Our 3 Steps to Book More Gigs post has some great general advice on how to approach venues, but if you’ve never actually booked a gig before, you might need a little extra help landing that very first one.
A great place to start is an open mic night in your area. On top of getting experience in front of a live audience, this gives you the chance to:
Network with other local musicians. There’s a chance you could land a gig as if another artist has an emergency or needs an opening act.
Record a demo video of you performing. Ask a friend to help and make it as high quality as possible. If you’ll be posting it on YouTube, make sure it’s filmed horizontally.
Get to know the open mic night venue owners. There’s a good chance they use open mic night to scout talent for paid gigs at the venue.
Look outside of “traditional” venues for opportunities to play. Bars, restaurants, and clubs may be looking to book more established acts, but there are plenty of other events that might love to have you play, including:
Local store openings
Community festivals
School fundraisers
Charity events
Create your own gig! Host an in-person party–or even a virtual event–and play a short show for family and friends.
Ask friends to take video and photos and to share them on social media
For virtual events, ask viewers to comment in the live chat
Once you do book your first gig, promote, promote, promote yourself! Post on Facebook, email your family, text your friends–let everyone know when and where you’ll be playing and how much their support means to you.
Show up prepared. Have a set list ready, and if you take requests, have a song list ready for people to choose from. If you’d like to see how our free artist tool NextSong can remove the awkwardness of requests for songs you don’t play, set up a demo with us.
Bring your a-game to the performance! The best way to book a second gig is to play a fantastic first gig, so make this one count.
Check out the rest of the tips on our 3 Steps to Book More Gigs post to learn how to follow up after your first gig–and how to book your second! And third . . . and fourth . . . and . . .