Tribute bands have been a staple of the live music scene for more than 30 years, and they are a section of the music industry that is here to stay.
The reason?
They do great business in the venues where original bands can struggle to get a foothold. In fact, it’s fair to say that it’s what keeps many circuit venues on their feet, allowing them to continue to give a platform for emerging bands to reach an audience.
So, what can an original band learn from their cover band comrades?
Marketing For Tribute Bands
Marketing for tribute bands is easy: come up with a quirky take on a famous name and boom – you’re instantly familiar to anyone.
For a tribute band, it’s easy to target a niche audience – dedicated fans of that audience
Original bands can also adopt this tactic. You can use niche association with your music to help make it more relatable. Ska, Blues, 70s Rock, Americana, Nerd Core, and so on: connecting with those genres makes your original band instantly identifiable to a group of people who may well be ready to become a long term follower.
Your original band can even throw a show with similar artists in your genre.
Framing it as “A Night of Blues,” for example, will instantly give each band on the bill a marketing advantage when looking to build awareness and pull potential fans in.
Once they are solidified as a fan they will follow you wherever you go on your musical journey. That original hook can be a huge advantage!
Pro Tip: Connect your shows and songs with famous artists to build familiarity and gain followers.
Use Cover Songs To Build Your Brand
How many times have you seen a band and their sound in the room is average?
It’s a struggle to hear individual instruments and the vocals appear buried in a muddied mix.
But then they play their hit.
Suddenly everything sounds crystal clear, and it’s like you are listening to a different show.
Why is that?
Hit songs are more than just a catchy melody: they encapsulate the sonic elements of the band falling into place and complimenting each other perfectly.
THIS is how the song found its way onto radio stations across the world, why it sounds great on any system, and why it stands out in a set of songs. It’s simply built better on every level.
Playing cover songs in your band can help you realize which songs of your own measure up and which need work. The more cover songs you have in your arsenal, the better you will understand their structure, why they work, and why that particular one became a hit so you can work on creating a hit of your own.
By applying the fundamentals other artists’ hits to your original compositions, you’ll help elevate both your songwriting and your live sound as a band.
Pro Tip: Original bands should incorporate other artist’s hit songs into their live performances and practices to learn from them.
Cover Songs Make The Crowd Go Crazy
Throwing in a cover or two in your set will always help engage a crowd, especially if you give it your own unique spin. People like familiarity and if you are a great band, that cover is also gonna sound great to your audience.
If they find themselves bopping along to you because that song already means something to them, they may just stay there for the whole set, and maybe even end up at the merch table afterwards.
Robin Davey is President of Grow Vision, a Creative Production Studio and Record Label, as well as a touring musician in the band Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse.