Your Music Is Not a Good Fit For All Venues (And That's OK)

What's up gigging pros. It's Jared Judge. And welcome back to another episode of The Gigging Musician Podcast. So I've got a statement to make might be a little controversial. But your music is not a fit for every venue. But I'll subtitle that saying you should still reach out to them anyway. So let me tell you a story. As you know, in the last several episodes I've been really hitting hard on, you have to visit every venue in your city, take tours, get to know the people that are there. And if you can play your instrument or show them that you can sing. And so I've been doing that hitting very hard. And I've been hitting these amazing venues, I'm a private events musician, just because that is the foundation for which I have built my live music business. But then I take on other creative projects like festivals, and ticketed concerts, to fill in the gaps and to have some fun, fun work to not that the private events are not fun, but they pay the bills. So here's the thing about the different venues that I've been visiting. Some of them are perfect fits. Like, I'll give you an example, there is this venue called the Sharon Lynn Wilson Center in Economo. Walk Wisconsin, which is an actual concert hall. It's about 45 minutes outside of my town, but they do weddings as well. And more often than not, they are a concert hall that has orchestras or musical theater shows, and that kind of thing. And so I took a tour there. And the person who toured with me who was from the marketing department, is a former music school graduate. So it was a good fit, because I too am a music school graduate. And she said that the people who tend to host their private events there tend to have a background in music themselves, or theater, maybe they went to school for it, or they were in community theaters. And so it was a dream venue because she said that our music fits perfectly. They're the type of people who rent out that space, really value classical music, which my group is more of a classical group. But that doesn't necessarily mean that this space is a good fit for like a country band per se. So here's where you know, not every venue is a good fit for you, I've been pretty lucky that most of the venues that I've visited, you know, even if it's the wrong vibe or anything, they would still appreciate like a live classical musician for their wedding ceremony or something. But, you know, I have visited bars, I once visited a jazz club and introduced myself. And it said, like, Hey, I'm not a jazz musician, I can swing on violin, but you probably won't have guests paying five bucks a ticket to come hear me swing on violin. But even though I'm not a great fit for that venue, it still was 100% worthwhile visiting it introducing myself for multiple reasons. One is that, you know, they will sometimes host private events there where they shut down the club, and have a guest that rents out the entire space, that maybe a classical type of group would be a good fit. And vice versa, even that Symphony Hall will shut down their venue and host a wedding where you know, a rock band would be appropriate to get the party started at the end of the event. So you can still book gigs at venues that are not good fits for you, and your music. But also the value of networking with these people who own the venues or who manage them, or who are in their marketing departments is incredible. These are, you know, the events industry, which the music industry and the way that live performances happen is in the events industry. It is such a tight knit community. Like in any given city, it's almost safe to say that every venue manager or person who works in the events industry has at least heard of every other person in the industry. And if they haven't met them personally, it's only a matter of time until they do. It is such a tight knit community that you need to become part of this community. You need to meet with these people. And these people will talk so say you visit a venue that's not a good fit for your music. But they still get a chance to meet you and find out how nice you are. And find out how great your music is because you know you played them on this venue tour. Then say that they go and hang out with their friend who owns this other venue. That is a better fit for your music and You know, they're chatting. And though, you know, these people don't meet musicians every day. So when a musician comes to them, and says, Hey, I'm gonna bring my instrument, and I'm going to play in your venue, that is a unique opportunity for them. So say they go and meet that person from a venue who is a good fit. And they'll say, Hey, I just had the craziest thing happen, I had a musician, come into my venue, pull out their instrument and just start playing, and it was incredible. And it would be a perfect fit for your venue, even though it wasn't like the right fit for mine. All of a sudden, the reach of your music just went from that one person you met to another venue owner, who the reach of that venue owner is all of the clients that come through their space. You know, these venue owners can host hundreds of events in their spaces, many of which do require live music. But also, that secondary connection can also have a ripple effect, where that secondary person might have another venue owner who's like, Hey, my friend from venue number one told me this venue came to their space. And I thought you should totally have them come to your space too. And all of a sudden, that's opened up another world of events that you can play it. So I cannot stress enough the the amazingness of going on these venue tours. It's just been so much fun for me to go into all these venues. And even if you've played them before, I still go to them like even the one this morning. I did two venue tours today. I've played both of them before. And I mentioned that I played them before, but I wanted to meet the person there. And so even if you've already played these venues, do it anyway. Just say hey, you know, things have changed since the last time we played, wanted to chat face to face and hear how all your spaces sound and just do it because that is how you build a sustainable live music business. And that's what we're all about at The Gigging Musician Podcast and BookLive. So if you haven't had a chance yet, if you want to learn more about this venue tour strategy, get your free copy of the Gigging Secrets Book. It is the underground playbook to making a living performing. It's available for free just pay a couple bucks in shipping and handling at GiggingSecrets.com. And if you are busy with gigs, especially as 2022 rolls around, I want those schedules to be as full as possible for you, my listeners, because I care so much about you, and live music. And so if you are busy enough that the work is becoming a bit of a headache to manage, check out the software that we've created. BookLive Pro is an incredible tool that takes all of that headache off of your plate. And you know, just a couple clicks of the button. You can have a book a gig booked and planned without doing any of the heavy lifting yourself. Check that out. Get a free two week trial at BookLivePro.com And just remember you are just one gig away. Thanks for listening