How to get gigs as an independent artist: the first rooms

Find rooms your size, from one artist's posts

Don't start with a venue directory or a hashtag. Start with one artist near you who is your size and your kind of music, and read their last six months of posts. You'll get dated venues, the promoters' names on the posters, and which nights are run by whom. One size-matched act's profile gave us four venues and two promoters who book new bands in a single read; four hashtag sweeps of the same city gave us one.

Write the rooms down with the promoter's name against each. If a venue's own events page lists its nights, read that too; it's often more complete than the listings sites.

Find the promoter yourself before you write to anyone

Don't ask the venue who books their nights. You can usually find out yourself, and a question you could have answered puts the work on them. Look at the venue's own posts and the ones it's tagged in, then at the acts who played there recently: most tag the promoter or the night. A gig listings directory fills the gaps. Only if all of that comes up empty, write to the venue, say what you checked, and ask one thing: who books new acts for their nights. Never ask what it costs to hire the room. A hire quote is what you get when you ask the wrong question, and it's the trap most first-time artists fall into.

Then write to the promoter, not the venue. Two lines, one link, the one-line story from your bio, and a date you can do. One ask: a support slot on a night that fits. If they don't reply in two weeks, that's a no. Don't chase twice, and don't take it personally; dead ends are silent in this business.

Three kinds of first room, in order of how often they say yes: a support slot for a size-matched act on a promoter's night, a listening or acoustic night, and an open mic you headline by turning up with twenty people. The third one is underrated. A promoter who sees you bring twenty is a promoter who books you.

Agree the deal before the night, in writing

A message thread is enough. Set time and length, load-in, fee or door split and how it's counted, who's promoting what, whether you can sell merch and where, and whether the room records the desk. Bands run by a parent or a friend skip this most often, and it's where the night goes wrong.

Ask the promoter first for everything you think you'll need to pay for. It's easy to collect quotes from filmers and agencies running into thousands before sending one email to the promoter, then find the set is recorded from the desk and sent the next day anyway, or that a filmer already shoots in that room. The promoter knows the room, often has the kit, and answers in hours because you're their artist that night. Filming, photos, sound recording, guest list, capacity: ask them before pricing anything.

On the night: the four things that convert a room

What makes a small room turn into contacts has little to do with how well you play.

• Say something before the songs. Spoken intros are what people remember and repeat. Thirty seconds, in your words, about where the song came from. Not every song, but the two or three that matter.
• Name what they get tonight. A card that says "join the list" converts at zero. A card that says "the demo of the song I just played, tonight, for your email" converts. Put it where people stand, and say it from the stage once.
• Have the thing in the room. Nothing sells if it isn't there. Ten of whatever you have, on a table, with a price.
• Give one person one job. Footage, photos and the sign-up card exist only when someone is named to do them. A friend with a phone and a sentence of instruction beats a plan that nobody owns.

The morning after: read the slot honestly

Get the numbers once: people in the room, sign-ups, sales, what the promoter said. Then separate what you controlled from what the slot decided. A rained-out outdoor slot with passing trade at six o'clock tells you nothing about your set. An artist who's allowed to believe a bad slot was their playing stops taking shows. Write two lines: what worked, what the slot decided. Thank the promoter the same morning and ask for the next date while they still remember the night.

Then the people. Message every sign-up within two days with the thing you promised. The first 1,000 listeners guide has the fortnight that follows if the show lit up a city, and the first 1,000 fans guide has the slow build.

What the first rooms are worth

A confirmed date is a credit on every form that asks for one. Some UK funds for early-career musicians want a confirmed live date before they'll release money; the deadlines page has the current ones. A room in a city that moved on your dashboard is where streams become people. And a promoter who's seen you bring a room is the only reference the next promoter trusts.

Where this fits

This is the "support" stage of artist development, and it's week six of the 90-day plan: find a new room. It works when there's something to send people to afterwards, so the bio and the sign-up come first. If you want to compare notes with artists who've just done their first rooms, or find a gig swap in another city, that's what our community sessions are for.

• Artist development: what it is, what it costs, and how to tell it's workingthe hub
• How does the music industry work?
• Your song is getting streams: what to do in the next 14 days
• How to get your first 1,000 fans (not streams)
• How to grow as an independent artist: the next 90 days
• UK music funding deadlines for independent artists
• How to write a musician bio: start with your fans' words
• How to get your music on UK radio: BBC Introducing and after
• The HyperTribe communityartists at your stage, in your city
• How to make an EPK
• EPK templatefree tool
• Artist bio generatorfree tool
• How do you find band members in the UK?
• How do you promote a gig and sell the tickets?
• How do you build an email list as a musician?

Questions artists ask