Now that you have been diligently sending out CDs, doing follow ups, landing gigs and issuing contracts; you need to be sure to update your fans as well as the local press about upcoming performances. If you have never played before in a particular market, then most likely nobody in that town has any idea who you are. And why would anyone come out to see you play if they have never heard of you before and have no idea that you are even playing. What you really need is some press or at a minimum just a listing with the local radio and print music calendars.

Your first step is to put together all of the contact names, fax numbers, email addresses etc. for the local media outlets in a 30-60 mile radius of your gig. Then you will have to prepare a professional and concise press release. A good release should be able to convey all of the pertinent information on one page. Radio stations and newspapers get flooded everyday with hundreds of releases, they do not have time to read numerous pages that outline your band’s Zen philosophy or each of your bass player’s numerous influences. Keep it to the point or they will not read it all. Keep your layout clean, do not use multiple fonts and font sizes or too many colors and graphics.
Make sure your release has a section with the performance details that is easy to pick out and includes: Performance Date, Band Name, Venue Name, Full Address, Phone, Website, Ticket Price, Set Times, Age Limit and any other bands on the bill. Also be sure to include your personal contact information: Contact Name, Phone, Email, and Website. If someone needs to get in touch for a photo or an interview, you want them to be able to find you quickly and easily.

Here is where your CRM (Contact Resource Management) program really comes in handy. You could take the time to create numerous, personalized press releases for each press contact you have found. This could take you days depending on the size of the market. If we are talking about New York City, it could take you months. But if you have the proper tools like we outlined in the last newsletter issue, you should be able to create one template and just click send to issue a release, personally addressed, by fax or email to hundreds of contacts all at once.

In next month’s issue of Onlinegigs Booking Advice Newsletter: Getting Prepared For A Tour....

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As you can see from above, compiling press contacts and sending out releases to hundreds of contacts in unfamiliar markets can be difficult. With the Onlinegigs Automated Press Release feature, you can send out as many releases as you want, to as many contacts as you want, to any market in the country. The best part is once you have created your release it should only take you minutes to send it out for an entire tour, instead of days or weeks.

A word of caution however, every venue has their own Media List. This is a list of their personal contacts at each media outlet, such as the specific DJ that handles your specific genre of music. Onlinegigs already has a huge directory of press contacts, but you will still want to be sure to cross reference the venue’s media list with Onlinegigs. By adding this information into the directory you are both helping the Onlinegigs community of touring musicians as well as earning money back off of your subscription.

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