How to organize a show

This section of my website is both for experienced organizers who could use a couple tips, and for inexperienced organizers who need a bit of a how-to on show organizing. Some of the principles also apply to organizing other things, and certainly apply to organizing shows for other musicians, if you change a word here or there.

Here's the basic thing… Famous musicians who get lots of commercial airplay and such have networks of professional promoters, producers, journalists, radio programmers, etc., to do all this sort of thing for them. Musicians like me don't. For musicians like me, it's all up to local people who believe that there is value in putting time and effort in to organizing an event of one sort or another.

But in either case, it comes down to one thing: buzz. Getting the word out. Getting the word out so well that it starts getting itself out. Word of mouth, "viral marketing." Generating buzz is not an easy task, especially when it comes to musicians who get virtually no radio airplay or other forms of conventional publicity.

When the buzz is happening, you'll know it because you will be hearing about the show from people who don't know you are organizing it. In the week or two preceding the show, random people from your community of friends and acquaintances will be asking you if you are going to it.

How to get to that stage? Basically, it involves a diversity of tactics. People need to hear about a show from several different sources that ideally are or appear to be independent of each other. The show (or other event that involves music) needs to become, in the collective consciousness, the big event happening in town that week. It is the thing to go to. It’s where you'll meet all your friends, get energized, inspired, educated.

You have to believe this, and get other people to believe it. There are no short cuts. There are efficient or inefficient uses of time and energy, but no matter what, time and energy are required. Below are various aspects of how to generate buzz. These are examples – by no means a complete list, and there are lots of regional and other sorts of variations.

First, who is organizing? It is possible, barely, for one person to organize a successful event, if that person is very good at it and has lots of time to put into it. But generally the idea is to be working with a group with a constituency, a group with a loyal following of people who come to events that the group organizes, a group with a big email list, and a bunch of dedicated people involved with the group who want to put energy into organizing the event.

Picking a venue. Again, the idea is for there to be as many different sources of publicity as possible. So by far the ideal venue for the event is a music venue that people know of, centrally located and easy to find, and one that has it's own email/mailing list, that advertises shows that happen there. (Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts is a fine example of such a venue.)

It's certainly possible to have a successful event in some church in the outskirts of town that nobody's ever heard of, but using a venue like this will usually cut the potential audience size in half at least. (On the other hand venues like that are often available last-minute and are cheap or free to use…)

Email lists. Email lists can be very useful, but are also very limited. Bear in mind that even with the most popular email lists, if 10% of the recipients open the email, that's a very good rate. And bear in mind that many of those opening the email won’t read past the subject line. So yes, use email lists, lots and lots of them, make good, exciting, succinct announcements, say a bit about the performer, quote Amy Goodman and Cindy Sheehan (from my main page), describe the event enthusiastically, and encourage people to spread the word. But do not for a second think that this will generate more than a few people in itself. If it does, great, but it probably won't.

In fact, it is often the case that each form of promotion may generate only a few audience members. Hopefully each method will generate more than a few, but usually not.

Websites. As with email lists, the best ones are local ones that only local people would tend to know about. For national/international websites with local sections, there are things like Indymedia and Craig's List where you can list local events. Sending out to your friends in MySpace, Friendster, etc., is always a good idea, and getting everybody else to do that, too.

Print media. Most urban areas in the US have a liberal (sometimes) weekly paper (such as the Boston Phoenix or Village Voice), as well as a daily paper, and maybe a monthly "what's on" magazine such as Time Out. Look at their deadlines and get them the info about the concert before the deadline. Contact the people who do reviews and ask them if they might consider doing a review. (CD's can be sent to you upon request for this sort of thing.) Make sure they know they can download high-resolution photos from my website, in the "posters and photos" section. In addition to the basic info for a listing, make sure to send them a press release. If they want things in a certain format, thank them and send it in whatever format they want it. Remember, they're doing us a favor…

Radio. Most communities in the US have some kind of radio, often several kinds, that can be used to great advantage for promoting a show if done right. As with all of the other forms of promotion, in itself it’s probably not going to bring in lots of people, but it can definitely help, and sometimes help a lot.

If there is a local Pacifica affiliate that airs a popular show like Democracy Now!, it's worth looking into the idea of making the event at least a partial benefit for the station, if the manager of the station is willing to have a Public Service Announcement (PSA, or "cart") played daily during the breaks during Democracy Now! for a couple weeks leading up to the event. If you have a friend at the station, see if they can make the PSA. If not, ask us (me and Jen Angel) about getting one made.

Make sure any local radio stations know about the event, have a CD, get the event into their calendars (for their on-air calendar and for their website), and play songs and mention the event on relevant music and even news and information shows. Stations to target are Pacifica affiliates or other community or college stations, Air America stations, NPR stations, or even sometimes commercial stations. You know which ones in your area, and if you don’t, find out! Get all your friends to regularly make a nuisance of themselves by calling into various stations during appropriate shows and requesting that they play a track and plug the event. Ask programmers if they would interview me live or by phone, especially popular drive-time shows.

David Rovics poster

Posters. High-res posters can be downloaded from my website and/or can be mailed to you upon request. There's a blank section at the bottom for filling in details about the show. With posters the thing is to put lots of them up all over town over the course of a few weeks before the event.

Handbills. Here's a major way to bring in more people. If there is another event happening in the weeks leading up to the concert, go to it, make an announcement, pass out handbills to people, put them on the chairs before the event starts, etc. You know what kinds of events are ideal for attracting people – peace vigils or rallies, environmental or global justice-related events, or when someone like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Cindy Sheehan, or whoever else (well-known or not) is coming to speak nearby.

Look for cosponsors. This is crucial, and perhaps the most effective organizing tool of all, if I had to pick one. Here's how it works… Make tickets for the event. Go to local businesses, nonprofits, activist groups, etc. Ask them if they want to cosponsor the event. Tell them if they do, their name will be on the poster and in the emails you send out, etc., as a cosponsor. But the requirement for cosponsoring is that they buy at least $50 worth of tickets up front, and then sell them (or give them away to their employees or whoever if they want to) themselves. (If they don’t sell the tickets that's their problem, they don't get their money back, but they do still get to be official cosponsors.)

Encourage the cosponsors to do more than just sell their tickets, but to publicize the event on their respective email lists, give out flyers, put up posters, etc., etc.

Phone calls. Again, this is crucial, maybe the most crucial form of promotion. In the age of email and the internet, there is information overload, as we all know. People tend not to pay attention to emails. You need to call your friends, talk to them, leave them voice messages, encourage them to come to the show, tell them how exciting it's going to be, ask them to spread the word by calling their friends, too.

Opening acts. It's good to make a concert a real festive occasion, a celebration of resistance. This guy is not just going to sing about depressing things happening in the world, he's going to lift your spirits and help you feel like you're part of something. To further encourage this atmosphere, opening acts can be great, especially opening acts that are good and have a local following.

In particular, local chapters of the Raging Grannies, Radical Cheerleaders, or a local Labor Chorus (or Socialist Choir or whatever they call themselves locally, if there is one). These institutions are great, fun, and tend to create a scene and have a local following. They also tend to be numerous (thus increasing the audience size, and maybe some of them will even support the cause and buy tickets too), and have lots of friends. If a 30-member labor chorus is on board and each one brings a friend or two, that's a lot of extra people.

Especially if there are going to be opening acts like that, it can be really good to bill the event as a celebration of resistance, a celebration of the progressive movement, or something along those lines, rather than "just" a concert.

Churches and other religious institutions. Most communities have local progressive ministers, imams, rabbis, etc. Turn them or members of their congregations on to the music, talk to them about the messages in the music and how it's relevant to them – this guy is singing songs of hope and also songs about struggles the church is involved with; the Middle East, the war(s), Latin American solidarity, etc. Encourage the minister to plug the event and to encourage his or her congregation to attend. Unitarians, Quakers and all kinds of other folks tend to really like the song "Who Would Jesus Bomb".

If it seems like a lot to do, well, it is, but with a few people working on different tasks it doesn't have to be overwhelming. There are lots of other factors that aren't in our control that can influence attendance – the weather, conflicting events in town, the general mood among progressives, etc. Also, no matter how hard you try, you may or may not be able to get really good cooperation from local radio stations, print media, etc. But if you enthusiastically do all of the things mentioned above, the event will be successful. It may or may not be a massive success, but it will be a success. But almost certainly if you don't do everything above, it will not be a success.

If you could use clarification for any of these points or any other kind of help or information, please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime.

Thanks for all your efforts, and I'll see you at the show!