You signed up with your act on Gigstarter! You’re now officially part of U.K.’s evergrowing live music database. We get a lot of questions from artists about their profiles, which is why we put together this blog full of tips, so that you can get the most out of your profile. Let’s get started!
When someone gets in touch with you through a booking request, it’s important to respond as soon as you can. The booker is notified immediately when you do so.
Did you talk everything through with your booker and is your gig ready to go? Be sure to send out a confirmation via Gigstarter to the booker! This has a lot of advantages:
- The booking is official when the booker has accepted the confirmation.
- After the gig, the booker will receive an email to write a review. (The booker will only receive this email if they have accepted the confirmation before the gig)
- All the agreements are written down;
- The gig shows up in your personal ‘gigs’ overview;
- The gig is exported to your public calendar
Using the confirmation means you get a more complete profile, you’re easier to find on Gigstarter and you have an overview of everything. A booking request is free and Gigstarter doesn’t take any commission on the gigs you get from them.
That sounds great, but how do I get higher up on the search results on the website?
It’s important to get high up on the search results to get more bookings. Our system uses the total amount and the novelty of reviews to determine which profiles score the best. A booker writes a review about the gig you did for them. Bookers can only write a review if they have accepted the confirmation through Gigstarter before the gig.
It’s also possible that someone calls you because you put your phone number on your profile. To make sure all of your gigs are arranged in one place, and to use your profile to its maximum potential, you can also send out confirmations to bookers that didn’t initially contact you with a booking request via Gigstarter.
Gigstarter doesn’t take commission on bookings. That means that sending out a confirmation is free. You can compare a confirmation with quotation, where all the agreements are written down. Through the tab ‘confirmations’ in your dashboard you can send out a confirmation with the button 'create a new confirmation’. Keep in mind that your profile is something you have to keep up to date. It’s like an online musical resume. Bookers can find the most interesting musical resumes on Gigstarter; be sure that you’re one of them!
How can I promote the fact that I can be booked via Gigstarter and what advantages does that give me?
If you have your own website, we advise you to put the Gigstarter widget on it. This is a book-me button that connects your website to your Gigstarter profile. You increase the chance of being booked and your website becomes easier to find on Google. Do you have a Facebook page? You can implement the Facebook action button.
At Gigstarter, we're always open to hear about any new ideas from you. Feel free to email us at info@gigstarter.nl
Is there an extra opportunity for getting gigs?
Most definitely! A different way to attain more gigs through Gigstarter is to respond to calls. A call is a public message from a booker that’s looking for live music entertainment. A call isn’t a direct message to you as an artist through your profile, but a message to the Gigstarter office. Here we use our knowledge and expertise to connect the call to the right artists.
At Gigstarter, we go through our database of artists and handpick a few artists who we think will fit that particular call. When you receive a message that you have been invited to a call, you can immediately let the booker know if you’re available and leave them a personal message. The booker can contact the artists that have responded and can choose who they want to have at their event. You do have to be a PRO member to use this feature of the platform.
What does it mean to be a PRO member?
A more complete musical resume! As a PRO member, you greatly increase your chances of getting booked.
As a PRO artist you can:
- Collect more reviews. Boost your Gigstarter profile by asking 3 former bookers to write a review about you. This helps to increase the quality of your profile and gets you higher up the search results.
- Better promote yourself. There’s a lot of promotional advantages. You can add your shows to the Gigstarter homepage, you have a bigger chance of being highlighted on our social media outlets and much more.
- Respond to calls. A booker places an open call for a specific event, and Gigstarter handpicks fitting artists. The PRO membership offers all kinds of tools for you to use your profile to its maximum potential. Click here for an overview of all the advantages of becoming a PRO member.
That was all for this time. Hopefully you’ll be able to take some advantage from these tips!
Gigstarter. No Hassle. Just Music.
