5 Tips For Concert Promotion

Social Media

Make a band/musician account on Instagram, X, and TikTok and a page on Facebook. Post videos of your music so people know what to expect from you and make sure to consistently post. Include a link on your page to Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube or other music streaming services where followers can find and listen to your music. Also include your website if you have one. It is good to have a website to post tour dates and locations, upcoming shows, contact information, about me’s, and available merchandise.

Interact with your followers by posting polls, Q&A’s, answering DM’s, interacting with their posts, reposting their pictures or videos of previous concerts, and going live. Then begin posting digital flyers for your upcoming concert and make an event on Facebook. Make sure the digital flyer is interesting, with eye-catching pictures or art. Also, make sure it has all of the details they will need to know such as location, date, time, the artist lineup, cost of tickets, age restrictions, and dress code for the concert if there is one. The more the audience knows, the less uncertainty they will have about going. You can also make a video advertising your show. Some artists make videos going along with recent internet trends or post old concert footage so the audience knows what to expect.

2. Giveaways

Sometimes interacting with followers on social media and posting concert announcements are not enough to gain attention to your concert and convince people to attend. Giveaways draw attention and convince others to spread the information around. Make a giveaway announcement post, offer free tickets, free merch, or a free meet and greet and in exchange, ask the audience to follow you, like your post, tag a few people in the comments, and share the post on their story. The people tagged will be notified and will look at the post, which will give them the news about the show but also bring their attention to your page. If they like your music and posts, you can gain another fan. The people sharing the post to their story are also sharing your announcement with their followers. Anything with the words “free” or “win” will peak some interest.

3. Venue and Lineup

Picking a well-known venue can offer some promotion. Some might attend just because they like the venue. The venue might also promote your show on social media. You might want to choose somewhere with a good reputation, a dance floor if your music is more upbeat, seats if people don’t generally dance at your shows, and food and drink or some other draw in. The venue will depend on the style of music. If you are more of a punk rock band with a large college aged audience, then you may want to choose a popular house venue, a concert hall, or another popular spot among your audience like a skatepark or skate shop instead of a bar so that the audience under 21 years old can attend. If you are a jazz musician, you may want to choose somewhere classier, with seating, and possibly serving wine or cocktails.

The same goes for lineups. If you choose to perform a show with other artists, their fans will come to see them but will also see your performance, which in turn could lead to fans that come to future shows. You should find well-known musicians with good reputations to perform before or after you and the musicians style should be similar to yours. If you attended a concert to see your favorite country musician, you might leave or be confused if the musician that comes on stage after performs heavy metal.

4. Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is still very much relevant today. After a performance, inform the audience of your next show. Remind your friends and fans that you interact with about your upcoming shows as they get closer. Maybe start a text or email chain and post flyers around town and you might want to consider getting press involved. Local newspapers and magazines might print your flyer or press release and add it to a calendar of events on their website, while bloggers, influencers, and radio stations are also great ways of spreading information.

Make connections with others by talking to fans or other musicians at concerts. They will be more willing to attend your future concerts and share the information with others if they have talked to you and formed that connection. Always try to keep a good reputation with your audience, venues, and other musicians.

5. Hyping It Up

Why should people attend this show? What will make this show unique from other shows? You can do a few things to make your show less ordinary, such as creating a theme, announcing a new song or album, or throwing a concert for a cause. Themes can go along with holidays such as a sweetheart dance for valentines day or a spooky costume theme for Halloween, or they can be random such as a pajama party, fantasy theme, or black tie event. If you are about to release a new song or album, promote that you will be announcing exciting news at the show or that you will be playing a song they haven’t heard before. This will create much excitement among fans that have been patiently waiting for new music and they will want to be there for the momentous occasion. Benefit or charity concerts will boost your reputation but also convince people that care about the cause to attend the show.

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