On this episode of INSIDE MUSIC, host James Shotwell calls Infectious Magazine and Muddy Paw PR founder Angela Mastrogiacomo to discuss her career in the music business. Angela has been carving her own niche in this industry since her late teen years, and now in her mid-twenties she has found success she never previously imagined possible. Together with James, Angela recounts her journey thus far, and later turns her focus to the future and the opportunities it may hold. If you have ever wondered what it’s like to ‘make it’ as a music professionals, do not miss this episode!
The music you hear in this episode is “Dirty Water” by The Standells.
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If you’d have told me a year ago that I would spend nearly half of 2015 traveling the US, I would have said you were delusional and then curled back up into my ball of comfort. I am not by any means a wandering spirit. I like the stability and comfort of a stable home and the security of knowing that my family is nearby. But after a particularly tumultuous 2014, I found myself questioning the legitimacy of my comfort strategy. Could I really grow to the level I wanted if I stayed in one spot? Could my current city offer me everything I wanted and needed? What about all the people out there that I hadn’t met who had the power to change my life and grow my career? In an uncharacteristically rash decision, I decided to spend the summer and fall of 2015 driving across the US. And you know what? It taught me more about myself and what I want out of my career than I could have ever imagined.
Opportunity to network
The biggest and most obvious benefit to traveling for your career is that it allows you a host of opportunities to network. The more cities and communities you can plant yourself in, the better. For me, this meant launching and helping organize Balanced Breakfast meetups, (a music community filled with musicians and industry pros) in Nashville, Austin, and Portland, Oregon. Through those meet ups I met amazing people that I still keep in touch with, work with, and get referrals from today. For you, it might mean discovering new bands and making connections that can help you out when you decide to tour. It could mean meeting a manager that really believes in you, or someone involved in sync licensing who can answer all your questions about getting your song on TV.
Be open to the possibilities and the quirky way in which the universe brings people together, and I promise you’ll meet some career changing people on the road—and probably start more than a few lasting friendships.
Creative revitalization
We all know the importance of rest and relaxation for cultivating a creative spark. We’re simply not at our creative best when we’re bogged down in our day to day responsibilities. Forcing yourself out of your comfort zone and into new environments can be just the creative boost you need. By traveling to new cities and embedding yourself in unfamiliar communities, you’re opening your eyes to a new way of life. You’ll learn what’s most important to you and what you value above all. Each new experience will test your limits and challenge your beliefs, and that kind of mindset is key for creativity. When you allow for creativity to re-enter your life you open yourself up to a world of new possibilities.
Appreciation for your hometown
One of the most powerful and unexpected things this trip taught me was that the grass isn’t always greener. A lot of people in this industry have a vision that New York, Nashville, or Los Angeles will change their lives. That if only they can get to those creative hubs everything is going to work out for them. The truth is that even though those places are abundant in musicians and industry professionals, they’re also oversaturated, and they attract (and require) a very specific type of person. So if your dream city doesn’t live up to your expectations, that doesn’t mean your hometown can’t be exactly what you need.
When I returned from my trip, I viewed Boston in a whole new light. I had a renewed sense of appreciation for so many things I had taken for granted (public transportation! Dunkin Donuts!) and I realized that more than anything, being away from home taught me to appreciate what I had—however flawed it may have seemed before. Understanding what I did and didn’t like from the cities I visited helped me to better understand exactly what it was I was looking for, and how I could use my experiences to further my career right where I was.
In the end, traveling made me a better person, and a better business owner—and I know it can do the same for you. It doesn’t have to be a major trip either—traveling once or twice a year to an industry conference, a road trip a state or two over, or a weekend tour with your band are all things that can inspire the same kind of growth. The most important thing to remember is to make the most of your travel. Whether it’s to the next town or clear across the country, every trip is an opportunity to meet with the person who could change your life or become your best friend—so have fun with it!
Angela Mastrogiacomo is the founder and CEO of Muddy Paw PR, a Boston based public relations firm specializing in personalized campaign initiatives for independent artists. Muddy Paw artists have seen placements in Noisey, AbsolutePunk, PureVolume, Substream, and many other leading publications. Angela also owns music blog Infectious Magazine, and is the curator of several chapters of the music community Balanced Breakfast. She loves hanging out with her dog, eating ice cream, and a good book. Read more at https://angelamastrogiacomo.wordpress.com/
The following post was created by Jeremy Boyum, bass player for Shadow Of Whales. We were planning to publish a guide like this for some time now, and lucky for us the team at Muddy Paw PR was able to find a talented and well-spoken artists to help bring it to life. Enjoy.
It was getting late. At this point, I was going to get maybe three hours of sleep before I had to wake up, bring my son to school and run off to work and do this all over again. It was cold – okay it was only like 30 degrees, but that’s cold for Texas okay?! – And I wanted to go home. But I couldn’t go home, because if I quit now, I could be missing out on that one person who would become the next Shadow of Whales super fan. Maybe we would have an awesome conversation about the state of the industry or maybe their favorite band was Relient K too. Maybe they would join the street team and come up with innovative ways to help us promote. Maybe I would run into the president of Sony and he would be so impressed that we got on a national radio campaign! I couldn’t give up, not until the job was done.
If you’re in a band and you’re really serious about growing your audience, one of the biggest things you can do (aside from writing good music) is PROMOTE YOUR SHOW! Legitimately promoting your show with hard work and smart work can be time-consuming and very challenging, not to mention you’re sacrificing some of your money and blood, sweat and tears to make it happen. BUT, if your dream is to play your music in stadiums and arenas one day, you’re not going to get there by just being in existence. You have to spread the word!
I fully recognize that there are already articles that talk about this subject. My goal is to shake loose some of those creative juices that work so well in your musicianship to really take your promotion game to the next level. You ready?
ONLINE PROMOTION
Most articles talk about promoting your concert online, so I’m going to just do a quick walkthrough to recap:
FACEBOOK EVENTS/ADS
When most of your audience is still just your friends and family this is pretty vital. Unless you want to play to an empty room, you need to let your friends know what’s good!
I would definitely suggest experimenting with ads if you haven’t already. As unfortunate as it is that Facebook screwed musicians with their algorithm, you just don’t have much of a choice. If you are really against Facebook, then you are going to have to work extra hard to make sure your friends know about your show. After you send out Facebook invites send EVERYONE you invited personal text or Facebook messages, or give them a call. (Calling or text messages are better) The more personal you are the better, especially with your friends.
TWITTER
Believe it or not, Twitter is a really great way to get the word out about your show. Especially if you’re opening for a major touring band. You can gain a lot of new followers by tracking the artist you’re playing with, engaging/retweeting their tweets and engaging with their fans so that you can tell them “hey, guess what, we’re actually playing with that band.” (Pro-tip: look up Twitter advanced search)
If you’re playing a festival, most of them have trackable hashtags that they use to broadcast the message. They coincidentally also use Facebook events and a lot of people engage with it. You can post on those event pages… Just saying, be a part of the conversation and make some friends.
ONLINE EVENT CALENDARS
Most cities have them. DO512.com for instance in Austin, in addition to the Austin Chronicle and local newspapers with calendars. It’s also very important to utilize Bands in Town and Songkick. Bands in Town ports to a lot of popular social media and you can link your bands Spotify account to Songkick. Meaning, if someone’s listening to your band on Spotify they can also see if you’re playing a show in their area.
Make sure you’re doing the work online, it’s really important. If it feels meaningless just think about the fact that your band’s name is in more places on the internet which means people searching keywords on Google are more likely to find you. (This is especially useful if you’re at a stage where you don’t have a website or large following on social media) There are also often spam *cough* I mean “other” sites that track things like this so when you do this work it’s more often than not being duplicated on to other sites without you having to do anything extra.
GRASSROOTS PROMOTION
Flyers
Nowadays flyers are actually a pretty big advantage because it’s not something bands are doing as often. I think that might have to do with social media making people lazy. Social media was never meant to replace anything that people do on a day to day basis to promote their business. Social media is meant to be an EXTENSION of a business/band/brand. At the end of the day you still have to be out there and on your grind both online and offline.
Flyers are also a huge turnoff for a lot of bands because:
If you’re not good at design, don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be amazing, hand draw something if you really have to and then bring it to a local print shop and have them make copies. The money will be worth it if you stay consistent. Just make sure your band’s name is on the flyer and easily readable. The most important thing about handing out flyers, especially in the beginning, isn’t necessarily promoting your event. It’s promoting your brand. The more people see and hear your brand’s name the better. If it’s surrounded by your kick-ass concerts or the new single you put out then it makes it look even better.
If you want flyers that are both within your budget and also really high-quality, I ALWAYS get my bands promotional material printed at www.bandposterprinting.com. They’re the best! They are super affordable for what you get and what you get is awesome. Not to mention they have fantastic customer service. I don’t even care that they’re on the other side of the country from us, they’re still cheaper than FedEx/Kinkos and PostNet!
It can be bad if someone doesn’t take the flyer or they insult you. The other day one of our street teamers was handing a flyer to someone and he said “no, I don’t want your flyer. But I can help you.” He then snatched the rest of the flyers she was holding in her hand and threw them in a nearby garbage disposal. Needless to say she was pretty upset, so was I, what a jerk! No one wants to be rejected and that can make it hard to stay motivated. BUT;
On the other hand, that very same night we met so many awesome and very nice people that connected with us on social media, and several of them ended up coming to the show we were promoting. What’s more is the venue saw us promoting and we gained a lot of respect points from them. You never know what’s going to happen but if you don’t try then you’ll never know.
So where do you hand out your flyers now that they’ve been printed?
Do some research online, or ask around for what bands are playing in your area. Even if they’re semi-large local acts, you can attend the concert and in between bands playing, introduce yourself to people in the audience, have a short conversation with them, mention YOUR band and the fact that you’re playing in the area soon. With major touring bands coming through town, they’ll always have a lot of promotion and there will usually be a crowd waiting outside before doors even open. Use this to your advantage. They can’t go anywhere so walk up and introduce yourself to every single person in line and tell them about your event. In addition to promoting at other concerts look for heavily populated areas near where you’re playing. In Austin, a lot of our venues are on 6th street. On Saturdays after 10pm, they barricade the streets surrounding 6th because there are SO many people there getting drunk at all of the bars that the sidewalks just can’t hold them. (Pro-tip: alcohol makes people more willing to accept your flyers more often than not. Not that you won’t get rejected but your chances of acceptance are certainly higher.)
If you’re younger and held under parental guidelines that keep you from driving downtown (or if you don’t yet have the ability to drive downtown yourself) hand these flyers out at your school. When I was in high school I played in a band called iTEM84 and we would make four flyers on one page, make as many copies as we felt we needed, then cut them in to four quarters and gave some to our friends to help us hand them out. We’d hand them to everybody roaming the halls between classes, put them in lockers, on bulletins, on cars in the parking lot and any other place I was allowed to post them up. Much like people waiting outside concerts, these students have nowhere to go and often times nothing to do, so why wouldn’t they want go to your concert or at least check out your band’s music?
Posters/Stickers
Again, these don’t have to be super fancy, just do your best to make your name very recognizable. When you print posters and put them around town, try your best to post them in blocks of four (Either in a line or a square/rectangle) unless the space only allots for one. This might not yield immediate results but it’s really important to stay consistent. Imagine the first, second, third or fourth time you see something you might just pass it by. But you see it a fifth time and finally decide, you know what I keep seeing this logo/name everywhere, I need to check this out.
Also, this always looks good to the promoters and venues. Even if your show at this point ends up not having a super great turnout, they’ll see that you put the work into it and be a lot more willing to give you another show than if you were to sit on your hands and pray.
Street Team
Handing out flyers can be hard but the good thing is that you don’t have to do it alone. Ideally if you’re in a band you would be doing it together, but even if you’re not, you can always ask a couple of your most dedicated fans to go with you and share in both the pain and the excitement. Remember those friends you were inviting on Facebook? Ask the ones who truly believe in what you’re doing to help you out one night. Give them a free shirt or free ticket entry for helping out. What this does in addition to helping you promote is it gives them more stake in your success and they’ll end up sharing you more to their friends as a result because they feel like they are more a part of what you’re doing.
GET CREATIVE!
Work on your pitch when handing out flyers, see what works and what doesn’t work. Work on your poster design and grow your street team. Have group events with them when promoting and go out to eat/hang out with them. Think of ways you can utilize these people as billboards for your cause, especially if they’re the ones offering to do so. Think about it, is it more effective to see one guy in plain clothes handing out flyers for his next show? Or would there be more impact if there were ten people all wearing the same shirt, handing out the same flyer talking about how great this one band is? There’s tons of room to explore here!
Keep thinking of different ways you can attract people’s attention. For one show we recently promoted, we took a page out of the Warped Tour/Festival handbook. Often at Warped, you’ll see bands with handmade pole-signs that have their band’s name, the stage their playing and the set time. In similar fashion we made a 17×8.5×11 styrofoam box with battery-powered LEDs and a PVC pipe. We covered it with paper that had our ‘Shadow of Whales’ logo on it and the show information. We carried this thing around 6th street and downtown Austin while it was flooded with people and as we walked around we would see people not only look up at the sign but then read it OUT LOUD! We had people yell at us from rooftop bars and ASK us to tell them what it was about.
Former Taylor Swift manager, Rick Barker says “if you want to sell 500,000 albums, you need to meet 500,000 people.” I know we’re talking about promoting your concerts but the concept here is the same. If you want to have more people at your show, you need to meet and share your music with more people. The only way to do that is to get out there and grind it out. You don’t need to make this a massive success on day one. 500,000 people is a LOT of people to take on all at once. But maybe you could meet 10 people in one day, maybe 50? As Warren Buffet says “No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.” Take small steps and implement new strategies as you master learned ones. Start with mastering online promoting, then master posters, then stickers, then flyers, then street team. Before you know it you’ll have a whole crowd of people at your shows that you just met through promoting. If you stay consistent, stay coachable, and work hard, I guarantee you it will be worth it in the long run. Most importantly, do not EVER give up!
With a passion for creating music and spreading hope through friendships comes Austin five-piece, Shadow of Whales. (For Fans Of: The Killers, Franz Ferdinand). They are all songwriters, they all love music, and more importantly, they all love people. Their debut self-titled EP charted on CMJ‘s Top 200 and has seen regular rotation at Starbucks Coffee across the United States and Canada. They have performed at several festivals including the Vans Warped Tour (San Antonio), Heart of Texas Rockfest, and South By So What?! Festival, and have shared the stage with names such as Courage My Love, Mayday Parade, Circa Survive, Jonny Craig. They just released their new single, “Roots” which you can listen to HERE, and are currently running a Patreon, offering fans exclusive tracks, merch, discounts and more. Grab your download of “Roots” HERE.
One hard truth about working in music that you will never see glamorized in movies or through song is the seemingly endless stream of emails that pour through your digital inbox every single day of the week. Whether you work as a journalist or someone hoping to pitch journalists, I am certain not a day goes by where you feel as if you’ve received too few emails. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with our friends at Muddy Paw PR to provide you with a guide to email etiquette that will help you maintain professionalism through all forms of digital communication. Enjoy.
Dear reader: Are you in a band, managing a band, working their PR, or writing about them? Perhaps you’re about to send off that all-important request to photograph a live show of your favorite artist or apply to write for a major publication?
Regardless of what area of the music industry you work in, there is one universal aspect that connects all of us: emails are every bit as important as phone calls and Skype meetings. In our world, an opening email is often your first and best chance to make the right impression. Make a good first impression with a band or company and you can be set for years. Make a bad impression, however, and it is extremely difficult to recover.
As a publicist, managing editor and former hiring manager, I’ve seen nearly everything over the last five years. A few of my email experiences with bands and industry clients include: alcohol-driven rants, smiley faces after every sentence, misspelling my three-letter name (if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been called Jo or Joy…), being called Insert Name Here, and being outright insulted.
It’s a roller coaster, this music business. But with five years of experience across multiple fields, I’m here to share with you some tips on maximizing your email correspondence. Whether you’re in a band looking to get a label’s attention, applying for that dream paying job, sending a request to your favorite band’s PR team or just looking to expand your relationships with the right people, these are a few do’s and don’ts to make you look as professional as possible in all your industry dealings.
DO: Get straight to the point.
This is essential, regardless of what industry field you work in. Whether you want to speak with a label executive, get your band some coverage or send a job application, don’t overload your message with unnecessary text. A quick 1-2 sentences for a polite introduction, then get down to business.
Use your first main paragraph to outline your reason for contact and what you’re looking for. For publicists in particular, state the artist’s genre and who they sound similar to. With many industry workers forever fighting losing battles against their inboxes, if you take too much time getting to the point, your message may be deleted. Always make your language clear, concise and professional to give yourself the best chance of getting your desired response.
DON’T: Try to fake sincerity.
Sounds incredibly obvious, right? Well, just like measuring someone’s tone in person or on the phone, it is also easy enough to judge a person’s sincerity in e-mail correspondence. Do your in-depth messages receive a sentence or two in response? Are there a lot of basic spelling errors? Sentences with no punctuation at the end? Particularly blunt language? All of these imply a level of laziness, a lack of respect, and too little desire to be helpful. An insincere person can often be spotted a mile away, even through e-mail messages, and news of an unpleasant experience spreads quickly in this industry. So how can you maximize your chances of making the right first impression?
DO: Be as kind and accommodating to the other person as possible.
The music industry is all about building relationships, and chances are you’ll be dealing with a lot of the same people over and over. If you make yourself easy and pleasant to work with, new friendships will emerge and the number of great opportunities you receive will grow very quickly. This quality could make the difference between being approved or denied from that “dream opportunity” you’ve been waiting for.
DON’T: Introduce yourself with “What’s up?”
For job applicants in particular, this is a must. During my hiring manager days, the number of applications I received that started with “What’s up Joe?” was startling. More often than not, that intro was followed by a poorly written application letter and no resume attached. When you’re looking to get your foot in the door of your chosen field of work, keeping your language proper and professional (and, of course, actually having a resume) is essential if you hope to land that all-important interview.
DO: Always click “Reply All”.
Bands, this one’s for you. Before a recent meeting I had with a potential PR client, we introduced ourselves through e-mail and I kept my boss on CC so she could see how the talks were progressing. A total of 10 messages were sent back and forth, and not once did the client hit “reply all” to keep my boss in the loop. This was a red flag – one of several throughout the correspondence – because it told us the client was not reading my messages carefully (despite me repeatedly mentioning my boss’s name). After a not-so-great start, the meeting resulted in my boss and I deciding this was not someone we wanted to work with, despite being incredibly talented.
Obviously there were more important factors than the client’s lack of CC knowledge, but bands, it is vital to keep ALL parties involved in your correspondence. Many of us have bosses, interns, managers, editors, etc. who need to know what is going on at all times and can offer insight when necessary. It’s a simple task to check if anyone is CC’d in a message, but if you really can’t remember to do it, Gmail even gives you the option to make “reply all” your default setting.
On behalf of every industry friend, co-worker and acquaintance I’ve ever known, please use “reply all” so we can stop tearing our hair out!
DON’T: Put your subject line in all caps.
DO YOU SCREAM AT PEOPLE IN PUBLIC TO GET THEIR ATTENTION TOO? Unless you’re in a crowded bar or at a concert, I doubt it. An all-caps subject line makes us feel like we’re being yelled at, and although some believe it increases your chance of getting the other person’s attention, it often does more harm than good. Just like the message itself, keep your subject line short, to the point, and with normal-sized letters. As long as your words are clear and attention-grabbing, you’ve done your job.
DO: Respond Promptly Whenever Possible.
Now, I’m not saying be a slave to your e-mail inbox. Many of us get overwhelmed with hundreds of messages every week and sometimes it’s not possible to respond quickly. But this isn’t Facebook, where everyone plays the “click on the message notification to see the first few words and if it doesn’t look important, I’ll respond 10 hours later” game. Many music industry workers use apps like Mandrill or SendGrid which lets them “track” the e-mails they send to see if and when they are opened by the recipient. Personally, if I read a message and see that it doesn’t require an essay in response, I try to reply within 24 hours. Look at it this way: do you take days to respond to a call or text from a friend? Of course not, so why should professional work-related messages be any different?
Responding promptly tells the other party that you are taking them seriously, you’re dedicated to the cause, and you’re being accommodating to their needs. Amazing how many details you can see through someone’s online correspondence, isn’t it? However…
DON’T: Respond to important/lengthy messages with your phone.
Have you ever sent a super-embarrassing text to a friend or family member thanks to the ultimate frenemy known as auto-correct? Yes you have – don’t lie. Unless it’s just to say “thank you” or it’s absolutely time-sensitive – in which case a phone call is better – hold off on responding to your most important messages until you’re in the much safer confines of your laptop. A later, well-written response is always better than the virtual foot-in-your-mouth typo that phones often bestow on us.
Joe Ballard is a music writer and publicist. He cares as much about the words used to promote music as he does the music itself, and that is part of the reason we love him. Learn more about Joe and his work with talented up and comers through the Muddy Paw website.
Hey there, everyone! We are thrilled to welcome guest contributor Angela Mastrogiacomo back to the site for another set of tips to help up and coming musicians make the most of their publicity efforts. If you want to learn more about Angela and her work in music, check out Muddy Paw PR at your earliest convenience.
I’ve been in the music industry for about six years now, and in those six years, I’ve been a journalist, a publicist, a promoter, a social media expert, a bio/press release writer, and a few other things along the way as well. I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of amazing, and talented artists, but nothing gets me down more than seeing passionate artists with a ton of talent miss the exposure they deserve because they don’t run a proper PR campaign. Of course the obvious answer is if you have the funds, hire a publicist. But sometimes, funds are tight and that just isn’t an option. So for those DIY moments, I’ve compiled a list of four basic, yet essential elements of a successful PR campaign.
New Content
One of the most common hiccups I see bands encounter is trying to secure press for themselves when they don’t actually have anything happening. It’s incredibly hard to run a PR campaign around old releases, which is why I always ask my artists to have something new. It doesn’t have to be a whole new album, but what about a new music video? Lyric video? Remix? Cover song? Acoustic session? Anything, really. But without something new to promote, you’re grasping at straws to get anyone to notice.
Artist Participation
Artists seem to think that PR campaigns are kind of a one and done deal. Either you pay a publicist and then just rake in the reviews and features, or you send out one email to a couple blogs and expect the rest to come back to you. But that’s not how it works. If you’re hiring a publicist, you’ll still need to be on top of communication to make sure you’re getting your publicist everything they need (answers to interview questions, guest blogs, photos, etc) in a timely manner. If you’re going the DIY route, it’s even more imperative that you get comfortable with persistence and participation, because you’re going to be sending out a whole lot of emails, follow up emails, thank you emails, and, if you’re a good sport, posting any coverage you get all around your social media accounts. Successful PR campaigns, like anything in life, don’t just happen by magic. They require a lot of blood, sweat, and yes, sometimes even tears.
An Excellent EPK
Your EPK is a blog’s first impression of you. The way you sound, the way you look, the way you present yourself. This isn’t the time to cut corners. That isn’t to say you need to hire out. It just means you need to put a lot of time, attention, and detail into the pieces that make up your EPK. As they say, you don’t get a second chance at a first impression.
Connections
This is one of those necessities that is really at its core, incredibly simple, but incredibly crucial. Without the proper connections, almost none of the above will matter. Sure, you might get lucky and snag an article or two. But the majority of a successful PR campaign really comes down to connections. So if you’re not hiring a publicist who might already have these connections, you better get networking. Talk to anyone and everyone you can in this industry, and don’t just stick to the internet. Social media is a great tool for connecting to bloggers, bands, and fans from across the world, but some of the most important and meaningful connections I’ve made have been from getting out into the community, and various events (SXSW, CMJ, Warped Tour, etc) and meeting people in person. (You know, like the old days!) Never underestimate the power of your connections. Oftentimes even if a connection isn’t right for you in the moment, they’ll be able to point you in the direction of someone who is. And hey, you might even make a few friends along the way!
Angela Mastrogiacomo is the owner of Muddy Paw Public Relations. Muddy Paw specializes in working with up and coming artists on personalized campaigns designed to bring their careers to the next level. To date, we’ve secured placements on sites such as AbsolutePunk, Substream,Property Of Zack, PureVolume, Anti-Music, and many more. You can find us at www.MuddyPawPR.com
Hello, everyone! We are thrilled to learn that you were able to find time in your day to browse the latest content on our blog. The post you are about to enjoy is a guest piece from one of our favorite contributors, and it offers information that can help anyone aspiring to one day work in this crazy business we call the music industry.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
There’s something truly wonderful about finding a community within a community. You know what I mean. You live in one place your entire life, but never really get to know the communities you’re a part of. You never get to make the connections that can ultimately make or break you, and so you never really get to feel like you totally belong.
When I first moved to San Francisco, I struggled to find friends. As a 26-year-old working from home, meeting new people, especially people interested so deeply in what I was (music) wasn’t exactly easy. But within a few months I befriended SF Intercom owner and Balanced Breakfast co-founder Stefan Aronson, and was soon introduced to 30+ new friends, all sharing some part in the music industry. It was brilliant. An incredibly simple concept that I had never even thought of: get everyone within a city’s industry together on a weekly basis to talk shop, network, and help propel one another’s dreams. I was in love.
So when I moved back to Boston after my seven-month stint on the west coast, I knew I wanted to bring all of the ethos and passion behind Balanced Breakfast with me. I quickly began putting together the skeleton of what would become the first east coast Balanced Breakfast.
But Boston and San Francisco aren’t the only places with thriving music scenes and a lack of like-minded community. In fact, I’d venture to guess most cities suffer from a lack of strong community feel within the music scene. So how can we change that? Here’s what I did. Hopefully it can inspire you to start your own music industry meet up. Maybe even another Balanced Breakfast?
Find interested people
Naturally, this is the hardest part. Finding the people that will eventually make up your music community. Although paid sites like Meetup.com are great for a lot of things, they weren’t a site that I used during planning this. In fact, I spent no money at all in putting this together. To find interested people, I posted on just about every social media site I could think of: Facebook, Reddit, Twitter. I scoured existing music industry groups in my city on Facebook, posted in subreddits dedicated to my city, and tagged well known Twitter sites for Boston to let people know that I was putting together a weekly industry meet up, and to ask for their input on location. I even found another industry meet up along the way, and attended. Not only did I meet new people to invite to BB, but I discovered there really is a desire for this kind of thing. It’s a lot of old fashioned grassroots promotion, but in the end, it let people know we existed.
Location & Time
The second hardest part was actually finding a location and time that worked for everyone. Once I knew Boston would be the easiest area for people to get to, I had to find a location that was fairly central, and could accommodate larger groups, because I dream big. Eventually I decided on 2pm (to avoid busy brunch crowds) and a place called Trident Booksellers and Café on Newbury Street. Bonus: It was also a bookstore, so we could peruse while we waited for a table!
Topics
The last piece to this puzzle was just figuring out format and topics. Luckily, I had seen my SF counterparts in action on this one at least a dozen times, and went off their format. But play around with what works best for you and your community. Focus on topics depending on who it tends to attract. Is it primarily musicians? Media? Bookers? Cater your topics to your primary audience, but don’t forget to make sure it’s broad enough that everyone can find interest.
And there you go! It really is that simple, cheap, and easy to put together a meet up of your own. And once you start gaining momentum, the sky is truly the limit. The SF Balanced Breakfast recently put on a one month residency, which featured a ton of bands from the meet up, and not only was it a great way to showcase our own talent, and get to know each other’s passions, but it even attracted outside attention and press furthering the strength of the community.
So what are you waiting for? There’s a whole city of musicians, media, promoters, and more just waiting for their community to be born. Interested in starting your own division of Balanced Breakfast? Get in touch with us here. In Boston? Join our meet up here.
Angela Mastrogiacomo runs the Boston Balanced Breakfast, a group of music industry professionals that meet once a week to talk shop, network, and build a stronger music community. She is also the owner of Muddy Paw Public Relations and Infectious Magazine.
