presents:

The Indie Musician’s

ULTIMATE GUIDE
to Booking Great Gigs

Designed by Lisa Occhino • Edited by Lisa Occhino and Allison Boron

Contributions from Dylan Welsh, Sam Friedman, and Jhoni Jackson
You’ve spent hours and hours honing your live set to perfection, and now
you’re finally ready to start the process of booking your first gig. Or maybe
you’ve played a few shows already, but it seems that your same group of
friends are the only people showing up. It’s easy to stagnate in this spot for
a while, so how do you take your gigs to the next level?

There’s a ton of information out there about how to promote your gigs,
but none of that matters unless you’re actually booking great gigs in the
first place. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through exactly
what it takes to get booked, how to find great gigs, and how to pitch ven-
ues like a pro. Let’s get started!

WHAT IT TAKES TO GET BOOKED
Start early to increase your chances
Good gigs take time to organize – time not only
to promote, but also to secure the right date and
find the right bands to share the bill with. When
trying to fill up your gig calendar, it’s a good idea
to expand your scope in terms of time frame.
Venues, especially popular ones, have calendars
that fill up quickly. Same with popular bands that
tend to draw well. The further out you start your
booking process, the more likely that the dates
and bands that you ideally want to play with will
be available. Start talking to people about shows
at least three months in advance. This requires
some patience, but the payoff is absolutely worth
it.
Recordings that represent your sound
What does your band sound like? If you’re a folk
band or acoustic singer-songwriter, you probably
don’t want to end up in the awkward position of
having your set sandwiched into a metal/hard
rock night. But if the booker has no way of know-
ing what sort of music you play, you can hardly
blame him or her.
Once you have a set together and are ready to
book shows, your top priority should be getting
samples of your sound together. Descriptions of
music are often interpreted completely different-
ly from individual to individual. When a venue
gets your email about wanting to play, one of the
first things they’ll want to know is what you sound
like. When answering, there’s no substitute for a
recording. Even lo-fi basement demos are better
than nothing. This will allow you to play better
shows in the long run, as it’ll be much easier to
match you with other similar groups.  
An active social media presence
Do you promote your shows, and if so, how? Ven-
ues and booking agents will be checking into your
social media to see how active you are about pro-
motion, as well as how engaged your audience is.
Social media should not be your only means of
promotion, but it should be one of your top pri-
orities regardless. If you put up posters for your
shows, make sure to take a picture or video of
you doing so and post it around! Better yet, have
a competition among your fans to see who can
put a poster in the most creative place, with the
winner receiving a free CD or merch of some kind.

Booking Great Gigs Page 2

Electronic press kit HOW TO FIND GREAT GIGS
If you aren’t familiar with the term “press kit,” Conduct (smart) research
it’s essentially a collection of materials that really
sets you apart from bands that are less serious
The first step to keeping a busy gig calendar is
about making a career. Think of it as your resume.
doing your research. You need to know at least
If you have one, send it to venues or promoters,
a few places to play in as many towns as you can
as it’ll have all of the information they want gath-
look into. This can definitely be a daunting and te-
ered in one place.
dious task, but if you spend a little time updating
A great press kit contains: your database every day, you’ll have a great list in
no time.
• Bio
Start with your own town. List out all of the ven-
• Press photos ues you’ve played and organize their names and
• Favorite press quotes (if you have any) information (phone number, hours, style of mu-
sic, size, anything you can think of) into an Excel
• Recordings spreadsheet. Then move on to other venues in
• Videos your town that you know of but haven’t played
yet. Every time you hear about a new venue in
• Gig calendar with both past and upcoming town that might be a good fit for you, throw it on
performances the list.
• Links to your website and social media Then, start looking into venues in other towns
• Contact information around yours, especially ones that cater to your
style of music. One of the easiest ways to do this
• Your stage plot/input list (if possible) is to look up touring artists who play a similar
Creating an electronic press kit on Sonicbids is by kind of music as you and see where they play. Do
far the easiest way to take care of all this, and this with enough artists and you’ll start to uncov-
it’s the number-one most preferred EPK by pro- er which venues are the most popular for your
moters and talent buyers, since everything is pre- style of music in all sorts of towns.
sented in one neat package and no time has to be And don’t forget – Sonicbids makes it super easy
wasted with downloading files. Plus, when you to find gig opportunities near you, so using the
send your Sonicbids EPK to your contacts, you get search tools will help you fill up your venue data-
stats on who’s opened it and clicked it – a huge base even faster!
advantage to have when you’re booking gigs!
Here’s an example of the information you should
Outside of all the gig opportunities you can get include in your spreadsheet for each venue you’re
through Sonicbids, another nice benefit is that interested in playing:
you can use the process of designing your EPK as
a guide to making your band’s online presence Venue Name
more professional – which can realistically lead Address: xxxxxxxx
Phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
to many more gig opportunities in the future.
Booking Email: xxxxxx@xxxxx.com
General Email: xxxxxxx@xxxxx.com
Website: xxxxxxxxxxx.com
Hours: Mon-Fri: xxxx AM-xxxx PM
All Ages: Yes/No/Sometimes
PA System: Yes/No

Booking Great Gigs Page 3

Network with other bands every
chance you get
During your venue research time, spend some
time looking up other bands in your genre. Try
to reach out to a new group every day. If you’re
starting to get familiar with a lot of the bands in
your hometown, start reaching out to bands in
the nearby cities you’re researching. Having the
help of popular local groups makes breaking into
a new market in a new town much, much easier.
Oftentimes, house shows and other obscure,
popular venues will only be accessible through
getting to know other local bands. Facebook is a
great tool for this!
Pro tip: Use the advanced filters on Sonicbids
Band Search to find exactly the kind of bands
you’re looking for in your hometown, nearby
cities, or cities in which you’d like to tour.
Explore your local music scene
The number-one way to find out where you want
to gig and whom you want to gig with is to simply
go out and see shows. See as many shows as you
can in your local area. If you see a band that you
really like and feel meshes with your sound, go up
to them after the show, compliment their sound
and performance, and introduce yourself. It’s rare
that someone will reject a compliment and blow
you off after a performance. So, be brave and ap-
proach new people you admire and would like to
work with. What’s important is that you follow up
after the initial introduction. Send an email the
following day refreshing your brief conversation,
and include links to your music.
This same process applies to venues. Explore all
of the bars, theaters, concert halls, etc. that your
city has to offer. If you find a venue that you’re
particularly attracted to, talk to the employees
there. Ask them how musicians usually book gigs
there, and see if you can talk with or get a con-
tact for their booking manager. Establish a con-
nection and present yourself professionally. Let
them know you love their venue with specific ex-
Booking Great Gigs
amples of shows you have enjoyed and what you
actually like about the place. Don’t go on a long
suck-up rant about how amazing they are, but be
genuine.
It’s incredibly important for any musician to ex-
plore his or her local music scene and see shows
often. If you don’t go out to support your music
scene, how can you expect others to support you?
HOW TO PITCH VENUES
When sending a booking inquiry to a venue or
booking agent who’s never heard of your band,
that first impression might be your last. A truly
terrible email has the potential to permanently
turn off the attention of those in charge straight
away, rendering the awesomeness of your music
pretty useless.
The most important thing to understand about
booking, then, is that you’ve got to hit every mark
at that first gateway. Warranting their attention
from the start is the first and most important step
in landing a gig.
Check out what David Virr, a talent buyer at T.T.
the Bear’s in Boston, has to say below. We’ve
condensed his input into two crucial tips, both of
which are applicable in any booking inquiry.
Leave out the fluff
“What I like best is when a band gives me all of
the pertinent information up front, without any
unnecessary stuff. I don’t care if your guitarist has
been playing since age six or that you heard the
venue is a nice place to play,” Virr says.
He adds, “Feel free to mention your subgenres,
local bands you’re friendly with, relevant press
coverage (i.e., press in Boston area or national
media), information relevant to your draw (i.e.,
drummer grew up locally, guitarist formerly of
this once-popular band). Make communicating
with your band as easy as possible, and you might
just get a gig over an equally qualified band that
either tried to give their life story, or didn’t give
enough information.”
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Never request a date without look- 3. Fill the bill
ing at the venue’s calendar first Have a plan of action. Who else will play the
show? “Having an entire bill in mind is always a
“Look at our calendar first,” says Virr. “If you ask good start,” Hare says. “It shows the artists are
for Saturdays, that means you didn’t look at our proactive and really have their mind set to put on
calendar and see that we have a weekly residen- a great show for all involved.”
cy that night. Don’t ask for dates that are already
If you’re trying to hop onto an already existing
booked.”
bill, feel out the situation. “This is definitely not
And make sure you ask for a date that makes taboo,” says Hare. “You never know unless you
sense. “Don’t ask for weekends if you can’t sell ask. It’s hard out there. Some folks are more orga-
the room out,” he adds. nized than others, but it doesn’t mean your band
is bad. We may have been chomping at the bit
Additionally, Virr asks that bands get specific
to book you, and we’ll be stoked to include you
about dates. “When the band is looking to play,
where we can.”
don’t say ‘this summer.’ Say ‘second week of May,
preferably around the 10th.’ Also helps to men-
tion if you’re looking to jump on a bill already in How to actually draft the inquiry
the works, or if you have an idea for a full bill.”
The email you send should be professional – con-
It sounds simple enough, but you’d be shocked by sider the subject line, how you address the receiv-
how many musicians don’t do these basic things er, grammar and spelling, and its overall layout.
and lose out on gigs because of it. Now that you Keep it simple (don’t use a flashy font or colors)
know, don’t let it happen to your band! and concise (don’t send them an essay-long ac-
count of your band’s history). Here are a few sim-
Ingredients for a successful booking ple bullet points to include:
inquiry • a description of your band and why your show
would be appropriate for that particular ven-
1. Submit your music ue

“Linking to music is definitely number one,” says
Damon Hare of Triple D’s Productions, who books
at some of Atlanta, GA’s best-known venues.
“With sites like SoundCloud and Bandcamp at the
world’s disposal, there’s truly no excuse to not
have music available if you want to be booked.
I understand it’s hard for some folks to get their
music recorded, but it’s still essential if you want
to get a show. We have to hear you first.”
• a succinct and accurate description of your
sound using genre terms or comparisons to
other bands
• photos and links to social media accounts
• a particular date or a window of time during
which your band is hoping to schedule
• your plan for promoting the show via social
media, flyers, posters, etc.

2. Send your EPK Outcome: They said yes

You should have a full electronic press kit ready.
Sonicbids members can email their EPKs in a pro-
fessional, seamless package to any industry con-
tact. If you haven’t created one yet, you can click
here to learn more.
If you receive a positive response, they might talk
about money or a contract. As long as you’re po-
lite and consider the deal objectively, this process
should go smoothly. Carefully weigh the pros and
cons of any offer before responding.

Booking Great Gigs Page 5

Outcome: They said no it’s unfortunately not common practice. Refer
to the previous section on drafting a successful
Reacting angrily is probably the best way to en- booking inquiry and make sure you’ve got all your
sure you’ll never get a gig with that particular bases covered.
venue. It’s fair to ask why they turned you down,
though. Take whatever they said constructively, You approached the wrong venue
and consider it helpful advice for your next book-
ing inquiry. Picking a venue based solely on the fact that you
like the atmosphere or that bands you admire
HOW NOT TO PITCH VENUES have performed there is an easy mistake to make.
What you should really be considering is whether
The ambiguous email or not that spot is a good fit for you.

This is the one we’re most perplexed by. “Do you
have any dates next month I want to book my
band.” Yes, it’s often a run-on sentence. And no,
these people don’t say when, who they are, what
the lineup might be, or anything else. No infor-
mation, no questions – pretty much nothing.
Arguing about price
If you’re looking to charge $10 at the door and the
venue owner says that’s too much, please heed
his or her advice. Make your case, by all means,
but don’t forget that the owners or designated
booking agents know the venue better than any-
one. And don’t get snippy about it.
The Facebook message
This doesn’t apply to every venue, but many ven-
ues discourage musicians from sending booking
inquiries via Facebook messages. The venue’s
email account is typically the primary place for
booking and business unless its website states
otherwise – so in most cases, don’t waste your
time trying to reach out on social media.
STILL NOT GETTING BOOKED?
Your inquiry was too vague
In any case of rejection by a venue, there’s always
Did you include enough information about your this last-ditch option: offer to play for free. This
band? While this might seem like common sense, shouldn’t be a recurring event, of course. But
Objectively think about your band: How many
people will you draw? Is your set loud and abra-
sive? Or is it soft enough to suit a small, hushed
setting? Once you’ve nailed down what exactly it
is that you can offer, you can narrow down your
list of potential venues to only those that are tru-
ly appropriate.
You weren’t convincing
Yes, sending an EPK is tremendously helpful, but
you still have to tailor your inquiry to the venue in
question. Before they even hear the music, they’ll
read your introduction. Make it a persuasive one.
If all you did was introduce your band with no re-
gard for the club’s style or regular patrons, you
probably haven’t done enough to sway anybody.
What is it that they’re looking for, exactly? A
promise that you can pull a sizable crowd carries
a lot of influence. You can prove this with social
media numbers, evidence of previous shows, or
a promotion plan that includes a massive push
of a Facebook event combined with nicely done
flyers and posters that you’ll strategically spread
throughout the city. Really, a mix of all three is
your best bet.
Offer to prove your draw

Booking Great Gigs Page 6

when you’ve never played at a venue before and
none of these methods work in winning them
over, you can always propose a free performance
– and prove your worth by playing a stellar set to
a crowd you single-handedly drew.
Get creative and book yourself!
Keeping a calendar full of great gigs is going to
be hard work if you’re doing it yourself. Part of
staying busy is being able to create cool, creative • 3 Times It’s Worth It to Take a Performance
opportunities for yourself when none are avail-
able elsewhere.
Let’s say you have a big, blank space in your cal-
endar where a gig should be, but unfortunately,
you weren’t able to get anything booked. May-
be spend the whole weekend busking? Promote
it on your social media and make an event out
of it! If one person in your band has a big place,
maybe hosting your own secret house show for
your fans would be a possibility. Invite a couple of
other local bands you like to come hang out and
play some songs. Even if your band has moved
past the open mic stage, make a point to go out
and play some local open mics as a special ap-
pearance, and tell your fans to come out and sup-
port the other up-and-comers. All of these will
not only make use of that empty calendar space,
but also secure your place in the local scene and
increase your visibility.
Booking Great Gigs
BONUS SECTION: MORE GIG
BOOKING TIPS AND ADVICE
FROM THE SONICBIDS BLOG
• 5 Steps to Fill Up Your Calendar With Gigs Ev-
ery Week of the Year
• How Much Money Can You Actually Make
Playing House Concerts?
Opportunity That Doesn’t Pay
• 5 Common Gig Booking Mistakes You Can Eas-
ily Avoid
• How to Become a Gig-Booking Guru
• 5 Signs You’re Ready to Play Outside Your
Hometown
• How to Expand Your Band’s Presence Outside
of Your Local Scene
• The Best and Worst Days of the Week to Play
a Show
• What’s the Difference Between a Concert Pro-
moter, Talent Buyer, and Booking Agent?
• How to Work Your Way Up From Entry-Level
Venues
• The Most Important Thing You Need to Un-
derstand About Booking Shows
• 4 Types of People You Can Get Gigs From (And
How to Ask Them)
• How to Successfully Book Follow-Up Gigs With
Venue Bookers
• Book Yourself: 5 Benefits of Hosting Your Own
Showcase
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