It's important for bands to put forth an image of success on their web sites, their press kit and their booking emails. But it's equally important to know where "selling your band" stops and "lying to people" begins.The smoke-and-mirrors school of promotion is a dangerous place. Eventually people will find out you're completely full of shit, and you will be ruined. Following the jump are some quick tips, all taken from bands I know that got totally busted.
-- Do not buy all the pre-sell tickets to your shows and then report that the show is sold out. You're going to look like a moron playing to 25 people in a 500-capacity room. And even if all the tickets are sold, that doesn't mean the club is making bank on the show. They're counting on bar sales, too.
-- Do not set up a Q&A on your Myspace blog and fill it with obviously planted questions from fake profiles.
-- Do not sit there all day and open fake e-mail accounts to win a vote-driven contests (I'd tell you to avoid vote-driven contests completely, but that's another blog entry.)
-- Do not tell a talent buyer you can draw a great crowd unless you can actually draw a great crowd (and keep in mind that "great" is relative to the size of the room and the cost of the room rental. A crowd of 200 is triple-sold-out in some clubs, and about 10 percent full in others.) This may keep you from getting the show, but in the long run that's OK; the last thing you want to do is play an awesome club to an empty house and never be welcomed back again.
-- Do not make promises you don't intend to keep. If you screw someone, there's a good chance they'll tell everyone they know.
John Zaremba is the guitar player, tour manager and booking agent for Say When, a rock band from Boston that has been touring the country independently for two years. He can be reached here.
-- Do not set up a Q&A on your Myspace blog and fill it with obviously planted questions from fake profiles.
-- Do not sit there all day and open fake e-mail accounts to win a vote-driven contests (I'd tell you to avoid vote-driven contests completely, but that's another blog entry.)
-- Do not tell a talent buyer you can draw a great crowd unless you can actually draw a great crowd (and keep in mind that "great" is relative to the size of the room and the cost of the room rental. A crowd of 200 is triple-sold-out in some clubs, and about 10 percent full in others.) This may keep you from getting the show, but in the long run that's OK; the last thing you want to do is play an awesome club to an empty house and never be welcomed back again.
-- Do not make promises you don't intend to keep. If you screw someone, there's a good chance they'll tell everyone they know.
John Zaremba is the guitar player, tour manager and booking agent for Say When, a rock band from Boston that has been touring the country independently for two years. He can be reached here.
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