House Concerts
A house concert is a small intimate show done at someone’s private residence. It can be done in their living room, basement, backyard, or porch. These are unique shows that can potentially showcase your personal style like no other show. House Concerts also help you broaden your fanbase and are extremely lucrative. Depending on how many people are there and how good you are at selling yourself, you can make anywhere from $200-$1000 per house concert.
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Coffee Shops
Coffee shops are always looking for artists to come and serenade their guests. Some of them pay, some of them do not. The benefit to coffee shops is that you can book them easily, invite whomever you want, and get more exposure on your own terms.
Retirement Homes
These shows work best if you can do covers from the 20s and 30s. These are old folks who love their old music. If you can swing it, most Retirement Homes pay a decent amount to anyone who can come and entertain their residents.
Restaurants
This is a no brainer. If a restaurant presents music, then you have a chance at booking there. Pay attention to the kind of entertainment they like to offer. If they present beach music, and you perform jazz, you’ll never get in. But if your music style matches what they like to present, then you have a good chance at getting in. These gigs may take a little more lead time to get a solid booking because the restaurants often have regular entertainers on a rotation and may not be looking for new artists. However, things are always changing and other artists are always canceling. Keep in touch with the booker, send small gifts to keep yourself on their mind, and wait.
Wineries
Most wineries present live music, especially in the Spring, Summer, and early Fall. They often book a year in advance, so find out when they do their booking and follow-up when the time is right. You may not get the booking on the first go around, but keep in touch with them and eventually they will have an opening. Wineries offer paid gigs because they want to attract people to their venue and buy their wine. They see you as the honey to attract the “bee” patrons. As long as your music style matches what they are looking for and you have a good presentation, then you can make it happen. Create a list of wineries from a search engine or map and start sending e-mails.
Read 10 Must Haves for Your Artist Website
House Parties
Tap into your friends and family network and see if you can start doing a slew of house parties. These will probably not pay but, they will lead to something that does pay because guests at the parties will get to know you. When they have a party or know someone hosting a party they will remember you. Don’t forget to make a great impression, pass out your business cards, and get their e-mail addresses. Once you have their e-mail addresses start keeping in touch with them.
Corporate Events
There’s always an office party going on especially during the Holidays! Corporate events pay extremely well. They are often looking for a party band so they can dance. If you can offer that, you’re in business. Contact Human Resources, company event managers, or marketing managers. These are the people typically in charge of planning the fun stuff. Send them a postcard with your prices, style, pictures, and contact information about once or twice a year.
Special Events
In addition to corporate events, there’s always special events going on as well such as, Weddings, Galas, Awards Shows, Charity Events, Seminars, Conventions, and Retreats. Unless you do lots of large-scale advertising, your best bet at booking these kinds of shows is through word of mouth. The more people that know you, the more of these types of gigs you can get.
Apartment Events
High end apartments often put on events for their residents. They have a budget just for resident events and they sometimes offer live music at these events. They usually pay their performers! Send a postcard in the mail with your information, price, style, and contact information about twice a year. Once you do book at apartment events, try to get e-mail addresses from the residents because these are potential LOCAL fans that can come to your LOCAL shows, which is a big deal because it will help you with your draw.
College Shows
College shows pay extremely well. They can pay anywhere from several hundred dollars to thousands. Unfortunately, they are highly coveted and highly competitive. You really need a college booking agent to get college shows. A good college booking agent has already cultivated relationships with university contacts who are in charge of bringing entertainment to their student body. You will benefit from their networking which is why they are paid handsomely for what they do. If you don’t have a booking agent, you will just be spinning your wheels. Your time is better spent booking other types of shows that are much easier to land. If you want to try your luck though, contact the student activity boards and make your best pitch.
Farmers Markets
Don’t forget about Farmers Markets! Some of them do pay a little compensation, however you will get the most bang from your performance out of tips and merch sales. You can make over $100 at a Farmers Market if you are positioned in a crowded location, if there is seating near your performance area, and if you have good prices on your merch. What’s also cool is that they are usually on Saturday mornings, which can double your earning potential for that day because you can perform again that night somewhere else and get two shows in one day.
Art Galleries/Art Crawls
Art Galleries participate in monthly or weekly Art Crawls where they are open to the public for free and they make a party out of it by offering live music. Most of these gigs pay, some do not, but they all offer an opportunity to earn tip money and exposure. Keep your options open with these. Some galleries are great opportunities and some just aren’t.
Festivals/Music Series
Also, requiring a long lead time to book, festivals and music series are great gigs to add to your calendar if you can book them. They often book a year in advance and they are difficult to book. But, if you manage to book a festival or a music series, they pay very well. Plus, your earnings potential from merchandise can double your income.
Online Shows
Lots of artists are jumping on the bandwagon of hosting online shows. Some are live streaming and other online concerts are pre-recorded. Some artists even post their rehearsals online as well. Online shows have the potential to reach a worldwide audience and you can even use software tools like Google Hangouts, Skype, Stage It, etc. to host your show.
There are many ways to fill up your gigging calendar. Whether it’s a coffee shop show, and online show, or even busking, you can and should always have something on your calendar. The more shows you have, the more money you make. It’s easy to do, it just takes a little creativity, and thinking outside of the box. Also, a big part of your music career is following up with people. Learn how to follow-up so that you never miss out on an opportunity.
What gigs do you perform? How have you been able to diversify your gigging calendar?
