So I have been attending and helping out the newly forming San Antonio Music Coalition. We wanted this to be a forum for musicians to be able to get together and work together to help make our music scene better. I as a musician am tired of dealing with promoters, club owners and other bands that don’t come through with their part of the bargain when we fulfill ours. We have never really had a problem with us getting paid (although a lot of bands do). Every band that I have been in (including Ledaswan) works really hard. We do a lot of promotion and try to get as much press as possible for every show we play. We are not ones to just get on a show and post once on Myspace the day of the show. That is not promotion. I don’t even know what you would call that. It’s even less than laziness, and if thats your band, then you pretty much deserve not getting paid and no one coming to see you. I told someone recently, if you are not willing to work at it and give it over 100% , then maybe you should ask yourself is this really what you want to be doing. That means, not only internet promotion, but handing out flyers, putting up posters, putting out CD singles, etc…You will sleep less because of it and it may affect your day job (staying out till 2am when you have to work at 8am). But they call it paying your dues for a reason.
When you first start your band and play your first show all your friends come out and you have this great crowd. But your friends will only be there for the first couple shows and then they will show up sporadically, so you can’t depend on them. If you do, then you will find yourself playing shows with not many people there. This is why promotion is so important. You can have the best music, but people cannot know to come see you if they have never heard of you. When you win over a music fan and they really like your music, the next time they come they are most likely to bring at least one friend and that’s when you start growing your fan base. I like to say that my band has grown our fan base one person at a time. Most of my friends don’t really come out to our shows that often. They come out when they can, they’ve seen us so many times I guess. Usually we are focused on keeping the crowds we do have and gaining at least one more fan each time.
I’d like to think 2009 is off to a good start. We have a new president, new hope, and really weird Texas weather.
