Even Hunx and His Punx had to start somewhere. Via Flickr's Eric Phipps.
To break into the music business, you could sit at home checking your band’s MySpace stats all night long and tweeting links at Sasha Frere-Jones all night. Or, you could check out this panel of people in the music industry who actually know what the hell they’re talking about. As part of Reverb Nation and the Knitting Factory’s Music Industry Secrets series, the venue will host another panel May 9 to answer the question: How do you get get better gigs at venues and festivals? Panelists talking about effective booking methods include: Jason Abrishami, Surprise Attack Management; Liza Lee, Inherent Artists; Victoria Camera, ReverbNation; and Jakub Szufnarowski, Rocks Off.
The event will also turn into a music showcase, described as an old fashioned chance for musicians to play for the panelists, the artists, the passionate fans, and industry professionals.” Submit your music and you might get picked for one of the slots. The event is $5 and tickets are expected to sell out quickly because, as it turns out, Brooklyn has a lot of struggling musicians.
This is super easy. You just have to do two relatively difficult things and the getting more and better shows part will be a breeze. 1.) Make really good music. 2.) Get people to come to your shows to hear the aforementioned really good music. Repeat that process ad infinitum.
p.s. (I’ve made this very mistake.) If you have part one down, venues, promoters, bookers, whatevs will assume you have part two down, but, especially in a city without a built in community, of course, they don’t. Be clear on what expectations are and grow organically.
Also, and this is kind of a judgment call, but reverbnation sucks and paying to have your music heard is bullshit.