Why Keep Track of Your Draw Diy Musician

Getting Booked at Music Festivals

Getting booked at music festivals is one of the most essential gigs for a musician to grow their fan base in the region. Playing a music festival is a great way to gain exposure. Because of this, there's a lot of competition for festival slots that are open to independent bands. To stand a chance of getting a spot, your live show must be memorable. To get your show where it needs to be, play live shows regularly to improve your chops and stage presence.

When you apply to a festival, you're not just selling your music or yourself — it's really your live show that festival promoters are interested in. Having a killer live show is a great way to get booked at music festivals.  The music industry is small, especially if you're active in your local scene. If you consistently put yourself out there as a professional act with a great live show, word will get around, and you'll have a better chance of being selected when you apply to festivals.

"Don't underestimate the power of social (and we mean more than just throwing your track online and setting up a Facebook page). Focus on developing your brand by creating interesting and engaging content for your fans, engaging with them, and making your music easily accessible for potential new fans." (AB, 2020)

Social Media plays a big part if a festival is going to book you. They look at the number of followers you have on various platforms. They also look at the live video you post. Make sure that looks as professional as it can be. The festivals gauge your interaction with your fans as well.

While it may seem like applying to every festival that's accepting submissions will increase your chances of getting booked, being selective is a much better approach. Value the promoter's time; be realistic about whether your music is suitable and if your band is ready for a festival draw.  Start your research several months in advance, and target festivals that are likely to book your genre of music. Find out where bands similar to yours have performed, and search festival directories for opportunities.  In other words, DO YOUR RESEARCH!Each festival books differently also each festival has a completely different theme your music isn't a fit for all festivals.

Package your pitch. Throw in that you are able to facilitate workshops on various topics. It helps to have videos and one-sheets about the topics you list to show you are knowledgeable in them. Festivals like to get more bang for their buck so if they can utilize you in other areas you become more valuable to them.

Use a spreadsheet or artist management software to stay organized and track progress on your target festival submissions. For each festival you're interested in, include information such as festival name, festival date, festival location, festival website, submission URL/contact info, submission deadline, submission fee, accepted/rejected notification, submitted [yes/no], accepted [yes/no], pay rate, additional notes.

Whether or not you are accepted, this information will help you keep track of your submissions. In the years to come, you can circle back to this spreadsheet and try again.

Finally, ​​add all of the important deadlines to your calendar and set reminders so that you don't miss out on any opportunities.

Create a press kit for your band to highlight these important elements that will help you book a music festival slot. A professional-looking, well-maintained EPK right on your artist website signals to festival promoters that you have your act together and that you're serious about your music career.

Once your basic application materials and digital press kit are ready, refer back to the spreadsheet you created to find out what each festival's requirements are for the submission process.

Note whether a festival requires an application via a custom form, or by email directly.

Find out whether they require a submission fee or supplementary materials. Each festival may require different materials, word counts, links, or a number of videos.

After you submit your application, the best thing you can do is sit back and wait to find out if you were selected. Do not pester an artistic director with emails asking if you've been booked, especially if they specified in the submission process to not contact them about it – it's a sure way to get blacklisted.

Don't get discouraged if you don't get booked at a music festival after submitting your first few applications. These kinds of gigs are highly sought after and are very competitive. Ask to be kept informed of other opportunities. Just because you didn't secure the gig this year, doesn't mean you won't in the future, especially if you continue to show that you're an up-and-coming artist with great music and a growing fanbase.

Focus on perfecting your live show, building your network in person and online, and play showcases, fairs, and other small venues while you work your way towards securing a festival spot. If you're persistent and put in the effort year after year, it will pay off toward getting you a music festival slot.

Finally, attend music-related conferences that relate to the type of music that you create. Such as Folk Alliance International and its regional conferences, Americana Festival, APAP|NYC+, SWSW,  etc. Networking is key in this industry and these conferences put you in the belly of the beast. In front of venue bookers, festival bookers, radio personalities, and more.

*video of Deli 2 Dublin shot at FAI 2018

References

AB, A. (2020, July 7). How to get booked for your first music festival. Amuse. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.amuse.io/content/how-to-get-booked-for-your-first-music-festival?cn-reloaded=1.

Make your event more inclusive

I wanted to give you a little background about myself.  I identify as a queer woman. I've been in the music industry since 2006. I've been a part of major festivals and venues booking artists to diversify lineups and venue audiences. This is what I love doing. I love engaging the community.

With that said, I also wanted to give you some background about this subject. Our folk venues are failing why? Because of the lack of diversity. When I attend shows I find myself to be the youngest person in the audience and I'm close to 40 years old. We need to change this to keep folk music alive. You may ask how are we going to change this? Well, we as a community need to start booking more diverse artists, Younger artists, women, LGTBQA+ artists, members of the BIPOC community. With this, their audience will show up buy tickets, and support the artist they came to see. They will also become a fan of your venue/festival if you continue to add these artists in your rotation. What is the BIPOC community you ask? BIPOC is standing for "Black and Indigenous people of color."  You also many say, "but I don't know any of these artists, I only book artists that I've seen live." I've heard all of this before. You aren't the listening audience the audience is. The best way to start booking is to work with someone who is involved with this community. They will know their audience and who to go to for community outreach.

In a conversation with Mya Byrne "It's not enough to say "we are inclusive." Make a commitment to adding voices outside of the usual selection processes. Make a commitment to having people who fall outside of the usual binary categories front and center." Mya also went on to give an example of what an inclusive festival should look like "Let's say there are 10 spots. Two of those should be for trans women / transfeminine nonbinary people. At least two of those spots should be for other folks who fall outside of the white, cis, and often male categories."

Venues, need to look at what their goals are. What do they want to present? What type of crowd do they want to draw? Those are just a few questions they need to ask when curating their season. Just because you don't know how to market a certain type of group doesn't mean to exclude them. The artist that you are booking may have general knowledge of the area and can help you with promotion. Remember it's not just you that's helping you market these events it's also the artist as well. "Also, remember queerness is family-friendly excluding queer individuals because of who they are is unfair and discriminatory."   (Byrne, 2021)

Newport Folk Festival, Folk Alliance International, and MerleFest have made it a mission and a point to be inclusive to queer artists and BIPOC artists. They have worked on their lineup for the last several years to include such notable artists as Brandi Carlile, Mavis Staples, Allison Russell, Brittney Spencer, Amythyst Kiah, and many more. Folk Alliance International in particular has made values known  "FAI values diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, strives to ensure gender parity in all its programming, celebrates multiple languages and cultures, and actively welcomes participation from marginalized, disenfranchised, and underrepresented communities." (Alliance, 2021)  I recently had a conversation with Jennifer Roe the Director of Operations at Folk Alliance International who said "We have standards in place regarding gender diversity for our official showcases and panel programming. FAI is committed to the key change initiative, which is 50/50 for gender." Because of these organizations taking this initiative we are getting recognized in the world.

Festivals need to do some serious thinking about becoming inclusive. "It's not enough to say "we are inclusive." Make a commitment to adding voices outside of the usual selection processes. Make a commitment to having people who fall outside of the usual binary categories front and center."  (Byrne, 2021)

Whether your event aims to attract all types of people or serve a particular or marginalized crowd, they share a common objective: to build community. And the best communities consist of all different kinds of people, across gender lines, age demographics, racial designations, and levels of physical ability. Creating more diversity and inclusion at your events is a noble pursuit. But it has to be backed up with a practical business plan and a grounded strategy. Yes, you'll probably fail at some things. But in the end, when you help create a more diverse and inclusive world through your events, everybody wins and community will be gained.

References

Grady, C. (2020, June 30). Why the term "bipoc" is so complicated, explained by linguists. Vox. Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21300294/bipoc-what-does-it-mean-critical-race-linguistics-jonathan-rosa-deandra-miles-hercules.

M. Byrne, personal communication, (September 18, 2021).

Alliance, F. (2021, May 6). About folk ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL. Folk Alliance International. Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://folk.org/about/.Jennifer Roe, personal communication, (September 18, 2021)

Live streaming isn't going to be replacing live in-person shows. But it is going to be offering your fans an additional option to attend if they don't live in the city or near the location you are performing. Live streaming isn't going away.

Music fans want video content more than ever right now.

• Regularly scheduled live streams allow you to showcase different songs in your catalog and other parts of your artistry, like the stories behind your songs.
• Native video (content that lives ON the platform, rather than linking out to another platform) is favored algorithmically.
• Many platforms alert your audience whenever you go live.
• Recurring live streams give you multiple opportunities to offer merch and share news announcements without seeming sales-y.
• The ease with which you can generate content through live streams provides a steady presence on social media without you needing to create other unique posts or other content on your channels.
• Live-streamed content can easily be chopped up later into shorter posts and videos.
• Live streams can work in tandem with the ads you're running on social media so brand new fans can connect quickly with your music on a deeper level.

Things to include on your website (separate page)

• Photos
  • 2-3 High res photos one each of landscape and portrait
• Bio
  • a brief bio, and one no longer than 300 words.
• Press Quote
• Links to a good quality live YouTube video. Include a few, one live stream from home, and one live stream from a venue if possible.
• Downloadable blank PDF poster with space for a venue to write in their information for the show.
• Links to previous streamed concerts.
• Lists of previously streamed concerts with notes if they were in conjunction with a venue.
• Average numbers of live stream attendance on each platform you streamed to.
• What live stream equipment do you use? List all equipment you use to live stream.
  • Microphone (USB or XLR), cameras, audio interface.
• Your lighting setup (photos of)
• What platforms do you use to stream? StreamYard, Restream, Twitch.

What is Monetizing?

While Facebook might be most accessible for your audience, there are high eligibility requirements to monetize your streams and makes direct earnings.Twitch , however, has financial incentives for building an audience on its platform. You can take advantage of their built-in tipping if you stream enough in a month and become an Affiliate, which is also more accessible thanYouTube's tipping feature that unlocks at 1000 subscribers. You can bypass these steps with software such asStreamlabsby using their easily-setup widgets and links for fans to donate directly to your PayPal account.

Broadcasting software

Broadcasting software such asOBS orStreamlabs also, StreamYard and Restream.  Allow you to stream to multiple platforms from your phone or computer (simulcasting) and lets you stick to one process across all platforms. Streamlabs is relatively straightforward to use, giving you tight control over your audio, vision, and your platforms' respective chats, with additional features such as graphic overlays, tip-jars, and remote control.

Audio

Whatever you do musically, you'll need to mix your sources of audio down to stereo channels before going into your PC or phone. This often requires microphones, cables, an interface, and a mixer. Asmartphone mixercan be a quick-and-easy way to stream smaller arrangements and USB-compatible mixers are a cost-effective solution to multitrack streaming. If your streams are less musical in nature but you want more control than your EarPods, you can use your broadcaster software's inbuilt audio mixer to, for example, mix your PC's internal audio with a USB microphone.

WIFI Connection

Make sure your connection is solid: Fans are going to get annoyed if spotty wifi means your live music set cuts out every 3 minutes. Streaming quality is best on a stable, wired internet connection — otherwise, make sure you have serviceable Wi-Fi and run some tests before going live.

References and for more information

FARM Virtual Connections: Tuesday Tech Talk on Streaming EPK. (2020). FARM Virtual Connections: Tuesday Tech Talk on Streaming EPK. Retrieved September 15, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKczJrxQ9CU.

Baker , L., & Swan , B. (2021, August 19). SERFA session: Do you have your sepk available? Retrieved September 15, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imNKsoZUPxk.

Creating an electronic press kit to showcase your music and your online presence has never been more important.  Adding your EPK to your website means that you can coordinate content across all of your pages. This keeps your style and substance consistent across both your website and your EPK.

The first step you need is to decide the purpose of this EPK. You'll want to make it as easy as possible for a promoter, blogger, or radio station to promote your music. Choose to create an EPK for media, a Onesheet for radio, an EPK for venues, or a general EPK.

You'll want to add the following to an electronic press kit:

A quote:Something that describes your sound, or your draw – from the media, or a previous booker.

A bio:Write a musician bio that includes a few sentences about yourself, a description of your music, and your current achievements. Great to include a long bio and a short 300 word bio as well.

Music: Select your newest tracks, most popular tracks, or tracks from the album you're promoting.

Photos: Add hi-resolution images. Be sure to offer a variety of options, from live shots to posed band pictures. Have a few different sizes as well (landscape, portrait, and square).

Video: Choose your best video, keeping in mind it may be re-used online to show what your band looks and sounds like.

Contact: Make it easy for a media person or booker to reach you.

Social media links: Add your social media icons for the platforms you're most active on, limited to 3 or 4.

Other things to think about adding to your EPK would be stage plots and tech riders. After this is all created and is live you can send out the dedicated page link with everything needed to promote your show or a new album.  The promoters will have an easier time putting together press stuff and images for your show.

some examples of great online EPKs are:

Jaimee Harris:   https://www.jaimeeharris.com/epk

Wendy Colonna  https://wendycolonna.com/bio/

Shelley King  https://www.shelleyking.com/epk-1

(Bailey, 2017)

References

Bailey, K. (2017, October 6). Home. Conquer Entertainment. https://www.conquerentertainment.com/epks-electronic-press-kit/.

Why Keep Track of Your Draw Diy Musician

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