They’re trophies.

            I don’t know who it was that originally taught me to do it.  I’m not even sure I was aware of the tradition until I’d already been to a few shows and disregarded what was left of my concert tickets.  But at some point, I realized those stubs had value, and that they were part of a long standing concert going tradition, a tradition that’s important to keep in mind when printing event tickets of your own.

CD Display Case

            The stub from a concert ticket is a piece of personal history and, as such, needs a place to be put on display, a way of cherishing and remembering that concert for years to come.  The advent of CDs, or more specifically CD cases, gave people the perfect place to put those event tickets.

            The idea is a simple one: take a CD by the musical act you just saw, and place the ticket from that show in front of the CD insert.  If you see a musical act multiple times, then follow the same routine with multiple albums.  In some ways it becomes motivation to go to more shows in an effort to get a ticket stub for every album.  The ticket stubs serve to promote the next show without even trying!

The Digital Revolution

            A few years ago, I decided to make the big switch from CDs to a digital only music library.  I spent hours a day ripping my CDs into media files and then getting those CDs ready to sell.  But I had forgotten about one thing: my concert tickets!

            Without my convenient display cases, what was I supposed to do with all the concert tickets I’d accumulated over the years?  I couldn’t just get rid of them, not have all this time!

            It was then that I realized just how important custom concert tickets were.

The New Frontier of Stub Collecting

            Concert tickets are like snapshots of moments in life, so I figured I should treat them just like I would pictures and give them their own album or, better yet, incorporate them into my pre-existing photo albums.

            Putting them on display by themselves, though, really underscored how important the look of a concert ticket is.  A generic event ticket is fine for conveying information and still manages to induce nostalgia for shows gone by, but a custom printed ticket really stands out and makes those memories flood back even more vividly.

Make Your Tickets Memorable

This is essential when considering custom printed event tickets: make them memorable! With a wide variety of event ticket templates to choose from and the ability to personalize your event tickets, you can make sure that even the left over stubs are able to keep the memory of your event fresh in your audience’s memory.

            In the end, memorable event tickets can mean repeat business, and repeat business is good news!

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My buddy’s band was just starting out. They’d practiced in his garage, played some family events, and gained a following after booking gigs at small clubs, usually as the opening act. They had fan pages on Facebook and MySpace and were growing their base. They’d recorded a couple CD singles to pass out to music-lovers, critics, local radio DJs, and others in the music industry and had just put together a full-length CD. They were ready to move on to the next level. They wanted to book and promote a live concert on their own terms—a CD release party—for their fans, and make it all about the music. They worked, begged, and borrowed to get the cash to invest in themselves. They would reserve a space, take care of their own publicity, and, they hoped, make their money back in sales: from the concert tickets, the T-shirts, band stickers, and posters, and, of course, selling their CDs.

It was a controversial decision, but they chose to handle their own ticket sales, including designing and printing their own event tickets online. That part was easy, since anyone can find an online ticket printer, choose a relevant design, and fill out a ticket template. The template even reminded them to add all the important details: who, what, when, and where. Some readers may be interested in their process:

When and Where

As with any event, they needed to consider the best time and place to have the concert, limited, of course, by the number of suitable local venues and available nights for shows. You must consider times and places that would give your band the best exposure and best turnout. If there is a festival or fair in the area where your concert will be, decide whether this would add or detract from your event ticket sales. Sometimes other events can assist you in securing a large turnout, or they may hinder turnout; these are factors that must be considered in choosing a time and a venue.

Printable: Your Customized Event Tickets

Once they chose the time and place and booked the space, they began to design event tickets for the concert. As I said, they used online event ticket templates to create their own unique custom tickets. You may want to add your band logo to the ticket in addition to the information about the concert, and many ticket templates let you upload an image right from your hard drive. You can also choose a design that signifies your musical genre: a saxophone for a jazz quartet, an electric guitar for a rock band. After the tickets are designed, you should be able to generate a ticket proof. Some companies will send you free samples of their tickets so you can check out the quality, but for the most part, the proof should show you exactly what your ticket will look like.

Price of Admission

You’ve got to take into account what concert tickets cost in your area, and my friends considered all their expenses in deciding on a ticket price, including factoring the cost of printing the tickets, reserving the venue, and the venue’s minimum bar guarantee (some clubs will ask you to pay extra if your fans do not spend a certain amount on drinks!). One the one hand, you’re an artist and you want to create something beautiful, but on the other hand, you need to make profit from the concert. The exposure you receive is important, but if you don’t break even, you can’t repay your investors or promote another show, so consider a reasonable amount for the tickets that will also result in a profit for the band. Selling merchandise—T-shirts, posters, and CDs—at the show should earn you money, too.

Distribution: Get the Tickets Out

Gather your friends, family, and fans and get the word-of-mouth network going. You can sell face to face, but you should also consider an online ticket sales application. My friends had great success with a new site called TicketRiver.com, where they could sell e-tickets at no cost to themselves. Use all your networking tools to advertise: website, email lists, Facebook and Myspace, music forums, newsletters, and blogs to promote your concert. Make sure everything knows where they can get the tickets to your concert. Distributing tickets via a local radio station along with local and indie record stores will also help you to reach out and attract the audience who most desire to attend your concert.

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Frank Zappa once said, " Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something." When you're selling event tickets for a fundraising event, you're also making a type of sculpture, bringing folks together into one place to work together for a common creative goal. Why not put  music at its center? You could plan a small choral performance, a full-on music festival or perhaps the ultimate in participatory events: A battle of the bands!

Unite your community, listen to great local musicians, sell more tickets, raise funds for a cause, and share prizes. From beginning to end, picking a venue, guests judges, and prizes and even choosing and printing event tickets, a battle of the bands can take a lot of preparation. Many elements must be considered when planning this type of event, but the final product is well worth the effort.

Plan a safe and fun event for everyone—If you want to have a good time and raise funds for your cause, make sure you appeal to a broad audience. Plan a family friendly, safe event that everyone can enjoy. You'll want to print event tickets that reflect this and help to manage the flow of people into and out of your venue.

Create a clear set of rules for participants—Make sure the rules of the battle are clear beforehand. Let acts know what kind of music you would like to showcase. Will the winners be picked by judges or the audience? Will bands play one song or a short set? What prizes are winners eligible for?

Choose judges from the community—If you plan on having judges choose the winners, consider recruiting popular figures from the local music scene. When printing event tickets and other promotional materials, make sure to include this information, so you can further peak  attendee interest.

What kinds of prizes will you offer?—Will you simply offer winners bragging rights or something more tangible like cash or other coveted rewards?

Will you rely on sponsors to help?—Sponsors can be a great resource when organizing your battle of the bands. They can help provide funding for equipment or the venue, advertise for your event or defray the cost of event ticket printing. If you're fundraising for a special cause like providing money for local school music programs, you may find sponsors lining up to help. You can add their logos to your event tickets for greater publicity.

Pick an appropriate venue—Once you're ready to host a battle of the bands, you'll want to choose a venue for your event. Make sure the space is the right size and will accommodate your equipment. Check to make sure that you have the right permits to host the event, if you need them.

Plan your promotion—Promote, promote, promote! With your initial planning done, it's time to get the word out, so that you can get your attendees together to rock out! The internet is a great resource for free promotion. Social networking and event planning sites help you to advertise and sell more tickets. Contact local radio stations about your cause and get your sponsors involved.

Pick promotional collateral and print event tickets that are well designed and reflect the nature of your event. Using an online event ticket printing site can make this easy. You can choose the type of collateral you would like to use, choose your designs and customize them using an event ticket template. Professional y printed event tickets can really raise the profile of your battle of the bands.

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Let’s talk low tech.

Of course, you need to hype your band with blogs, homepages, forums, free downloads, viral videos, and email newsletters, but you don’t live your entire life online, and neither do your fans. You can’t skip Internet marketing, but you can’t stand on it either. Fortunately, there’s a time-tested, low-cost, high-profile way to spread your name and grow your fan base: Stickers.

What goes on a sticker?

The perfect band name, perhaps coupled with that perfect band logo, is all you need to start. Save it as a digital file. For very little money, you can print that file on a stack of custom Vinyl, Bumper, or Economy Stickers. Choose the option that fits your budget, or order an assortment.

Band names and logos are merely your jumping off point. You can start with a single design, but you’ll do better with a few different ones. Don’t underestimate the power of fan art! If you already have an active Internet community around your band, ask them for designs based on album or song titles, lyrics, or even caricatures of the band. Another option is to enter into a deal with an artist whose work you admire. You may be able to buy or barter the rights to a design you already love, or commission one especially for your band.

Be sure to include your website in the design, so fans know where to go to learn more.

You’ve got Stickers. Now what?

Stickers are the ultimate stealth marketing tool. They create a presence for your band wherever they go, and they can go literally everywhere. Depending on the size of your band, the power of your reputation, and the number of people who are willing to help you out, you’ve got three basic options.

• Give your Stickers away for free to your fans
• Sell your Stickers to your fans
• Place the Stickers yourself as part of a viral marketing campaign

Give it away, give it away, give it away now

If you’re just starting out on the scene, or if you have a small but passionate fan base, you may want to choose option one. Free Stickers help you give back to the community. Everyone loves getting something for free, especially if it’s swag from someone they admire. You can offer free Stickers to people who sign up for your newsletter, or attend certain events, or, if you’re feeling lucky, you can simply give them out in front of clubs or other venues where music lovers hang out.

Free Stickers end up on laptop computers, class notebooks, water bottles, high school lockers, and other high-profile locations. If you’ve already got an eye-catching logo, potential fans will notice the Stickers on their friends’ possessions and ask about the band, visit your website, or Google you. It an easy way to spread your influence.

Money, money, money, money, money

If you’re already turning a profit and just want to expand your reach, offer your fans something new, and come out even, you’ll want to sell those Stickers. Bands with merchandise tables find that inexpensive Stickers sell themselves, even with a relatively large markup. They’re cheaper than T-shirts and, while most folks will wear a T-shirt no more than once a week, a Sticker can proclaim your allegiance every day.

You can also sell Stickers online. Your virtual merchandise booth is a great way to figure out how much interest you’re generating. If you see spikes in Sticker sales after a big promotion or event, you know people are paying attention.

Down in the Underground

Stealth, underground, or viral marketing is the hottest way to spread the word. You can use the same Stickers, or you may want to create mysterious and not entirely clear designs that compel viewers to check out that website. The trick is to place them where folks are likely to notice.

Giving these Stickers away to a particular, elite group of fans, with instructions to place them where they will be seen, is one way to go. However, you’ll want to place many yourself for an extra edge.

Don’t make the mistake of upsetting potential supporters by littering the world with your Stickers. Defacing public or private property is likely to backfire. It’s OK to stick them on public message boards or places where hanging Posters is acceptable. It’s not OK to put them in the middle of other peoples’ plate glass windows.

The cardinal rule of Sticker placement on private property?

• ASK FIRST!

Many club owners will be happy to allow to you stick them around the club. Others will not. It’s important to know before you act. Once you have permission, be creative. Let your Stickers wait in unexpected places: on the ceiling, under counters, behind doors. Viral Sticker marketing campaigns should provide pleasant surprises, amusing moments for viewers. Depending on local ordinances, it may be OK to stick them on places where they won’t last long, like sidewalks. Again, find out the rules before your begin.

The greater your coverage, the more effective your campaign. Make lists of places where potential fans congregate and try to get your Stickers nearby.

Tying your Sticker campaign to an event such as a show, a CD release, or a new video provides a sense of purpose as well as a time frame. If you’ve created a desirable Sticker and band image, your underground marketing Stickers can become a commodity of themselves.

The bottom line is that the right Sticker in the right place can help your band get the attention it needs to succeed.

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You’re working hard to spread the word about your sound, but are you working smart? When you need to increase your fan base and amp up the loyalty of those adoring hordes, you’ve got to keep the linesof communication open. If you want your fans to be true fanatics, show them the love with email newsletters that tell them what they want to know and offer them a little extra for their loyalty. You need to stay connected with the perfect fan club newsletter.

1. Shake it up! How do you get people to pay attention to you? You need to strike just the right chord if you’re going to appeal to potential readers. Try:

• Using unusual subject lines. Uninspiring titles like “Weekly Newsletter” fail to spark anyone’s interest. Choose a subject title that arouses their interest and makes them want to read more.

• Personalizing your content. It’s easy enough to add the individual subscriber’s name, rather than beginning with a generic greeting, so your fans feel important and included. Remember, they want to hear about you, not just your merchandise. Don’t be afraid to share some personal details (as far as you are comfortable with this) and insider information about the band. Fan loyalty increases when fans feel personally connected to you.

• Providing Fitting Links. Just as your articles should be targeted toward your customers’ personalities, so should your links. You might want to link to other music related websites, or to blogs and websites you love. Again, your newsletter is a place to share what’s on your mind.

• Advertising. No one subscribes to a newsletter whose existence they haven’t noticed. Make sure to include subscription information on your blog, website, and any tickets you order from TicketPrinting.com for your upcoming show. You can even choose inexpensive posters to advertise your band and your newsletter. The more fans hear about your newsletter, the more enticing it becomes and the more your fan base will increase.

2. Smooth it out! In addition to exciting content, your newsletter should have an attractive and easy-to-browse layout. Generate the perfect layout by:

• Finding the perfect design. Your newsletter layout should reflect you. Find colors that summon your style, or mimic the band’s logo. Make sure the text is still readable, and doesn’t get lost in your scheme. It may take several revisions, but finding the right formatting is essential. Don’t overdo it. Too many images, videos, and bright colors can overwhelm rather than attract the reader.

• Choosing a consistent publication time. Get your fans used to a newsletter delivered at the same day and time every week or month, so they start anticipating its arrival. EmailLabs reports the best days to send emails are Tuesday and Wednesday in the morning, when people regularly check their email. After you pick a time, stick with it. When they’re looking forward to hearing from you, you won’t want to let them down.

• Proofreading. Check for misspellings and layout errors. Be certain that your newsletter says exactly what you want it to say. Remember that your layout may change depending on your customers’ servers. Enlist some friends to receive early versions, or set up multiple accounts at popular servers such as AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Google, and double-check that your layout is delivered as expected.

• Telling a friend. Word of mouth marketing is the most effective way to promote yourself and your music. Add a “Tell a Friend” button to allow fans to easily send the newsletter to their friends. Need more buzz? Add a promotion that people can’t help but talk about, such as a drawing for special VIP passes to your next event. Fans will start spreading the word about your inviting content, along with the advantages of receiving your newsletter.

3. Break it down! Tracking your statistics can help ensure your music newsletter efforts pay off. If any of the statistics aren’t what you expected, ask yourself these questions:

• Does your newsletter stand out from the crowd?
• Do your fans know how to access your newsletter?
• Why is your newsletter not valuable to your fans?
• Do you need more specific or personal content?

If you don’t know the answer, ask the people who do know: your target audience. Make changes accordingly, and give your fans what they want. Address your deficits so your newsletter is attractive and tempting to readers. Marketing your band is not a one-step process. Email newsletters d o require a fair amount of attention to detail on a regular basis, but they are crucial to maintaining a growing, loyal, and excited fan base. Once your newsletter finds its audience, increase its appeal with exclusive offers available only to fans with subscriptions. You can pre-sell tickets, offer merchandise discounts, or give away passes to your next event. And don’t forget that TicketPrinting.com is an easy way to order your tickets, coupons, gift certificates, VIP passes, and more!

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garageband

Your band rocks. You know it rocks. You’ve found the sound to take to town. But these days, everything’s on the Internet, and if you want to share your music with the world, you need to be there too. Don’t worry! It doesn’t take a degree in Computer Science to get ahead online. If you can surf the Internet (and we know you can, or you wouldn’t be here) you can expand your fan base across the country and around the globe.

1. You Must Submit

• Websites like GarageBand and Kazaa let listeners enjoy totally free music. Tap this vast market by submitting your songs to online radios. You’re potentially reaching an audience greater than the biggest gig you’ve ever played, and you don’t even have to unload your equipment from the van. One upload covers you forever.

• Once your music reaches the masses, these sites will help you connect with your new fans. Most sites allow you to add links to your website or email newsletter, so that you can capitalize on the momentum of the moment. Music lovers hear your music for free, follow the links to your site, and become instant fans.

• Links make the Internet go ‘round. Post your own on comment boards, forums, and fan sites. Encourage your fans and groupies to post links, too. More links posted by more people in more places equal more search engine relevancy. Remember, a link is more than a URL and a name. Anchor text, with interesting descriptions, encourages people to click.

2. Give It Away Now

• Internet newcomers sometimes balk at offering free content, but what better advertisement is there? If listeners fall in love with one or two of your songs, they’ll be happy to pay to download the rest of the album. If they’ve never heard of you, what will compel them to spend money just to find out whether or not you’re any good? Free content is free publicity.

• Root your website in your own sound. You’re a band! When fans hit your home page, they need to hear your music. Use an audio encoding application to create MP3 files of the songs you want folks to hear. Then upload the file to your site, so that it’s easy for them to find and play high quality recordings of the music right then and there.

• Everyone loves freebies. Once you’ve got your fans’ attention, give them incentives to love you more. Create online contests or other ways for visitors to win free tickets or VIP Passes to your next show. Mail personalized postcards with images and track titles to anyone who downloads the album. All the extras help create a real bond with your fans.

3. If You’ve Got Something to Say, Why Don’t You Say It?

• The best way to stay in touch with the virtual community is to read and comment on other websites and blogs. If you know music, other musicians and bloggers want to hear your feedback on their work, and if you leave comments on blogs, other bloggers will follow you back to your site. Google Blog Search, Blogdigger, Bloggapedia, BlogTopList, Blog Catalog, and Outpost Earth can help you find your music community online.

• Keep it real by keeping your own blog with Blogger, WordPress, or LiveJournal. Stay in touch with your fans by giving updates on your band’s schedule, offering snippets of new songs, and providing juicy gossip about the music. Add links back to your website so fans can download music or sign up for your newletter. Read your fans’ comments, respond to them, and watch your network grow.

4. Reach Out and Touch Someone

• Social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace are a boon for bands of all sizes. These sites walk you through the creation of your own page, then help you find new and old fans among their existing members. Once you’ve built your page, you can post band news, add friends, customize your page, and get active in the music community.

youtube-screenshot1

• You put a lot of effort into that music video. Make sure it gets the audience it deserves.

• Post your videos for free on YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Google Video, and link them back to your website. There is literally no better way to find fame on the Internet than with a viral video—one that is so wonderful that everyone who sees it reposts the link and shares it with their friends.

• Join communities tailored to your genre. Find existing communities or create your own through MyBlogLog and Ning in addition to the other sites mentioned above. Joining these specific networks will help you stay in tune with the music world and find new fans and contacts to promote your band.

• Take it back to the real world. Once you’ve connected with your online community, you can start networking with posters hung in prominent locations or postcards sent to your mailing list. Just ask your fans if they want to receive mailings! You can use Ticket Printing’s Design Your Own tool to create publicity that will catch attention and connect you to your listeners.

So, start networking today! Spread your music and your influence far and wide across the Internet and watch your fan base grow.

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