Posted on: Feb 12, 2016
You have partied hard, played harder and studied the heck out of the band you cover, and now you just want to get booked – or, more likely, get booked consistently.
If that is the case, it might be time to put down the guitar, escape band practise and instead of studying the band you cover start studying how to advertise and start promoting your band as well as playing in it. To help you do exactly that, here are three top tips for landing shows as a covers band.
Advertise Online
One of the most fantastic things about the internet is the scope to advertise and promote just about anything – and all for free. Of course, the downside of being able to do that is that, well, just about everybody is doing it.
So to try and keep things upbeat, no pun intended, and ensure your covers band gets noticed and booked, and in favour of any others also out there – create some killer videos and upload them wherever you can. Whilst they might not instantly go viral, they will almost certainly get seen. For some top tips as to making the biggest impact with a video created via a small budget, give the advice provided via the Evolver FM website a read.
Speaking of social media sites, if you haven’t already, you need to accept the reality – that is, you need to create a Facebook account. Ideally, you should also sign up to Twitter via which you regularly post pithy allusions, trivia, jokes, upcoming gigs and all things relating to your own band and the band they cover.
Offline Advertising
Social Media is not the only way to get some free promo though. So, get onto local newspapers, ring in to your local radio stations and even consider calling in at the local library.
Yes, really; many public libraries in England and the UK now are not just a place where loud folk get shushed by bespectacled librarians (if they ever really were). In fact, a lot of libraries now regularly put on gigs and events and endeavour to support all things arts, music and happening in the community. So, it is worth enquiring. After all, libraries being a hub for a lot of communities, even if they refuse to let you stage a gig, they may well be able to offer some suggestions or contacts, as well as agree to let you put up a poster or flyer.
Speaking of posters and flyers, have some good quality and carefully thought out ones made, preferably professionally via a company like Poster My Wall. Poster My Wall specialise in creating and printing band flyers and posters and can even help you with the design and take them into local pubs, clubs, bars, coffee shops and anywhere you can think of. Cafes and the likes attract a lot of different people (everybody needs to eat and drink), meanwhile building rapports with local business owners and even potential venue owners is never a bad idea. Plus, you can spend as long as you want poking people via Facebook and Tweeting about why you are the best cover band out there, or even practising set lists, but without working on your people skills and making contacts in the community, it is unlikely you will ever get booked, or regularly at least.
Get Signed
It is easy to advise a band to get signed, but as most bands will no doubt already know or have experienced, getting signed to a label (especially for as a covers band) can prove tricky, if not downright unlikely. So, whilst sending demos to Sony or Simon Cowell might not hurt, it sadly might not achieve much either.
Fortunately, there are alternatives out there, or at least outfits that can massively improve a band’s chances of getting booked, and even noticed by a label eventually. Hence, signing up to an Entertainment Agency such as Band Hire UK, is by far one of the most savvy decisions a cover band can make.
Category: general
Posted on: Jan 22, 2016
As any self–respecting music tech geek will know, this week sees the world’s biggest music equipment trade show take place in Anaheim, California.
The 2016 NAMM Winer Show kicked off yesterday (Thursday) and will be running until Sunday, and we’ve already seen some pretty exciting stuff announced, and we’re glad to say that we will be bringing much of it to you!
Here’s a selection of some of the exciting new stuff we’ll we stocking soon!
Yamaha have revived their Recording Custom range of drums which have been designed over the last three years by renowned session drummer Steve Gadd.
The new series will come with a number of new features, such as a range of metal shells for the snare drums, 100% birch shells and 30-degree bearing edges.
On the electric side of the drumming spectrum, we’ll also be stocking the new Alesis Strike Zone kits.
The company claim that the kits will play just like an acoustic, blending the best of both worlds.
The kits will contain 200 kits as well as over 1,000 instruments and on-board sampling capability.
Fender have come out with a new range of guitar amps, consisting of nine different models.
The long rumoured range builds on the old Bassman design, and encourages guitarists to “explore the dark side” and experience “Fender DNA with a twist”.
The amps range from seven-watts to 45-watts and we look forward to giving them a test drive!
We’ll also be stocking the new range of amps from Ashdown, which builds upon the original Rootmaster series.
The preamp now includes a passive and active input jack socket, for use with high and low input instruments.
And the new RM0500 EVO Head now comes with a 500W power sectioned designed to maintain a deep low end, defined mids and transient highs.
They’re more known for their guitars, but Fender have announced they’re entering the headphone market, acquiring the high-end headphone company Aurisonics who aim their products at professional musicians and audiophiles.
As such they’re at the more expensive end of the market, ranging from $100-$500.
Fender scanned thousands of ears to make sure that the headphones feel like a custom fit for the majority of listeners!
Among Radial’s announcements was a new DI box, described as “the world’s first Dante-enabled DI box.”
The DiNET DAN-RX includes a 24bit/96kHz digital to analogue endpoint that allows the user to output audio from a Dante network to stereo systems.
It also enables instruments or line level sources to be connected directly to networked audio systems using the Dante protocol.
Allen & Heath have extended their ZED series of mixers with the new ZED Power 1000.
The new 2x500w mixer comes with on-board FX, a nine band graphic EQ and USB recording playback.
Best of all the new mixer only weighs in at 103kg, and comes with a robust carry handle which will make it easy to transport and set up no matter what the gig or venue.
All of these great products are just from the first day of the event so we’ll be sure to keep you posted on our news feed, Twitter and Facebook if we see anything else that we’re likely to be getting in stock!
Category: products
Posted on: Jan 20, 2016
The New Year is like a second Christmas for us music equipment lovers, as January brings with it the annual NAMM show.
The world’s largest music products trade show will be heading to Anaheim, California from January 21st to 24th.
NAMM stands for the National Association of Music Merchants and attracts dealers and distributors as well as big name musicians from around the world to exhibit the very latest in music gear.
The show has been running since 1901, and nowadays pulls in attendances of around 100,000 people from 137 countries around the world.
2016 is set to be the biggest NAMM yet, with over 1,600 companies exhibiting their wares, representing over 5,100 brands, so we’re eager to see what exciting new stuff comes out of the show!
So what are we hoping to see? Well some stuff has already been teased, such as a new flagship synth from Yamaha called the ‘Montage’.
They’ve released a teaser video which you can see below, but unfortunately it doesn’t give much away!
Also on the synthesizer front, Korg recently revealed their new Minilogue, so we’ll be hoping to see more of that, and we may see announcements from Roland and Behringer too.
IK Multimedia are rather puzzlingly promising to show us a “revolutionary mastering product”, but again the details are very scarce so we’ve no idea what to expect on that one!
We’ll also probably be seeing the exciting new CDJ-2000NXS2 DJ deck and DJM-900NXS2 mixer from Pioneer which we highlighted recently.
We’ll be keeping a keen eye on the show for any exciting new products that we might be likely to see coming over here soon, and will be sure to keep you updated with any hot new products that we’ll be looking to stock.
Stay tuned to our news feed for any further news!
Category: products