Today I have a killer guest post from Label 2.0 member and superstar Nashville indie DJ Quiet Entertainer. This guy has been creating killer content on his site for a few months now and I asked him to start reaching out and tapping into new audiences. So here he is today, talking about getting offline (gasp!) and connecting with your fans. I think a lot of you are going to be able to marinate to it.
Hello to all my fellow ambitious, motivated genyrockstars! Let me just start by saying: I’m just like you. I was just the voice of one, crying in the wilderness. I had done a few EPs. Played some shows. I wasn’t really sure what I needed to do in order to keep this from being a hobby. Then I found this website and others like it. I joined Label 2.0. The community there gave me a lot of focus. I took a few months to go through a complete overhaul of everything I was doing online. I thought to myself, “I’m really building a following and the fans I get are sticking!”
Then, it happened.
I was out at a show; and one of my fans came up to me to say, “Oh, it’s great that you’re actually out and doing stuff again. I thought you had retired.”
What? Retired? Did he not know that I built a WordPress site & established my homebase on the web? Was he oblivious to my new blog, where I’ve spelled out in detail how I got my music on Pandora among other things? Did he miss that I took my latest EP and uploaded it to Bandcamp and as many other places I could think of?? Was he not paying attention to all the work I did to finally create a squeeze page to help build my new music business? What about the interviews I’ve done?
Short answers: No he didn’t; Yes he was; Yes he did; No he wasn’t; & What about them?
In all my efforts to build this online brand and eventually to build the kind of business that will allow me to quit my day job and play music, I had forgotten about the offline world. There is a huge disconnect between the offline and online world. Highly driven artists with laser focus and tunnel vision can sometimes forget about the world away from the cloud.
That’s what I did. This fan and other fans like him just wanted to know two things: Are you performing tonight? And if not, when is your next show? I should have recognized this. Even online, I’m always asked, “When are you coming to play a show in _________ ?”
We must bridge the gap between the online and offline world. A great way to do that as an artist and performer is to kill it with your live show! Your killer live show will accomplish a few things in building your OVERALL business.
What Having That Live Show Can Do For Your Music Business:
- Create a Unique Fan Experience – You’re an artist. But your art is not just your music. It’s your performance. You’re creating experience art: the experience you create with your fan. Don’t underestimate how your fans feel when they come to see you. You are somewhat responsible for their good times! At least, you can be.
- Generate Online and Offline Content – Did you read Bruce Warila’s post over at Music Think Tank? He was talking about how easy it is now for fans to create online content for you. I think he’s on point. Plus, if you have t-shirts, physical CDs, stickers, posters; you’re giving them tangible content as well!
- Make You a Better Performer – The pressure of performing in front of your faithful ones who (hopefully) paid expecting to see something amazing, that will keep you sharp and hopefully humble.
- Make You More Interesting – Well, it has to. It beats sitting at your computer 7 days a week. That’s what I was doing. But, I didn’t have anything to write about until I went out to shows and started engaging people. Maybe you’re doing that at shows, maybe conferences, Cracker Barrels, etc.
If you don’t have any shows upcoming, go book one! Find some kind of outlet. Yes, you’re using all the power and leverage of the internet like most musicians haven’t conceived of yet. Just don’t forget the live show!
What about you? Are you forgetting about the live and offline aspect of your music business? Sound off in the comments below.
Quiet Entertainer is a DJ & producer based in Nashville making ambient & electronic blended hip-hop. Click here to download his Machismo EP.”
Tags: live shows, Music Marketing, offline, quiet entertainer
Leave A Reply (7 comments So Far)
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Andrew Hand
557 days ago
Greg and Greg, great feature! Thanks for sharing and for writing. It seems that we often look at the web as such a vast community opportunity, that if we can just grab a piece of it, well we’ll finally have that engagement!
Ha, I’ve totally been there, but you are absolutely right that we have to get out in a live, person-to-person environment and connect. That energy is real, raw and alive. As much as we might enjoy typing away behind this screen, if we don’t get out and connect then we’ll never actually have what we all really want…connection, engagement, significance.
Thanks for the reminder!
-Andrew
Spoken Nerd
557 days ago
That is the Gospel truth! Shows are so important!
gregrollett
557 days ago
@Andrew – it’s a great reminder, especially since I spend so much time focusing on the Internet side. There is no substitute for the energy of live shows. The problem exists with what to do with that energy and transform it into the things that you need to run a successful career.
@Spoken Nerd – Chuuurch!
Justin Boland
557 days ago
Excellent article, man — concise, clean and full of insights. I’ve been doing a lot more local gigs lately, more out of pure spite for Springfield than the furtherance of my own career, and I hear you 1000% on The Disconnect.
I remember that from my salad days back home in Vermont, too — live fans were a whole separate culture who gave zero shits about my online promotion. They just wanted to see me onstage again. And expected to see posters in their city, and would never sign up for an email list, and use Facebook strictly to stalk exes. Etcetera.
What is the Nashville hip hop scene like? Must be pretty sweet from what I’ve heard….
Levi
556 days ago
Right on man – Great thoughts!
Name (required)
554 days ago
Great Article! Such wonderful insight, and I agree–we have to keep connecting both on and off line. You rock! keep on being amazing
little g
548 days ago
The internet is a great way to connect with fans, esp. those who may not be in your area, but honestly, there is NOTHING like the connection you have at a live show! Maybe I’m old-school, but I like CDs, T-shirts and feeling something REAL concerts.
For me, it’s the only place I can truly share my love for the artist’s music, since words on a screen can only do so much.
There’s always going to be new sites and new gadgets and new everything to keep up with, but is that what you should be focusing your time on? Let someone else do all that work for you! The best muscians are the ones who are in-tune with what’s going on but also have a life away from the computer and all the crazyness of the modern world; they go live an actual life! It’ll do wonders for your music, which will in turn keep fans begging for more!