The Truth about NACA; Gigging on the College Circuit; House Concert Articles

	College Gigs	Nightclub Gigs
Money	solo acts $500 to $900, bands $750 to $2500, after commissions	solo acts $50 to $250 bands $150 to $450
Booking The Gig	get agent or join NACA, then apply for showcases, then showcase, could be a year to finally get work.	Often booked in person and relatively quickly.
Repeat Business	Unlikely to play same school more than once per year	Can play same club weekly, or daily in some cases.
Promotional Materials	CD and 3 minute video are standard. Many acts have color brochures as well.	Demo tape and good attitude is often enough. Oh, and willingness to work for nothing helps too.
Audiences	5 to 250 students. You get paid either way. You have a contract.	5 to 250 professionals, drunks, or professional drunks. Hopefully your 5 friends drank a lot. You probably don't have a contract.
Venues	Cafeterias, student union coffeehouses, or gorgeous auditoriums, usually neon free and smoke free.	Trendy bars, beach bars, coffeehouses and the occasional concert club.
PA System	Varies; bands usually get decent PA and sound man. Solo acts usually get bare-bones Mixer Amp and two speakers. You can bring your own.	Bands usually get some PA and an exhausted sound man. Solo acts usually bring their own bare bones Mixer Amp and two speakers.
Merchandise Sales	Can be fair to excellent.	Can be fair to good.
Promotion	You send posters to the college.	Up to you.
My Experience Summer '94 I found out about NACA from David DeLong, a solo act based out of Tampa. Later that year I called NACA for list of agents. I talked to ten agents and didn't really connect with anyone. Summer '95 I talked to Andrew Delany from Tomorrow's Party about his experiences with NACA. He recommended I talked to an agent friend of his. I sent Nancy a cassette and she liked a funny tune on it called "drivinman." She's quick to point out that there are already tons of "White Male, Singer-Songwriters" out there, but that humor is a great way to stand apart from the crowd. (One year passes) Fall '96 I met Nancy for first time, she came to see me play at a Border's gig in Flint MI. Despite her reservations about the WMSS thing, she signs me and recommends that I make a 3-minute video to apply for showcases in the spring. A few months later I make that video for $400. Spring '97 I attend the National NACA Conference in Philadelphia without a showcase. I watched other artists perform and hung out in the agency booth. Schmoozing with students lands me one gig for the fall and cements the relationship with my agent. Fall '97 First College gig. Beaver College. $850 minus airfare and rental car. No monitor, no lighting. 20 people at gig, sold one CD for $5. It's kinda fun flying to gigs. Winter '97 We (my agent and I) apply to several spring conferences. Selected for two. Spring '98 I play two spring (smaller conferences) showcases. Great Lakes and East Coast. One goes incredibly well, the other is a disaster. My agent books 13 gigs for the fall. Summer '98 We submit applications to eight fall conferences. I get no showcases. Devastated, I wish I'd spent more time and money on that video. Fall '98 First college tour. Three trips to NY and PA in three months, rolled 25,000 miles, earned $10,000. Spring '99 No College gigs. Reason? No Showcases last fall. Played a small showcase at the National Conference in Nashville. Summer 99 I applied to 8 more conferences and was selected for two showcases in November '99. Fall 99 14 gigs in NY, PA, IL, NH, and FL. Summary Many acts have taken off quickly with NACA. Acts like Christine Kane and Beth Wood each performed 50 shows during their first year in NACA. Several music acts perform over one hundred shows a year (do the math.) However, it's a mistake to expect to make a lot of money right away. In the short run, you are more likely to spend a lot of money. Most acts take a while to fine tune their promotional materials and their showcasing skills. Furthermore, you have to be selected to showcase regularly, and that process is equal parts effort and pot-luck. You never know what college students are looking for at the moment. It took me a year and a half to get an agent. It took another year to get a showcase, and another 6 months before I finally made a profit. In those first two years I spent over $1000 in showcase fees, application fees and promotional materials. It's taken over three years for me to establish myself on this market. Why bother? Eventually these college gigs allowed me to profitably tour the country. Also, there is something about hitting the road that makes you feel like your career is going somewhere, too. People always seem to treat you a little better when they know you've come a long way. With some additional work on your part, you can book some nightclubs and coffeehouses on the way to and from, as well as in between these college gigs. College shows are usually 75 minutes long so it's also feasible to perform two shows in a day. This, along with the better pay, has allowed me to work with backing musicians that I normally couldn't afford to take on the road. The college market is not for everyone. But if you find yourself in the happy-hour, smoky-bar rut that I found myself in a few years ago (and last week), it's certainly worth looking into. The pay is better, the audiences are typically nicer, and even if you don't become a NACA star overnight, a dozen or so gigs per semester can be a great kick-start for booking your first out-of-state tours. Here's a different approach to the college circuit, written by a very smart guy - www.cdbaby.net/college. --- Go to College Touring Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Back to Artists Resources For more info, contact Fran Snyder at his web site.