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• Tonight’s show at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA at 10pm will be awesome! I promise! Come check it out, more details at www.matthewebel.com/tour
• February 17 I’ll be performing in Trenton, NJ at Purple Stripe Productions, again the details are at www.matthewebel.com/tour

I mention these shows because of C.C. Chapman’s latest episode of Managing the Gray. He reminded me about my dreams and my goals. Yes, I would be happy just paying my bills and feeding myself, but that’s not what I dream about. Nobody dreams about simply surviving, we all have grander visions of our futures. No one dreams of mediocrity. People in my line of work share the same goal: Playing shows in big arenas to a crowd so massive you can see it from space.

The two shows coming up this month are the first steps towards that kind of dream for me. I want to become a famous rock star like Ben Folds. There’s a reason games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero sell so well: many of us dream of doing that sort of thing. To make it reality, however, requires a combination of luck, connections, and hard work. I need to know if I am good enough.

We all want to know that we can jump over that bar when we come to it. We all want to clear the bar with two feet to spare and then set the next bar even higher. This is why we dream, this is why we set goals. My goal this year is to play more shows for more people who came to hear my music. And none of us can reach our goals without help.

I may not be an über-connected CEO, but I can help you reach your goals. Just contact me and let me know how I can help. If you can help me play new shows for new crowds of people, contact me. Even if you live a long distance away from Boston, you might be able to see a live Matthew Ebel concert anyway. Fans in Atlanta made it happen, fans in Ohio are making it happen, you can make it happen.

What are you doing to reach your goals and realize your dreams? What can guys like me do to help?

It’s time for the New Year’s Resolution: TOUR. Now that Matthew Ebel dot net is off the ground, I can actually try to get out on the road like a real, live musical act. Imagine that!

Here’s what I need from you: Your hometown. Before I can go on tour, I need to know where you are! There are two ways to do that…

• Enter your hometown info and join the mailing list at http://matthewebel.com
• Join the Facebook fan page and make sure you’re sharing your hometown info at http://facebook.com/matthewebelmusic

How can I get to your town without going broke?

I really want to tour in 2010, but if I go broke trying there will be no more music from me. I’m hoping none of you want that, so I’d love to see what you guys can collaborate on to make some performances possible (especially the far-out ones like California or Canada)

What conventions and festivals should I hit?

Yeah, I’ve played tech conventions and Furry conventions, but I’d love to see what other mass events I can bring my music to where it would be appreciated. If you folks can help me get to more of these big events and get onstage, I’ll be able to see a lot more of you in person!

Yeah, I started these two topics, but this is a discussion board… so discuss! Add your own topics to the board if you like, I just want to see what you guys can come up with. I really need your help on those two topics, tho, so talk to each other and let’s see how powerful the Robot Army can be!

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!

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, touring, new media[/tags]

I released a new album in 2007 that paid for itself from the pre-orders alone. Fans in Germany, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England, and the US have already bought copies. My fans released another album on my behalf seven months earlier. They also launched their own website at matthewebel.net and created their own music videos.

I discovered UStream, Second Life, and Twitter in 2007. Half my fan base has never seen me perform in person, and most of that half thinks I’m a bird. UStream.tv put my face and my music in front of viewers around the globe. Twitter has found me beds to sleep in, gathered crowds for badly publicized gigs, solved technological mishaps, and made working alone a lot less lonely.

I visited Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, Tennessee, New York, and New Jersey all in the name of the music business. More travel than I saw in the previous five years.

Touring has paid my bills in 2007. So has Coca-Cola, the Mommycast, crayon, Porter Novelli, Justin Kownacki, Joseph Jaffe, The US Postal Service, The Podcast & New Media Expo, Jeff Pulver, and a whole lot of music fans.

Chase Home Finance paid my bills for two and a half months in 2007, even though I wasn’t working there anymore.

I got my first mutual fund, my first IRA, my first business bank accounts, my own health insurance, and printed my first business checks with those useless stubs for people’s records.

Or, to summarize, 2008 is going to have a damn difficult time outclassing 2007.

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, 2007, 2008, Goodbye Planet Earth, Virtual Hot Wings, matthewebel.net, UStream, Twitter, Second Life, Hali Heron, Hali of Firpine, Touring, podcasting, Chase Home Finance[/tags]

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You see, this is all part of the new music revolution. [tag]Podcasting[/tag] has created new ways for people to hear the recordings, but so far there’s no support for the [tag]live shows[/tag]. If you want your favorite artists to keep [tag]touring[/tag] (without charging $50 per ticket), then help me showcase the best [tag]live performers[/tag] on this planet.

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