How to Finance a Band

Through playing with a semi-professional band for a number of years, I have learned that the most important thing to get a band off the ground is money. It doesn't matter if you have the latest and greatest song, the best appeal, or the greatest hair, but ultimately you'll need to finance your project, especially if you ever want to be serious about it. Here are some ideas that have worked for my band in the past.

1. MERCH MERCH MERCH

Selling merchandise is a great way to make some extra cash for your band. This will require some initial investment, but will ultimately pay off in the end. Shop around for merch. Anything from t-shirts to buttons can be successful as merch, but be creative. If you decide to do T-Shirts, they are a fairly common merch booth item. Find a simple design with your band logo on it that you can print on a shirt (hint: extra colours usually mean a higher price to print). You can likely get these printed for anywhere from 3-9$ a shirt. Don't just sell them at shows either. Sell them to your friends, your little brother, anyone who has an interest in seeing your band do well. The same idea applies for pins, hoodies, etc. Figure out what it costs to make each individual one, and make sure you can add a little bit of profit on top.

Play Play Play

Your band may not be up to this stage yet, but generally speaking promoters are usually willing to give bands a little bit, especially if the show does well. If you are playing a local show that does well, ask the promoter for a few dollars. Shows out of town are also willing to give a bit for gas too. Don't be afraid to ask for a bit extra. Once your band starts to have a bit of a draw, you can ask for a guarantee up front. To begin with this will likely be not much more than gas money, but work your way up the ladder, and you'll get more.

Put On a Show

Run a show and ask local friends bands to play and bring out their friends.. You may even want to splurge and bring in a band from out of town with a good draw and play your band with theirs. Keep in mind a decent low level band will usually cost anywhere from 150-500$. That's anywhere from 15 to 50 kids at ten bucks a head, you get the picture. The rest is yours. I've seen bands make 1000-5000$ doing this. It's well worth the effort. If you do this however, make sure to plan it and promote it well.

Busk

Take your music to the streets. Perhaps not for a full band, but play guitars with your guitar cases open. Could be a fun way to spend an afternoon, and even if you make 20 bucks, throw it in your band box.

Conventional Methods

Get creative. A lot of bands have done surprisingly well with silly things like bake sales and walkathons. Let people know that you are trying to raise money, and help people get excited about this. Let people feel as if their a part of what your doing.

It's All About You

Ultimately, all of these methods are good, but you will likely need to devote more than this in order to help your band make it (if this is your goal). Try everybody putting aside 10% of their paycheque for the band. It also helps if you have financial goals in mind rather than just trying to get a pool of money. Save up for a van, or perhaps a jam space rental. Look for government programs to help the arts, or sponserships from local businesses. Ultimately be creative. In order for a band to make it it usually takes years of hard work. So give your band the boost it deserves, and spend some money on it!