5 Tips For Playing Gigs in Times of Corona
Countless shows, tours, and festivals are being canceled around the world because of Covid-19, but that doesn’t mean live music has ground to a halt.
The pandemic is posing a massive challenge to the music industry, but the explosive growth in the popularity of live-streaming is helping musicians and promoters build connections with audiences and earn an income during a difficult time. Homebound audiences are streaming concerts live from every corner of the globe performed by musicians of every genre, following, and background imaginable.
gigmit.com is the data-driven matchmaking platform representing easy booking for both live acts and promoters. It changes the way concerts are organized, gives the live industry a digital tech update and opens the booking business, which was previously reserved for only a few, to everyone. Since the founding of gigmit in 2012, over 120,000 artists have used the platform to apply for gigs of all genres. More than 8,500 promoters have registered with gigmit. Learn more about how to get booked in times of Covid-19 and how gigmit can help you with your artist career.
1. Stay Informed And Find Support for Music Makers
Since the beginning of the crisis, gigmit’s goal has been to provide artists and promoters with the latest updates on the music business. In our COVID-19 Shutdown: Important Infos & Links For Music Makers article, we have gathered everything that’s relevant to music workers: how to get financial support, official announcements and regulations on live events by country, links to initiatives helping artists and promoters and more, and most importantly, news and tips on how to go on.
Even if the lockdown is over in many European countries such as Germany, France or Spain, we have to remain careful and not to forget that the virus is still there. However, gigmit is providing artists with more tools to get booked either for live streaming shows or for shows later this year or in 2021.
2. Make Live-Streaming Work For You
In a world where in-person experiences like conventional concerts won’t be considered safe for some time, digital music performances are becoming essential lifelines for musicians and promoters alike.
Livestreaming Platforms offer an alternative to reach fans and potential fans across the world without leaving the country. Show4me and (offline) festival promoters alike have been publishing open calls for digital editions of their gigs on the platform since the beginning of the crisis. gigmit, too, is organizing an online showcase event called Indoor Inspired.
Recording a live stream isn’t as simple as it sounds: it isn’t just about singing a few songs in front of your computer screen. There is a variety of technical details to take into account before recording a live stream such as set up, sound design, which platform to use to record the platform, etc.
That is why we have decided to put together an comprehensive live streaming guide dedicated to artists in collaboration with SHURE, Yamaha and Kycker.
Our live streaming guide is there to help artists learn how to monetize these streams and how to advertise them. The goal being to record top quality streams that will lead to further bookings.
3. Work On Your Digital Artist Profile And Get Your Fan Insights
Bookers and A&Rs now have less opportunities to see bands perform live and thus to evaluate if they’re worth being booked or not. That is why every artist should provide a complete EPK including all relevant information on their career.
When registering on gigmit, artists can create their Artist Profile for free and upload their music, videos, bio, past and future gig dates, technical rider, and more, all for free.
Additionally, gigmit is offering all of its users the possibility to connect their social media accounts to their EPK to see their Spotify and Facebook growth. These FAN INSIGHTS are based on fan and streaming data of the last 28 days and are updated on a weekly basis.
They allow bookers and A&Rs to see if an artist has the potential to grow, and in which country their fanbase is for smarter booking decisions.
This Artist Profile can be used as a business card when applying for shows via gigmit. It is the first thing that promoters will see when reviewing the applications.
4. Start Planning Your Tour For 2021: The Festival & Venue Database
In addition to the smart EPK, gigmit PRO users have the possibility to proactively look for gigs by contacting venue owners and festival organisers directly via the Festival & Venue Database. The database contains over 12,000 contacts all over the world to this day and is constantly growing.
Looking for festivals, bars, clubs or other alternatives for live gigs is very time consuming — especially when you want to tour in a different region or abroad.
Where do live events take place? Which festivals and clubs are looking to book live acts in your genre or meet your requirements? Who is the contact person for this?
Unfortunately, Google isn’t of much help in this case. Anyone who’s a bit familiar with the industry usually already has their own list of venues to contact. You know that it takes quite a bit of time and effort to enlarge your contacts and keep your address book up to date.
This tool will save you a considerable amount of time that you can spend on music creation.
tonebase users now get a 30% discount* on gigmit PRO, just use the code tonebase30 at the checkout. Get started.
*valid until 31st of October 2020.
5. Get a head start on booking in 2021 and export your music career to Europe
Gigmit initiated the Innovation Network Of European Showcases (INES) which opened a call for artists based in the countries of the 20 showcase festivals participating. Showcase festivals are national music industry events that provide a platform for artist discovery, business networking and education. They combine live music performances, conference programmes and trade shows. This makes them the innovation hubs of the music industry. Whether it’s about artist discovery, professional education or capacity building, it all happens there. By connecting those hubs, INES will create a united and strong European music market.
The INES#talent 2021 open call will be open until August 16, 2020. Each festival will nominate a number of export-ready talents from their country to join the INES#talent pool. This is a quality stamp that enables talents to get equal European exposure and the chance to build their international careers by showcasing around Europe. This opportunity is exclusive for gigmit users as the application process takes place on the platform.
