Why Musicians Need To Work Together
Working with other artists can be an incredibly valuable practice when it comes to growing your fanbase. Here we look several great techniques, from swapping shows to promoting fellow bands on a playlist, that you and other artists can use to help one another gain greater success.
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By Jonathan Sexton, CEO of Bandposters
Your band has no problems that more fans wouldn’t fix. Fans are the lifeblood of your business. I’ve read all about the 1000 true fans theory, and even though that isn’t a perfect science, I agree with the theory. My cofounder Mike Fabio always says that DIY is a myth. I don’t totally agree with him, but we do agree is that if DIY goes REALLY well, then you get the industry’s attention and move on from there .
So how do you make it go REALLY well. One key thing is building a fanbase in more towns than just your hometown. I always found that finding bands like mine (same similar size and style) in another home town was a TREMENDOUS asset. So, the purpose of this post is to give you a few ideas about how you can work together with other bands in ways that are mutually beneficial.
1) Show Swap
This is the most obvious one, but it’s the most obvious because it works. Find a band in another city and invite them to open for you in your hometown. Expose your fans to them and they will usually return the favor having you open for them in your hometown. The main problem with this model is that it doesn’t scale, it’s hard to swap shows with bands in 16 cities and have 16 hometown gigs to offer, however, one great way to fix this is to throw a 2 or 3 night festival in your home court venue. You headline every night and have 2 or 3 bands open for you, always good to throw in some upcoming locals on the bill too, this is a great way to build up some “credits” with bands from out of town, and promote yourself to boot.
2) Email Swap
I am assuming if you are reading this you have a monthly email list that goes out to your fans, if not, start now. Usually these email newsletters are full of upcoming tour dates, merch sales, news, or new music releases, but what if you started a small segment of your newsletter dedicated to sharing with your fans about some of the bands you are playing with on the road, obviously you don’t want your newsletter to become about everyone else’s band, but this is a simple and effective way to get yourself in front of a bunch of new fans who are likely interested in learning about your band. Give a little, get a lot.
3) Playlists
Similar to your email blast, make a Spotify (or other) playlist of all the bands you’ve been playing with and keep it updated, your music loving fans would be thrilled to have a new “mixtape” curated by you, and you can be sharing all the great music you are hearing on the road. THEN, get your partner bands to do the same thing and share it with their fans.
4) Make Venue Introductions
One great way to partner with a bands is trading contacts. Know a great college radio station you can swap for a contact from another band? Good friends with the local venue owner, make an introduction on behalf of a good band, and they will be more than willing to do the same for you, and then once they get the show booked, round up a group of people and go to the show. You’ll be shocked at how willing others are to help if you are willing to give a little.
Pro Tip
When an out of town band is opening for you, and you set up the gig. Stand up front and watch their set. Your fans will follow and it’s a great relationship builder. I’ll never forget the time I played in Bowling Green, KY with the biggest local band there, these guys pulled 500 people to the show, they had everyone they knew there and instead of talking and drinking with their crowd, they stood right up front for our entire set and THEN asked us to sit in on a few songs during their set.
We made a lot of new fans that night, because of the hospitality showed by those guys. It was a super pro move.
Give a little, Give a lot
