to attend your gigs and give you media coverage? Well,
you can, *IF* you are performing the "right types" of gigs.
So, what are the right types of gigs?
Well, in short, these are gigs that are most likely to inspire
area stations to cover them because they are, largely, non
profit organization and charity fundraisers that benefit
human interest causes.
Just a few such charities/non-profit organizations include;
Red Cross, American Cancer Society, YMCA, YWCA,
Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Campus Crusade for
Christ, etc. And, along with these few, there are, literally,
innumerable more that readily seek musical entertainment
to help support and provide interest in their fundraising
events.
How to Approach and Get Started:
What you first need to do is contact various non-profit
organizations and charities, and notify them of your
availability to perform at their fundraising events. They will
probably request your media kit for review. Then, if they
consider you a match, they will likely add you to their
entertainment roster for future consideration.
And, while the above listed charities are national and
international in scope, there are smaller sized and regional
charities and non-profit organizations that can equally
benefit from your musical services as well.
In fact, you may find it both easiest and fastest to work
through locally based and regionally based charities and
non-profit organizations, as well as local and regional
chapters of national and international organizations such
as listed above.
Using this method just may serve as a stepping stone and
lead to your direct performance with the organizations'
corporate sectors on national and international levels.
You should also consider foregoing any performance
compensation for these particular gigs and performances
in the interest of obtaining repeat performances when the
organizations conduct future fundraising events.
Also, keep in mind that, with charity and non-profit events,
audiences are usually much larger, more dedicated and
supportive, as opposed to regular gig audiences at
normal music venues.
As such, in lieu of foregoing compensation, do request to
make your CD available for sale to fundraising attendees
who enjoy your music and wish to purchase it during or
after your performance.
This way, you fulfill and appease to the non-profit and
charity requirements by foregoing compensation while
also having an opportunity to provide and make your
music available to attendees. And, at charity and non
profit performances, you are likely to experience greater
sales of your music than at normal gigs.
To find charities and non-profit organizations, simply
review your telephone directory's yellow pages under such
categories as "Charities," "Human Service Organizations,"
Non-Profit Organizations" or related categories.
Getting Television & Radio Media to Your Gigs
Now that you know what special gigs are most likely to
attract television and radio coverage, once you have a
charity or non-profit gig, contact area stations and inform
them of the upcoming event. You will want to approach
stations' news directors, program directors and talk show
producers of shows that are most appropriate for covering
the event.
Approaching television and radio news departments for
your event is as simple as your making a telephone call to
them and asking to be connected with their newsrooms,
then, requesting to be connected with their news directors.
Similarly, you will contact the stations' programming
departments and request to speak with their program
directors or assistant program directors in order to learn
of their most appropriate talk shows and related programs.
With all, you should explain that you are the entertainment
for the particular charity or non-profit organization's
upcoming event.
As for program directors, request to learn the particular
shows produced by the stations that are most appropriate
for either interviews, or which programs may be interested
in covering your event as a show topic.
And, to obtain even more favor with program directors and
talk show producers, if you have not done so already, you
should become fairly well versed in the particular benefit
or cause at which you are performing in order to cohesively
and effectively discuss it should you be fortunate in
obtaining media coverage in any context.
This will go a long way in helping you to further secure
feature interviews, in addition to your regular performance,
and which not only provides you with interview experience,
but can also translate and springboard into more television
and radio coverage at national and international levels.
And, even if your event is already scheduled to be covered
by the charity or non-profit organization itself, your interview
and performance can give stations additional news and
topic angles, thus, providing them with more content.
Note: In addition to contacting stations via telephone, as
you are probably aware, many stations also have websites
where they also post their news directors' and program
directors' telephone and email contacts, as well as provide
programming schedules that list their various shows.
Utilizing their websites for this info will normally generate
easiest and fastest results.
Kenny Love is president of MuBiz.com, a multi-service music firm providing radio promotion, media publicity, gig publicity and business services for musicians. Get complete details at MySpace.com.