How-to Book Your First Gig

What is it to get a booking?

For the sake of this guide we won’t class playing music at your friend from high schools 19th birthday as a booking.

Instead we are going to walk you through the steps you can take to get your first local gig.

PREPARATION

Preparation is so critical in your journey to get a booking we’re going to break it down into a bunch of smaller points so we can go into a bit more detail.

MENTAL
Up until this moment you’ve probably been thinking I’m never going to get booked. What am I doing wrong? Why hasn’t anyone contacted me to play at their venue?

How you control your mindset in this time can be a massive help to how quickly you work through this and get booked. Spend some time setting some clear goals. Start with something small like “I will send off 10 emails to prospective venues this week”. Then working up to your big goal of “I will lock in a residency at X venue”.

Writing things out like this helps you get the thoughts out of your head and on paper. It actually helps you to make them feel more real.

DIGITAL
Where do you send people online when you are trying to show them what you’re all about. Is it an instagram account, website or soundcloud profile. Whatever it is I’m sure if I went there most of it would be out of date and would have a bunch of out of context posts, information or media there.

A talent buyer for a venue / event is generally looking for 3 things online when they look you up. Video content, audio content and imagery of you performing. If these 3 things aren’t easy to locate, out of date or just really messy it can be an automatic turn off.

If you haven’t performed yet, how do you provide these?….when you’re recording an example mixtape, film a couple short videos and grab a couple of pictures. It really is that simple.

The buyer needs to see and hear the product they're buying. Make this process as easy as possible for them.

PHYSICAL
Practise, Practise, Practise. Love multiple genres? Go and record a mix of each one. Then go and record a mix with all of them in one.

Love how this one particular DJ uses an effect? Study it online and practise it until you can do it blindfolded. The more you practise the greater your confidence grows and then leaks into everything else. The greats never stop trying to improve their skill set. If you want to be a part of that then you will need to put in the hours.

BRANDING
When getting hired for a gig you become a contractor hired by the business for the purpose of entertainment. This is something people forget so early. Most of the time you start DJing at a young age so you feel like going for a gig is the same as applying for a normal job. I’ve had people send me a resume before (no joke). This is totally different. You are a business entity, a brand that is looking to be hired by another company.

To better understand the following points you should take some time online to go and have a look through a few of your favourite artist profiles / websites online and scroll through. Get a feel for what the people (businesses / brands) you look up to are doing. Quickest way to move forward sometimes instead of innovating is to emulate. So if you're stuck, find something you like and emulate it.

• Artist Name. People spend way too much time on this. Can’t think of anything good just use your name. You can always change it down the track. The amount of Artists I know including high level ones that change their names or use different names so they can play other styles of music is endless. Don’t take time on something that doesn’t matter. People just want to know what to call you when you play. So if the name you come up with doesn't feel right just go with your own name.

• Press Shots. Don’t have the money to hire a photographer, easy get a friend with an iphone and spend a few hours having some fun. Make sure the looks you go for are what you feel you’d want to wear to a gig.

• Logo. This is a business. Take some time to navigate your way around the website Canva (not too much, it's not insanely important early on) and just find something that you feel you like. Change the letters, style and colours to suit yours and off you go.

• Clean Social Links. Make all of your social links the same. So if a fan / venue wants to find you on a particular site they can check your usual @ and find you. The amount of talent out there with a link chain like (instagram.com/fireball88lol - facebook.com/fire__balllol - twitter.com/ballfire8888) boggles my mind. Most social networks allow you to change your moniker after the fact as well. So after you start accumulating a few accounts take the time to find out what's available and match them up. “DO NOT USE YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNTS”.

• EPK / One Sheet / Press Pack - Hit up canva again (it’s free) and make up a one page document that has all your info on it. Bio. Social Links. Press Shots. Mixtape Link. Styles of Music you play. As time goes on add venues / events you've played to it.

STEP OUT OF YOUR BUBBLE

Want to meet prospective talent buyers? You aren’t going to find them at your place, go out and be active in your local scene. Try and head out at least once a week. This doesn’t mean go out and get turbo every weekend. This is about curating your night out. Finding those small clubs with the local DJs.

Recognise someone from online? Go and say Hi.

The biggest thing about going to shows is you never know who you can run into at the venue. Whether it’s the door person, Venue Manager or the Talent Buyer they are all connected. Making an impression with one can always have a trickle down effect.

Your main goal is to just connect and meet with as many people associated with each venue as possible. That way when someone is thinking about who can fill a spot next week on rotation you’re the first and only name that comes up.

I have personally witnessed this process leap frog someone’s entire career.

GIVE, GIVE, GIVE

Give more upfront than what you want in return.

When you are building your network you need to think about what you can do for them. Another DJ pushing a mixtape, why don’t you repost it, leave a valuable comment on it (not just a flame emoji), send them a text telling them about your favourite part or maybe it's garbage and you can help them with some advice.

Remember networking is about being honest. Don’t just be mean for the sake of it of course. But offer real constructive criticism where necessary.

Venue posts a cool event that you wish you were a part of, hit them up and ask if they want some help selling tickets. This one in particular is a pretty common for a DJ. Promoting for an event at your local venue gives you direct access to the booker and the ability to build a relationship with them one to one.

In the end you don’t want to be surrounding yourself with fake people. You want your network to help you grow in more ways than one. When you put others in front of yourself, whether intended or unintended, things just happen. Be it in life or business.

Not only will it make you feel good, but it’ll provide you the leverage that you can utilise if the opportunity comes knocking.

IT GOES DOWN IN THE DMS

As humans we don’t have a fear of hard work we have a fear of rejection. To reach out, to DM, to approach people you don’t know doesn’t come naturally for most. It is not for everyone but I have seen first hand the success that can come from it.

Now this isn’t just copying and pasting the same message to 100 accounts, no one wants to receive spam emails the same as they don’t want spam dms. You have to take the time to individually curate a message to suit each business / client. 

Here’s an example of a DM / Email I’ve sent before, I’ve changed some info to suit someone looking for their first gig.

Dear ***,

Hope you’re doing well.

I’m {Your Name} from {Your Artist Name}, a DJ from the Gold Coast. I have been DJing for approx. 1 year now. I am comfortable playing multiple genres including pop, rnb and house music. I have created a few mixes that I feel fit into the music styling for your venue below. The first one in particular I made as an example opening set I might play.

Opening Mix - ***
High Energy Mix - ***
Left of Centre Mix - ***

If you get a chance to listen to the mixes above you will hear that I have a very adaptable sound. I’d love the opportunity to come and meet in person to discuss the potential for a gig at your venue. If necessary I am open to the possibility of my initial gig being on a trial basis.

Thanks

{Your Name}{A Link to your best social account}

When you have free time head to Instagram search the area you want to play in and find relevant venues / clients to DM. Repeat this process every few months.

STAY CURRENT

To stay current takes a lot less work then the 2 points above. But it is still an essential part. Because you do not want to be reaching out to that contact in your network 2 years down the track about something that could make or break your next gig.

Keeping your network warm is the most essential part to keeping it useful. This can be as simple as an email sharing a new mix or song of yours, a casual text or dropping into a venue or artists gig. Don’t let them forget about you.

Stay in touch, so eventually when you do have to ask for a favour it isn’t weird.

All the points above will help you get the gig but this one will help you to keep them coming in.

CONCLUSION

Getting a gig is not an exact science but if you work through these one by one you can pretty much guarantee that you’ll see results. This is simply because only a tiny percentage of people ever put that much effort into their careers.

A lot of the time it’s all about the music or skill level doing the talking. This can also work, but only in very very limited cases.

The key is to make yourself a list of what you need and knock them over one by one.

Get prepared as best you can and then follow through with relentless persistence. And remember, relationships are key, once you book the first gig is when you put the hammer down to turn that into more shows.