Band Promotion Tips by the Cosmics

Does a band name really make a difference? Apparently so. Here’s what we learned since setting up The Cosmics (Formerly Cosmic Space Pirates) back in 2012.

It’s not about you.

At the time, Cosmic Space Pirates was funny. In fact, the very reason we picked the name was that it made us all laugh. We didn’t want to be too serious, there were plenty of other bands out there that did that, and in the beginning, the novelty factor worked. But then we gradually started to realise the name was putting certain people off, it was too silly, and gave a false impression of 4 lads in their 30-40’s playing a mixed bag of Indie Rock. Unfortunately for us, a few of these people ran venues and/or booked gigs.

Don’t Alienate your audience.

However, the worst move we ever made was switch to Shieldsmen (a reference to our home-towns of North/South Shields) because a few folks outside of the band liked it. Result? Nobody knew who the band were anymore, and effectively we were starting from scratch, people stopped coming through the door.

The solution was, of course, to find somewhere in the middle, so we simplified the original name to The Cosmics. The impact was almost instantaneous.

Momentum

Yes, it’s only a name, but partly by design and partly by luck, we found ourselves effectively launching The Cosmics in front of a huge turnout at a local festival. We pushed the new name beforehand, during and after, and the gigs started to fly in again. The snowball effect had kicked in and we capitalised upon it with more frequent social media activity. These days, of course, social media (as well as word of mouth) is key. You constantly need to build your reputation, likes, views, and in turn that impacts audience numbers, which in turn gets you happy venues, rebookings and other opportunities.

Be aware that it takes time and effort to build momentum, but only one bad review/decision/gig to destroy it.

Learn from the Competition

Like it or not, other bands are your competition. We’re all putting ourselves forward for the same gigs as it were, so it makes sense to learn what the best are doing and either emulate or better it, otherwise, you’ll eventually get squeezed out altogether.

Examples: Posters, Facebook content, equipment, and even setlists. Just this week I came across a band who presented a really strong package in their name and logo, even having powerful imagery in the form of a mascot (Batman’s the Joker no less). Posting regular images of the Joker up on Facebook to promote gigs is a really potent promotional tactic.

Oh, and you’ll never put together a decent band poster without a decent band pic!

Have a USP

Our band’s uniqueness was born right from the beginning. We reasoned that there were already a lot of technical rock-bands out there and we should try to add more of a participation/fun/entertainment aspect to our shows and setlist.

Our gigs feel more like impromptu discos or visits to the pub sometimes, rather than a serious, heads down and play, live show. But the nice thing is we all get along (most of the time) and can have a laugh and joke.

Good luck with promoting your own band!

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