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I remember when I first saw the Backstreet Boys, they were playing for free beer and door money at a dive bar outside Kansas City, or was it Omaha, or, oh wait, that never happened. I guess I got them confused with all the other local artists trying to “make it.”

I read an interesting CL post about running your decisions through The Test. No, it’s not a relationship quiz torn out of Seventeen Magazine, but one that may help you make intensional decisions about your band. It’s simple, before doing anything ask yourself: “Is this getting us where we want to be?” You’ll be surprised how often that answer comes back no. But first, you have to decide, really decide, what YOU care about. Is it playing in front of big crowds? Charting a single? Getting a song onto a TV soundtrack?

Every other business asks themselves this question every day when making any decision. Take bars for example, they only care about selling alcohol, so any decision they make must benefit their booze sales. With this in mind, are you working effectively to reach your goals? Don’t just follow the crowd. 30 years ago there wasn’t anything else to do besides go drink and listen to live music… but now, there’s plenty. It takes a little more creativity to reach people these days. Try taking your music out of the bars and bring it where the people are: Streetcorners, street fairs, car dealerships, record stores, bookstores, parties, hook up with a small theatre and play between performances.

Don’t get me wrong, bars offer a good platform to perform on but it takes a bit more work to get people there. When you do take a bar gig, promote it. There’s been dozens of times bands have created a “draw” out of thin air, handing out fliers and just dragging people off the street… As far as merchandise sales, research shows that trying to sell CD’s and shirts at a bar is the least effective way to sell it. I’ll be honest, I may really like the band, but, I really like Bud Light, and that’s where my $10 is going. Sorry. Unfortunately, 83% of people feel the same.

I close with original point, where do you want to be and are your decisions getting you there. I mentioned the Backstreet Boys because they didn’t hump it on crappy tours and in dive bars, they had management that knew where they wanted to be and how to get there quickly. I recall seeing them play in malls not Crazy George’s $2 beer night. This, of course, is assuming your goals resemble theirs.

Take a couple weekends not playing bars and researching better venues to perform. It’s better to play 2 smart shows rather than 10 dumb ones.

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