Jimmy Talkington

Got a question? Wanna know something? Ask me anything. http://formspring.me/ThornWebDesigns

Full time website and graphic designer.

Got a question? Wanna know something? Ask me anything.

Do you think about Halloween as soon as Halloween is over? Do you always try to scare someone whenever you see the opportunity? Do you watch all those slasher films and try to figure out how they did that? Do you have a certain perspective on all things related to Horror different than most folks? Then you could be a Halloween Junkie... - http://www.scaryvisions.com/ http://amplify.com/u/jj75

Got a question? Wanna know something? Ask me anything. http://formspring.me/ThornWebDesigns

Cure all sickness

Got a question? Wanna know something? Ask me anything. http://formspring.me/ThornWebDesigns

Miss Full Metal Rock 2010 Winners!

http://www.fullmetalrock.com/Vamp_Girls.html

www.myspace.com/drainagexvampgirls

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The mailing list is one of the most important tools that an independent artist has to market themselves. Hopefully you make it a priority to capture email addresses at every opportunity.

Here’s one way that you might turn those email addresses into money while helping to establish and sustain a win-win relationship with your fans.

First off, you’ll need to setup your mailing list through a company that will allow you to setup auto-responder emails. My favorite by far is AWeber.com I got turned on to them by the big time internet marketers, people who make boat-loads of money with their mailing lists, like Frank Kern, Eben Pagan and John Reese.

For those who don’t know, an auto responder is an email that’s sent out automatically to subscribers. It can be immediate or it can be timed to send out a week, a month or any other length of time after the initial sign up. Aweber allows for unlimited auto responder emails. Constant Contact allows a maximum of 5 and Reverb Nation allows only 1.

Anyway, the basic idea is this: You want to set up a subscription service for your fans where you will periodically send them something valuable like a free download, video, pdf or anything else that you could send them in an email. One way you might do it would be to set up your an auto responder sequence so that your fans will get something of value once a month for an entire year.

There are only two rules; you have to give them something valuable in each email, and you have to provide a link to buy your music, merch, and/or tickets in each email.

This way you can set up the sequence one time and then every single person who signs up for your list will receive 12 emails from you, spread out over the course of a year. If you do it right then they’ll be excited to open 12 emails that offer them a chance to buy from you. The goal is to enhance your relationship with your fans and to make money in a win-win scenario.

Another cool thing about AWeber is that you can send people directly to a specific web page when they first sign up for your list. One thing you might do would be to create a web page with an embedded video of you or your band thanking the subscriber for signing up and telling them about the cool things that they can expect to get from you. Get them excited about it. Make them laugh, play a song for them, use your imagination. The goal is to make yourself stand out. Give them one more reason to remember you.

Don’t be the band that collects email addresses just tries to ‘get’ something from the people on their list. Be the exception and stand out right off the bat. Give people a reason to want to hear from you in the future.

It’s also a good idea to package your subscription service with a cool name and/or concept. You could call it a ‘backstage pass’ or some kind of membership. Give it a good name. Be creative.

If you implement this or something similar then drop me an email through the contact form and let me know. I’ll sign up for your list.

Of course if you have any useful mailing list ideas or any insights on the topic then leave a comment and let us know.

To compliment my previous post about confidence, I’d like to get into the concept of branding, which is a key element to help build confidence on a large scale.

As the amount of noise and stimulus in the world increases, branding becomes more and more important. Branding brings meaning out of chaos in the minds of consumers. Branding is something that people can hang their hat on in a world of noise, confusion and uncertainty.

Branding is the reason why you can open up a McDonald's virtually anywhere in the modern world and have instant success. Everyone knows what to expect at McDonalds. The work has already been done. The brand has been established.

So how does this relate to music? If you have to ask, then you might want to consider giving this some thought. How well defined is your brand? Are you consistent enough to establish a strong brand? Are your flyers, artwork, words, actions and other communications in line with your brand?

If people don’t know what your name means then you will be lost in the noise of all the other unfocused acts that are trying to compete for the leftovers of those who understand this concept.

To make this concept work for you, you need to decide what your brand represents, and communicate it every chance you get. You should be able to boil it down to a couple of simple lines or phrases. Remember, it’s feelings that you’re after. People are always chasing feelings. It’s not the words, it’s not the imagery, it’s how you make people feel. Choose to focus your brand based on the feelings that you want people to experience. Choose words that are associated with feelings.

What does your B(r)and represent???

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

______________________________

Write it down. Seriously. This is important.

To take it a step further, you can create a symbol to represent your brand. Take the Rolling Stones for example. Everyone knows the tongue symbol. I have this sticker on my Jeep. Thousands and thousands of people have this tattooed on their skin. Is this because they like their melodies or because they play their instruments proficiently? Maybe that’s a small part of it. The main reason is that it represents something to them. It represents the feeling that they get from their collective experience of the Rolling Stones “brand.” That symbol is the lowest denomination that the Rolling Stones experience can be boiled down to. All the crazy stories, the sexuality, the extravagance, the concert experiences, the memories, the meaning of the lyrics – all of those things are packed into that symbol. It’s like a magnifying glass in the sun. When the light is spread out over a surface then nothing happens, but when you adjust it so that all the light shines on one small point then it can and will start a fire.

Know your brand. If you don’t know what you represent, in it’s simplest form, then you won’t be able to communicate it to other people. You won’t get heard. If you know what you represent and you can communicate it to other people in a way that they can hear you, then you’ve got one of the key elements in place to starting a fire.

Remember the first time you ever put up flyers for a show? I’ll bet you were probably pretty excited.

I know I was. I felt that if we put up enough flyers that even if half of one percent of all the people who saw the flyer went to the show then we’d be pack the venue and be well on our way to being famous within a few months. So we posted flyers everywhere. Big ones. Eye catching flyers that everyone would take notice of. How could it not work?! We were going to be huge.

So what happened? All our friends showed up for the first couple of shows and we had a great time. So we kept putting up flyers. More, bigger, better etc. After a while we realized that we weren’t getting anyone coming to our shows from our flyers, so we started to lose interest in putting them up. There were conflicting opinions as to whether or not they served any purpose. We never really got the whole thing worked out.

So what’s the deal? Do flyers work or not?

No.

How about other methods of promotion? Does Myspace promotion work?

Not really.

Does handing out free CD’s work?

Not so much.

So what does work?

Combining all of those and more.

Here’s the key factor. This is the one thing that I wish I had realized when I first started:

According to marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson, on average, a person needs to be exposed to a business in some capacity, 9 times, before they will take action. 9. Here’s an example of how that might play out in the music world:

1 – someone gets a friend request from you on myspace – they see your name one time, probably don’t give it much thought

2 – you post a comment on your page – they may or may not accept it and generally blow it off

3 – you send a bulletin – they make some kind of quick judgment based on the subject

4 – they see a flyer for a show – “hey, that’s that band”

5 – they hear someone talking about your band – they start to get curious

6 – you post another bulletin – they actually read it and check out some songs

7 – they see another flyer for a show – “hmm I should go check that out”

8 – they get home and go back on the myspace page and check out the website – at this point they start to form actual plans to go to the show

9 – you send them an invitation on facebook to go to the show tomorrow night – they show up

Of course this could play out a million different ways, but the important thing to realize is that people need to be exposed to something in a number of different ways a number of different times before they will act. So remember, when you’re busting your butt by adding people on myspace or facebook, or posting flyers or doing radio promo, or whatever – what you’re doing is only part of a combination of efforts that will, over time produce results. What I didn’t realize when I first started was that I could’ve personally handed out flyers to every single person in town, but this would produce almost 0 results. My band and I could’ve wallpapered the town with flyers and it wouldn’t do a damn thing. If we kept doing it in the same places, and targeted the same people with other marketing methods, over time we could have achieved much better results.

So remember:

9x

and

Combine different methods

So you’re fortunate enough to have won the privilege of someone’s attention. They clicked on your page or went to your website….

You’d better grab them fast. You’ve got a Hell of a lot of competition! People don’t have time to search through 17 youtube videos, they don’t have time to try to figure out how to find the content they want on your weird website and they don’t have time to listen to 5 songs on your Myspace page before they get to your best song.

Give them your best stuff on a silver platter. Lead them right to your best song, your best photo, your best video etc. Don’t know what your best stuff is? You need to find out. Ask people if you have to, but know what your strongest material is if you want to know how to grow your audience. Don’t randomize the experience of the people who are giving you a chance for the first time. If you’ve got 6 songs on your Myspace page, why randomize your playlist and take the chance that someone who goes to your page will hear your 6th best song?! Give them your best stuff on a silver platter.

So what is the biggest factor in determining if someone will buy something? Do you know? If you’re trying to sell something (tickets, CD's, downloads, etc.) then it might be a good question to ask.

The answer is confidence. People need to feel confident in what they are purchasing and the entity that they’re purchasing it from. How confident are people in you or your band? Are they confident that you’re going to deliver them a good time at your show? Are they confident that your new CD is going to be worth their money?

Confidence is built over time. Confidence is built with consistency. This is why you won’t get rich in this business over night. You must build confidence over time. You need to have your hand on the pulse of your audience’s confidence level.

Oh – and by the way, this is also the single greatest factor in getting signed. It is extremely costly for record companies to sign the wrong act. A&R reps don’t survive many bad signings. People’s jobs and careers are on the line. Nobody with any future in this business is going to put their ass on the line for an artist that they have 75% confidence in. You need to deliver 100% confidence.

It isn't easy to build confidence. That’s why so few have meaningful and profitable careers as recording artists. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s much easier to destroy confidence than it is to build it.

So how do you destroy confidence?

There are a lot of ways to destroy confidence. Let’s explore some of them. The first one I’ll address is hubris. This is what happens when your ego starts to find evidence to confirm what it’s suspected all along – that you are God’s chosen one. You and your band were sent down by God to bring the human race to ecstasy. You can do no wrong. A lot of artists fall into this trap very quickly.

This poses several potential problems. First of all, it will cause other people to resent you. You might not worry about this too much, at least not until you’re playing a really important gig and the sound guy is the one who resents your attitude. Have fun with that one.

Another way that this issue might manifest itself would be that the singer in your band decides that he can drink a bottle of Jack Daniels before the show. Have fun with that one too.

What usually happens though is that artists just get careless. Careless mistakes can be very difficult to overcome. One sloppy performance at the wrong time can destroy a lot of momentum. Everything that you do is important. There are no do-over's. Don’t be careless, and don’t play with people who are careless. Carelessness kills the confidence that people have in you. This will ruin the structure of your business as an artist.

How else can I destroy the confidence of the general public? Glad you asked. How about promising one thing and delivering another? You might decide that you’re sick of playing all of your usual songs and you want to play jazz-fusion all night. You’d better make sure that the people who go to this show know that they’re getting jazz-fusion, because if they drove 30 minutes and paid $15 to come see you play their favorite song from your last album, then they’ll probably never come to another show again. Congratulations! You’ve just destroyed their confidence.

You can throw your audience curve balls if you like, just be aware of what you’re doing and be in touch with what your goals are and how your actions fit into this. Perhaps you want to train your audience to expect the unexpected and to be on their toes. This can work – just make sure you’re in tune with what people expect from you. Don’t disappoint people. People don’t enjoy spending money for disappointment. They’re not likely to repeat that mistake. What it really boils down to is how you make people feel. That is ultimately what people are paying for and what you need them to have confidence in. They need to have confidence that you’re going to make them feel good.

Be on the ball. Put in the work. Expect this to take time. Earn the confidence of your audience. Learn about common mistakes and avoid them. Deliver with consistency and you will be rewarded.

What I’m going to write about is what I consider to be the biggest fundamental difference between artists who thrive and artists who struggle to survive. It’s a mind set, a paradigm, a way to view the world.

Most bands out there are looking for support. They want you to help them out. Vote for them in a contest. Go to their show. Buy their CD.

By you contributing to their cause you will get them far enough to get their big break. When they get their big break then they will have made it and other people will be there to give them all the resources they need and they’ll live happily ever after.

There’s just one small problem with that model: It’s an illusion that will keep you trapped until long after all of your dreams are gone. It’s a fundamental misinterpretation of the way that money and value work. This strategy will no sooner make you successful then it will a beggar.

Money is just a lubrication in the exchange of value. Think about that for a minute. It doesn’t have any intrinsic value. It’s just a symbol. It’s a more advanced way of trading sheep. What the symbol stands for is value. It’s not about “getting” money. If you’re going to have money, then you’re going to have to produce value in the world. You can’t game the system. It will all add up in the end one way or another. If you don’t produce value then you won’t even have the capacity to hold on to value. Whatever you get, you will lose.

You need to focus on the value that you can give to people. Do you want to get people at your shows? Do you really want to make some real money? Then convince people that you’re going to give them something that they value. Anything less will get you nowhere. You can get people to come to a gig or two out of obligation, but if they aren’t getting more in return than they are spending then they’re going to stop showing up. It’s just not sustainable.

Does your show cost $10 at the door, plus $5 to park and an hour or two of time on a Friday night? Well then it needs to be a show that’s worth $20+ and be the best thing that someone could do on a Friday night. YOU are the first person who needs to believe this. THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS CANNOT BE OVERSTATED.

When you’re well calibrated to what your fans value and you’re 100% convinced that going to your show on Friday night is the best thing that anyone could do, and that it’s worth 5x the cost of admission, then something amazing will start to happen. People will start to sense it. This will come through in your communications. People will see it in your eyes and read it in your body language. The pictures you take will start to speak to people differently. It’s like sprinkling magic dust on everything you do.

People are repelled by those who want to get something from them, but attracted to people who they believe will give something to them- and when you give them something that’s worth far more than the cost, then they will talk about it.

No one will ever come in and save the day by giving you your big break if you don’t first produce more value than what you ask in return. This is the great illusion that runs rampant amongst the minds of starving musicians. If you’re waiting for someone to show up and give you your success then you’re still going to be waiting when you’re old and grey.

So this is my challenge to you:

Eliminate the idea of charity or support as part of your strategy. Make “support” a dirty word. Don’t ask people to support your band. Don’t ask for favors. Instead, convince them that your band is the best thing that will ever happen to them. They’re going to tell their grand kids about you. Your band will be the soundtrack to the best memories that they’ll every have. $10 for your CD is the best bargain that they’ll ever find.

If you’re going to convince them of this then you’re going to have to convince yourself first.

This comes BEFORE you get your big break.

Don’t be a beggar.

BE A ROCKSTAR.

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In talking about the music business, I've heard a lot of people say things like, "You've got to be lucky" and "Sadly, it's all about who you know". Well, I think those statements are right… except that there's nothing sad about it. You need to be lucky and you need to know people. The good news is that you create your own luck, and if you are who you'd need to become and you do the things you need to do, then you'll meet all the people you need to know.

Have you ever known someone who always seemed to get in trouble and could never seem to get out of their own way? No matter how hard they seemed to try they seemed to be the victim of circumstances conspiring against them? Well...that's generally what tends to happen as the long term result of poor habits and bad decisions. Stupid things done in combination with other stupid things will produce situations where things that were done some time ago, will come back and bite you. Each story, when you look at it as an isolated incident, may sound like really bad luck. When you look at the bigger picture though, you may have a different perspective.

Let's say that person got their car impounded because they were driving on a suspended license on their way home from the corner store. They were just going down the street and they didn't even know their license was suspended. Crappy luck, right?! Well, not if you rewind a little to find out that they got their license suspended because they didn't pay several tickets, which they shouldn't have gotten in the first place. They hang out with equally clueless people who give them sympathy and keep them trapped into thinking that the world is against them. Short term thinking, about long term issues.

On the other hand, when you do the right things and associate with the right people, then over time, the opposite will happen. If you consistently add value to the lives of the people around you, then you'll get value back in return. If you have good habits, a powerful set of beliefs and you work hard then you'll be "lucky" in the long run. People and circumstances will seem to conspire to bring you good things, seemingly out of nowhere. That's the thing about luck. It's more of a long-term thing. It's not often obvious how we've created the circumstances that bring us our good or bad luck. We can't see the long term cause and effect, so we call it "luck". It's largely an illusion.

So the guy who lives in Pocatello, Idaho, is kinda lazy, drinks a little too much and hangs out with other people with their own bad habits, might tell you that making it is all about luck. Ironically the person who thinks it's all about luck, will almost by definition, live a life of bad "luck". It doesn't matter how talented he or she is, nor should it. He is going to have to do certain things that go beyond music if he wants to be happy and successful.

Likewise, the person with the same level of talent who decides to move to Nashville, who believes they control their own circumstances, who is always looking to be around successful people with good habits and who works hard, will have a very different perspective on what it takes to make it. It takes time and you have to trust that the things that you do right may not produce immediate results, but in the long run, they will pay off in ways that you can't yet conceive of.

What I think some people fail to realize is that other people will come in to help you when you're already on this path, doing a lot of things right on your own. If you move to a major hub of the music industry like Los Angeles, New York or Nashville, and you kill it every night, then rest assured, you will start to meet influential people.

Don't sit in your bedroom in Peachtree City, Georgia and tell me that the reason you can't make it in the music business is because you don't know people. You do need to know people, but that's not the reason you can't make it. The reason you can't make it in the music business is because you're afraid of the things that it would really take and because you don't really believe you can do the things that you'd have to do to get noticed by those people. So my challenge to you, is to shift your focus away from the illusion of luck and "knowing people" and hold the mirror up to yourself. What are your fears that are holding you back? What are your shortcomings that you need to put some hard work into? What are your strengths that you need to develop? What are the difficult decisions that you need to make? How important is it that you make the right decisions?

Do you think Bruce Springsteen was lucky? How about Bob Dylan? Metallica? Stevie Wonder? Madonna? All of these people worked incredibly hard, made difficult decisions and made sacrifices. None of them were born into this world "knowing people." They did what it took to get noticed and to create their own "luck".

Besides, anyone who's made it out of luck will be forgotten anyway. Why aim for that?

Luck? I don't think so.

Are you making as much money with your music as you'd like? I'm going to assume that if you're reading this that you'd probably like to become more successful and make more money with your music. So my questions to you is, "What is your story about why you're not as successful as you want to be?" Is it because of the economy? Is it because club owners are greedy? Is it because the music business is going to Hell? Is it because the general public doesn't know good music when they hear it? If you actually believe that any of those justifications are true then I challenge you to consider another way of looking at things.

What you make from your music is exactly what you should be making. Your abilities and your actions have lead you to exactly where you are and based on what you've put in, you could not have gotten any other result. You can't become successful by wishing that club owners or promoters would see the true value of your art and stop seeking their own profit. You can't become successful by bashing your head against the wall in response to low turnout at your shows. You can't become successful by begging people to buy your CDs.

So how do you change the equation? I think it helps to start by forgetting for a moment about how you ‘wish' things were and how things 'should' be and taking a look at how things really are and why. Reality is not a dirty word. There is no virtue in holding idealistic thoughts in your mind if you don't translate them into reality. If you're not dealing in reality in the first place then you cannot make progress in reality.

It's easy for us to see when other people aren't dealing in reality. The difficult part is seeing that about ourselves. Have you ever known someone who was in love, but couldn't see that they were driving the other person away because they were too needy and overbearing? You can see someone else doing that from a mile away, right? Well, you just might be doing the equivalent to your fans and the club owners that you deal with. Are you being too needy, wishing the other person/people/reality would change, and holding onto unrealistic idealistic beliefs in order to justify your results?

What the guy who's in love should probably do is to forget about the immediate result that he's after and change himself so that the kind of girl he wants will be attracted to him. He could learn some new skills, improve his appearance, gain some new experiences and become a more interesting person. The kind of person who draws people to him.

So what you or your band may want to do is to forget about trying to pull every last favor to try and get more people at your next show, forget about trying to convince the club owner of the value of your art and forget about trying to get all your friends on Facebook to vote for you in a popularity contest. What you really should be doing is becoming a better band, with better songs, better promotion and a more interesting story. The kind of band that naturally draws people to them.

By increasing your band's value to your fans, to club owners, record labels, etc. you will start to make more money. If you don't actually become more valuable to those people then you won't get more money from those people. Don't convince them that you're a valuable part of their lives or business – become a valuable part of their lives and/or business.

[Check out this video from the late, great Jim Rohn on why you make the amount of money you make. Yes, this does relate to your music career. There is some extremely valuable insight here if you can connect the dots. How valuable is your music in the marketplace? How could it become more valuable?]

"Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don't go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least bring a bucket so the kids don't laugh at you!" - Jim Rohn

I hear a lot of people complain that their band can’t really get anywhere because there’s not much of a scene where they live. However I don’t see a lot of people doing anything about it. If there’s going to be a scene, someone needs to have the vision and initiative to start it. So if you don’t have a booming scene where you live – start your own!  Here’s how: The first thing that you need to do is to scout out at least one good venue.

What you want to look for are venues that are:

a) inexpensive
b) fun
c) willing to give you the freedom to set up your own shows

The other important factor is bringing in other bands to play with you. You’ll know you’re on the right track when you start putting together shows that you’re genuinely excited about. If you’re excited about the shows you put together then that excitement will translate to your fans. When you consistently put together fun and exciting shows you’ll see the beginnings of a new scene. Other bands will want to be a part of it and you won’t have to beg people to come to your shows. You’ll just need to tell them when they are.

When you put on shows with bands who know each other and who have fun together then people will actually stay for more than one band! They’ll leave happy without having spent too much and the bands can actually make some money too. It’s a win, win for everyone if you do it right.

If you’ve got total freedom over the shows you put on then you can do some things that are outside the box. You can have a comedian or a magician open for you. Be creative. I saw a band once who had made a big wheel that they would spin that would prompt them to do all kinds of entertaining stunts in between songs depending on where the wheel landed. It’s your show. Have fun with it!

The idea is to bring people together in a way that’s a win win for everyone. If everybody wins then everybody will want to be a part of your shows in the future. If you want to create a scene, forget about the big expensive venues that don’t care about you, book 6 unrelated bands a night, don’t pay you and that your fans can only afford to go to on special occasions. Instead, find a fun place that’s receptive to the idea of letting you come in and put on your own inexpensive shows. It’s an opportunity for everyone – the venue owner wants more customers, you’ve got fans and you know other bands who have fans (you just need a willing venue), and the fans have a few hours and a reasonable amount of money to spend, and they want good entertainment.

Bring it all together and you’re the hero. So don’t be one of the countless complainers. Be a doer. Amazing things can happen when you’ve got the vision to bring people together.

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Avoid the Death Roll

The “death roll” is a term used in sailing to describe what happens when a boat becomes unstable, loses control and, in most cases, capsizes.  Once it starts it takes a skilled captain to maneuver out of it.

A similar experience occurs often in the world of music.  It usually happens with bands who start out trying to do too much too soon and don’t know how to read the instruments that should be used to steer their ship.  Everything looks great, they’re well on their way to fame and fortune and then all-of-a-sudden their boat quickly starts rocking out of control, they’re going too fast to do anything about it and their boat capsizes, leaving them to die a slow and painful death out on the open water.  : )

Here’s how it usually goes down:  Bands often have a few good shows right off the bat.  Their friends buy into the hype and are more than willing to come out and support.  The shows are a novelty at first and are often fun social events for the friends who attend.  Everyone has a great time and the band is convinced that not only will it always be like this, but that it will only get better.  If it starts that fast then it will grow just as fast.

They bank on that, start getting over confident, and base their decisions on that assumption.
There are a couple of problems with this.  When bands start to get too cocky they often make poor decisions.  They might book shows that they aren’t ready to play, they may drink too much before they go on, they may adopt an insufferable attitude, or a combination of all those and more.  Either way, when they’re banking on the continuation of their early success and they start to believe the hype then they unwittingly put themselves in a fragile position.  Inevitably things will go wrong.  When they do, then such bands will often over-react and get uptight, often in front of their audience, which could cause them to crash-and-burn on the spot .

When a person feels like they’ve given up more time and money than it was worth to go to your show then you’re going to have a hard time getting them to come back.

The bottom line is this – you’re at where you’re at.  The greater the disparity between where you’re actually at and where you think your at, the faster and harder you will fall.

This reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to collect baseball cards.  There was a lot of hype about baseball cards back then.  I remember Jose Canseco’s 1986 rookie card was worth about $175 at one point.  The problem was that it was all overblown.  In the end it wasn’t really worth very much.  Once the value started to decline, it never stopped.  The market collapsed.  You can buy that card now for $7.50.

This is why experience is so important.  You need to think in terms of real growth.  It’s about growing something worthwhile not about blowing up and becoming a rockstar in three months.  If you want to be great then you’ve got to put in the work and pay your dues.  If it comes too easily then you’d better be careful.  Easy come, easy go.

What a lot of bands fail to realize is that the amount of friends that come to your shows is a terrible indicator of your level of success.  Many artists see as many as 100 or 200 people come to their shows and they think they’ve made it.  The problem is that they already know most of these people.  They haven’t really accomplished anything special by getting them to a few shows.  If they don’t learn to grow an audience then the rest of their shows will also be attended by only their friends – just less and less of them.
Your audience has an internal sense of where your momentum is at.  If the perception is that your status is climbing then people will want to be a part of it.  If you don’t learn to grow an audience of people who aren’t already your friends then you will quickly be perceived as being stagnant.  As soon as people start to feel like you’re stagnating then you will start to lose your audience.  The death roll has been initiated.

When you start to lose your local audience then you’re pretty well screwed.  They’re probably not coming back.

In summary, what you need to do is to learn how to grow an audience (more on this in a later post), anticipate a drop off after early success, become calibrated to where you’re really at and consistently over-deliver.
If you do find yourself in the death roll then the only thing you can do is stop – IMMEDIATELY.  Stop what you’re doing.  Re-evaluate your strategy.  Play some shows out of town.  Go underground.  Give it some time.  You need to create some separation so that when you start playing local shows again, you can re-energize your fan base.  You have to convince them that you’ve grown and they you’re better than ever.  Then you have to deliver.

BTW – here’s the Crocodile’s version of the death roll.  Check out what happens when this guy makes a bad decision due to a false sense of confidence.  Don’t let this happen to you….



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