The reason for writing this is to try to get some ideas about what other people think about this and also to get something out there that has been on my mind.
As I play music quite often in the same city and organise an open mic, I regularly use Facebook as the means to promote these events. I regularly invite many people I know and some I don't really know at all or have never even spoken to but are somehow in my friend's list. In the past, the way to promote an event was to print fliers and posters and go around town sticking them up in various bars and cafes and other public areas, some of which came with the risk of getting fined by the police if caught in the act.
Nowadays, it seems that having many ‘likes’ on Facebook is the most effective way to get events across to people, but is this really the case? With so many acts out there using the same means to advertise their concerts and events, is this the best way to try to encourage people to get interested in your music? Word-of-mouth is obviously one of the more human and personal means to build up your popularity and share your music and indeed, this is the main source for me to find out what people are listening to and who I should go to see next.
So back to spamming. Does it work? A big part of me feels a small sense of guilt that I am annoying people by regularly inviting them to events when I don't know them so well or suspect that they don't want another invite on top of the countless others they have already received and have to filter through to plan their time effectively. On the other hand, without a manager or promotion agency, if I don't do it, who will?
It would be great to hand all this over to someone else and just focus on playing and working on new material. It would be amazing to know that when I get to the venue everything is prepared and there is no need to worry about anything, but until that happens, it's back to spamming or perhaps I should think of it as simply ‘notifying’ people about upcoming gigs.
