Draw A Bigger Crowd On Tour By Aligning With A Cause
Every musician, whether they’re playing to a crowd of 25 or 2,500, knows intimately the struggle and grind it takes to get people out to a show. Most touring artists have started somewhere at the bottom of the totem pole, playing a show to the bartender at 1 a.m. or pushing through a 4-hour set only to make $100. It takes time, patience, and a lot of drive to grow a loyal audience that actually comes to shows, and sometimes, it can feel like it’s to no avail.
If you’re banging your head against a wall to get people to come out to your shows, there’s likely one avenue you haven’t tried. Most musicians have values and beliefs that play into their art in some way, whether through their songwriting or in some other way, but those values and beliefs can actually help grow an audience that will actually come out to shows.
First, start by identifying a cause you really care about. Let’s say, for example, it’s voting rights. You care deeply about the democratic process and want everyone to be afforded the right to vote. Once you identify what that cause is, you can leverage to help grow your career while making an important impact on society.
At this point, we at Sound & Vision can help you find an organization to partner with, and the specifics of that partnership can really vary. There are so many possibilities; a social media campaign using a hashtag that’s unique to you and your music around voting rights and that organization can help expose you to a brand new audience, a promotional video for the organization with your music in the background can get new ears listening to you, and even organizing with that nonprofit to set up an informational table at your shows while helping to promote to their own audience ahead of time.
These are just a few ideas of what partnering with a like-minded organization can do to not only grow your audience, but actually get those new fans out to see you play live. The new audience you’ll be exposed to will already know their their beliefs align with yours, and that’s when you have the opportunity to continue engaging them with new content and promote your shows directly to them.
Nowadays, more and more musicians are using their public platforms to speak up about their beliefs and values. For any artist at any level, a strategic partnership like this, which Sound & Vision will help facilitate, can catapult you from small crowds to big crowds in no time.