by Loren Weisman

So the show got cancelled. Whether it was your fault, the venues fault, the manager’s fault or the weathers fault, it really doesn’t matter.

It is strange to me that when something goes wrong, people seem to be much more about figuring out who did something wrong and assigning blame over the much more obvious and much more effective problem solving and doing what you can to make the best out of the situation.

Gigs are going to get cancelled or rescheduled. Times are going to occur when you are going to be double booked. You can take the right steps to organize and track things the best you can, but problems occur and sometimes they just can’t be helped.

I have heard bands scream and moan about this booking agent or that manager messing up. Then I have seen the online postings where bands blast venues and then the venues go back blasting bands.

This really doesn’t solve a single thing and it keeps you further as well as takes up time you could use to reschedule, take steps to make sure it does not happen again and reach out to your fans and people that were going to come to the show.

Reach out and touch someone

First off and most importantly, it is about the fans and not your bruised egos and blame assigning. Get the word out once you know there is a problem that cant be solved so you can be in communication with every fan that you can reach and hopefully before they come out to the show.

Some bands have text mailers, others have just emailing lists, others have network sites and many have all of the above. Use these the moment you know a show has been cancelled. Get the word out on your website, on your networking sites. Get the information out to your street teams if you have them.

The show may be cancelled but don’t see it as being off the hook. Make that time useful in reaching out to the fan base that is coming out to see you. Ask the venue to post the cancellation on their website and visit any sites that are pertinent music and entertainment sites in that area to get the word out that you are not playing there.

Read the rest at Music Think Tank

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am and is filed under Music Business, Music Promotion, Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.