Get a Following for Your Band

Posted by kunal on July 19th, 2019

A few years ago, I'd have said: "Do some gigs and get on MySpace." That's not the greatest buy soundcloud plays plan now, though.

Why haven't you got much of a following? Is it just that you're pretty new? If so, get everyone you know to come to your gigs, no matter where they are, and bring ALL their mates. Play any gig you can get and let the audience know about your website (oh yeah, you need a website). Everyone does flyers and posters, so you need to get in on this as well.

If you've been around a while, but your fanbase is still a bit small, you've got to think about why. Maybe you live in a small place, and your style of music isn't that big? If this is it, you'll need to hunt out your fans, and this will probably mean going online and spreading the word rather than just relying on local people. Get on Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, forums, YouTube. Send your tunes to bloggers to see if they'll review you or blog about you (and don't ever think a blog's too small to do this, all publicity's good).

If you can afford it, film a decent video or get some marketing gear. Get some printed or embroidered hoodies and t-shirts and get your mates to wear them, hand them out at gigs if you can. Hoodies are good cos people can put them on over their clothes, so if it's a bit cold, they might wear them home. They are walking adverts!

There are lots of bands out there trying to make it, and a lot of fans get a bit sick of random invitations to see some guys they don't know or care about. If you want people to like your band, you have to get them to like you. Make friends wherever you go, go to other gigs and make friends there, be nice to friends of friends. People will want to support you and feel like they're on board with something, so get yourself out there and be charming and funny and get people excited about your music.

If you're doing all this and still people aren't coming back to your gigs, maybe you need to get some better material? Rehearse more, write a crowd-pleasing song or two and perhaps work on your audience interaction and how you get the crowd going.