you're welcome to bring your CD's to sell, and you'll get lots of exposure.
3) Well, we can give you some money for gas, you know, ten bucks, or so. But I'm not going to pay you $35 an hour (laughs).
4) Oh. You charge?
5) Why do you charge so much?
6) We pay a flat rate of $20 to all our musicians.
I'm not kidding about #4, by the way. The reason I'm mad at musicians who agree to do free shows is that they are making it "the norm," so that business owners will be more likely to expect this from other performers. If all musicians charged, business owners would eventually expect that as the norm, and that's the way it should be. The "exposure" thing, honestly, gets my blood boiling. It sinks the musician down to a level where he's willing to "do anything" as long as he is heard; it's a gesture of desperation, and I simply don't want to appear desperate, regardless of how well I'm doing.
In case people are wondering, here's why musicians should all get paid for doing live shows:
1) They practice. Well, some don't, but if they don't they probably suck, in which case just don't hire them again. If someone gives me a really bad haircut, I'm still going to pay for the haircut. I just won't go back to that hairdresser anymore. It's simple economics, and it's the right thing to do -- you receive a service, you pay for it. With regard to the musicians who do practice, especially ones that are good, people have to realize that some of them practice every day. It takes work, effort, time, dedication, and for bands with multiple musicians it takes an enormous amount of teamwork and collaboration.
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A studio manager (left) and a drummer (right) setting up instruments and sound systems for a rehearsal with a band that I played in (2011-ish). |
2) They had to learn the instrument. This means they either taught themselves, which took time/energy/effort/practice, or they took lessons from someone (time, energy, effort, practice, and usually huge costs for the lessons).
3) Their instruments and equipment cost them a lot of bucks. Anytime you see a band playing, we're talking thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment that they bought with their own money. I'm only a "one-person band", and just the digital piano that I use, along with the stand and the bench, was well over a thousand dollars. This does not include the other equipment I use.
4) Yes, they're doing something they love, but they're giving up 2 (or 3, or 4, etc.) hours of their time to, you know, work. And actually, it's more than that. I only charge for the time that I'm sitting in front of the piano, playing my songs. I think that's generous. The time it takes me to pack up the equipment into my car (this includes the digital piano, the stand, the bench, sustain pedal, power chords, audio equipment, spare parts, duct tape, table, tip jar, etc., etc.) is about 15-20 minutes. Then there is the time it takes to unpack all of that stuff and set it up, plus do a sound test. This takes about another 45 minutes, minimum, and that's assuming there are no hang-ups. Then, after the show, 20 minutes to pack the stuff into my car again, and about another 20 minutes or so unpacking it at my place. I'm nice enough not to charge for all that time. This is why I glare at people who ask me to do free shows. And as far as the people who say, "well, you get tips!" those are the people whose restaurants I want to visit, and when I get the bill, I'll say, "I'm not going to pay this bill... I mean, you get tips, right?"
By the way, a band with multiple players has much more equipment to deal with than a soloist like myself (i.e., the drum set, for one,), the equipment is often far more expensive, is more complicated to set up, and often takes longer to get ready. The idea that some people willingly do this for free is beyond me.
Now, enough with the rant. I'm hoping to make some connections on Thursday and I'll be sure to keep people posted about future live shows. It may be a while before there are any that lock in right away, although I'm fairly sure Wine Time will book me for another one, as they do fairly regularly.
Until then, it's off to my day job!
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