Hi people, I think it's great Rob has set up a forum to go with his excellent informative site I've enjoyed reading over the past several years.

Here's some tips I've learned along the way, I've played lots of gigs, helped promote, done sound engineering, made CD's etc and I hope these tips help other D.I.Y muso's.

I sell lots of CD's at gigs and very few on-line. Even if you just make a basic CD to sell at gigs that you can make on your PC people will happily buy this. For promoting gigs I stick posters up in record shops, cafe's, music shops, take aways and distribute fliers. I make posters and fliers up on the PC and print them off using a basic printer. We also have a mailing list for the band and send out e-mails and text messages before the gig. In Yorkshire where I'm from we use Alive.co.uk for gig listings, it's free to put gigs in their listings and makes a difference. They do listings for the whole of the UK.

The band also has a Myspace page where we get messages from promoters/venues/bands for gigs. We use it as a communication tool mainly and fans can check gig listings. I think having a Myspace page is quite important if you are playing live.

I think a great thing to do for any performing band/act is to network as much as possible. I'm not very good at this but am learning and the drummer in the band is excellent at networking so that helps! Open Mic nights are a great place to network and meet other musicians. After playing a gig these days I stick around for as long as possible to network and sell CD's. Business Cards are essential! You can get some free done up at VistaPrint, you just pay for posatge.

GETTING A GIG

In England if you want to play for free you can get a gig. Getting paid gigs is a bit harder ;-) There are even some places that charge bands to play, that's right, pay to play! This should NOT be happening but sadly is. At the very least we try and get fuel costs covered, if we play a gig for free/not very much and the place is very busy then we can make some cash on CD sales. When approaching venues/promoters for gigs here are some tips:
They expect you have a Myspace page with some honest demos on it (some venues have complained that they get demos from bands that are not a fair representation of how they sound live. They book them on the strength of their demo and they sound awful live!) If you are going to the venue then take a CD with you and maybe a little write up including brief biog, gig history and photos. When talking to them be clear and concise about what style of music you play and whether it's originals or covers or both. Some places like just covers, some places prefer original (we do both!) and some places like both. Have a business card with all your contact details on to give them. If you are doing the weddings/party/covers thing then a good tip is to pop your card into any of the large halls/clubs that put on weddings/parties and tell them what you do and that you are available to hire.

AT A GIG
Keep any comments you make to the audience/anyone else positive. Be rehearsed and have a set list. Mistakes don't matter, people want to see you enjoying yourself! Pump your CD (how many tracks, price). Try and network as much as possible. If it's a place I've never been to I like to find out if it's up any stairs and what the parking is like. It's amazing the amount of "venues" that don't have any parking! If you are playing at a night where there are more than 2 bands on, in England the headline act is expected to provide the drums. Of course many drummers are not happy about this. Above all enjoy it!

REMEMBER: CD's, Business Cards, Myspace, Promote, Network, Contacts List

One thing i would add...

Don't forget to put fliers on the tables at gigs you play. It's surprising how many bands miss this. With modern printing it's dirt cheep to knock up some home made fliers (quarter A4) giving details of your next gigs, website link, etc.

Of course most will end up trampled underfoot or used as beer mats, but one or two will be taken away... makes it worthwhile doing.

spot on!

Keep 'em coming!

good stuff.

re. having a myspace page, how come the music player is so crud though?
I uploaded the same mp3s to myspace and to Soundclick, and the Soundclick player is a lot clearer- the myspace player sounds like it's running on a lower bitrate.

so I've embedded a soundclick player on my myspace page with that set to play automatically instead of the myspace one (the other advantage being unlimited tracks).

And a proper website.

My Space is all fine and dandy, but you will need a proper website which showcases the act the way YOU want it to be presented.