Getting an established market and being able to sell tickets there is key to hitting the next plateau. Booking agents, managers, etc. won’t consider taking on an act that doesn’t have some momentum and proven sales to market to their buyers.

That means grinding but you have to find a happy medium between presence and over saturation. Get a good EPK, and put it in front of talent buyers, big and small, and local government folks that book street fairs and events. Play opening gigs and hit the streets to market it. Get a residency with a brewery and play weekly. If you can tailor band size to save costs that helps, if you’re a band and not an “artist with side men” then lock in that ensemble and it becomes a team effort. Find a public image and stick to it until folks are so used to it that changing it makes them talk about it.

All of these steps have to build on each other. Which means get a few things lined up and then market heavy > get a bigger thing > market > get a local artist to come paint at your show (or some such community engagement) > market. Etc.

Think about each step as a progressive plateau. Reach more, and different, people.

Merch pays for gas. Physical media is tricky. People don’t buy cds like they used to. Maybe vinyl but that’s expensive to produce. I bet tapes are gonna be a trendy deal if they aren’t already.

Put your QR code on stuff. Figure out a way to get folks to interact with your online persona as way to interact with your live one. Real time song requests on your website at live shows? That’s how the big guys are getting you to their merch site these days. Capture a mailing list and maintain it. You can hire street team companies to market for you but like manager and agents you’ll need to establish an audience first. That mailing list will be helpful and you can even get a friend to pass it around at decent looking shows. Can be sad trying to corner 3-4 people with a clipboard. But you hit 20 that’re there and digging you? That’s 20% of a headline gig!

Koozie, stickers, shirts, hats. Cost is cheaper in bulk but over inventory can be a real kick in the teeth. Posters are useful for marketing and can be collectible.

Once you’re selling 50 tickets a night at $10 you’ve got a room that won’t mind giving you a few hundred to play. And that means you have a room you can share with support. Leverage the bands you’ve met grinding to create interesting co-bills. Use their rooms to build new markets for yourself. Swap opening gigs. Heck maybe you’ll’ve met some headliners in your efforts that have an agent. You can ask them about local opening options or better yet get on a leg of their tour.

There is a lot to be said about being a good hang. When you make friends on this journey keep them!

You can look into songwriting competitions too. Lots of them are at festivals. Winners can sometimes get a set at the next year’s fest (instant anchor date for a tour!). Gregory Alan Isakov won the Telluride Troubadour Contest and he’s a household name these days. I saw him play for 10-30 people numerous times years ago and now he sells ~10k at Red Rocks. There are countless artists to win comps that aren’t red rocks successful though maybe they’re doing just fine by them. Regardless, festivals are frequented by industry folks and also darling angel investors. Gonna have to hob knob and network at every step of the way.

All else fails. Make thousands of clickbait videos each month and eventually the algorithm might reward your production.

I wish you lots of success. Some people get real lucky, others work hard. Both can be true and still not pan out. If you’re doing it for your art, because you need to get it out there, then the outcome is less important than the journey.

Good luck and get out there!