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Did you know that you can get television and radio stations 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.
About the author:
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
http://www.myspace.com/kenlove
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