How to advance your shows the right way
If you want to get serious about playing shows or touring, you have to learn how to advance your shows. Talk to any good tour manager and they’ll agree. But as an indie musician, you may be your own show and/or tour manager. So let’s talk about how you can properly advance your shows.
by Caleb J Murphy of Bandzoogle
What does it mean to “advance your show”?
As a musician, when you advance a show, it means you coordinate and organize the details of your live performance beforehand. This step is crucial for making sure you and the venue have a smooth and successful show.
The goal is to get you and the venue on the same page about logistical details and technical requirements. You need to advance your show, whether it’s a one-off concert or a full tour.
This will make the whole experience better for you and the venue. And that increases your chances of being welcomed back.
Advancing your show acts as a contract with the venue. And if you’re an indie artist, there’s a good chance the venue will prefer you advance the show instead of signing a contract.
“Most venues with capacities under 600 don’t typically work with contracts,” writes Ari Herstand. “Especially when booking directly with the artist. Even if they do work with contracts, it takes way too long to send one over, have them sign it, send it back, and confirm everything.”
3 steps to properly advance and promote your show
Once you’re ready to advance a show, follow these three steps and you will have covered all of your bases.
Confirm the show (use your EPK)
Before you advance the show, you have to first confirm it with the venue. In the process of getting the gig, the venue will want to see your Electronic Press Kit (EPK). In fact, it’s probably one of the first things you’ll send them in the conversation to get the show.
It’s a good idea to customize your EPK specifically for the venue you’re sending it to, in order to ensure things go as smoothly as possible.
You’ll want to give yourself 3-4 weeks to hammer out all the details after confirming the show (see all the details you’ll need in the next section).
Send THE email (this is advancing the show!)
Once you’ve confirmed the show with the venue and worked out the details, the next step is to advance the show.
This basically means you send the talent buyer/booker/venue manager (whoever you’ve been communicating with) one final email with all of the details, asking them to confirm if everything is correct. If you don’t have or can’t find some of the details, point it out in the email.
This email is the contract.
According to Herstand, below are the details you need to confirm. A lot of these things are in your EPK, so include them in this email but also consider re-attaching (or linking to) your EPK.
What to include in the email to advance your show:
- Date
- City
- Venue
- Bill title
- Ages allowed
- Ticket cost
- Venue capacity
- Venue website
- Artist website
- Advance tickets link
- On sale date
- Tickets available at the box office: yes/no
- Box office phone number
- Box office hours
- Box office location
- Number of people allowed on the guest list
- Door time
- Set time(s)/length
- Curfew
- Artist compensation
- Drink/food deal
- Number of people traveling in band/crew
- Load-in time
- Load-in directions
- Soundcheck time
- Venue day-of contact phone number
- Sound engineer contact number/email
- Artist day-of contact phone number
- Venue address
- Parking instructions
- Misc instructions
- YouTube video of artist to embed on venue website (pull from your EPK)
- Promo bio (pull from your EPK)
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Do some promotion
After you’ve advanced the show and confirmed all the details, it’s time for some promotion. The venue will also promote it, but you need to put in some work too.
You obviously want to sell out the venue, so try these quick tips for promoting your show:
- Make it easy for fans to find the info and ticket link on your website
- Embed performance videos on your website and post them on social media
- Tell your email list about your show(s)
- If you’re touring, contact local media for promo help (radio stations, blogs, sites that list local events)
You want the logistics of each show or tour to go smoothly so you can focus on performing and engaging with your fans. This is why advancing your show is crucial. And an EPK can be a useful tool to help you advance your shows the right way.
