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The Best and The Worst Country For Traveling Musicians

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THE BEST: Switzerland

Exploring Basel, Switzerland

Hats off. One of the wealthiest countries in the world, no wonder they treat every artist like the Rolling Stones. Best hospitality on earth, hands down. The locals all look like super models. I’ve never had a soul-crushing gig in this country. It’s almost always open bar for performers and great pay. The clubs curate nights with passion and the sound guy is never a chump. The promoter cooks up a premium dinner, and we’ll sit around with the staff and eat family style. People here are reserved, but incredibly nice and stoked on live music. Nice hotels free of bed bugs and pubes are almost always provided.

  • Artist Pay: 5/5
  • Hospitality: 5/5
  • Crowds: 5/5
  • Transit: 5/5

THE WORST: Vietnam

Hard Rock Cafe Vietnam, “Tiny Victories” LP release show

Don’t get me wrong, I love Vietnam. I loved it so much that I lived there for two years. But Asia in general is a bitch for indie music. It simply hasn’t developed yet. The war truly killed the arts scene in Vietnam, as communism relocated the artists out of the cities and crushed creativity. I can’t talk smack about Vietnam, because it simply hasn’t had time to develop musically. I have played a few epic landmark gigs in Saigon, but all in all it is a cover band’s paradise with minimal original music landscape. It’s been 3+ years since living there, so assume it’s improving.

  • Artist Pay: 3/5
  • Hospitality: 2.5/5
  • Crowds: 2.5/5
  • Transit: 1/5

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Before Booking An Out-of-town Show, Ask Yourself These 5 Questions

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When evaluating each out-of-town gig opportunity, go through these five questions. If you answer yes more than no, it might be a trip worth pursuing.

Will I be returning in 3-6 months?

There’s not much point in taking the gig if you don’t have plans to build upon whatever buzz you create the first time around.  Even if there’s only 10 people in attendance, the object is to get that to 11 or 50 or 100 on your next visit. But that won’t happen if it takes you a year or more (or never) to roll through town again. So, if it’s a “market” you plan on hitting with frequency, take the gig.

Is there a local artist who can open or headline?

If you don’t have a (big) draw, local bands can save the day when it comes to filling the room. And if it’s a good musical pairing, their fans might become your fans too. Things can be tough when you’re the only act on the bill or if you’re touring with another out-of-towner. Which leads us to…

Do I have fans there?

Have you played there before and drawn a crowd? Do you have subscribers on your mailing list that live there? Do you have social followers who live there? Have you checked your Spotify and Apple Music trending reports (when touring internationally), Google Analytics, or CD Baby accounting and sales data to see how your music is performing in that geographical region? If the answer is no, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tour through that town (you gotta start somewhere), but it’ll make answering yes to some of these other questions all the more important.

Is there a PR opportunity?

I once drove all the way from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles in a straight shot with a 6-piece band to play at a crap dive bar just because my publicist had arranged for an LA Times critic to be there. Yes, we played more shows on our way back up north, but still, that’s TERRIBLE tour routing. I ended up feeling like it was worth it though, since it yielded two separate stories in the paper: one about the show and a separate album review. Maybe you won’t have a big turnout at the gig, but if there’s an angle to get attention from local radio, press, or blogs, it might be a relationship worth nurturing.

Can I afford it?

Is there a better way to spend your time or money? Will you have to take a day or two off work to make this show happen? Do you have the vacation time? It’s tough to say what’s “worth it” when it comes to music-making, especially gigging; a show with only five people in the audience sometimes DOES lead to more opportunities if you impress the right folks. BUT… that doesn’t mean every gig is worth taking. Money and time are, of course, limited resources — so be careful how you spend them.

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How to Give Students Critical Feedback Without Crushing Their Confidence

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Praising a student is easy. Giving critical feedback is much tougher. So sometimes we run the risk of overpraising mediocre performance because we so badly want them to become confident young musicians, chemists, or swimmers, and are afraid of how they will respond to challenging critiques of their work.

But research suggests that offering praise for sub-par performances can actually backfire – by giving the impression that we have low expectations of them, and don’t believe in their abilities.

And “feedback sandwiches” (praise-criticism-praise) have their issues too.

So I’m psyched to see that there is research which suggests that we don’t have to lower our standards. That we can empower and motivate our students (and perhaps also our colleagues in small ensembles or orchestras?) to dig a little deeper and strive for greater heights, simply by making sure our constructive feedback is accompanied by a reminder of where it is coming from.

Not from a desire to put them down and make it clear just how far they have to go. But to extend a hand and help them take the next step towards whom they are capable of becoming, even if they may not (yet) fully believe they can get there.

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7 Hashtag Tips For Musicians

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1. Use relevant hashtags

You’re allowed 30 hashtags per post (that means caption and comments combined), but just because youcan use 30, doesn’t mean you should. Filling up your hashtag quota with irrelevant hashtags won’t help you in the long run. In fact, it may end up hurting you.

2. Don’t cave into spammy hashtags

Avoid the temptation to use spammy hashtags like #f4f (follow for follow), #follow, #s4s (share for share), and #l4l (like for like). You may end up getting likes or follows from these initially, but you’ll be attracting the wrong audience.

3. Add hashtags to a comment

Adding even just a few hashtags to your image caption can look a little spammy, and if you have more than 10, it can get downright annoying for fans. People are there to engage with your content, and these hashtags can make things look fake and overly promotional.

4. Utilize the Explore page

Instagram’s Explore page is going to be your best friend when it comes to discovering effective hashtags. The first method is to use the search bar to find some potential hashtags. Not only will this tell you how popular certain hashtags are, but it will also give you some suggestions for related hashtags.

5. Learn from other artists

The next method is to look at the hashtag sets that other similar artists use to get some ideas. Target other bands and musicians who play a similar style to you and scroll through their posts. Just like before, if you see a promising hashtag, click through and see what kind of posts are tagged to it.

6. Use hashtags to connect

For the most part, hashtags are used as an inbound way to attract fans, but on Instagram, I’ve found that some of your best followers will actually be other musicians. In fact, these fellow artists may actually lead to more growth on your account than anything else.

7. Test your hashtags

You’re not going to just happen on the perfect set of hashtags in one go. Instead, experiment, and use an analytics app to figure out which work best.

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