I know that a lot of my fans are either musicians or new media types, so rather than just quietly postpone the house tour until September, I want to talk about what I think happened.

First of all, the obvious reason I couldn’t do the tour was the coalition of high gas prices and low ticket sales. I’m not going to hide that fact, the ticket pre-sales weren’t enough to cover the gas alone (and occasionally I do like to eat while on tour, too). With dead dinosaur juice topping $3.78 a gallon this spring, the break-even bar is getting higher and higher.

So if not a 2-week road trip, what did I get out of this?

Promote Early, Promote Often

For starters I only started contacting house hosts about 6 weeks in advance of the schedule. When booking a bar or festival, that’s more than enough lead time to promote a show. What I didn’t realize was that a house concert is a lot like a church concert- you’re making a venue where there typically isn’t one. It takes a lot more work (and time) to spread the word when there isn’t already a concert series there.

When I did church tours back in my music ministry days, the battle was twofold. Not only did you have to get people to show up for the show, you first had to make people wrap their minds around a music performance in a typically non-concert space. Whether it’s a sanctuary or a living room, the battle is the same.

One month simply isn’t enough time to draw attention to something this uncommon.

New Media Is Still Young

Don’t think for a second that I’m blaming the new media community for what happened. It’s just a fact that new media doesn’t yet have enough local clout to drive ticket sales. CD sales yes, ticket sales no. Sure, a podcast may have 10,000 listeners, but that could be 2 people each in 5,000 cities around the world.

Does this mean we’re still stuck with radio and print for concert promotion? Well, somewhat. New media channels such as Facebook and podcasting will eventually drive localized attention, but at this point it will need more nurturing and more outreach. When the overall audience grows, so will the influence.

My take on this? Right now local publications and radio are the staples of good promotion, but new media adds a small (yet increasing) number of eyeballs to the crowd.

Touring Means Having Local Support

Not every touring band has a huge fan base in every town. That’s the reason they tour, usually, to build up a bigger crowd each time. If you’re just starting out, though, you need to have at least one person who lives in the area that will work their ass off for you.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When visiting Rome, get a Roman to put your posters everywhere beforehand. I don’t think I really took that to heart when I booked a rather ambitious schedule. Concert promoters exist for a reason- they know their local scene and how to whip it up on cue. So before I can even call a concert booked, now, I need to know that someone in that town will be working the local communications lines with a serious will.

In Conclusion

There are no conclusions, only experience. I’d like to think I can learn as much from not touring as I can from a 2-week road trip. I can’t change gas prices, but hopefully this fall I can change my approach and get out there once again!