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Q: How does one book a tour and/or find an agent when they have a nationally distributed CD (Valley Media & theorchard.com), a national release (The Album Network, Burbank, CA), a mix offered for free by a major motion picture studio (SONY Pictures, Culver City, CA). I released a full length album of instrumental rock/jazz on my own label and need to tour to raise interest and sell albums so I can make a living. Any suggestions? -Tom
Just Plain Folks Mentor Anne Leighton answers
A: I actually don't believe that publicity ALONE can build an artist's awareness with the general public and the music industry to the point that an artist can make money doing music and nothing else. I also don't believe that publicity is the be-all/end-all for a person's career. In general the media (including fanzine and local papers) will not cover a person who needs press. They cover people who can sell papers for them. There are some things, however, that local artist should do to build their attention. First is to establish a contact with all realistic media and some pipe-dream media. (Pipe-dream should be media folk you sincerely enjoy.)
Create the best kit you can-- a well-written bio, clear photos. Make sure you have contact info on all pieces of material. Research the local media through what you see in the newsstands, music stores, neighborhood papers in the banks, local cable shows. Make a phone connection (if the media person will come to the phone), and send out your kit. Do a follow-up to see if they received the kit. Get a vibe for how long it takes for them to listen to the music, and ask them how they prefer you keep in touch with them. Some journalists actually hate phone call follow-ups even if it's monthly.
Likewise, do that with agents AND concert promoters AND most importantly, venues. Most of the time agents won't work with people who can't bring more than 1000 people a night to a venue. Although your CD is probably a great work of art, it is also a promotional tool to build your career. Hopefully you'll have many more awesome CDs inside of you to promote.
If you're interested in booking a college tour, you might want to contact NACA. It costs less than 1000 dollars to join this organization but they will hook you up with all kinds of networking and instruction in building your following in the college market. Of course each of your mailouts to radio, and venues will also cost money. But it's your career you're investing in. Right?
NACA is at http://bbs.naca.sc.edu/index.htm. Phone is 803-732-62222. Address; NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR CAMPUS ACTIVITIES, 13 Harbison Way, Columbia, SC 29212-3401.
I discourage folks to only contact agents and other industry folk just with email. We have a tendency to ignore emails that are sent by people we don't know right? The telephone is the first and best way to contact people. Be cordial, be interested in people. Yes, you really feel nobody is better than you. But you'll never grow as an artist if you're only interested in yourself.