Building Your Fan Base?
By George O'Brien - Arizona Correspondent
This is a series of articles on building an Irish/Celtic band in Arizona. In Part 1, I discussed the questions: "Do You Really Want To Be A Professional Musician?" and "Do You Really Want To Do Irish Music?" In Part 2, I looked at "Can You Fill The Role Of Band Leader?", in Part 3 I asked "What Kind Of Irish/Celtic Band Do You Want To Build?" and "What Performance Style Should You Have?" In Part 4 I discussed "Who Should Be In The Band?" In Part 5 I discussed "What Is Your Repertoire?" In Part 6 I discussed "Do You Have Stage Presence?" In part 7 I discussed "Do You Have The Equipment To Run A Band?" and in Part 8 I asked"How Will You Find Your First Gig?"
HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BUILD YOUR FAN BASE?
It would be nice if commercial venues selected bands primarily on the basis on the quality of their music. They don't. What matter is whether the band draws an audience. In a choice between a group of fantastic musicians with no following and lesser musicians with a huge fan base - the second group will get the gig a very high percentage of the time.
A strong fan base is valuable in a great many other ways. Often they become unpaid sales representatives for the band. This includes helping the band to find gigs and by dragging acquaintances to the band's performances. Fan volunteers can help with the mailing list, web design, CD sales, advertising distribution, and other marketing functions.
A strong fan base is self reinforcing. The more often people attend performances by a particular band, the more likely they will develop friendships with other people who like the band. Phoenix bands like the McMorrows, The Clare Voyants, and Seanachie have many devoted supporters who know each other fairly well. This social atmosphere adds greatly to the craic (the Irish term for having a good time).
It would not be an overstatement to say that a strong fan base is priceless. This presents a serious problem for new bands. It is hard to develop a fan base when no one has even heard them play. This means that new bands need to work even harder at fan base development than established bands. Great bands may end up with a strong fan base without really trying, but putting effort into the process can pay significant dividends.
START WITH WHO YOU KNOW - When first starting, the new band needs to make sure that early gigs are heavily attended by friends, family, co-workers, and fellow musicians. Phone calls and personal invitations are crucial when first starting out.
Bands usually feel more relaxed in front of a supportive audience (if they are not ready to play for friends, they are not ready to play for strangers). It will impress the venue owners and show that the band takes audience development seriously. The importance of this must be communicated to everyone the band members know. The ability to get personal friends and relatives out for early gigs can literally make or break new bands.
FOCUS ON GREETING EVERYONE AT YOUR GIGS - Time spent between sets should be used to "work the room" by greeting everyone personally. While this is not really feasible with a packed room, start up bands rarely face that problem. The personal touch helps a lot.
DEVELOP AN E-MAIL AND SNAIL MAIL MAILING LIST - Prospective fans will not attend performances if they do not know about them. E-mail is especially valuable in that there is no cost per name. Overall performance schedules can be sent out on a monthly basis with updates a few days prior to the gig to remind people the band is playing. Mailing out post cards (see below) will become expensive once the database becomes large, but it can be especially valuable when first starting out.
Just getting the people to sign up for the e-mail/mailing list is a valuable way to get people to make a connection to the band. Repeated e-mail invitations to attend events can make a big difference.
If nothing else, sending out the schedule information to the Arizona Irish Music Society (AIMS) at news@azirishmusic.com will ensure the gig is listed on the schedule AIMS sends out once a week. Often, the entire message will be included in the newsletter, thus giving the band added exposure. It is important that this be done at least a week in advance to ensure it gets included.
A brand new band should include information about how to contact the band, who the players are, what instruments they play, and a brief description of the kind and style of music they will play. It would not be a bad idea to have this included in every e-mail letter sent out as a standard footer.
E-MAIL NEWSLETTER - At bare minimum, the band should send out the schedule on a regular basis through the internet. However, a "newsy" e-mail newsletter is even more valuable. News about upcoming CD's, an experience at a special performance, the background of a new song, and just personal stuff about the band members can help the readers feel a closer personal attachment to the band.
SET UP A WEB SITE - As soon as the band has more than a couple of gigs set up (it does not matter if they pay or not), the band should have this information on the web. Unfortunately, many bands waste time in getting the page up. They get more concerned about how pretty it is rather than in getting something up.
An all text page with the band contact information and the upcoming schedule is not that hard to do. There are numerous free web services that will host these pages and not even require an FTP program. It is rare to find a band that does not have at least one fan that knows enough about web design to add a few photos, a biography page, and a few other items of interest. Once the band gets some press, copies of press clippings are extremely useful.
Recently, the Arizona Irish Music Society added separate web pages for most of the bands that play regularly. This includes contact information, a list of the players, and a link to the band web page, a link to the photo page, and schedule information. A new band can register for its own web address (known as a URL) that can be redirected to this page. Once the band has its own web site, this page can be used as the calendar page.
PRINT UP PERFORMANCE SCHEDULES TO DISTRIBUTE AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY - Little post card sized schedules with upcoming performances (plus how to contact the band) should be given out at gigs, to friends, family, co-workers, at the supermarket, etc. Every band member and their core fans should have an extensive supply. The cards should be printed off on computer card stock so they can be updated frequently. The ideal arrangement is to have the schedule information on one side with the other side set up so it can be used as a post card mailer.
GET TO KNOW MEMBERS OF OTHER BANDS- It is not uncommon for players from one band to be asked to come up and do a song or tune by another band. In other cases, there may be a chance to "sit in" for an absent player. This exposure can help to generate a "halo effect" for the player and his/her regular band. This can help to get people to check out the new band because they have at least some starting point.
There are some people who are fans of a specific band like The Clare Voyants or The Mollys. However, there are many people who are fans of Irish music or at least certain styles of Irish music. Some bands share a common fan base so that people will go to see one or the other depending on which is playing. Seanachie and the McMorrows are a prime example of this.
A less obvious example would be The Bringers (a Renaissance Faire Band) and On the Dole (a folk-pub style band). The connection has to do personal contacts and fiddle styles. A combination of seisiun work and joint concerts have made fans of each familiar with the other -- thus helping the fan base of both.
WORK TO DEVELOP A FAN BASE FOR IRISH MUSIC- One of the greatest accomplishments of the Arizona Irish Music Society www.azirishmusic.com has been convincing most band members that the goal is to expand the overall fan base for Irish music. Even the most dedicated groupie is unlikely to attend every performance of major band. Most people need more variety. This means that having someone attend performances by other bands does not mean "losing" them. The real competition is not between Irish bands but between going out and listening to Irish music versus everything else they might be doing.
WORKING WITH THE DANCERS - One of the things that distinguishes Irish/Celtic music is the ability to include Irish dancing in the program. While Afan and Allanah are the only bands that include dancers directly in their band, many other bands have players who can play for dancers. Bands like the McMorrows, The Clare Voyants, Seanachie, the Hooligans, and Round the House make a real effort to play jigs and reels whenever they recognize Irish dancers in the audience.
Catering to dancers requires changing the planned set list to include more jigs and reels than might otherwise be played. It also means playing the tunes with the correct dance rhythms and at speeds that are neither too fast nor too slow. Playing for dancers is not as "flashy" as a regular fiddle solo might be because it switches the emphasis from the player to the dancers. It also reduces the number of songs being performed by the vocalists.
None the less, including dance tunes tends to provide a better show for the audience. Even more importantly, dancers are more inclined to become regular fans of bands that cater to them. This can give more traditional bands an added edge when it comes to convincing venue owners to book the band.
[This is the ninth in the series "On Building an Irish Band in Arizona"].
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