Leverage Points in Your Music Business

Last month, I did a "case study" on how to leverage time and get more done using Twitter (follow me).  In short, this was to show people how to get the most of their time.

Today I going to talk about leverage in another area of your music business, your live show.  You're playing live, which more or less is the same work from gig to gig, regardless of whether you're playing to ten people or 10,000 people.

The issue is promotion.  Getting 10,000 people to a show is usually a lot more effort than getting ten people to a show.

What can you do to make this easier?  Find the "leverage point."  In other words, the sweet spot where you get the most bang for your buck.

Just picked up one of the weekly entertainment papers we have in Nashville.  As usual, it's full of live music.

Over the last few years, as the entertainment market has gotten more saturated with options.  Not only do we have more musicians than ever, we've also got more non-music options-- more movies to watch, more television channels, more radio stations, and more video games.  It's getting harder and harder for new bands to break.

In the last ten years, "tribute" bands have become more and more popular.  A big reason for this is because promotion is easier.  In short, people have already heard the songs being played, so you have one less step in order to get them to come see a live performance of those songs.

In the current paper I have...

- The Breakfast Club (80s Tribute)
- Wrong Way (Tribute to Sublime)
- Christie's Ex (Tribute to Billy Joel)
- Big Wooly Mammoth (Tribute to Widespread Panic)

And that's just one club.

This is an example of a leverage point.  And it's even more powerful than most, since it's already been established in a huge way.

Billy Joel has a huge fanbase. Sublime has a huge fanbase.

Every band, musician, and songwriter has points of leverage within their businesses.  Every one...not just the tribute acts.

What can you align yourself with which will allow you to get more leverage from your promotion? 

Examples...

- charities
- geography
- musical style
- sexual orientation
- race or ethnicity

Post examples in the comments section.  If you're doing something creative, I'll feature you here, on my radio show, or elsewhere.

Comments

[Heron Demarco]

My name is Heron Demarco

I’m 1/3 of a hip hop/rock band named Silent Disorder. Think Linkin Park, but edgier or Rage Against the Machine with a bit more of a hip hop twist to it. Our message is opposites balancing each other out to make a sensible whole. Hip Hop and Rock, The Burbs and the Ghetto, Chaos and Order.

We’re from NY. I’m the emcee/guitarist and my playing style has been referred to Hendrix meets Metallica, my bass player John is a mixture of Flea and Cliff Burton.
While my drummer Cabes’ style has been called retro metal with a hip hop spin.

They’re two Caucasians from the Suburbs, while I’m an African American from the inner city. Not too many bands are exploring the style we’ve perfected for ourselves and it’s a bit tough trying to find the right platform for media coverage etc, but we’re slowly gaining the right following.

You can check us out here: http://www.myspace.com/indisorderwetrust

Or follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/HeronDemarco

[chantilly]

one thing that i'm trying to do is combine my love of music and vintage fashion :) i've seen lots of vintage sellers use this method to hype their online store with success: i take pictures of my outfits, and post them to groups on flickr, with a link to my music site. on days when i post on flickr and i have a high volume of views, i also notice a spike in myspace plays.

also, i'm a thrift store hound, so i like to post finds in thrift groups on livejournal (where my personal blog is.) as with the flickr groups, if people consistently see that you post interesting things, then you become interesting to THEM. they start to check out the sites on your profile to see what else you do, then hopefully become interested in your music as well :)

i like these methods because they're a visual bridge to you as an artist, and also because it's not so saturated with other musicians. it's not like i'm sitting there with a thousand other bands on myspace screaming "HEY, LOOK AT ME. I'M A MUSICAN. COME SEE ME AT XXX CLUB ON XXX DATE. COME CHECK ME OUT." people hate that. if you contribute compelling material to a community, they will seek YOU out.

and lastly, i'm thinking of attaching my name to my very own online vintage boutique on ebay or etsy. i figure it is a nice little cross-promotion, and may also pad my pockets with some extra cash ;)

[The Redding Brothers]

I set out to create a set of amazing New Year's Resolutions.

My idea was that most little resolutions get forgotten soon - but if we shot for big, exciting things, maybe we'd be inspired and excited enough to go out and achieve them.

So this year, I decided to put together the BIG things I wanted to do. A small group of us got together, and we wrote down all our craziest ideas.

We made it a group effort - and our list of resolutions includes getting accepted to Yale, eating breakfast with our favorite authors, and becoming experts at the game of Go.

To help us do it, we even set up a group blog. The full list of ambitious resolutions is here:

http://TheResolutionBegins.com/

The great thing about these resolutions is that anyone is welcome to help us complete one, add one to the list, or take on a huge challenge themselves. People are adding new resolutions every day.

I've set out to become a master of Kabbalah, my brother-in-law is documenting his attempt to get into Yale, and one person has started recording her efforts to have "52 memorable Tuesdays".

This is already getting a little press attention, and is drawing in all kinds of people who otherwise might not be involved with us. I think the attention and interest will keep building, helping us to accomplish more and more of these goals.

And this whole crazy ambitious effort will showcase just who we are, and what our music is all about.

-Micah

[HappyRon]

The concept of Leverage Points is really interesting and something I haven't heard discussed much, though it's something we all strive for. I think it's a concept that should be developed more.
The "local angle" is something that comes naturally for me, as I've lived in San Diego all my life and my first album, Terribly Happy, features 22 musicians, all but two are from San Diego and is a community effort.

Interestingly enough, i just wrote a song called "If You're Bored In San Diego, it's your fault" I made a quick midi demo and posted it to my webpage, www.happyron.com . About a week later an article appeared about me and in the local San Diego reader and the online edition had a comment from the author about that very song, which I haven't even performed yet or recorded professionally. It's in the article "Happy Ron's 1000th open mike" up now on www.happyron.com

Thanks for all the great stuff on your site.