[Dixielandjazz] Is this typical? - Advertising

Mon May 14 11:53:59 PDT 2007

I think that the problem of poor turnout is advertising.  Bands just can't 
afford to do their own advertising because of the work and cost involved.

Recently my band played at the Scott Joplin House here in St. Louis.  They 
have a club next door called the Rosebud and as venues go it's very nice. 
The club holds about 60-80 people.

I advertised via e-mail to everyone on my list and requested that they 
forward my e-mail to their friends.  I don't know if anyone did it or not. 
As far as I could see no one from my list showed up.  Most everyone on my 
list is a musician which may have played a part in it.  I have a small 
e-mail list to clients and venues.

I printed color flyers that were put in several places as well as at the 
Joplin House prior to the concert.  The members of the band passed some out 
too.  I mailed out a few but I suspect the groups I mailed them to needed 
them a month earlier to act on them.  I should have gotten them out earlier 
but that just wasn't possible.

It was pointed out that I didn't have a notice in the Get out St. Louis 
column of the Post.  That is free and comes out once a week on Thursdays. 
One of the audience reminded me that I wasn't there.   I also didn't notify 
the Jazz Club for a notice.  This one I didn't do because I wasn't a member 
yet and didn't know they did that and when I found out it was too late to 
make the newsletter.

In spite of all my shortcomings on the concert we had almost a full house 
which was good but could have been better.

I was disappointed with the internet advertising the venue did.  We were 
supposed to be on the web site announcement but never made it even though I 
called and reminded them.  I was assured that it would be done. (NOT!!!) 
They did send out, so they say. an e-mailing.  Does anyone read those things 
or does it just become so much spam? At this point I don't know how much 
good e-mail does but since it's more or less free it's foolish to not use 
it.  If anyone wants to see what my e-ad looked like I can send it off list.

Even the amount of advertising I did was a fairly large effort and while I 
could have done more and directed things a bit differently the result wasn't 
as good as I had hoped.  As time goes by I will refine my efforts.

I sent out about 85 postcards on my list before the rates went up.  Lets see 
if I get any calls from those.  I ended up booking 9 jobs from that list 
before and generated 2 calls for NY eve.  The cards were aimed at some 
Tuesday nights we are free, summer concerts and July 4.  The other reason is 
that I want to keep my name in front of the people that hire bands.  That's 
the expensive part of advertising.  While I did well with the last mailing 
you have to keep it up.  The post cards cost right at $28 for everything. 
You have to factor in the work involved but postcards are inexpensive if you 
aren't sending out thousands and have a targeted mail list.  All I have to 
book is one job from the mailing to more than pay for it.  But like the 
lottery I might get lucky.

I'm sort of wondering if the leader and musicians in this group as well as 
the venue were hoping to magically draw a crowd on the names alone without 
doing anything much else?
Larry
St. Louis

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:52 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Is this typical?

>A sad story from one of the local Jazz Society e-mails, about their monthly
> concert, this one in a church venue for Mothers Day. (Reminds me of the 
> last
> time they presented Tony DiNicola and Kenny Davern together with a monster
> quintet and drew about 110 people)
>
> Good example of why OKOM needs an infusion of youth in all phases of the
> genre.
>
>
> -----start snip
>
> Hi ---- MEMBERS:
>
> This is to those that missed the best concert of the year in any music
> venue!!! You missed out on a great climax!!
>
> Dan Levinson got down on his knees before the last tune and asked Molly 
> Ryan
> to marry him. She said yes, but was speechless for a long time afterward.
>
> The music was great, the root beer was plentiful and received well, the
> venue had many good remarks made, the CD sales went well, but of 75 there,
> about 25 were TSJS members. Luckily we have some members that "subsidized"
> the concert with funds, food for the band, ads in the papers, and such. 
> That
> is only 10 % of our members, which total is an all time low since 1995. We
> had a band made of 8 band leaders.
>
> ------ end snip
>
> Who was in this band that drew only 75 people, 25 of whom were from the 
> jazz
> society?
>
> Dan Levinson, leader/reeds; Randy Reinhart, trumpet; David Sager, 
> trombone;
> Mark Shane, piano; Vince Giordano, guitar/banjo/bass saxophone; Brian
> Nalepka, bass; Kevin Dorn, drums, Molly Ryan, vocals.
>
> WHAT A GREAT PITY THEY THERE WERE ONLY 75 PEOPLE IN THE PHILADELPHIA AREA
> SUPPORTING THE MUSIC OF THIS GREAT BAND. AND ONLY 25 FROM THE JAZZ SOCIETY
> WHO WOULD TRAVEL TO A DIFFERENT VENUE, JUST A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THEIR
> USUAL AMERICAN LEGION HALL. For those who think the metro area that I
> operate in is a gold mine, think again. I'll bet Dan's band would draw 
> more
> people than that in any town in the boonies you can think of.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve Barbone
>
>
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