When you’re in a band, you know the blood, sweat and tears involved in stalking club owners and booking agents to confirm dates, searching high and low for cool opening acts, walking all over creation to put up flyers, loading gear in and out of your van only to open that golden envelope at the end of the night to find out you made … 30 bucks?
Unless you’re an established act with a diehard following, club shows can be a financial crapshoot. Lucky for you, colleges and universities usually pay a set fee that can be substantially higher than what you’ll make at a club— even with a packed house. Every college is different, but you can generally expect anywhere from $500 to upwards of $3,000 for a gig depending on how high your profile is. So how do you go about getting a show on campus? There’s no magical formula, but here are some DIY tips to get you started in the right direction.
- Contact the college radio station. Even if they’re not in charge of booking acts, they can probably direct you to the right person at the Office of Student Affairs, Campus Life or the like. We let Wikipedia do the legwork and found this handy list of college radio stations in markets all over the U.S. and beyond.
- Look at where similar artists are playing. While you’re out there in cyberspace, take a few minutes to check out other band’s tour schedules and see which colleges they are booking.
- Follow up, follow up, follow up. The ball is always in your court, so make sure you’re persistent. Get personal email addresses and phone numbers and stay in touch. Ask the college radio station to spin your music. Keep your contacts in the loop on album releases, big shows and any press you’ve garnered. Even the slightest success you’ve had will make you that much more attractive to the person booking the shows.
This blog post was contributed by Kate Bredimus
