HOW TO: Bring Your Audience to You – If You Absolutely Can’t Tour To See Them
Due to the decline in the sales of record music, many artists are packing up their gear and hitting the road. It's where the money is – sort of – if you can afford it. But many artists can't. Either it's not economically feasible or due to reasons of geography, they can't tour where their audience is. Fans are either an ocean or a world away. It all depends. Yair Yona is an acoustic guitar player based out of Israel.
His music is heavily influenced by American and British folk. This is a very challenging problem when it comes to touring. Where does one even start?
It's not just the logistics of touring and the high price of flights, but fear of having one's three acoustic guitars damaged in transit. In releasing his debut album Remember, he contemplated such issues, asking himself, "How can I enable fans to me play live at almost zero cost?" Then it dawned on him that he could create a video tour of his hometown of Tel Aviv, filmed at places in the city.
Rather than bring his music to the world, he could bring the world to him.
Since most people haven't been to Tel Aviv, Israel, Yona included a brief description of all the locations and gave his instrumentals some added context.
The takeaway: There's always a way to take your biggest disadvantage, turn it around, and reach your fans anyway. Yona may still not be able to tour, but this is an example how any artist can create their own living album right at home.
Skinny Fists:
Struggled So Hard:
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Yair Yona is a guitarist from Tel Aviv who had released his US debut Remember with Strange Attractors Audio House in 2010. Yair was also the co-founder of the Anova Music label and runs the alternative music blog Small Town Romance.
This is really lovely! And, a great way to get more personal with your fans. I’m curious about the mic setup… sound is crisp and clear and, surprisingly, not too much background noise.
I’ve been recording videos (Which you can watch here) from my home, and have considered doing the same as Yair Yona by visiting nearby beaches and mountain tops to create a more interesting background for the videos. I live in a small town in the middle of the mountains in northern Spain, though I’m originally from the US and most of my fans exist in English-speaking countries. I applaud Yair for his ingenuity. Great songs, great videos. Keep it up!
It’s pretty clear that video content is a great way to reach fans until you get to them. This tour of the city is cool…why not take it one step further and invest in a great video/audio recording of a really good hometown show?
As a side, fear of having an instrument damaged is not a legitimate reason not to tour. If you have guitars too expensive to risk damaging, then you can afford a guitar that sounds decent that can hit the road.
Barney,
the whole idea is doing something simple and out in the streets. If I’d invest money and film a concert in a proper venue etc – what’s interesting about it?
The logistics issues regarding a tour is secondary. the main thing are the huge costs (1500 $ just for the ticket to get to the US).
Take care
Yair
Hi Yair,
I should have been more clear. I think your video series is very interesting, and works particularly well for you, a solo acoustic instrumentalist. I did not mean to suggest that you specifically weren’t taking it far enough. I was speaking in more general terms about the concert video. Established bands release concert DVD’s for something additional to sell. It seems that, for a plugged in artist with vocals, it would be cool to do both an outdoor acoustic series and also give fans a taste of a plugged in venue show, complete with live versions that diverge from their studio recordings. In terms of this blog post, I was responding about how to bring your audience to you, and a virtual show seems a useful tool for some artists.
As for the cost of touring, I understand that the costs are prohibitive. Beyond getting to the US, there’s getting merchandise through customs, gas and vehicle rental, accommodations (I’m sure you know all this). I just think the damage issue is exaggerated by online anecdotes, and airlines have gotten a lot better with instruments ever since the “United Breaks Guitars” song went viral.
Good luck with the video series!
This is very lovely. I will pass this on to my clients and friends. I am a lawyer for music and film in the U.S., and I also have a blog that covers a lot about music law and business. http://suebasko.blogspot.com/
One of the main things that makes it difficult for musicians from other places to come to play in the U.S. is that they must have a work visa that allows this. Even when musicians come for a festival, they must get visas. This takes time (a lot) and money (months). And they need to have work lined up first before they apply for the visa.
If you have ever wondered what it is that keeps small record labels in the UK and Europe from having their artists tour the U.S., this is it: WORK VISAS.
Hey Ryli –
It’s a Zoom H2 recording device.
To be honest, I was totally surprised by the sound as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H2-Portable-Stereo-Recorder/dp/B000VBH2IG