This might sound like a strange one but bare with me!
You’ve booked yourself a gig, you’re (hopefully) promoting it online and/or face to face, you’ve put in the practice and perfected your set list… Then hardly anyone comes to watch the show or not as many people as you expected turn up. This can be awkward for any performer. Doing a live gig to a half empty room, or less, can be disheartening but it’s not all bad!
Obviously, performing live gigs gives you the chance to build your fan base by showing people what you can do and hopefully turning an audience member into someone who may come to more of your gigs, like your Facebook page or download your music, for example.
But how often does this actually happen?
How many audience members actually end up going home and researching you online? There aren’t many accurate statistics out there to give a definitive answer to this but if you monitor your Facebook likes / Twitter followers etc. before and after a gig you probably won’t notice much difference. Performing live provides more benefits than this.
Get someone to take photos or videos of you performing
Just ask them to film from an angle that doesn’t show the empty room! Now you still have content to share with your fans and start building a larger fanbase online.
If you make a mistake it doesn’t matter
Not many people will see anyway! Use the fact that there aren’t many people there as an opportunity to play around with your set list, try new material, develop your stage presence. Now you’re ready for a future gig with a larger audience.
Get some audience feedback
Large crowds tend to talk amongst themselves, whereas smaller crowds may feel too awkward to do this – therefore they may actually be listening more intently than your larger crowds. Now you have a chance to ask the audience what they thought of your music, helping you develop your material.
You can still get something out of it
Even if the worse happens and absolutely no one turns up to the gig, ask the manager if you can still use the space to practice your material and get a feel for the venue. Remember that you’ve still made a contact thanks to you booking the gig in the first place, so you could go back at a later date or ask this person for contact details of other venues or people he/she may know in the industry!
I’ve been to a gig before where there were 3 people in the audience at a 200 capacity venue! The acts still performed, and one of them utilised Facebook’s new live feed feature to record himself performing which streamed live to Facebook and drew in 60 viewers, all interacting through comments and shares online. Therefore he could consider his total audience for that night as at least 63 people, not just 3!
There are many ways to make the most out of a bad situation, its all about your attitude. Think about a plan of action before you turn up to your gig in case not many people turn up. That way you can still get something out of it!
Read Full Article Here:
http://www.helpforbands.co.uk/why-it-doesnt-matter-if-no-one-comes-to-your-gig/
