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Although it is quite unfortunate, most people are not receptive to new opportunities, ideas, or experiences. That is why 99.5% of all fliers end up in the trash, even if they have a band’s web address printed on them. So, when promoting for a show (with BigTime Entertainment or otherwise), your first strategy should be getting everyone who knows YOU to come see you play. You’ll find that these people already feel connected to you, so you won’t even need to use your music to establish a connection.
It is vital that you get everyone who knows YOU to come see you play-not only for BigTime Entertainment shows, but for every single show you play. Once you start bringing out the people who know YOU to your shows, you can then start to grow your fan base by encouraging them to invite their friends to your shows. Their friends may not have a direct connection to you, but they are connected to one of your biggest fans. Even that indirect connection is a powerful tool for increasing your draw. Also, the people that know you are the people who you can count on to stand right in front of the stage and cheer after every song. When those people are at your show, it encourages the people who have never heard you to take note of what you’re doing on stage. They think to themselves, “Everyone’s cheering…these guys must be pretty good.”

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As a local artist, you must assume that no more than 1% (probably far less, actually) of the population in your home market has ever heard your music. So if your promotion efforts (for a BigTime Entertainment show or any other show you play) are going to yield any results, you must come to terms with the fact that you are promoting almost exclusively to people who know nothing about you, as an artist, whatsoever. You will find that there is only one group of people that will come see you play without first knowing your music—that is, the people that know YOU!
Your friends, relatives, co-workers, and classmates are the only people that will want to see you play without ever having heard your music. They know that YOU are an interesting, cool, funny, deep, or inspiring person—so they know to expect the same from your music, even though they haven’t heard it yet.

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If fliers did actually work for local artists, then every band in your hometown would be drawing 50-100+ people easily to every show, right? Obviously this is not the case, so isn’t wise to start considering other strategies that will be more effective-maybe MUCH more effective? BigTime Entertainment does its best to offer such strategies to every band that plays a BigTime Entertainment event.
Some would disagree with Big Time Entertainment, saying, “I see a flier around town for all the biggest shows…it must work!” And the truth is it does work for those shows, because a sizeable percentage of the people who see the fliers have heard those bands` music on the radio, MTV, VH1, iTunes featured download, etc. -they may even own their CD already.

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BigTime Entertainment believes that every band should use whatever promotion techniques are most effective for them, but below is an explanation of techniques officially recommended by BigTime Entertainment. Big Time Entertainment DOES NOT recommend the use of traditional paper-fliers sometimes called handbills for promoting shows, except in the case of a very well established act (average draw of 500+ per event).
The fact is people can’t hear your music on a piece of paper. No matter what words or imagery it may include, a piece of paper simply cannot connect people to your music. The same is true of print ads in newspapers and show listings on websites. In almost all cases, the rule is “NO MUSIC = NO CONNECTION.”

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After an hour-long discussion, the club owner admitted that Faded’s only chance of getting on a show that month would be for Kintz to book the show himself. “Despite the criticism we heard from the booking people in town, we liked our music and so did most of our friends, so we figured we’d give it a try,” explains Robertson. “Booking the show ourselves was work-to say the least-and was much more of a headache than we expected… But we really didn’t have any other option.”After that first show, Kintz and Robertson booked one show per month, for almost an entire year-giving Faded a consistent opportunity to put their plan into action. “After we’d done about 10 shows, the club’s management explained that business was slow and the club might have to close-unless we could book more shows,” says Kintz. “We offered to give it a try, because if the club closed down, it would screw over our band and all of the bands we had become friends with-also a lot of our favorite touring bands might not had anywhere in town to play.” So, out of necessity, BigTime Entertainment was born.
Faded broke up in mid 2005 (when their drummer/producer chose to leave the band to start a family), but not before Faded became the highest drawing BigTime Entertainment artist of all time. More than 250 Faded fans came out to their last show and gave Kintz and Robertson the experience they had initially set out to create-”a real stage with screaming fans in front of it.”
“We were sad to see Faded come to an end, but the fun we had and the work ethic we learned from being in that band were priceless,” says Robertson. BigTime Entertainment’s mission of “connecting bands to their fans” was born out of a belief that every band deserves the opportunity to create a similar experience for themselves.
“Even though I wholeheartedly believed our music was good, the negative things those booking people said really bummed me out,” concludes Kintz. “The difference is, now I know our music was good, because we proved that at least 250 of our ‘closest friends’ thought so too.”

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“We called every booking contact we could find, but we just kept getting the clubs’ main answering machines-the ones where you can call in and hear a voice reading off their show calendar and giving directions to the club,” says Robertson. “We also sent emails all over the place, but we got very few responses,” he continues. “Those that did respond said they were looking for acts with a ‘more mature’ sound-or something else along those lines. Basically, they thought our music wasn’t any good,” he admits with a slight twinge of sarcastic sheepishness.
Kintz elaborates, “We literally heard from one club owner that he wasn’t interested because he was looking to specifically book Emo bands, but somebody else in town told us that our sound was a little ‘too Emo.’ “Understandably, this obvious paradox left both Kintz and Robertson frustrated, to say the least. “These criticisms hardly seemed constructive and struck us as a little too subjective to be dictating which [venues] we could play; it was hard to not feel helpless.”
After intermittent attempts that spanned a period of months, Kintz finally found himself on the line with a local club owner-thanks to a somewhat desperate, late-night attempt to reach someone by phone. “He told me that there was no openings on either of the two all-local shows coming up that month,” recounts Kintz. “He said that the only shows on the calendar that were still being booked were small and mid-sized tours coming through town, and he explained that the opening slots for those shows would go to bands with an established draw of at least 100 people.”
To be continued…

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Kintz and Robertson spent four years as a part of an alternative rock band called Faded. “Ryan and I had been playing in bands together since junior high, but most of them never even left the garage-probably because we couldn’t drive yet,” Robertson jokingly reminisces. “When we started Faded though, things went a little better-at least we started getting some gigs.”
However, as Kintz explains, not all “gigs” are created equal. “We grew up about 50 miles away from the nearest major city, so we didn’t even know that it was possible to play real rock shows-without being signed or on tour.” Faded spent about 18 months performing with surprising regularity at miscellaneous events around their hometown: several non-profit events, a handful of graduation and birthday parties, a couple junior high dances, and even a wedding-just to name a few.
Robertson recalls, “The more we played, the more we felt like something was missing-namely, a real stage with screaming fans in front of it.” So, Kintz and Robertson set out to devise a plan that would allow Faded to achieve its full potential. “We started scouring the Internet for advice about the music industry, and we even read books about growing your music career without the help of record labels, managers, or booking agents.”
After literally hundreds of hours spent studying a wide variety of literature and learning about the successes and pitfalls of some of the biggest names in the music industry (Motley Crue, Goo Goo Dolls, Poison, Dixie Chicks, Ani DiFranco, Sister Hazel), the plan was finally completed. The first item on the agenda was to start performing regularly in a major city-one that constituted a viable music market.
To be continued…

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Daniel Robertson and Ryan Kintz founded BigTime Entertainment in 2004 with the intent to fill a need they saw in their local music community. Their band, as well as many of their friends’ bands, was having a difficult time booking shows that were beneficial for their career and offered the opportunity they were looking for.
Since 2004, BigTime Entertainment has helped meet this need for over 5,000 bands (roughly 18,000 band members), and more than 170,000 fans have attended BigTime Entertainment events nationwide. It is BigTime Entertainment’s mission to help bands by producing fun, well-attended events where they can connect to their fans. Currently, BigTime Entertainment produces concerts in 10+ U.S. markets with an ever-growing staff of 40+ BigTime team members-all dedicated to fulfilling BigTime Entertainment’s mission. BigTime Entertainment also helps more than 30 all-ages venues to not only survive but also thrive-in an industry that has traditionally made it very difficult for local establishments to achieve longevity.
“No one would let our band play,” explains Daniel Robertson (co-founder) of BigTime Entertainment, “that was pretty much it.” Apparently the reasoning behind the creation of BigTime Entertainment was just that simple.”We knew that the next step for our band was to start playing real shows,” interjects Ryan Kintz (co-founder), “instead of just [playing] barbeques, school dances, and fundraisers. But no one who was booking shows around [our market] wanted to give us a chance.”
To be continued…

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Big Time Entertainment is thrilled to have this opportunity to meet the needs of many all-ages venues, as well as the needs of countless local artists-needs that have been completely ignored by the industry for years. There are so many wonderful and amazing people involved in local music-both on the West Coast and nationwide. BigTime Entertainment is so grateful for the chance to fill in the gaps a bit and to make sure local music is able to thrive for years to come.
BigTime Entertainment believes that its mission should not stop in its current markets. In upcoming years, BigTime Entertainment considers it its duty to take its strategies-and the opportunity Big Time Entertainment shows offer-to every artist that can be reached. Not only will BigTime Entertainment continue to improve its tactics for creating connection, but it will also broaden its reach-nationally and even internationally. Big Time Entertainment will not stop until it have given every artist the tools and the opportunity they deserve. This is BigTime Entertainment mission.

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Big Time Entertainment realizes that the notion of a “headlining” band is very inappropriate for all-local events. Instead, BigTime allow each band to choose their timeslot for the night, and it gives seniority to artists that contribute most to the success of the show. This ensures that the bands working the hardest are rewarded for their efforts and that they have ample incentive to participate in the face-to-face (career building) interaction that ticket selling creates.
By way of band payment, Big Time Entertainment does not “play favorites” or reward bands for irresponsible behavior that threatens a venue’s survival or success. Instead, each band is paid according to the BigTime Entertainment Pay Scale, which dictates how much per ticket each band will be paid. Bands that draw very well are paid several dollars per ticket-often hundreds of dollars, in total. On the other hand, bands that draw poorly (and less than they promised before the show) will be paid proportionately less. This practice stands in stark contrast to that of the traditional all-ages concert producer, who may only pay the bands that he or she believes to be “talented.”
Because Big Time Entertainment goes to great lengths to ensure that each show is a success for EVERYONE involved, BigTime Entertainment is able to do shows on a consistent basis, in each of their markets. This consistent and reliable business is what allows many of BigTime Entertainment venues to achieve the level of success they desire.

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