If you are a singer or musician and are either Las Vegas based or desire to perform in that city, you need to understand the unique tactics you need to employ to promote your band in the city. There are seven specific tactics that you will want to seriously consider employing when it comes to promoting your band in Las Vegas.
Promote and Play to the Locals
Las Vegas draws some of the biggest name musical performers to play on the Strip and primarily to those people who come to the city as tourists. Thus, because you wouldn't be reading this unless you were a local or regional act, you will want to focus your promotions and bookings primarily on the residents of Las Vegas. With that said, you will also want to reach out to people traveling to Las Vegas because many of them like to take excursions off the strip, including taking in local and regional talent.
Throughout the city, there are clubs and other venues that cater to locals. Some of these venues attract visitors as well. Thus, although you need to focus your promotional and booking endeavors on the local music scene, there will be times in which you will have the opportunity to perform for Las Vegas visitors.
Actively Seek Reviews
Long gone are the days when newspapers maintained music reviewers on their staffs. There are a small number of traditional newspapers that still present music reviews, but they really are few and far between.
Because of the major attractions that come to Vegas, major acts do get reviewed by traditional newspaper reviewers. Local or regional nearly always will be edged out for review space in a traditional newspaper by these major talents. With that said, there are still ways in which you can nab reviews of you act.
Traditional newspaper music reviewers are being replaced by online reviewers, bloggers, and different types of social media influencers. You will want to identify those reviewers, bloggers, and influencers who do write about the local Las Vegas entertainment scene, specifically the entertainment scene off the Strip.
You need to invite these individuals to one of your local LV performances. You will want to be persistent, without being overbearing, in encouraging these people to come to a performance and review your work.
A positive review, posted to a reviewer, blogger, or influencer's followers will have an impact on those people who are connected with the person writing about your act. There is a secondary benefit to getting a review in this manner. You will be able to utilize the review in your own promotional efforts on behalf of your act and upcoming shows.
Actively Engage with Fans at Shows
Some musicians take to the stage, perform, and then depart the venue. These performers are typically gracious on stage and do make it clear that they are gratified by the presence of audience members. With that said, if you want to really succeed in promoting your band in Vegas you need to take audience engagement up a notch.
An effective tactic you can take as a performer is to interact, at least for a spot of time, more directly with your audience following a performance. Of course, the ability to interact with performance attendees following a show is dependent on a number of factors, including the nature of the venue itself. Many of the musical venues in LV that welcome local and visiting regional talent are situated in a such a manner that interaction between talent and audience in a more informal way following a show is easy.
Post-show audience interaction can include everything from mixing and mingling directly with those in attendance to having some sort of "VIP" gathering for those fans who've followed your band or act for a more extended period of time.
Make the Most of Social Media
Another important resource to take advantage of is to make the most of social media in regard to promoting your band. You likely will want to take advantage of more than one social media platform and include the following in the mix:
You need to do more than post announcements of upcoming dates and videos of past performances at these platforms. Yes, you want to do these things - but, you also want to build and engage a following via these platforms. With coordinated effort, you can build vibrant communities via these platforms, communities whose members will carry news and information about your band or act to their own followers and friends (and so on).
Develop and Cultivate a Spotify Community
In this day and age, Spotify is becoming ever-more important to indie performers, including those that want to promote their bands or acts in Las Vegas. You will want to get your music on Spotify. Spotify makes it relatively easy for indie musicians to get their work on the platform. Spotify presents step-by-step instructions to get your music on the platform.
Once your music is on Spotify, a artist's page ultimately will generate. As a prelude to taking on Spotify, submit your bio, images, and other information to All Music. Spotify tends to draw from All Music in building a new artist profile on its platform.
Once your music is on the platform and you have a Spotify artist's page, you can use those resources as a means of developing a community of fans, including people in the Las Vegas area or others planning travels to the city that have an interest in indie, local, or regional musical performers.
Create and Sell Swag and Merch
People like swag. Music fans like to have merchandise from performers they've either heard or seen perform life or work in a genre they favor. With these points noted, another effective way you can promote your band in Las Vegas is to create and sell swag and merch. You will want to have some items that are always available to followers (or potential followers). In addition, throughout the course of any given year, you will also want to make new items available, including swag and merch that will be accessible to fans for a set period of time.
In addition to selling swag and merch, you will also want to make some of these items available at no charge for promotional purposes. While you can make money from swag and merch, it's value as publicity tools cannot be underestimated.
Use Truly Artistic Promotional Posters
Posters remain widely used as a means of promoting musical acts in Las Vegas. These include posters that are posted in local establishments of all types advertising an upcoming concert. They also include digital posters distributed online via social media platforms.
Another tactic you can use to promote your musical act in Las Vegas is to utilize truly artistic posters. Not only are these eye-catching and attention grabbing, musical fans tend to collect these items, both in their hard copy and digital formats. This results in ongoing exposure of a band into the future because of the inherent value of artistic promotional posters.
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