How To Book Your Own Shows As A Rapper

Booking Shows For An Unsigned Artists

Today I will go over the many ways on how to book gigs for yourself As an indie artist. One of your man goals should be to make enough money to support yourself. You want to get to the point where music is your full time job/career, and the money you’re making from it not only allows you to pay your bills, but also enjoy the finer things in life without worrying about how much it costs.

One of your main sources of income as an independent music artist is going to be through shows. You will get paid to perform at venues in your city and across the globe (once you make it big). Typically if you’re a new artist you won’t get paid half of the money upfront and half after the show. It’s ideal for the venue owner to pay you after you complete the gig. When starting out it’s not strange for some small local venues to pay you with food and a few beers.

Hey, pay is pay and when you’re starting out and trying to blow up food as pay is just as nice. Appreciate these small victories because when you make it on a major scale you will have these moments as memories, and great stories to tell about your struggles to come up in the industry. As you grow in popularity and more people come to your shows, and as you release more music and become well known to more people, that pay will definitely increase. you can then charge what you think you’re worth in value; up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you’re a new artist but already have a proven track record that you can sell out small venues, the venue owner may consider giving you profits from the “back end”. This is a percentage of the ticket sales. This structure of pay can be very lucrative for you. Most venues do have paid gigs for rappers while others don’t, especially on some “Open Mic Nights”. In order to know if the venues pays for performing on amateur night you simply have to call up and ask, or better yet pay them a visit and ask face to face.

Keep in mind that if you tell the venue owner you can sell out venues you have to show physical evidence of that. All you need to do is ask the venue owners you’ve worked with to send you the sales report of the day you had your show. It outlines the ticket sales, head count and how much you got paid. This report is to be shown as proof that you have a following willing to pay you see you perform.

Also Read: How Do Independent Rappers Book Shows

There are two types of shows you can book for yourself:

1) Call venues and ask to perform and open up for a headlining artist

2) Call up venues and tell the owner you would like for them to host your music concert. Again, this is only for those who already have a steady growing fan base of people willing to pay to see them perform

What To Do Before You Start Booking Shows

Before going out and trying to book a show there are some essentials that you should already have. This is to show that you’re fully prepared as an artist and you have platforms built to appease your fans.

The essentials to have are:

An artist website
Social Media Pages (Instagram, Twitter, facebook)
Music Media Pages ( Soundcloud, Audiomack, Youtube)
Have Previously Released Music
Performing experience

The Importance of An Artist Website

In one of our previous articles we spoke about the importance of having a music artist website. Having your own artist website solidifies your presence online.

It’s your own music platforms where artist can come view your music, photos, content and buy merchandise. This differs from your social media pages because you own and control your website.

You can’t be kicked off it and you can add whatever you want on it. With social media the company that owns it sets all the rules and they get to tell you what to ad and not to add. The music and photos you place on their platform is controlled by them, not you.

It’s not enough to have these pages, you have to be active on them in order to keep the interest of your fans. It also shows venue owners and other music industry professionals that you have an online presence. You always need to show that people have an interest in your music and what you’re doing, there’s no other way to become popular.

Booking your own gigs is going to take a bit of leg work. If you’re up for the work and don’t mind grinding then you will definitely see some success with booking shows. If you’re the type who likes when things come easy for you and like quick results without doing much work, then you will become easily frustrated with the process of doing all of this on your own.

How To Create A Website For A Rapper

Social Media Platforms

Social Media is important to you as an artist because it allows you to instantly be in the eyes of hundreds of thousands, even millions of people all at one time. Up and coming artists almost always fail to gain traction on Social media because they use it in the wrong way. If you haven’t done so already please read our article entitled 4 mistakes artists should avoid on social media, it will help you get your social media game in tact.

Social media should be used as a tool to expand your brand and music so that more people can become aware of who you are. I haven’t met an up and coming rapper that was successful without his/her social media platforms, so be sure to be active on yours. Also here are 5 ways to have more success on social media. This article has helped out indie artists a lot and if you follow these methods you will potentially have the same great results. They will help you potentially gain followers, have more comments, and build up your mailing list.

Tips on How to use Social Media Marketing

Music Media Pages

A lot of artists overlook music media pages and as a result fail to connect to more people. What we call music media pages are sites that you can create a music page/profile on. These are sites like

These sites give you an opportunity to not only connect to more people who are music lovers, but also gives you an opportunity to connect with other music artists, producers and dj’s.

These are all individuals who are good to know within the music industry. If they collaborate with you they’ll be showcasing you to their fans! Thus expanding your brand and music reach. Essentially that is what you want as an artist. You want more reach and to expand the promotion and showcase of your music to as wide as an audience as possible. Remember, the more of a fan base you have the more merchandise, concert tickets, and music you have the potential to sell!

Previously Released Music

This one should be an obvious one to every artist. It’s best to have previously released music for several reasons.

Venue owners can go and listen to your music to see what your content sounds like
People get to discover you on different platforms online
People can become fans and memorize your music to sign along at shows
It shows that your out here working!

Performing Experience

It is good to have previous performing experience but it’s not needed. If this is going to be your first show you can practice at home, but nothing will really prepare you for a real audience. Anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of people will be at the show steering at you and depending on how good you are at performing they’ll either cheer you on or remain silent.

You’re lucky this is not back in the day where if you we’rent rocking the show/crowd they would straight up boo you. The most you would get now a days is people remaining silent or not dancing to your track if you are doing a poor job at performing. As I mentioned before that as you perform more you will become increasingly better. If you choke or mess up on a few words, or miss a line try to keep going. Always remain level headed and professional and people will respect that.

Contact Local Venues To Get Things Started

You have to start some where and I think the best place to start is in your home town. To book your own rap shows you should call up local venues and inquire about performing there. The best performing option for you as a new artist is called “Open Mic Night” or “Amateur Night”. This is a night where up and coming artists can practice performing their music in front of an audience. On “Open Mic Night” you can iron out your performing routine and shake away your nervousness.

The more you perform the better you will become over time. One thing you should know is that you will hit a few road blocks when contacting these venues. It’s not going to be as easy as picking up the phone, asking to perform, and the owner says yes. Some venues don’t allow rap acts to perform at their venue due to them perceiving there will be violence there. Other venues have booked performing acts many months ahead, even a full year. Depending on what performance you want to partake in is all up to you. You can call to see how you can put on your own show at their venue, or ask if the owner needs any up and coming opening acts for any major label artists that will be performing there in the near future.

Also, if you haven’t done so already be sure to sign up to a performing rights organization. They help you get paid from shows you do within your country and work with other performing rights agencies around the world to collect your performing royalties from shows you do internationally.

Connecting Through Social Media

Connect with venue owners online via their website and social media. If you don’t directly know their contact your best bet is to use Google. Google local venues and their information including website, social media links, email, phone number and location will pop up. When contacting these venues be professional and courteous, it shows that you are to be taken seriously and you mean business. One thing people hate is spam so don’t do it!

You won’t get anyone’s attention by spamming them they will just block you. Do not send out spam tweets or Facebook messages saying “I need to book a show at your venue! Please help me out bro!” or something silly like that. Always remain professional, don’t . You’ll get people’s attention better by using a sincere approach that’s non invasive. Always remember that when you are contacting any professional within the music industry.

Contact Event Promoters

One of the best ways to book your shows is to reach out to promoters. Promoters know a lot of venues and have years of experience with booking talent for those venues. Your job is to contact your local promoters and ask them for the contacts of these venues, or how they can help you promote your own show. Talk to them and ask as many questions as you can; you’re trying to figure out how to book a gig for a solo artist. If they can’t help you ask them to point you to someone who can. Gather as much information from them as you can in order to help yourself move forward.

Network At Music Seminars

I’ve always said this and I’ll say it again, networking at music seminars and music event mixers is one of the best ways to make music industry contacts. Everyone from Dj’s, producers, managers, record label executives, venue owners, publishers are all there. They’re always scouting for new talent and are there to give knowledge on how up and coming artist can become a success within the industry. So if that’s a hot spot for contacts then it would be in your best interest to go to these events. Be sure to bring your artist business cards with you.

Get Your Music Manager To Book Shows

Does an artist really need a manager? You may ask. Well, it all depends on where you are in your career.

Most artists starting out choose not to get one. They handle everything themselves. This is common and there’s nothing wrong with that, it gives you a chance to learn how to do things independently.

It’s not the best way to get a music manager, but some chose to hire a friend or relative to manage them to the top. Be mindful of this because working with some friends and relatives can be a headache, and some don’t know the line between being family and being a manager. Lines will be crossed at some point. It’s important to get someone who knows what they’re doing and has strong math and negotiation skills. Don’t hire a friend because he’s your friend. That makes absolutely no sense. He/she needs to be able to get you to the top of the music industry and that takes a lot of skills, connections and know how.

It should go without saying that if you have a manager he/she will be handling all the leg work for you. A manager knows how to book an artist at a venue and will handle all the paper work and collecting of money at the show. Having a music manager is important because he/she relieves you of all the work that needs to be done on the back end. The manager handles your business so you can focus on your music. one thing that I would like to say from years of experience in the music industry, is that artists should learn some aspects of business within this industry.

A lot of artists that don’t pay attention to the business aspects of their careers and the industry sometimes get swindled out of millions of dollars. Don’t make this be you. Yes, create all the music you want and enjoy performing all around the world, but make it your business to know the business. It will help you out in the end.

Booking Agents For Rappers

There are a ton of booking agencies out there for rappers. Some book you in local venues like bars, others are college entertainment agencies that book you to perform at colleges and universities, and some book you in big stadiums.

You are just starting out and haven’t made it big as yet, so these agencies will most likely book you at local small venues and colleges. Colleges and universities have a set budget each year for entertainment purposes, and they have an student entertainment committee that looks after all entertainment for the school.

The committees job is to use the funds provided by the school to hire any entertainment for the students. These entertainment acts include music artists, comedians, magicians, authors or even well known lecturers. As an independent artist you can reach out to the entertainment committee at your local colleges and inquire about performing there. if you are signed to a music agency or music manager they will handle these types of bookings for you.

If you become big enough a lot of people will start calling your team and that’s a good thing. Keep in mind that booking agencies do take a percentage for getting you book. Depending on the agency they will take anywhere from 10%-20%. Most states by law only allow agencies to take 10%. I’m sure you can search online and find out how much an agency is allowed to take from you.

Be Sure To Follow Up

There is a saying in marketing that I was taught, and it says “the gold is always in the follow up. If you are contacting someone to perform at their venue and you get no answer, then follow up with them and call back in a few days after leaving a detailed message. if you are calling to perform at a venue and the owner says he’ll call you back in a few days, but gets busy and doesn’t remember to, follow up and call back.

If you are reaching out via email to a venue owner or promoter concerning you performing at a venue or wanting more information, or music contacts for you to further explore and your email is not returned, follow up a week or two later with them. if you get a hold of someone through email correspondence and a few days past and you don’t get a response, follow up with it! They initially talked to you but got busy and you may have slipped their mind. in the music industry it does happen we get so busy and wound up in other things. Try and if the communication falls off you try again.

The gold is in the follow up. How do you expect to become successful if you try but don’t follow up? I have to be hungry. you have to show people that you are serious about performing by taking initiative. Call or visit them and whether they say yes or no still follow up. If they say yes follow up with them by saying thanks for giving you this opportunity. if they say no follow up and say thank you for your time and I hope that your answer will change and we can work together in the near future.

Being polite, respectful and acting professional goes a long way in the music industry. They person who tells you no today may feel like saying yes to you next moth, or in 6 months or 3 years form now. You never know, so it’s best to be wise and follow up with a sincere and generous thanks for your time and the opportunity (if one is given). Always follow up when you’re communicating with someone because the gold (money) is in the follow up. Now that’s a real gem for you.

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